Tell Me A Story

Chapter 17: Safe Haven

Sure it was a rare smile that Anna had given me in the library. But it'd nothing to do with the fact that I'd a crush on her. Even when we only had a little information with us, she had managed to make some sense out of it all.

A little after 11:00 PM, I was walking to Swit's with Anna. The roads were, needless to say, deserted as usual. For most of the walk, Anna had remained silent. I guess she was working on the rest of the puzzle.

We reached the point where the road split into two. I looked at Anna. She nodded and we proceeded.

It was simply her looks that got my heart racing initially. But looking back on how much she was trying to help me, I realized that there were more important things than beauty. But for the time being, I locked away my feelings. We'd to get through this one first.

"What do you think about my theory?" she asked abruptly, snapping me back into the present scenario.

"I think you're right. No, you are right." I was confident. "You only got one thing wrong - there's still four nights left, not three."

She smiled. "I'd a bad dream yesterday."

"What?" I was curious.

She didn't say what it was right away. Instead, her focus was on the road. The canopies got thicker, and it became difficult to see clearly.

I turned my flashlight on. A crescent on the sky wasn't of much help in the darkness that loomed all around us.

"I was driving a car. Out of nowhere a truck came and hit me. The car underwent a complete rotation and by the time it came to a halt, I was drooping over the smashed driver's side window. The last thing I saw before losing sight was the blood that dripped onto the road from my body through the swaying locks before my face."

My stomach did a somersault.

Hadn't I drawn the same scene the night before the last? And hadn't I wondered, that the girl in the picture looked like Anna? What I'd drawn and what she'd seen... Will it happen?

"What do you think?" she asked.

"Huh?" I wondered what for a moment, "Nothing. It's just... A bad dream like you said. Leave it."

She gave me a peculiar glance as I said it as if she knew it wasn't nothing.

I didn't say anything. I just hoped that it was a weird coincidence. We didn't talk anything else till we reached the deserted, time-worn house of Swit.

"You reckon the diary is still inside it?" I asked her, our heads raised as we observed the creepy house.

"Yes. The police never took it and I'm pretty sure that apart from you, nobody has come in here after the police did."

She lurched forward, extending her right hand to open the door. The door was unlocked just like the last time and I followed her inside. She closed the door once we were inside and turned on the lights.

Without wasting another moment, we proceeded to the upper floor. The eerie silence was, to be honest, making all this a better experience. Maybe it was Anna's presence that was giving me the confidence to feel alright.

I plopped down on to the bed as Anna fished out the large leather bound book from a drawer. Without further ado, she settled down next to me and flipped it open.

After rummaging through the diary for a few seconds, she came to a halt. She cocked her head up and looked at me before reading out the rest of the story.

***

Amelia couldn't believe what had unfolded before her eyes. The muffled breaths coming out of her nose indicated that she had covered her face with her mouth, a natural reaction to the stinking atmosphere.