Part 5: Determination

“What’s with you today? You’re being extremely quiet. And you are NEVER quiet,” Sarah asked the second the end-of-Spanish bell rang.

“I’d really rather not talk about it,” Aderyn answered. She didn’t like the slightly hurt look that appeared on her friends face–Aderyn always talked about it, no matter what ‘it’ happened to be–but she couldn’t think of a way to tell Sarah. At least, no way that didn’t make her sound like she needed to be sent off to the nearest place that had white squishy walls. Sure, they were extremely fun to run into, but the shrinking part would not be enjoyable.

Sarah had already moved on to her next class, deciding not to walk Aderyn to hers like usual. She sighed. Hopefully Sarah would be less mad fairly quickly. She wasn’t one to hold grudges.

~~~~~

She SO did not need this right now. Jason was being an asshole again. Surprise, surprise.

Once seated on the bus (in the only empty seat left, which happened to be right in front of him, of course), she’d asked him if he was at the funeral on Saturday and he got this odd look in his eyes. It was not unlike the look one would imagine on a deer when he saw the headlights of the oncoming car that was about to smash him. But Jason hid it quickly. And changed the subject. To her stupidity for even thinking she saw him there in the first place.

“Why the hell would I show up at your neighbor’s funeral? Do I live in your neighborhood?” he asked her with a snotty tone. So creative in his comebacks, wasn’t he?

“Wow, Jason, I’m terribly sorry that I mistakenly saw someone who happened to look like you. I won’t ever do it again.” Aderyn rolled her eyes.

“It must have been the hair. I honestly don’t understand how you ever see through that bush you’ve got on your head.”

Something snapped. “You know what? I’m really not in the mood for this today, so kindly save your fuckwit torture for tomorrow.” Aderyn turned in her seat. In the quick glance of his face that she got before it was out of her view, she thought she saw a bit of hurt in his eyes. It was only there for a millisecond or two. But it still made her wonder. What, was he offended by her wall against his incessant brattiness?

~~~~~

When Aderyn arrived home, she realized two things. The first was rather unimportant compared to the second, but it still appeared in her mind more quickly and more insistently.

Why had she not recieved any more letters from her so-called ‘secret-admirer’ today? They’d had a whole almost-conversation on Friday, and he hadn’t slipped one note into her backpack. Or the empty locker. She’d checked. Not consciously. But now that she was thinking about it, she remembered looking.

She went into her closet and opened her old purple binder from kindergarten. It held most of her private notes and other random writings. Her sister thought she kept it for sentimental value. Which was mostly true, all the current stuff she put into it was sentimental. It served as her little secret hiding place. No need for Devi to go stumbling into anything important on her nightstand when she went on one of her obsessive cleaning kicks.

Pulling out the notes from the side pocket, careful not to tear the binder any more than it already was, she read through the series again. And an entry from ‘him,’ whoever ‘him’ was, was the most recent. He must have been waiting for a reply from her. She made a mental note to put something in what she now considered ‘their’ locker the next day. She still had no idea what she would respond to an ‘I love you’ from a random stranger, but she’d work something out.

The second thing that came to her mind was the slip of paper left near her mother. A little voice inside her head told her she should give it to the police; they’d know what to do with it. But for some reason, she didn’t want to. They probably didn’t even care anymore; after all, it HAD happened nine years ago. There were much more recent murders that they had to focus on. And the fact that it was the police who were responsible for the true killer still walking made her a little iffy on going to them for help. And she was rather pissed at them for taking her father. After two years, they hadn’t found anyone, so they thought, ‘Oh, it must have been an inside job. We knew it was him all along.’ Luckily Devi was eighteen by that time and legally able to take care of them. But still. Very pissed.

So she’d have to find the killer herself.

She startled herself a little when she came to that conclusion. When had she decided the investigation would be continuing? She had no idea. But somewhere along the line, it had been figured out and confirmed. Sure, she’d always hoped it’d be reopened to clear her father, but she‘d never consciously thought of doing it herself. How was that one little note going to suddenly provide the answer to everything? She shook her head to clear the clutter that was growing. All that thinking stuff would come later. For right now, however, she knew there was no way she was doing this alone. Perhaps it was time to let a few people know.

~~~~~

“Oh. My. God.” Sarah said, staring at the message.

“I know. Creepy, isn’t it?” Aderyn said, watching her friend goggle in disbelief about the story she’d just heard. The look on Sarah’s face at the moment was rather amusing, despite the gravity of the situation.

“So, when you were seven, you found your mother’s body...?”

“Mmm hmm,” That part wasn’t actually new information to Aderyn, but she hadn’t even told Sarah that before.

“And there was a random note by her body from the insane killer...?”

“Yep.”

“Which you forgot about until the funeral when you started having flashbacks...?”

Aderyn nodded.

“And then some ghost lady came and talked to you on Saturday night about how it was ‘time to deal with it’...?” Sarah brought her hands up in pseudo quotation marks for the last little bit.

“Exactly.”

“And you’re absolutely CERTAIN you’re sane?”

“Yes,” Aderyn said strongly.

“Oh. My. God.”

“Welcome to my world of shock. I moved very quickly past that stage and straight to denial. But now it’s determination. I’m going to find whoever did this to my mother, and they WILL pay. And you’re going to help me.” Aderyn had a very wicked gleam in her eye by the end of her little rant.

Sarah mumbled something unintelligible and giggled.

“What?”

She attempted to stop her giggle long enough to maintain a serious face, and succeeded. For the most part. With her well-practiced Spanish accent that Mr. Junker forced them all to adapt, she said, “My name is Aderyn Manning. You killed my mother. Prepare to die.” She punctuated it with a small stabbing motion with her right hand.

Aderyn couldn’t help but laugh. She knew she shouldn’t be, but it was just too funny. Princess Bride was one of her all-time favorite movies.

Once Sarah had enough time to regain what was left of her meager composure, she asked, “Have you told Chris yet?”

“No. I don’t want him to worry. He already worries too much.”

“Ooooh, a secret,” Sarah said pointedly, mocking the couple’s policy to tell each other everything.

“Shut up,” Aderyn said, throwing a pillow in her face. The two broke down in giggles once again.

~~~~~

“Good for you. That was quick.”

Aderyn jumped slightly from her chair where she was doing her homework. It had been an attempt to wipe out the insanity that was the past few days from her mind. Clearly this...guardian angel, or what ever the hell she was (at least, she assumed it was a she), did not want that to happen. ‘What was quick?” Aderyn thought, exasperated.

“The decision to go looking for answers.”

‘What, was that was I was ‘supposed’ to decide?’ she queried, annoyed with the ‘ghost’ for determining what she would do ahead of time.

“Of course. Why else would I have given you the memory?” She took a tone that made the answer sound quite obvious.

‘I’m still angry at you.”

“I’d be surprised if you weren’t. But it needed to be done.”

‘Alright. You said you were here to help and guide and all that crap, right?’

“Yes.”

‘So go ahead and do it. Help. Guide. I have NO idea where to start.”

“But haven’t I already told you?”

Confused, Aderyn asked in her mind, ‘What, does the note magically tell me who wrote it?’

“You got it, dearie.”

Aderyn felt the familiar gust of cold air as the voice ceased to talk.

“What did that mean?” she yelled at the ceiling, frustrated. She already KNEW the note was written by the killer. And if it had been signed, she would have already caught that. She was not stupid, after all. Dammit. Stupid ghost thing-y.