The Life We Live

27.Paranoia

Raven looks at the key "so.. you gave him a fake key?"

Harlow nods "well..we couldn't give him the actual key.."

Raven gave the key back to Harlow. "Fine ill get the box."

She then walks towards the door and stops "I'll be back as soon as I can." She quickly opens the door and leaves."

Raven starts running back to her house. As she steps on her front lawn she notices the flowers were dying.

And idea sparks in her mind as she walks in. "Grandpa!" She looks around for him and realizes he is probably down in the basement again. "Boy this man is obsessed.."

She climbs down seeing Marvin looking down at his notes "why isn't this key working..." he mumbles to himself.

Raven clears her throat getting his attention. He quickly looks at her.

"What do you want Raven.." he asks

"You know the flowers are dying..." Raven says

"Water them then." Marvin says

Raven looks down to think then looks back up at him "I thought you could... you do need to take a break from this after all."

Marvin slams his hand on the table. "NO!"

He breathes for a second then looks at her "I can't!... I'm so close! I can't just take a break now!"

Raven squints her eyes "of course you can... listen to yourself.. You're driving yourself crazy!"

Marvin shakes his head "no im not...

Raven nods "yes grandpa.. you are.. you need a break from this... just for a few hours atleast..." she begs

Marvin looks at her and squints his eyes. He sighs "you know what... I guess I can take a couple hours off from research.."

As he walks towards the ladder he stops then turns around and looks at Raven. He stares at her without saying anything. He then quickly grabbed the box and took it with him.

Raven squints her eyes at him "why are you taking the box.. that's not really giving yourself a break.."

Marvin laughs a little and doesn't speak. He just continues up the ladder.

Once he dissapears he yells for Raven to come up.

"Coming!" She quickly eyes the journal and throws it in her pants, under her shirt.

As she climbs up she watches Marvin lock the door and walk away.

Raven walks into the living room. And watches his slow, elderly movements. She questions how he could have tried killing a man, or how he finds the strength to do certain things.

She walks in the bathroom and fixes the journal so its not noticeable enough that her grandfather could see it.

She fixes her hair and throws on a jacket to add more covering over the journal.

As she walks towards the door, Marvin speaks "where are you going?"

"Im going to go hang out with Harlow and McCray." Raven responds as she grabs the doorknob.

"Why don't you stay here and hang out with me for the day..." Marvin says

Raven stares at him and gets nervous. She has never felt so strange about her grandfather in her life. He always seemed like those grandfathers that were loving and kind. But right now... he was extremely bizzare and a little frightening. Raven let go of the doorknob and slowly walked to the couch to sit down.

"Whats on your mind dear?" Marvin asks

Raven looked at him frantically she hesitates to speak "nothing much..."

Marvin hums "Im not sure about that.."

Raven smiles, she knows its weak but she tries. "No.. really.. its nothing."

Marvin hums and looks at the TV. There was intense silence. Raven felt paranoid that he knew she was carrying his journal.

She kept looking back and forth between the TV and him.

She couldn't understand why she felt so scared of him. She felt herself sweating and wanted to get out of the house as fast as she could.

She looked at her hip to see if the journal was revealing itself too much. It was fine. Gladly.

Marvin suddenly speaks after a while.  "Raven.. You're giving me the impression that there is something you need to tell me.."

Raven felt herself about to scream as the intensity of her paranoia increased. She had to think of something. Anything. The first thing that popped in her mind.

"I think I love both Harlow and McCray and I dont know what to do about it!" She suddenly yells

Marvin widened his eyes surprised, He leaned back laughing a little. "Wow... I was not expecting that..."

Raven felt relief and her paranoia quickly went away. He was finally off her back. Although she didn't expect herself to say that either.

Marvin adjusted his glasses "well... as I have said before.. I dont think they can be trusted. I'm not sure what they're doing.. but I feel they are lying to me and I wish for you to stay away from them.. but I know I cannot do that..."

Raven looked at him "you're right... they're my friends.. I can't stay away from them. Also I dont think they're hiding anything from you. Cause if they were. They'd be hiding things from me too. And as I know of... they wouldn't hide anything from me."

Marvin shrugs and shakes his head "I might as well let you go then.. you can find out what they're hiding.. make sure you report back to me."

Raven gets up and smiles. "Thank you." She quickly leaves the house and runs back to Harlow's house.