SUNNYVALE

(19) TWO LIBRARY RATS AND A HOSPITAL

Tierna and Abby have been in the town's archives for five straight hours now, even missing the party she had been looking forward to see since her sister mentioned it for the first time. As she ignores yet another of Tobin's or Emily's calls, Tierna just tries to focuses on the old books in front of her. 

Breaking silence, Abby's words make her jump a little:

"Holy shit."

Tierna frowns.

"What?" she asks, quite stressed out about what the other girl had found.

But Abby doesn't respond at first, as her eyes are going from left to right rather quickly, her concentration getting to 100%.

During this time, Tierna suddenly finds herself shamelessly checking the other girl out: although Abby was literally the most annoying person she had ever met, always putting herself first and despising everybody that isn't like her, Tierna had trouble detaching her eyes from her piercing greenish eyes and signature ridiculously small ponytail with a middle parting, as Abby would not even look at her at all. Without really knowing where this newly found obsession for the blonde came from, Tierna promised herself never to mention it to the blonde, let alone to herself - she obviously failed again. 

While she was lost in her thought, she did not realise Abby had talked to her, snapped out of her trance when the blonde exclaims:

"Tierna, are you even listening?" 

"Yeah, yeah, sorry" Tierna immediately says, focusing her attention back to the current research party. Abby frowns, as the brunette asks: "So, what is it that you found?"

Still confused about Tierna's odd behaviour, it takes a few seconds for Abby to say:

"Look: it says here that an inhabitant from the Westside in the early 1970s stated to the police to have seen weird shadows outside her window during the day. The police had closed the case, assuming that the shadows were only Westsiders kids wandering in the night. And the lady's name is quite familiar..."

"Who was it?" the brunette asks, inpatient. 

Abby throws her a dark look, before reading:

"Annemarie Paige Press"

"Christen Press' grandmother, I assume" Tierna immediately says, confused.

"The girl who was floating in the air the other day?"

As Tierna nods, Abby shakes her head and starts going through various files, before putting the finger on something important. 

Before the brunette could ask her what it was about, she states:

"Seems like Annemarie Press made about fifty complaints about shadowy personas floating around her house until she was committed to a psychiatric yard just outside of town... where she still lives."

The two girls exchange a long look, before Tierna sighs and says:

"I know, I know (obviously she had read through Abby's insisting eyes what the blonde was thinking, and somehow she was thinking it too) we should definitely pay her a visit, but I need to talk to Christen first."

"Of course, makes sense" Abby agrees, nodding her head.

As the two girls had the same idea of grabbing the last file simultaneously, their hands briefly touch, but neither of them pull away. Instead, they catch eyes and remain still, as if they had just been stuck by lightning.

Abby's the one taking her hand back, awkwardly coughing.

"Um..." she starts, visibly both embarrassed and awkward, "... go talk to Christen, and I'll stay here studying the last few books, alright?"

But Tierna did not respond.

As she got up in order to put her jacket on, she just took her phone and read one of Tobin's texts, and her body language immediately modifies itself. As Abby waits for the brunette to finish reading her text, she nervously plays with her hands.

After a few seconds, Tierna stares at her and states:

"Something happened at the party, I have to go"

Right before she leaves, Abby gets up and grabs her arm, causing her to turn around, loosing balance a little bit. They therefore find each other closer than they thought, with Abby's hand still on Tierna's forearm when she asks:

"What happened?"

"Another body dropped from the ceiling, and Christen collapsed..."

"Oh my God..." Abby lets out, visibly touched by that piece of information. As Tierna frowns, not used to this soft side of the blonde, Abby pulls it together and asks in a detached tone: "Do they know who it is?"

"Tobin didn't say: but Crystal seemed quite disturbed too, so I really should-"

"Go, I know" Abby interrupts her, before letting go of her arm, putting a few books inside her bag. As Tierna's eyes go wide - it was quite unlike the blonde to just steal book from the archives - the blonde immediately says in a condescending tone: "Borrowing isn't stealing, and I'm definitely coming with you."

"Alright, let's go."

***

Kelley is a bomb of anger, ready to blow up at any given minute.

As she, Tobin, Megan, Tierna and - weirdly - Abby Dahlkemper and Shelina Zadorsky were waiting in the hospital for news about Christen's and Crystal's current situations, Mapi Leòn just entered the waiting room, staring at them with cold eyes - everybody knew about Kelley and Mapi's long-lasting feud, that has been going on for years now.

Immediately realising what was going on, Megan holds Kelley back from doing something stupid, but Mapi had already seen her.

"Easy there, perro rabioso" (English: rabid dog) the Spanish girl calmly says, a huge smirk on her face as she takes a few step ahead of her. Before anyone can say anything, she explains: "I just came here to see if Christen is okay, and then I'll leave inmediamente (English: immediately)"

Tobin frowns. 

"There's another waiting room at the end of the corridor" she indicates calmly, visibly trying to het a hold of the situation.

Mapi takes a few steps forward, getting very close to Tobin, as if she was about to give her a headbutt, but instead she just says on the same tone:

"I am very fine right here, thank you."

As Kelley is about to insult her, the emergency room's door opens, and two doctors come out at once, walking toward the small group of girl. Suddenly, they forget all about Mapi's presence, as the rest of them get up as well. 

The female doctor then announces:

"Your two friends will be fine, but we have some mental health concern about Christen: she seems delusional, and keeps talking about shadows and dead bodies floating in the air, she might have PTSD."

Tobin and Tierna exchange a long look, as Shelina asks:

"What about Crystal?"

"We put her under strong medication to calm her down - Temesta mostly - but she seems to be taking it fine: the police are with her right now since she was the main witness of the events occurring tonight."

"Thank you" Megan says, nodding her head.

But most of the girls present there knew that Christen's situation was very alarming, especially since Tierna and Abby's recent discovery about Christen's grandmother seeing shadows as well. As of right now, they needed to find answers: were they the only people able to see the shadows? Were the histories of mental illness in Christen's and Abby's families related to those visions? Why did Crystal touch Lynn William's body?

But for now, they were relieved: one victim was enough for the night, as Allie Long's body discovery would only be announced the morning after.