Sara Palmer

Chapter Three

"Are you okay sweetie?" I hear Mrs. Vandermeer ask from outside the closed bedroom door. I can't blame her for not coming in, I can't imagine the pain that must rip through her from just passing by this room every day. I make a quick decision and grab Ivy's laptop putting in the bottom of the box. I'll return, I tell myself but I need to know what secrets might be housed inside. I open the door, the box tucked underneath one arm.

"I'm okay." I give her a faint smile as I exit the room. "Thank you, this means a lot to me to bring Ivy with me to college." It's not a total lie having a piece of Ivy with me makes a huge difference.

We walk to the front door together and say our goodbyes, I place the box in the backseat give a final wave and begin to drive off, I'm about halfway there once again when my cell starts ringing, carefully I pull off to the side of the road and see my mother is calling me.

"Hey sorry I got a little held up." I quickly said as I answered the phone I was supposed to call when I got there and I was supposed to have arrived a while ago.

I hear crying and gasping on the other end of the phone. "Mom?" I ask

"Oh sweetie I was so worried, it's all over the news it's everywhere." Her voice is breaking and she is audibly upset.

"What is mom? What's going on?" I question

"Your dorm sweetie, it burned down today, oh god I thought..." She begins crying again, and I flick on my radio scanning through stations until I hear it. The building I was supposed to be moving into today has burned to the ground and it would seem not every person made it out before the flames became uncontrollable.

"Mom, mom I'm here I'm okay." I should have told her when I decided to delay my trip but it was a sporadic decision and I never imagined this could happen.

"You should have called." she manages to gasp out between tears and I hate that I'm not there to hold her.

"I know I'm so sorry mom." I shake my head furiously at how this could happen, how could a fire just break out in the middle of the day and no one noticed, no one called it in, no alarm gave enough warning for everyone to evacuate. I know I should turn around and go home to my mom but it all seemed to be too coincidental. I hear Ivy's voice on the same day the dorm I'm supposed to be moving into catches fire and burns to the ground killing several people. Was it my fault? Was someone trying to hurt me? I reach into the backseat and pull the box into the passenger seat. DO I have something someone is afraid of me having?

"Mom listen I'm okay but I'm on the side of the road, I promise I'm okay and I'll call you soon. I love you." I say as I empty the entire contents of the box onto my passenger seat.

"Please come home, call me soon." I can tell she doesn't want to hang up but she does.

Ivy's diary no that held nothing of importance nothing I could see anyways, this stupid trophy we'd won we were twelve for a bowling contest, we'd never meant to enter we were just being silly but had ended up crushing the boys completely and Ivy had never let them live it down, it was stupid I tossed it into the backseat but as I did I heard a rattle. Swinging around I grabbed the trophy once more, why's it rattling? I notice the screw in the bottom is missing and I use a pair of tweezers from my purse to pop the bottom off and out into my hand falls a USB drive. What are you doing in there I think to myself. I pack everything back into the box and pull back onto the road. I need to find a place I can sit and really look at this.

Eventually I see a sign for a diner and turn off the highway after about 2 minutes I pull into the diner, usb firmly in my front pocket I get out and open my trunk. I can't open Ivy's laptop but I do have my own.

I make my way inside and the waitress greets me "Sit anywhere honey." She's older, maybe late fifties greys speckling her brown hair, her uniform is bright pink like cotton candy. I nod and find a seat in the far back of the diner, I'm not hungry but I know I need to order something if I'm going to take up a table.

"What will it be?" She asks as she approaches me their menu written on a chalkboard. I scan quickly.

"I'll have water and a clubhouse with fries please." She takes down my order and tells me it will be out shortly not that I care I'm barely even listening. I'm just waiting for her to walk away so I can open my laptop and pop this thing in.

She's barely 5 feet from my table when I pull out my laptop powering it up, I'm fidgeting with the USB twirling it between my fingers, is this something I want to see. Would Ivy's secrets be too dark for even me to see is that why she kept them hidden.

I know I should wait for the food to arrive before deep diving into this mystery but I can't. I've already waited two years for any answers about Ivy anything at all and I just can't wait a moment longer.

I plug in the USB and open the file, there's dozens of what seem to be voice memos. I reach into my laptop bag pulling out my ear buds and plugging them. I have to know what's on these.

The first file is barely audible. I can tell Ivy's voice but I'm unsure of what the other person is saying so I skip to the next, each one is barely audible then the final one. I can hear a man yelling threatening Ivy telling her it needs to disappear or she will and I freeze. That voice I know I've heard before not often and not in a long time but it feels so familiar it sounds so familiar. Who is this mystery man and what needed to disappear and why had Ivy been recording her conversations with him. I feel a tap on my shoulder and I jump.

"Your food honey" The sweet older waitress tells me.

"Oh thank you so much" I replied before going back to the USB. There's one last file and it's dated the night Ivy disappeared but how, how could it have the same date and of been hidden in the trophy if Ivy had never made it home that night, my hands shaking and breathing getting heavier I click the file open and press play. It's a long silence just static and crickets and just a moment before it stops I hear the loudest bang.