Margo Fawn & the Contagious Missing Delirium - 1

38. MOM!! DAD!!

MOM!! DAD!!

"What?" I panicked. "I saw them last night before I went to sleep." And my voice freestyled in my throat.

His gun was aligned horizontally. I wasn't sure if he'd shoot me in my neck or hand. Everything felt painfully disoriented. My imagination was my enemy.

"Check if they are home." He squinted. His face looked funny as he took aim.

What the heaven? I took a few involuntary steps back and then I picked up my pace and ran inside. "Mom..." I yelled, again. "Dad..."

No answer. I leaped up the stairs. My sweaty under-feet weren't exactly accelerating my clamber. I had a serious urge to go to the sink and barf. I stood at the top of the stairs, contemplating whether to go check if they were in the room or run out the gate and get tranquilized. What if Mrs. Gannon or anyone from the Sherman's infected my parents? Oh God! What if? What if I had infected them? But I didn't let Desiree or Jade touch me? They weren't even at an arm's reach to me.

Okay... Okay... I couldn't have infected them. My chin quivered under the pressure of nausea. I twisted the knob of the door with the help of my t-shirt. I twisted it like pinching a baby's cheek – fragile and careful. When I opened my parents' bedroom, what I saw threw me off.

I wanted to go get the gun from the scary guy outside and shoot my dad with it. I couldn't care if it had real bullets. He was snoring. My mom was my mom. She was in the shower.

"For the love of God... why the heaven can't you both answer me when I call you both?" I squeaked.

My dad woke up with a startle. "What?" He sighed irately.

My mom walked out with a towel in her hair. Calm and composed.

"Something's happened. Go deal with it," I said. Now calm and composed. I walked to my room, just giving a hint. "The CONMISDUM staff are right outside and they have big guns; wanting to talk to you. If you don't go out in a minute, they'll start shooting."

"WHAT?" Mom and dad asked. They didn't like their morning disrupted.

"Why are they here?" My mom raised her voice.

I walked to my room without answering. I called Elec from my room. "Hey, I was about to call you now. I think Mrs. Gannon went missing."

"And Mr. Gannon too." I informed.

"Good riddance. I wish I could thank the new girl who infected them. The one that talked to you, I mean."

"God! That was a narrow escape that day," I lied, realizing that narrow escapes were becoming common to me now. "Do you think our school would declare a holiday?"

"Oh honey, the entire town is shut down."

I then texted Aiden and Irsia to inform them that the 6th block of Brookhedge was under quarantine because the neighbors had vanished.

Irsia asked me to stay indoors for the next 3 days and confirmed that the school had declared a holiday. Aiden texted, telling me not to put a toe outside and that he would miss me. A smile shaped my lips just with the thoughts of him.

In a few minutes, I was called downstairs for questioning by the scary guy with the gun.
"When was the last time you saw Mr. and Mrs. Gannon?"

"Umm... I don't recall but I didn't see them in the past 24 hours."

"Have you met the family from Aelburn?"

"Yes. The girl. Jade."

"Sherman?"

"Yes, Jade Sherman." I saw my mom's eyes go wild. This was the right time to tell her. "I have to talk to strangers because my parents make me walk to all the places. They deny me my car. Sunday, when I was walking to a friend's home, I met the girl. She didn't come near me. She stood at a really good distance." The reply was for the officer from CONMISUM Protection Center and mostly for the wild eyes of my mom and my dad's I'm-not-fighting-this-fight-it's-between-you-and-your-mom attitude.

Every house on my block was assigned a guard. We weren't allowed outside for 3 days. It wasn't much of an agony to stay home since I stayed in my room.

It was officially announced that everyone who moved out of Aelburn into other neighboring towns would be in quarantine and a guard was set for every family from Aelburn. I didn't know why but I felt that it was unfair to them. And if at all Mrs. Gannon had any sense, she would have stayed away from Sherman's. I was pretty sure that Mrs. Gannon's interest in prying into others' business overruled her common sense and that was why she ended up infected by CONMISDUM.

The news said that a bunch of new move-ins from Aelburn were taken by force to the CONMISDUM protection center because they showed signs of violence, self-harm, just plain lunacy.

It was Friday. I was free to go to school. In Elec's car.

School felt frighteningly normal. Jade Sherman and her family were missing like they had vanished from the face of the earth but the world didn't stop for them. School didn't stop for them. I didn't either. Somehow I felt selfish and guilty. Some of our classmates gave Elec and I weird looks since it was our neighbors that went missing but that didn't bother me or Elec. What bothered me was Mrs. Lin's distinctive stares. She gave us the honor of not giving us the weird look. I still couldn't tell Elec and Irsia about my encounters with the ghouls. I realized I needed to keep it a secret or I needed to come up with a grand plan to describe to them how it happened. Both of the options felt very energy guzzling, especially if I had to explain to them both how the encounter involved Aiden.

Author's note: Hey readers and writers. I'm back with new chapters. This would be part 2. Give a star if you like it and leave comments. You know it means the world to me. Thank you so much for reading.