Pleaser To Meet You

Chapter 22

The letter trembled in my hands as I read it. It said,

Dear Ember,
    I have not seen you show up at work for a few days. I stopped by your apartment and you were not there either. I sincerely hope you are doing okay. If you are okay and head to the store you will find it closed temporarily. This is because I need to go out of town for a bit for some personal reasons. I left a key for you in the envelope to go check on the animals from time to time if you can. If you really are missing I won't be gone long and the animals should be fine. Oh and before I forget, how is the kid doing? Last time I had an update on that, it was not so good. I know you have no way of contacting me but I hope to hear from you in person. Till we meet again I wish you well.
P.S - someone came by the store asking about you the other day, I didn't tell them anything but they seemed like bad new
    Sincerely,
        Jane

I read the letter slowly to make sure I got every word correct. I wonder when she sent this and how long she is going to be gone for. Also keeps me safe, not needing to go to work or to check up on her to make sure she's not dead. Sage walked over and asked what it said. So I handed it to her. I watched her read it and her face seemed conflicted. I remembered the part where she said there was a key in the envelope. So I checked and sure enough there was a small square key. I looked at it and engraved the store name and number. It was no bigger than the palm of my hand. Which still is not that big but still decent sized.
    Sage looked at the key in my hand and nodded her head. In a way to confirm it in her head as well. I am pretty sure we had the same questions in mind.
What's the coincidence she needs to go out of town right when I suddenly disappear? To me it seems odd, almost planned in a way. Yet I know Jane would never be inflicting such harm towards me. Right?
Sage looked at the envelope. She then looked at me. She said "are you sure there was no one at the door when this came in?" I frowned my eyebrows and said "yeah there was no one I saw. Why?" She then looked at the envelope again. She shrugged and put the letter in it. She then said "Just seems like strange timing to me" Which did make a very interesting point. This did come in right after I went to the store and was trying to figure out where Jane was. It makes me wonder what perfect timing that was. Also made me think, was this really Jane who wrote this letter or did one of the cyborgs do it to get me to go check on the animals.
    I looked at Sage and worriedly asked "would the cyborgs take the time to write a letter to get someone to leave their home?" Sage raised her eyebrows and blinked a few times as if she was processing what I just said. She says "I am just as lost as you are. I mean I want to believe that it was Jane who wrote this but I could be wrong. I don't know anything about them or what they do to get their prey" I glared at her and said "please don't ever call me 'pray' again" She smiled and said "well you kind of-" I snapped at her "don't you dare finish that sentence" She giggled and threw up her hands in defense as if I was going to hit her. I playfully gave her a high five as a joke and we both could not help but laugh. It seems kind of strange that no matter the situation we always can find it funny, we always find something to laugh at or bring light to.
    I say "well at least you don't have to worry about me running away again" I give her a sympathetic smile and she glares at me and replies "good because I don't wanna have to bash your face in again" My mouth drops and she starts laughing. I say "so you would do it again?" She stops laughing for a second and says "oh yeah, without hesitation" she found this to be the funniest thing ever because she falls to the ground laughing so hard there's tears falling out of her eyes. I scoff and say "well that really shows our friendship right there doesn't it". All she could do was nod her head yes because she was still laughing so hysterically.
    I set the key back into the envelope because I forgot it was in my hand. I shook my head because it was funny that she was laughing so hard but also not funny about the situation. I walk into the bathroom and check my face. Most of it was scabbed over and looked like none of it was infected which is good. I caught something out of the corner of my eye and I looked over. It was just Sage and I took a deep breath. I noticed I was being super jumpy at every sound recently. Which I understood why but at the same time I hope it does not stay.
    She leans on the door frame and says "looks like you are healing up nice" I slowly turn and look at her with the most stone cold face and say " oh ha ha" She smiles and walks away. I wonder if I am going to have cool scars and stuff because that would be cool. Yet it would ruin my "adorable" appeal. I walk back out into the living room and see Sage staring out the window. I say "shouldn't we have that closed so they can't see us" She does not even look at me but says "look at whos being paranoid now"
    I go to give a snarky reply but I get cut off by someone knocking on the door. I jump and look at the door. Sage goes and grabs the gun and nods for me to go into the kitchen. I do as she says and walk into the kitchen. I duck down so they can not see me and I hear Sage walk over to the door. They hesitate and then I hear them open it. There is a moment of silence and then I hear "Bert what the heck are you doing here"