WHO IS LIKE GOD

16.

CHANGE OF PLANS

"FLORENCE!" her mother called. "Get the door!"

Florence rolled out of bed and hit the ground face-first. Cold from the freezing hardwood spread throughout her and she sighed into it, sinking further. With her mind on the sensation, she wasn't able to think about—

Victoria.

The doorbell rang again, and her mother's voice reverberated through the house. "Florence!" she yelled. "The door!"

Florence shocked awake and trudged to the front door.

Amelia Dupont was sitting in the breakfast nook, reading glasses pushed up into her hair as she squinted at the floorplans for one of her new projects. In the kitchen, Sean, with an apron wrapped around his waist, chopped onions as something boiled on the stove.

"Good afternoon," he said, smiling cheekily.

Florence checked the oven clock: 1:45, it read. She had no idea when she'd gone to bed but she knew it had been sometime in the afternoon. She wouldn't have been surprised if she'd slept over twelve hours. She remembered the sensation of her entire body shutting down when she'd fallen into bed, feeling completely empty, and descended into a deep and dreamless sleep for the first time in weeks.

It was nice.

Florence yanked open the front door, rubbing at her bleary eyes, still in her clothes from yesterday. "Hello?" she yawned.

Michelle grinned at her, Elphie behind her and flushed slightly green. "Good afternoon, Florence. Sorry for the surprise but you weren't answering your phone."

Sean walked over, wiping his hands on his apron, and opened the door wider. "Oh, hello girls. Come on in. Florence, why are you just standing there? Are you okay?"

Florence blinked away her shock and nodded her head a little too quickly to be convincing. "Uh, yeah, sorry. We can go to my room if you want..."

Michelle smiled wider and pushed past her, Elphie following close behind. Florence's mother waved at them as they passed, her glasses now sliding halfway down her head.

"Hey girls, how are you? I'm guessing you've already heard the news, huh? I'm so glad Victoria is okay."

Florence noticed the tensity in Michelle's smile, but it disappeared just as quickly as it had come. She sighed deeply and let her eyes briefly flutter closed. "It's been keeping me awake. I want to go visit her but only family's allowed in her hospital room right now."

Amelia Dupont nodded, pity and sympathy softening her posture. "I understand. I'd love to take you all to visit her once we've been given the okay. Florence has been so stressed lately."

Michelle met her eyes and Florence's body shot with warmth despite the cold prickling her skin. They moved to her bedroom and Michelle plopped down on her bed as Elphie folded down on the carpet. Florence, with nowhere else to go, took the desk chair.

"I can't believe it," Michelle said, breaking the silence. "I was so sure she was dead. I mean, we all saw it, right?"

Elphie made a slight noise, high-pitched and squealing. Her hands were trembling in her lap and she'd grit her teeth to the point that her bottom lip was torn to bleeding. She'd been so quiet that Florence had forgotten she was even there. "What are we going to do?" she fretted. "She's going to say something, she has to say something. Oh God, oh God we're going to jail, aren't we?"

Florence startled at her paranoia. She wasn't used to not being the worrywart, and now that Elphie had taken her place, Florence slunk down in her chair and stared at the burning mark on her wrist. She struggled to re-imagine the hallucination of Victoria's ghost. But, it couldn't have been a hallucination, could it? They had all seen her, she'd just preferred to stick by Florence's side.

They'd been so sure she was dead. Florence had felt the slickness of her blood staining her hands. Michelle had watched the life drain out of her eyes. There'd been tension when the knife had connected with her heart, a push before the blade finally sunk in. That had been real, she knew that for a fact.

Michelle sighed and leaned forward to set her elbows on her knees. "This is bad," she said. "But not so bad that it can't be fixed. All we have to do is make sure she doesn't have the opportunity to say anything."

"What? We kill her again?"

The room fell into silence. Florence stared forward, unaware that she had spoken until the pressure of the quiet finally fell on her. She swallowed. Michelle's eyes burned a hole into hers, her gaze intense and disapproving.

"We saw Darcy the other day," she said at last. "When we were trying to visit the scene. Victoria was gone by the time we got there but Darcy said you'd been with her. What happened?"

All at once Florence was again enveloped by the strange sensation of Victoria's arms around her as she sobbed.

"Are you okay?" she'd asked.

No, she was not okay. Nothing was okay, she doubted anything would ever be okay ever again. Florence swallowed. "I went to see her with Darcy, but... Darcy left before she could talk to her."

Michelle's hard gaze didn't relent. "Why were you with Darcy? She hates us."

This time, Florence's hand began to tremble with nerves. How would she explain the deluge of events that had led to her staying the night at the Sinclair household? Simple answer: she couldn't. Darcy may have hated them, but Michelle wasn't fond of talking about Darcy either. It was uncomfortable to see how eagerly she waited for an answer.

A knock saved Florence from the pressure. Sean opened the door, a plate of cheese, crackers, and sliced fruit in hand. He presented the plate with a flourish. "Ta da! I thought you might be hungry. I know you haven't eaten yet, Florence."

Elphie took the plate and thanked Sean at least five times.

"Thank you so much Mr. Sullivan," Michelle smiled. "I skipped lunch too. I didn't even realize I was hungry."

"You're very welcome, Michelle. Now, I'll get going, sorry for interrupting." He slipped behind the door, shutting it as quietly as he could.

They all waited with bated breath for his footsteps to recede. When they were sure he was gone, Michelle leaned over to stack cheese and a slice of strawberry on a cracker and ate it whole. Elphie tried to copy her, biting the cracker like Michelle had only to be showered in crumbs as the strawberry slid off her cracker.

"I actually was hungry," Michelle said, and made another cracker stack. She sighed. "Okay, change of plans: we visit Victoria the second we can and see what she knows before she can tell anyone else. I'd prefer it if we didn't waste any time." She wiped her hands on her jeans. "Let's watch a movie, yeah? I'm tired of sitting around sulking."

Florence nodded and grabbed a cracker, bare, to twiddle with as she stared down in her lap and ruminated over their current situation. Did Victoria remember? Florence doubted she would have hugged her if she had. But, she knew that her own memories of the event were shaded and hard to uncover. Maybe... maybe they were okay? The cracker snapped in her grip. She doubted it. They were never, ever okay. Not since Florence had shoved a knife into her friend's heart.

Michelle made a third cracker. "I'm in the mood for the Lion King. Florence, go make some popcorn."