Doppelganger: Anamorphosis

Chapter four. Stupid Drama

Judy was too tense to doze off on the bus, and she fiddled nervously with her smartphone the whole way. She took her time looking around, studying the other passengers in great detail, and only after all these rituals did she unlock her phone and read the last message one more time.

"Judy! You owe me one."

Rick just had to throw more wood on the fire of her anger. The outrageous message was rounded out by an emoticon sending an air kiss.

What was he even implying? What was it all about?

But in a way, Judy was grateful to him. Ricardo had given her an opportunity to cheer up quite nicely.

Anger always gave her strength. And she was pretty angry-at all the man's advances toward her, which were only getting worse with each rejection. Rick didn't want to accept the fact that there was a single girl in the world who could resist his wicked eyes and open smile. He persistently stormed this fortress.

He must have already put Judy on his record.

Asshole! - She finally got angry at the thought of it. He'd been to her lonely apartment and made a complete judgment about her. Decided, I suppose, that a potential old maid cat lady would be easy prey.

"And what are your rates?" - she typed, not knowing what purpose she was getting into this game for. Why she was teasing the fire again.

The answer was obvious: to distract herself and not think about all the unpleasant things that awaited her.

And the telephone conversation with Mrs. Walker, who no doubt had no warm feelings for the girl next door, was by no means the worst of it. Painful, but not fatal.

Judy always ran into the wind. Always found a good reason to do exactly that and not some other way. Another probably sane person, in her place, would have curtailed her foolish investigation, wary of risking her life. But not her. She wasn't sensible.

So she headed straight for the center of evil - the Mansion on Magazine Street.

Jumping off the step of the bus onto the wet asphalt, she dialed Lorna's number that Rick had sent her.

Judy was urgently running through in her head all the verbal constructions she'd managed to come up with on the road. She had to work hard to pull some phrases out of the chaotic mess of thoughts that fit within the conventional bounds of friendliness and politeness.

"Hello, Mrs. Walker. This is Judith Davis, I used to live in the neighborhood and was friends with your son...how are you doing? What do you do? Do you do magic....?"

- Damn it, - she cursed.

Standing in the fine rain without an umbrella, she listened to the long, drawn-out beeps.

"I'm sorry, I wouldn't bother you for nothing, but I ran into Ethan here the other day. Yes, you heard right. Do you know anything about that? He's kind of been dead for a while... but he seems pretty much alive. No, not quite. But... at least I didn't notice any signs of decomposition..."

Judy sighed heavily and cut off the call.

Unfortunately, she didn't have all the time in the world, and the nasty raindrops had already managed to get behind the collar of her sweatshirt and were chilling her skin. Otherwise, she'd give it another try. And call until Lorna deigned to answer. Maybe by then the girl would have managed to figure out how to build a conversation with her.

Or not.

She wouldn't be able to find common ground with this woman in a thousand years! She wouldn't be able to talk easily about all the crazy, unbelievable things that had compelled her to call Mrs. Walker.