Dusk And Dawn (TEGSA)

Chapter 3: Yesterday.

When the time comes, I'll pick out all the good-looking males I can find, those who women tend to approach, I'll intrude their house, gauge out their eyes, scar their face. Oh yes, the scars. I promise to leave them permanently disfigured. All the pretty men must pay for even looking at her.

And if they continue, if they chose to not back down. My Oh My, then I guess there's nothing more fitting than a graveyard as a residence. Dear Alicia, if you ever stumble upon this note, I know it would be already too late but I hope you find a place in your heart to forgive me.

"It was never all sunshine and rainbows for little Ollie," my mom squinted her eyes to read the first line of the book, "it was quite the opposite, it was dealings of life and death- funerals and mortuaries, pain and tort-" my mom stopped herself from reading the remaining. She looked repulsed almost as if there was something in there that didn't belong in a child's brain.

"Is everything okay mommy?" my baby voice arose as I asked the question, "Little Ollie died?"

She glanced my way. Knowingly, I decided to look in the opposite direction, plastering forced sadness on my face.

"Karina," my mom's soft hand caressed my face. Her expression had change, now matching with mine, "sometimes, things aren't for children to know at a young age."

Then she sprung up, flinging the book across the room, "And this book was never intended for kids, I'm so sorry for reading this to you honey."

I slowly moved my head up and down in a nod, accepting her apology and acknowledging her actions but something lingered in the back of my mind, so I blurted out the question without thinking, "Who did that to Ollie?" 

A new emotion, anger had casted over my mom's face. She didn't want to answer that question but since it was me, she felt compelled to, so with reluctance, she answered, "Richardson something. Not saying the full name," she tilted my face to hers and tapped my little nose, "I don't want you searching it up when you grow."

***

Yesterday was crazy, mad crazy. The suspects. The theories. The clues. The principal. All that was left was a name. A name was all we need. 'We' as in me and Mrs. Oliver because I agreed to join forces. I couldn't help but feel there was still something, something Mrs. Oliver was hiding, like a connection to this person.

"Karina!" my name was thrown around by an obnoxious male voice that I recognized as Caleb, my aunt's son. Not my cousin though because we aren't related, I'm just a charity case.

I unwillingly fluttered my eyes open and was met with the contrasting radiance of black and green. Immediately, I jumped up. If Caleb was here, something must have gone horribly wrong.

"What's up?" the question slipped out of my mouth with impatience.

"Well, the sun is up!" he gave a sarcastic answer, grinning at my messy morning routine. 

I couldn't tell if he meant, 'the sun is up' as in the sun is in the sky or 'the sun is up' as in it's morning, so I tipped my head slooooooowly to make him know that I didn't get his joke. 

He seemed offended but he didn't say anything, just a few hard words, "Get ready for school."

FUDGE! THAT WAS WHAT WAS UP! SCHOOL!!

............................................................................................................................................................

Maybe it was the true crime nature of Mrs. Oliver's stories that got me thinking it was weekend but something definitely got me thinking that way.

It's already sad enough that I, a student with a perfect attendance for 3 days in a row had blown it. Maybe listening to Mrs. Oliver wasn't the best and agreeing to her wasn't better. 

But there was something worse than me breaking the rules, there was something, someone rather, that was making me agitated. Caleb. 

Here's a quick rundown: I woke up late, missed the bus, hence had to use the public transit. As if that wasn't bad enough, Caleb's mom forced him to ride with me because I was just a "young kid who could get hurt at anytime." her words. Ever since my parents passed away, she's been treating me as if I were glass. Fragile.

In the bus, I took occasional side glances at Caleb, one to admire his pale skin, green eyes, black hair combo and the other to hate on him for being a cocky doofus.

"Stop staring at me." he requested roughly, asserting a sense of dominance. He then deliberately angled his head to look me pandead in my eyes, smirking as if his statement had given him some sense of self satisfaction.

I wanted to deny, to play dumb but I knew it would be of no use because my face had already gone red with embarrassment.

I looked out the window to stare at the plain area of lands, in the process relieving myself by inhaling in some of the nostalgic smell of sand. It was quite boring but it's what can be done.

It wasn't long before something else came up that helped with my boredom.

My phone screen lit up, it was a notification, a message from Mrs. Oliver. Yesterday we had exchanged numbers as an online way of giving more updates on the investigation (quite the fancy name, eh?)

The message read, 'Hey Karie, how's everything going? I don't know if we're on casual terms yet but I would be using Karie as it's more convenient. I have an update on our suspect which is our principal, Richardson Weakbone if you have forgotten. Anyways, I was going through some of his files as per your advice and I saw something really chilling. Well not really chilling but giving our perspective of him right now, it is. The note reads,

"Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away.
Now it looks as though they're here to stay.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be.
There's a shadow hanging over me.
Oh, yesterday came suddenly.

Why she had to go?

I don't know, she wouldn't say.I said something wrong.Now I long for yesterday."

Did some dives and this note was written way before the Beatles had this as a music lyric for their song 'Yesterday.' If you're interested in the numbers, it was written in '55, a whole decade before the Beatles released their song. How do I know? Well, there's a little stuff written at the back and it has the date which is '04|18|1955' and there's an initial under it and it says, 'RW.' 

I'm so sorry for the long message but I had to let it out in one go. Also, I have one more thing to add that will sound more effective when discussed face to face, so if you're not busy, can you meet me immediately after the bell rings at the building or would you like another spot?'

Reading the message alone was tedious. It was annoyingly long but at least she made up for it by apologizing, to her credits. Thinking ahead, I imagined what she had to say, maybe she was gonna confirm my suspicion of possible family relationship or she was gonna talk more about the note and explain while she wrote some of the notes in Italic because my brain wasn't braining at that moment, cause it had gone to overdrive.

Caleb put his hand on my thigh, a simple friendly gesture that got me feeling mushy. With a soft voice, he pursed his lips, asking, "Something bothering you?"

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A/N: 'Yesterday' was used in three different occasion. 1. Where Karina explained that she and Mrs Oliver had joined forced, 'Yesterday was crazy, mad crazy.' 2. When she and Mrs. Oliver exchanged contacts and 3. When Mrs. Oliver sent the notes the principal had in his deserted office.