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The next day it was the afternoon and Josie was repainting the bathroom walls. She had light blue paint marks on her arms, hands, and some on her clothes.
After she did the wall she put the brush on the bowl she was holding the paint in. She sighed and wiped her hands on her thighs. She went to her kitchen and opened the fridge to get a water bottle. She was facing the kitchen window when she looked over to see a silhouette of a tall person behind a tree just watching her.
She immediately backed up and locked the window and checked to see that her front door was locked too. She took a deep breath before looking back outside to see it was gone.
She sighed before turning around to finish her bathroom. Hopefully she was imagining seeing A outside her house. What she didn't know is that A was making their way to Josie's best friend's, Noa's apartment.
•••
At school on Thursday the girls all sat together when Imogen was telling them something.
"I found my mom's diaries. All of them." Imogen said, making Josie, who was sitting next to her, face her. "What do they say?" Mouse asked, "It's what they don't say." Imogen said which confused the girls.
"This one's from our mom's senior year." she said handing Mouse the book. Faran and Tabby looked over her shoulder. "The entries slow down to a trickle, then stop, but before that-" "Some of the pages are torn out." Mouse said, cutting Imogen off.
"Exactly. Why would a girl rip out pages from her own diary? I mean, the whole point is that it's private, right?" Imogen asked, Josie sighed and leaned forward, "Unless there was something so bad she wanted to rip it out of existence, even for herself." Josie said which made the girls look at her.
"And what, you think she destroyed the pages?" Faran said, Imogen shrugged, "Or they're hidden? Maybe somewhere in my house." Imogen and Josie looked at each other before they noticed Noa walking to the table. "Jesus, what happened to you?" Faran asked, "Did you get your ankle monitor off?" Mouse asked.
Noa nodded and sat down next to Josie. "I did this morning. Guys... A's back. And he came after me in person to my building." "Shit" Josie muttered before grabbing the girls hand. "Why you?" Tabby asked.
"According to the text he sent because of something my mom did to Angela Waters." Noa explained. The girls all looked at each other with shocked expressions.
"I knew it. This all goes back to our mothers, and Angela. What did your mom do to her?" Imogen said. "I don't know." Noa replied. "A said my mom threw Angela under the bus." "What did A do to you?" Tabby asked. "He went full fucking Michael Myers." Noa told them. "He chased me around my building onto the roof."
"Okay, this is getting beyond dangerous now." Faran says "What do we do?" Mouse asks. "Is it time to... tell someone?" "We can't!" Imogen quickly said. "We're so close to understanding why this is all happening, why... us."
"Plus, after what Noa went through, not sure we should be disobeying A and telling anyone anything." Josie said "Angela isn't mentioned anywhere in my mom's diaries, but now we know for sure there's a connection." Imogen said
"So, the missing pages could be about Angela." Tabby asked "I've been going through all the stuff at my house, but now that I know what I'm looking for, I feel like I have to start over." Imogen explained.
"We can help." Faran nodded. "Should we meet after school?" "I'll bring walkie-talkies from my mom's pawn shop." Mouse told them. "Trust me... they're rad."
•••
The girls were spread out around Imogen's house. Josie had chosen to check the guest rooms, looking through boxes. "Hello." Faran's voice came from the walkie-talkie.
"Faran, did you find anything?" Imogen asked. "Not yet, but I made popcorn." Faran told. "Is that what I'm smelling?" Imogen said "It might've singed a little." Faran said back.
"There's nothing in the garage, but I'll try the back of the house." Mouse says. "Tabby? Anything?" Imogen asked. "I'm heading downstairs right now." Tabby replied.
"Guys, guys!" Noa shouted. "Noa are you okay?" Imogen asked "I'm fine, except your attic is a fucking spider Airbnb." Noa told them all.
Imogen laughed. "Jo, how're you." "It's Halloween Town in here." Josie said while looking under the bed. Imogen laughed at the girl's response "Tabby, how's the basement?"
"Super dark." She sighed. "The light's out." "There's another switch at the bottom of the steps." Imogen informed her.
"Not gonna lie, this is creepy AF." Tabby said. "Ch-ch-ch-ah-ah-ah." Faran joked. "Actually, it's kee-kee-kee-ma-ma-ma, as in when Mrs Voorhees says 'killer mommy' in Jason's voice." Tabby corrected.
"Great. Thanks for movie-splaining that to me." Faran said "Mr Hammond, I think we're back in business." Tabby said
"Guys, living room now!" Faran firmly said. Josie got up and grabbed the walkie before walking downstairs with Imogen. Faran held little pieces of paper that were half burnt. "I found these in the fireplace." "Shit." Noa said quietly "Are those the pages?" Josie asked
Imogen sat down on the sofa. "Hey." Josie said gently, sitting next to Imogen "They could be from anything... like a pad of paper or a notebook..." Mouse tried to say as she sat in front of the two "Or they are my mom's diary pages." Imogen cut her off. "Which, let's face it, we were never going to find." The girls moved around Imogen, "Imogen."
"It's like everything in my life is slipping away from me, and... there's nothing I can do to stop it." Imogen said, "First my body, then my mom, now our house, and I can't... I... I can't leave it, not with all these questions. You guys, I don't want to sell my mom's house."
"What if... you take it over?" Mouse suggested. "The mortgage payments of whatever?" "We could talk to my mom, find out exactly how much money you'd need..." Tabby tried to explain
"I have $400 in the bank." Imogen said, "That I saved from, like, my last ten birthdays. Where would I get the money?"
•••
Josie got home and like again she immediately got to work, after she moved all the stuff off the shelf, she unscrewed it off the wall. After she placed the shelf on the table to went to get the paint when there was a knock on the door.
She sighed and opened the door. When she saw Dallas' mom standing there with her arms crossed she was shocked. "Mrs. Matthews?" Josie tilted her head, "um, what're you doing here?" She asked the older woman. Maggie looked Josie up and down, "Is your mother home?"
Josie sighed, "No ma'am. Work meeting." She said. The older woman scoffed, "Of course, listen I don't care. I've done everything to make my boy run while he could, but for some magical reason. He still comes running to you."
Josie glared, "Mrs. Matthews what did I do to you. Like seriously. I've done nothing but treated you with respect. And I've shown you that I care about Dallas.. So really. Why do you hate me." She said in a firm tone. The woman just stood there. Almost as if she didn't know what to say. "Goodnight, Mrs. Matthews. Get home safely." Josie said before closing the door and locking it.
She took a deep breath and immediately went to to her room to get ready for bed.
——
Hiii🤍 i hope you enjoyed this chapter and i'm so ready to write the next one. sorry about that ending.😬 but. there's a little bit of an introduction to Maggie Matthews
i don't really know who i want to play her so you can decide for yourself.
anyways i love y'all and the next chapter will come soon🫶🫶🫶🫶
