"I'm glad you could come over and spend the night seeing that you were with me to experience my dad speaking to me through a fucking portal. If I were alone, I would have thought I'd gone insane." sitting on the couch next to Mairi in complete privacy made me feel a sense of security. "I am too Erin, mostly due to me having been seeing these things since my accident. At least we now knew what they meant and why we were involved." Mairi agreed with the sense of sanity that we gained by having someone else to witness the madness. "I forgot to mention this news app that they have for Clover Valley and I thought you would be interested in a notification I had recently. I'll send you the link for it really quick." Mairi spoke hastily, her already a natural with her brand-new modern smartphone seeing as she's only had her old flip phone.
'Biding'
By phone rang, and seeing that her message had been received I clicked the link and it led me to a news blog presenting images of homemade leather type book covers made to cover the favorite books of the serial killers' victims that had then been gifted back to the families out of a sign of respect. Even though we both were looking at the post on both devices we still sat hip to hip on the couch. "Who's making these?" I stammered continuing to scroll through pictures of the book covers until I came across a photo of the man who had made these. "It's him, it's Officer Key." I was quiet yet loud enough for Mairi to hear. "I thought it had said that! You had said his name before and I was thinking that had to be the same guy. My question is, why would he be making gifts for the families of his victims?" her statement was brain-racking, it almost seemed as if he felt a sense of accomplishment by still having so much power and through being a continuous presence within the family's homes. "Not to be gross but didn't you say that Zach saw on the news that Key, the killer, had been known to skin a section of the victims and take that skin patch with him?" My own inquiry filled me with horror for my mind immediately went to Key using the victims' skin to craft the gifted book covers for the victims grieving family members. "You can't be serious," Mairi muttered sounding disgusted showing that she had come to the same conclusion as I. "What a sick man, what kind of human could do these things." Mairi appeared to be more freaked out physically with her eyebrows furrowed, as she grabbed my arm. "I know Min, he's sick, but we've got to focus. Getting caught up in his madness will only make us go insane." Seeking to console her, I found it difficult to keep my own cool. Was that what he had planned for me? To gift a part of me back to my mom in an effort to have one last laugh? How would he even know my favorite book to begin with? He would have to get to know someone extremely close to me to know my favorite book was The Titans Curse by Rick Riordan unless he got to go through my room somehow.
"How do you feel Erin, about meeting your father?" Mairi trying to change the subject caught me off guard, an empathetic expression across her face, a spark in her honey-brown eyes. She was quite curious seeing as I had never known anything about my father. "I can't really understand why he would decide to attempt being involved in my life after three days short of 17 years." Mairi let out a gasp most likely due to the fact that with all of the chaos recently, we both had forgotten we both had upcoming birthdays. Mine was May 23rd while Mairi's was only five days after mine, but she was a year older than me. "Wow, it's already been four days since we got out of school. A lot happened in that time so it's almost unbelievable." I spoke relaying that I also was clueless as to what day it had been as we were all in a constant state of distress. "what a great birthday we'll have in these circumstances. Seeing that we're both crippled in a sense and you seem to be put in constant danger. I hope we can be together both days to make it less depressing." Her want for us to spend so much time together even in this predicament left me delighted causing me to smirk slightly, as I hoped I wasn't blushing visibly. "I know what you mean, how was sleeping on my couch last night? More lumpy than you are used to?" I questioned seeing as I finally got to sleep in my own bed. My mom slept in my room too though, so Mrs. Noble could have privacy and comfort in exchange for making Mairi and my wish be fulfilled. "It actually was great, not exactly as big as mine but just as comfortable."

YOU ARE READING
Inside the Shadow
ParanormalThere always seemed to be shadows that just appeared to cover all the negativity in Clover Valley. With each chapter, the mystery of this darkness begins to come to light. With the dangers that Mairi, Erin, and Zachariah face, they grow and learn t...