London

Chapter 5

London chapter 5

The moment I got home after school, I walked right into my mom's room and said to her, "why didn't you tell me a girl went missing here last week??" She looked up from her lawyer book, "I did tell you." "No, you told me just as I was about to enter the school. How could you not warn me?" My mom sighed as if I was a little child throwing a temper tantrum and she needed to calm me down. "I just thought it wasn't important."

"Oh of course it wasn't important. A student. Disappeared. In. There. Last. Week. Do you know what happened today? I got placed in the dead girl's seat and people told me to get out. Everybody was gasping at me like I was the one who killed her! I don't get what's wrong with them why do they have to act so dramatic about everything God." I rolled my eyes. My mom forced a smile, "everything will be fine London. They'll get over it. Jessie is gone and she is not coming back." I frowned, "how do you know her name?" My mom's smile faltered. "I read it on the news article." She murmured and went back to reading her book.

Just then I spotted the jewelry box sitting on my mom's nightstand. I eyed the carved rose on the lid. Somehow it looks very familiar... Oh my god! The Rose! The one that's carved all around the cafeteria and Jessie's folded napkin! "Mom can I see inside the box?" I asked. She looked up, taken by surprise. "No darling." "But why not?? I'm fourteen mom!" She shook her head, "you will be able to look inside when you are ready, the time will come." "And when is that going to be? When I'm eighty years old??" I snapped. She looked at me, "see this is proof that you are not ready London." "Not ready for what?? To look inside that jewelry box? What's in there that I have to be SO ready for? What's so important about it?? Oh let me guess is it going to be a body part? Or my great great grandmother's organs?" My mom slammed shut her book. "London that's it. Go to your room now." "No!" I cried, "you moved me all the way here to this stupid place and to attend a stupid school filled with stupid people and now you're making a big deal about a stupid jewelry box! I am not going to my room!" And with that I stomped out her room and out the house.

I walked to the library I saw on my way home, it was a block away from my house. The library was small and dusty and it looks like not many people go there. The librarian, a small plump lady glanced up at me through her glasses for a moment as I entered, before going back to whatever she was doing.

I walked through the shelves and shelves of books, so old and worn out. I took out a random book, and flipped inside. The pages were yellow and mostly torn apart with faded words. "Thee shall not escape. Thee shall not cry." I whispered, reading out the sentence on one page.

I found an old computer at the corner of the library and decided to search up more about Jessie. I inserted a few coins into the machine and the computer lit up. I typed in "Century High" and search suggestions immediately popped out.

CENTURY HIGH MISSING GIRL
CENTURY HIGH JESSIE SAUNDERS
CENTURY HIGH DISAPPEARANCE OF FEMALE STUDENT

I clicked on the second suggestion, and held my breath as a page began to load. A news article popped out and I started reading it quietly under my breath.

"Fourteen year old Jessie Saunders had gone missing on October 12th, her body not yet found. Police are still questioning witnesses and cannot confirm yet what really happened to her. Her family and friends are very worried about her. Here's what her parents has to say, 'Jessie was a beautiful loving girl we really hope the police find her body soon..."

I frowned, confused. Why was everyone talking about Jessie like she's dead? "Find her body..." "Body not yet found..." They don't know that she's dead.

The rest was just her family and friends describing her. I scrolled to the bottom of the page, where there was an image of Jessie.

In the photo, she had long curly dark brown hair with highlights, arched eyebrows, and blue eyes so wide and so full of energy I could almost feel her excitement. Her pink lips lifted up into a wide smile, her white teeth flashing at the camera. She was wearing a small white dress. Jessie looked so full of life, so adventurous, so beautiful in that photograph. I could almost feel what she was feeling. My heart beat quickening, Adrenaline pumping through my veins, blood pondering in my ears.

But she was gone. Poof, gone. Disappeared. Missing. Whatever you want to call it.

I stared and stared at the photograph, trying to grasp onto her feelings when she took the picture when suddenly the computer blinked and shut down by itself. I looked at it, weirded out.

But then this intense feeling hit me hard on the chest. My heart started beating so fast, but it was different from what I was feeling before. I just had to get out of the library, I had to. I felt like someone was watching me, a shadow lurking nearby in the old shelves. I felt like I was suffocating, like I couldn't breath, like the whole room was running out of oxygen. My head was spinning, and my pulse was racing.

I grabbed my bag and bolted out of the library.