Obsessive ~ Noah Foster [1]

Chapter Eight// Hospital Time

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"Noah Foster, killer of parties"

--Noah Foster

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"Audrey brought me coffee this morning." Noah told me. "My sister didn't shove me in the morning, like she usually does." I shrugged. Noah laughed. I stood infront of the counter, where Noah looked through old comic books, as he sipped from a red cup. I found it suspicious, but the kid's girlfriend just died, so I said nothing. A bunch of kids from our school were here. They were doing exactly what Noah was doing. Browsing comic books.

The front door to the shop opened up, and Audrey came in. "Hey." Audrey nodded at us. "Hey." Noah said solemly. "No, drinking on the job is a new thing for you." Audrey came in, and grabbed Noah's cup. "They can't fire me." Noah spoke. "I'm the only one who knows how to reset the router." Noah took the cup back from her.

"At least take it slow." Audrey pleaded. "Hey, you shouldn't be drinking." I grabbed the cup from him, and took a sip myself, before cringing. "Ew, what the hell is that?" I asked, putting the cup down. "Brandy." Audrey and Noah answered at the same time. The front door to the shop opened again, this time it was Emma. "Noah?" She asked. "Emma." Noah greeted. "Uh, welcome to my nightmare."

"What's up?" Audrey asked. "I got this in the mail." Emma reached into her bag, and pulled out a--what looked like-- yearbook. "You got it in the mail?" I asked. "Yes, I think the killer is sending me some weird message." Emma looked at me. "A yearbook? That's not so weird." Noah shrugged. "Oh, holy Manson Family album!" Noah exclaimed, as Emma flipped the pages. "Hey." Audrey put her hand on his shoulder. "Sorry. Just... these were Brandon's victims." Noah said. I walked over to Emma, to get a closer look. "He stole their faces." I whispered. "And then he scratched out my dad's. The only survivor."

"I guess Tyler could have sent this, but it seems a little analog for a killer who's been using social media and cell cloning." Noah explained. "Well, I mean, he is taking me to the past." Emma noted. "Are we still on this whole Tyler thing?' I questioned. "Because... uh, I was there that night, and I'm pretty sure Tyler didn't do it." I told them. They all looked at me. "You're sure?" Audrey looked at me. "Pretty sure. Like 70%." I nodded. Audrey shook her head, "what was the message?"

"Uh, "The truth lies where the mask was made"." Emma read from the book. "You know, the mask Brandon wore was actually a surgical mask. Some say it was all that held his face together--"

"Noah." Audrey warned, before he could go into talking about Lakewood's homegrown killer. "Okay, okay. Just...It was to protect his sutures from infection, post-op." Noah said. "So, who made it?" I asked. "I don't know. Brandon's surgeries were done at Lakewood General, out on the turnpike, but it closed down, like, six or seven years ago." We were silent for a second. Noah and I looked at each other with ecstatic glances, before turning to Emma."Please tell me we're going there!"

"No, we're... We're not going anywhere." Emma said, closing the yearbook. "But its a great lead." Noah huffed. "Look, I know that you want to do something for Riley, and I do too, but..." Emma sighed. "This could be a trap." Noah stared at her, and then looked down. "Uh, yeah. Fine. Okay. Why don't you take it to the Sheriff? Yeah, go be law-abiding and whatever. I've got some grief gaming to do." Noah looked at me, with his eyebrow raised. I nodded. Noah took his cup, and walked around the counter, and towards the couch, where someone already sat. I followed after him. I sat beside him on the couch, and he passed me a pair of big headphones, for us to play. I smiled, and took them, putting them on. Noah grabbed a controller, and looked at me with a weird look. Then he went onto playing his video game. I took one of my headphones off of my right ear, so that I could hear Audrey and Emma. "You're going to the hospital alone, aren't you?" Audrey asked Emma. "I... I just keep thinking about what you said yesterday. About what a relief it would be if it actually was Tyler who's been behind all of this. And, I mean, if he sent me that yearbook, and he's dead. Then, this isn't a trap. He's not there to ambush me."