The Woman Next Door

Seeking answers

Knock Knock.
They stood there, in front of a door, waiting.
"What is taking Mary so long?" Clara impatiently waited.
Knock Knock.
"Mary, it's us, your friends" Crystal said in hope Mary would answer.
Then finally door unlocked and a voice came "come in".
They entered and looked at Mary, she looked tired. She was making her way back to the room, But really slowly she was weak.
The girls looked at her, they were puzzled. They came to question her, but before they could even start asking, Mary looked like she had the answers.
Mary opened up an old cabinet in the room and began shuffling all the paper in it. She was searching for something.
As she was searching, an old newspaper fell out and Mary didn't notice it.
Clara quickly folded the newspaper and inserted in her pocket.
"There it is" Mary finally took out an old picture "this is Maria."
Belle and Clara quickly took the picture from her, It was an old picture, not much detailed but Belle recognized the red eyes, the same shade of red eyes had killed Hooty .

"Take this one" Mary handed out another picture to Crystal. And while doing so her scars on her hand were visible. They three saw it, but nobody said a word.
The picture which Crystal had was much clearer, But what Belle realized was Maria and Mary looked completely different. Maria had blond hair and different features. So they couldn't be twin sisters.
Now she was totally puzzled. Who killed Hooty then?
"She is lovely" Crystal said, it completely opposite of what she had thought, the picture, the crooked smile had given her the creeps.
"She and I were best friends, Until she left and ..." Mary stopped she couldn't decide whether to continue or not.
The girls understood she was hiding something.
"Tell us" Clara said not even able to wait "And what happened?"
"Sh-she" Mary stopped again.
Belle didn't have time for this, if Shawn woke up it was the end for her.
Without saying anything she left the room. Clara and Crystal asked her what is wrong.
"I feel sick" Belle replied not completely lying this time. All that old stuff and dust had made her sick.
And without even bidding bye to Mary, they left her.
Then back at Belle's room.
"So, it was her" Clara said unable to believe what her own eyes had seen.
"No, it wasn't" Belle announced, "It was Maria, those hateful eyes the killer had weren't Mary's at all"
"So you mean Maria came back to life?" Crystal asked, she was so afraid already.
"Yeah, something like that" Belle replied waiting to get more evidence.
"Wait, I have something" Clara said taking out the newspaper from her pocket, it was all crumbled.
The news headlines read, "Fifth murder"
And they carried on,
"One of the school teacher Judy Jack was found dead in her bed last night, her 7 year old son who was sleeping next to her, however, was spared but he wouldn't stop crying. When we questioned him, he described the face and said the killer had red eyes, that's all. But after further research we came to know, It was one of Judy's student, Mary Anderson, who murdered her, but no body could explain why her son, repeatedly announced her eyes were red when Mary had blue eyes"
"What..?" they three said together.
Blue? Mary clearly had purple eyes. What was going on?
"Maybe she just wears lenses" Crystal said, she didn't like mysterious stuffs at all.
"Or maybe...." Clara said deep in thoughts, "red and blue makes purple"
Belle was shocked. Yeah, what Clara said was making sense. She suddenly started getting the answers.
She remembered had read in some news that some enchantress could put two souls in one body. So Maria was using Mary's body to commit crimes. And that is why Mary stays in all the time and that is why she always warns them never to come in.
Information came like a flowing river in her brain.
Just as she was done explaining to her friends, when they were about to continue reading the newspaper, Shawn came in,
"Your mom says me to stay with you" He said rather annoyed.
And he took one glimpse at the newspaper and ran off.
"Maybe he saw that" Clara said "We have to hide it"
She threw it out of the window.
But Shawn didn't return for a long time. Belle was still afraid that Shawn might be snooping around. So the discussion was closed.
However, Belle made it clear for Crystal and Clara to never go to room number 0 ever again. It was over.