A Quiet Key

Chapter 5

        As soon as I woke up I found my phone at my side and turned it on to look at the time. 1 hour had passed since I had collapsed on the floor of my parent's bedroom, it was 11:00 pm. Then, I noticed the paper in my left hand, it was slightly crumpled since I had been holding onto it for an hour. I couldn't bring myself to look at the 2 words.

     Next, I texted the unknown number I now knew was Jake,"Come to my house tomorrow morning, I have something to show you." I typed

    A few minutes later he replied"Between Leonard and Lakeview"

    I should've been weirded out on how he knew my address and my phone number but I was too tired to even think about it.

     While waiting for him (I knew I couldn't go back to sleep) I thought about the old Shay. We met in first grade when she asked me if I wanted to be friends with her. Cliche, I know but we really did become friends. And we stuck by each other no matter what. She would always tell me if anyone was bothering her and I would confront them and threaten to kill them if they did it again(violent but effective). There wasn't a day she didn't play with me at recess or sit with me at lunch. I didn't become totally weirded out when she told me she liked guys and girls that way, in fact, I convinced her parents there was nothing wrong with her. And we stayed that way all throughout elementary school and middle school. But that was when I was Auralia: persuasive and fiery friend and she was Shay: Shy and loyal little sister figure. Since then we had both changed, Shay wasn't that shy person anymore. Now she talked to anyone and she smiled big and bright at every one. And obviously, I wasn't the same anymore either, I was still temperamental but not openly anymore and I didn't walk with my head held high like nothing scared me. The day I told her that I didn't want to be friends anymore was one the worst decisions I have ever made even though now I'm sure we could've gotten through it together. Decided because I was stupid, scared, and too proud to ask for help from her.

      Now I would save her just like the old days and I sure as heck wasn't backing down, no matter what.      

       It was 7 am that Saturday when I heard a knock on the door and without looking through the peephole I opened it. Jake looked all over me and then breathed a sigh of relief as if he had expected me to be hurt before finally asking: "So, what did you want to show me?"

      I grabbed his wrist and pulled him into my parent's bedroom before grabbing the piece of paper that was still on the floor and showing it to him.

    "I think this is connected to my brother's disappearance and Shay's kidnapping," I said not letting any of my underlying fear bleed into my words. 

    Jake nodded and then asked, "We're not going to the police with this right?"

    I nodded and he took the paper..... and bit off a corner. My eyes widened as he said, "This tastes like Yamashita paper and... cobalt chloride?"

    My eyes widened, even more, when I remembered what I had learned in science, that if cobalt chloride is heated the ink turns blue. I took the lamp on my parent's table that I knew had a 100-watt bulb put it against the paper slowly revealing blue letters.

    "That's the kanji for Kizuato Yamashita!" I voiced my realization.

     "Is that a person?" He questioned confused

    " We were friendly when I was in seventh grade and he was in eighth. But then he moved somewhere else for high school." I explained.

   "How do you know Japanese kanji?"Jake asked.

  "My brother and I thought it would be cool to know a language most in Brady lake didn't. Anyway, what does Kizuato have to do with this?" I couldn't figure it out. I had barely known Kizuato and he had never met my family with me around so what did he have to do with them? Who is Kizuato Yamashita?

Notes: Kizuato means scar in Japanese and Yamashita basically means under a/the mountain,