Confessions

06| Where The Truth Begins...

   06| Where The Truth Begins...

September 7, 2018

The nights pushed through my hair. I took a deep breath, hoping it would calm my nerves. "I can do this." I shook my head and walked to the door. I stood there frozen. I shouldn't be here. What happens if they hate me too? They probably don't want to see my face. Who would blame them too? If I was told the lies Alica made up, I'd probably would steer clear of me too.

Every inch of my body is telling me it's a bad  idea to be here but I need to get the book with out Nathan knowing. Nathan is not tell me the complete truth, and I can't trust him at all. I still need to figure out how he knew Alica. Something about him tells me, he can't be trusted, and I can't shake the feeling.

I took another deep breath. I hesitated before softly knocking on the door.

I should go. I shouldn't be here. What was I thinking? This was a mistake. Damn, I such a dumb-fuck. Before I could leave the porch, the door was swung open. I stood there frozen while staring at Mrs. Stewart. "Sofia? Sofia, is that you?"

I nodded. "Hey, Mrs. Stewart. I'm so sorry, It was a mistake coming here." I shook my head while looking at the ground.

"Oh, no. Honey, please come in." She grabbed me by my arm. "We were wondering when you were going to come." Her glassy eyes stared into mine. "Please, come in."

I walked in and saw Mr. Stewart on the couch with his hands on his face. When he saw me, shock was written all over his face. "Sofia. You finally came. Please sit down." I sat down next to him. They made me feel so awkward. They're just staring at me as if I was a miracle.

After minutes of silence, I couldn't take it anymore. "Aren't you guys supposed to hate me? I played with my jacket.

"No. Sofia we don't hate you. Why would you think that?" Mrs. Stewart sat next to me.

"It just... Everyone blamed me for Alicia's disappearance and now for death. Don't you feel the same?" A tear slipped down my cheek.

"Look at me Sofia." Mr. Stewart sighed. "We knew you could never harm Alicia. You guys grew up together as if you two were sisters. Yes, you had your differences but you two could never truly hurt each other."

That's what you think. Alicia didn't mind making my life a living hell. She never saw me as a sister. Just a pathetic girl, who was desperate for friends

"So, no matter what people in this town ever said, we looked past it." Mrs. Stewart wrapped her arms around me. "You have always been a daughter to us. We watched you grow into the wonderful woman you are." I hugged her back.

"You don't know how good it feels to hear you say this." Later Mr. Stewart wrapped his arms around us.

"Is it okay if I walk around Alicia's room one more time?" They both nodded. I headed towards her room. Once I was in, I made sure the coast was clear. I glanced over the room, still not believing they didn't move a thing.

Without a thought I was running my hands through the clothing, when I came across the green dress I bought her for her sixteen birthday. Memories of us dancing and drinking at her birthday party flooded through my head.

I need to stay focused.

I opened the safe and grabbed the book, when a piece a paper fell from the book.

"Some days I'm happy, but most days I have problems. All I must do is sit in this spot, and smile. At a certain time of day, the sun makes this spot shine, like a bright star. This is my heated sanctuary."

I looked around the room. What is she talking about? "At a certain time of day, the sun makes this spot shine? Heated sanctuary?" I whispered.

"I knew you were here for something." The sound of a familiar voice made me jump out of my skin. Mr. Stewart stood there with his arms folded. "I found the journal a couple days back." He closes the door behind him.

"I think I know what happened to Alica. But I can't get evolved. If I'm right, everyone I ever cared about would be in danger."

"What do you mean by that?"

"There's a reason why that book looks like a chained up Pandora's box." I stared at the book's chains.

"Don't you want to know what happened to your daughter?" I rain my fingers through my hair.

"More than anything, but not enough to lose my wife too." He sighed. "I need you to find out everything written in that book. You could be the one who gets me justice for her death."

He walks up to me and grabs my hands. "You could clear your name to the town and find the real person, who took away my daughter... your best-friend." Mr. Stewart's eyes were lit up with hope. "They don't know about you. You can find the truth without being detected!"

"Who are they?" He shook his head and took a step back.

"I can't tell you. You must find out by yourself. The more I say, the more danger will come."

"You can't just tell me all this and not elaborate!" I threw my hands in the air.

"Every piece of information you need is in that book." He points towards the book. "I know you can do this." With that he walks out the door. Why won't anyone tell me a goddamn thing!

I re-read the note again. Heated Sanctuary...

~FLASH BACK~

I walked up to her room and found her on the floor. She was laying on her purple rug that lays in front of her bed. "What are you doing on the floor?" I laughed.

She revealed her grey eyes. "Come here, young unicorn. Lay here with me." I did what I told. "You want to know why I'm laying here?"

I rolled my eyes. "I literally just asked you that." I deadpan.

"Don't sassy me!" She smacked me. "Now, I love to lay here from 2pm to 5pm. The sun hits this space for three hours. The beauty of the sun makes a heated sanctuary in my room." I stared at her like she grew three heads.

"You lay here for three hours?"

"Yes, this is my safe place. I think about everything here on this purple carpet. The sun one day will reveal the magic under this carpet."

I turned my head towards her. "I know you have a small problem up there." I pointed to her head. "But now you're scaring me."

She shook her head. "One day you will understand, but for now, just enjoy the heat of the sun."

~END FLASHBACK~

"She wouldn't put it there, would she?"

I walked to the purple rug and lifted it up. When did she have the time to build this?

Alicia, what are you hiding?

I found a sundial. It had a drawing of the carved into it. She would lay her from 2 pm to 5 pm. I dragged my fingers over the dial. I grabbed my phone and turned on the flashlight. When it's 2 pm the sun would be on my right. I showed the light on my right, and the shadow covered the number 12. "12, 8, 7, 6." I whispered as I moved the flash light in different numbers. I kept repeating the numbers in my head.

I grabbed the book and put the combination in the lock. To my surprise the lock unlocked.

When I opened the book, I didn't expect to read the sentence that I read. In fact every single word that was written didn't sound like her. She wrote as if she had a regular old dairy. But what scared me the most was she wasn't writing about how her day went. Alicia was writing in this journal as if she lost all her sanity.

Did I even know who Alica was? Did anyone know Alica?