Their Tainted Fingers

gimme the flashlight

"Um...yes." There was no other way to fake her way out of it.
"Great. I'm Dakota." She held her hand out and shook Rory's.
"Hi." Her moves were reluctant. Was Dakota coming in a positive way? Or not? "I'm Rory."
"Nice name. What's it short for?"
She rarely told anyone this unless they asked. "Aurora."
"Love that. Now, let's get to the point. Care to talk somewhere else?" Dakota frowned and twirled her finger in the air, gesturing the awfully loud music.
"Sure. Sure. Where, then?"
"I don't live in this building. I was thinking, maybe your room? I mean, if you live here." She knitted her eyebrows together and nodded.

Rory debated against herself mentally. Was it actually safe to take Dakota to her room? I mean, she was practically hunting me this afternoon. Or could she just want to be friends? Curiosity always determined Rory's decisions. "Sure. Seventh floor." She beckoned Dakota towards the elevator and pressed the buttons.

The elevator's ride was painfully awkward. Rory stood a foot away from Dakota, shuffling Chandler's spare keys, and throwing random glances at Dakota, the wall, Dakota, the wall, Dakota, and the wall again. The two minutes of awkwardness came to a stop when the elevator dinged.

Rory opened the door to her room and immediately winced at how dusty it was. Guests, who were not close to Rory, shouldn't be greeted with a rat's nest.
"I'm sorry, I'll just clean—"
"No, It's fine, I prefer standing." Dakota leaned on the wooden door. "So, we're here to talk. Since it's a new school year, I will be recruiting new people as members of my — um, club. I actually saw you following me to Connor's shack earlier, and I admire your sense of curiosity. Also, luck was in your favor today when you found the cabinet."
Rory nodded in response, "oh, yes. The cabinet."
"I merely acted like I wasn't aware of your presence in the shack earlier because I wanted to witness what you would do in an... eavesdropping kind of situation and I have to say, I strongly admire your execution of going up the cacophonous stairs." Dakota nodded in approval once more.
Rory was absolutely speechless. "Um...thank you."
"Therefore, I assumed that you must be interested in mystery-solving and cracking cases since you chose to go into an abandoned house. The first meeting for my mystery-solving club is next Friday. Slide a letter under the door in this room," she held out a napkin, "if you're interested, of course." She stared wide-eyed at Rory, and without a single smile, since she came up to Rory at the party, she opened the door and left.

"What the hell was that?" She eyed the door before falling out of the trance.

Rory immediately picked up her journal and scribbled the bits of information she obtained in a script-like format. She stapled the napkin Dakota handed her onto the page, and folded the corner, implying that it was important. Everything was important. Rory just could not remember them all.

Thirty minutes before nine. Rory tried to put bed sheets on the mattress as fast as possible before falling onto the bed, instantly falling asleep. The empty bulletin board near the window blocked Rory's view of the outside, but she just had to sleep. It was a rough day.

When Rory came back to her senses, a scream immediately sounded when she took a look at her watch. 9.30! Oh, shit. Jesse could have been waiting for so long. Untying the ribbon on the sequined dress, she put on a black t-shirt and shorts, grabbed her satchel, and ran to the elevator as quickly as possible.

She jammed the button on the elevator a thousand times before deciding to take the stairs. The elevator could have been jam-packed with people from the party. She went as fast as her legs could go. Six more floors. Five. Four. Three. Two. Oh, the party was still crunk, all right. She finally reached the building's entrance when she sprinted across the lawn.

Jesse was reading the names on the headstones with a flashlight. "What took you so long? Why aren't you wearing the glowy-winky dress you wore to the party? I thought you looked good in it." Jesse walked up to her in a dark-red plaid shirt and jeans.