Breakfast was silent that morning. Maybe it was just me. Numbers and morbid possibilities to what was happening were screaming in my head.
Fly me to the moon, let me play amog the stars. Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars. In other words, hold my hand. In other words, baby...
The 80s jazz music was playing from an old record player in the corner of the dining room.
For some reason it was on repeat. We could hear playing in the background while our cutlery indistinctively made some clicks and clacks to disturb the melody of the song.
Minerva was fine, and seemed not to be disturbed by what we saw last night. She ate normal, even smiled at me.
My Dad was who he was now, didn't seem to care or even have the whole situation on his mind. He nodded to the old music and took his breakfast like nothing is at stake here.
Jude was staring at me, inbetween his spoons of oatmeal he took. He always knows when I'm out of place or doing my thing as he calls it. That's when I'm out of reality and just in my head, putting things together to make sense of it.
And our hosts, Mr. Mack and his daughter were okay I would say. Lola was cheerful and up beat as ever. Mr. Mack was grumpy looking but was grumpy in his actions or speech. I could tell he was keenly listening to the song even though it kept repeating.
The breakfast ritual didn't take long. Soon we were done and was going about our business in the cottage.
We converged at my dad's room for some little briefing on how we're going to deal with the situation.
Mr. Mack and his daughter were not present, since they are persons of interest themselves.
Minerva and I reported our incedence to my father, stating the sleep walking people at night, murmuring;
TWELVE PLUS ONE
ELEVEN PLUS TWO
"So whats your take on this?" My father asked me. Minerva and Jude stared at me.
"Um, twelve plus one is thirteen?" I said.
Jude chuckled and lowered his head.
"And eerm, eleven plus to is also thirteen." I continued.
Minerva now joined the smiling circus. She shaked her head and fought her urge to laugh.
My dad placed his hands on his waist.
"This is something like a paranormal investigation not a math problem." Minerva said.
"Listen, listen but the inscriptions on the stones surrounding this cottage is XIII, which is thirteen in Roman Numbers."
"Oh shit, are they the ones doing this?" Jude asked.
My Father raised his hand to initiate silence.
"They may have a connection to all this and we will soon find out." He said. "It's not yet time for the town to sleep so we will wait." He looked at his watch.
"Buh we can't find anything if they are sleeping." Minerva.
"Plus it's so creepy to be investigating and examining people when they are asleep." Jude said as he looked at me.
"Okay, then we will go in classic style. We will wait till they wake up after sleeping and go and question them." My father.
He took a deep breath.
"To cover more grounds, we will split into groups of two." He said.
"I-." Minerva raised her right hand.
"Hey Einstein, you're with me." My dad said.
"Buh..." Minerva tried again.
"Minerva, you're with Jude." My Dad said.
"Hey hey heyyy." Jude celebrated. "Two badasses on the same team."
He put his hands on her shoulders and led her out of the room. Her arms were crossed.
I was left with my dad in the room. He stood there and just looked at me. For a moment, I thought he was about to voice out something but he didn't.
Then I just knew what to do.
"Umm I'm just going to get ready." I said and walked out of the room.
He could have have given me a pep talk like he always does before stuffs like this. I maybe old enough now, but recent dangers permit a pep talk now to loosen the tension in my shoulders.
When I was approaching my room, I saw Minerva coming out of mine laughing. She passed by me without saying a word.
"Towns' library? I thought she was a bad ass." Jude loudly said as I entered the room.
"What's this about?" I asked.
"I thought we will take a hike in the woods and see what we can find and possibly kill. Buh she wants us to go the towns' library to read on the history of the town." He said. "Or checkout their archived records." He said, mimicking the soft reclusive voice of Minerva.
"Maybe she's just caring for you. You know you're not fully healed." I said.
"Oh not you too." He stood up and walked to the bathroom.
I heard voices coming from outside. I went to the window and saw my Dad and Minerva arguing outside. They stopped when they briefly saw me staring down at them.
My Dad whispered somethings to her and they walked away.
Suddenly there was a loud tud downstairs.
Jude came out of the bathroom.
"Did you hear that?" He asked.
We looked at each other and quickly moved downstairs. Lola was on the floor convulsing violently.
Her eyes were rolled up inside her sockets revealing only the white sclerotic part of the eye.
Her dad stood over her, trying to get hold of her. We all moved closer to help.
"It's fine! It's fine! Stay back all of you."
He calmly carried her to a room just downstairs. I did think it was a store room at first buh it wasn't.
He came out of the room and moment later, and took the gramophone playing the old 80s song and locked himself in the room without saying a word to us.
Closing the door behind him, I briefly saw the walls of the room covered with XIII inscriptions all of the wall.
We stood there just startled.
______________________________
Please don't forget to vote, comment and share.
YOU ARE READING
GREY CAPS
Mystery / ThrillerNev's whole life has been preparing him to stop the return of the man that killed his mother when he was only a baby. Solving the mysteries of his existence and his supposed vendetta, he learns to take a second look at every step he takes. He goes a...
