Scattered Souls

Chapter 46 - Girl Talk

A week later and we still hadn't made much progress. The remains were still in the attic, Xypher hadn't found an Irish priest for the ritual as yet and he was growing more and more impatient by the minute. I hadn't made much progress with my quest to solve the riddle either.

Saturday arrived and Xypher was out scouting for an authentic Irish priest, with a list I compiled off of the internet. I was meant to accompany him over weekends,  however, today I made an excuse of needing a catch up session with Alexa, as I decided it was time for me to do some investigating of my own. Today was the day to find those remaining diaries.

To be honest, I was feeling a little more hopeful after I enlisted Alexa's help to search for the remaining diaries at Gran's place. Xypher shut down the conversation every time I mentioned the diaries. Alexa, on the other hand, was happy to help in any way she could.

We decided to make a girl's day out of our little trip to Gran's house.  Catch up session and a hunt for the diaries.  The definition of killing two birds with one stone.

"I feel like I hardly get to spend much time with you now that Jordan's in the picture." Alexa pointed out, on our little hike up to Gran's place.

"You have Scott to keep you busy though." I teased.

"You know what I mean." she said, with a playful scoff.

"It's just new. And he's going through some stuff." I explained.

"As long as he isn't working his playboy magic on you." there was a hint of concern in her voice.

"I doubt he is." I assured her.

"What happened with that other guy you were into?" she asked, referring to the time I mentioned Xypher.

"There's a lot of complications with that dude." I tried my best to avoid going into too much details. The less she knew the better.

"How's Scot by the way?" I steered the conversation back to her as gracefully as I possibly could. "I feel like I hardly get to see him, aside from a few run ins on campus." this was something I'd be asking her at some point either way, rather get it out now I figured.

"You know Scott." she said with a fond smile. "He's a busy bee."

I was happy to see how content she was with him.

"He actually would've tagged along today, if he hadn't started studying for finals already." she added.

"He's prepping for finals already!" I exclaimed. "Typical Scott though. As if he actually needs to study - I'm pretty sure he'd pass based on what he'd consider general knowledge alone."

"True." she agreed.  "Who would've thought I'd be dating a nerd."

"You guys are so cute together though." I pointed out. "And I could always sense the chemistry between you two." I gushed.

"Oh look, we're here already." I exclaimed. The walk with Alexa seemed to go by even faster than it did with Xypher. Probably a result of us being caught up in girl talk all the way here.

"I'd forgotten how beautiful this place was. " Alexa said, looking around, taking in the scenery. She used to accompany me on some of the walks up here when we were kids.

"What are we here for by the way?" she asked as we entered the front door, probably realizing I hadn't been very specific when I said I wanted to come here to look for something.

"We're actually here to look for more diaries of Gran's." I said.

"I have a feeling that finding the rest of these diaries will help me solve the riddle that came with my birthday gift." I explained.

"Ah, I see. I'm sure we'll find a few diaries in no time." she said.

"I actually tried looking for them the other day." I admitted. "However,  I didn't have any luck."

"Well, hopefully you'll have better luck this time around." she beamed.

I gave her a big smile in response. I was ever grateful for her optimism.

"Let's get started." I said excitedly.

We had literally searched the entire lounge and the room thoroughly. Perhaps these diaries weren't even here.  Perhaps Gran only kept that one diary for a short while and then got tired of it after she finished the first one. At this point I had to consider all possibilities. I was just about ready to give up on our search when...

"I think I've found something." Alexa announced from the kitchen.

Could the diaries have really been kept in the kitchen of all places? Nevertheless, I hurried towards the kitchen to see what Alexa had found.

I honestly wasn't expecting much when I entered the kitchen, however, when I saw that she was in fact holding up the diaries, I couldn't contain my excitement.

"Oh my word. That's it!" I exclaimed. "You found it."

"Along with the keys." she said proudly, holding up a set of keys as well.

"You are amazing." I declared.

"I can't believe it was in the kitchen of all places." I admitted, still processing the fact that we actually found them.

Finding these diaries meant a massive jump in my quest to unravel the riddle.

"It's actually the perfect hiding spot. Your Gran was a smart woman." she recalled fondly.

"Indeed she was." I agreed.

Alexa and I spent a little more time talking and catching up at Gran's house, before we headed home. I literally couldn't wait to get home and discover the content hidden between the pages of the diaries. This was the missing piece of the puzzle that I'd been waiting for.

I was on my bed, with Chippy happily snuggled up beside me, ready to get started with reading the diaries, when a knock on the door interrupted me.

"Who is it?" I asked, realizing it was a lot more forceful than mom's usual knock and well dad hardly ever interrupts me when I'm in my room, he'd wait until he saw me in the kitchen or something.

"It's me." Xypher called out.

"Come in." I said, after pushing the diaries under my bed. For some reason, I had a feeling he wouldn't be too pleased to know that I'd found them.

"You're actually knocking on the door, instead of just randomly appearing now." I teased him.

"I had no other choice. Your mom escorted me to your room door. " he said, still looking a bit nervous.

I laughed in response, secretly grateful that he hadn't had the opportunity to find me with the diaries.

"Any luck with finding a priest?" I asked him.

"Unfortunately not, but I'm going to try again tomorrow." he said.

"Your perseverance is admirable." I said, genuinely meaning it. Even though he was becoming impatient, he never lost hope.

"I'll have my lucky charm with me tomorrow." he said, with a wink.

He leaned towards me for a kiss, our lips entwined harmoniously and I seized the opportunity to pull him onto the bed with me.