Deadly Silence (complete) Chapter 64

Going to bed so early the previous evening meant Vivian woke before her alarm. Unable to fall back asleep, she rolled out of bed to start the day.

There was a brief moment of hesitation when she went to open the bedroom door, but Vivian pushed past it, steeling her will on the off chance she ran into anyone on the way to the kitchen.

The house was quiet. Those who lived there seemed to rise around seven which was still an hour away; lots of time to grab something to eat before returning to her room.

Vivian was starving. Skipping last night’s dinner hadn’t been the best choice but there was no way she’d have been able to face her family with her mind in such an uproar. Not to mention, Laurent had annoyed her a fair bit when he’d asked to talk. The last thing anyone needed was to deal with the tension between the two of them.

As expected, the kitchen was empty. Upon opening the fridge, she was a little startled to see a take-out box with a post-it note attached to it it that read, ‘Vivian, this is for you once you get hungry.’ No one had signed it but she was willing to bet it was Samuel’s handwriting.

Peeking inside, she saw there was more than enough for a meal and decided it would serve as her breakfast. She puttered around the kitchen, putting the food in a bowl before sticking it in the microwave to reheat.

Seeing it would take a couple minutes to finish, she pulled out her phone to start downloading the few apps she normally used only to find a number of unread text messages and a missed call. Frowning, she wondered who would call her? Had it been one of her brothers? or Samuel? Not having imported her contacts before going to bed meant there was no name attached to the texts or call.

7:47pm: \[I thought you said you didn’t do social media?\]

8:00pm: \[Seriously, I’m really confused right now.\]

8:23pm: \[Vivian? What’s going on? Are you alright?\]

8:31pm: \[Trying not to spam you with messages but I really need you to respond. I’m freaking out right now.\]

8:50pm: \[Tried calling you but you didn’t pick up. Are you mad at me or something?\]

Vivian’s confusion grew as she read the texts, wondering what was going on. Why were they asking about a social media? She’d never had one and had no interest in changing that anytime soon, so why mention it at all?

There was no rush to respond right away — chances were good the texter was still fast asleep — so Vivian took a few minutes to import her saved information from the online drive. As her phone worked on that she watched the timer on her food tick down, stopping it before reaching zero so the beep from finishing wouldn’t sound out. Not that anyone would hear it from their bedrooms, but she didn’t want to chance it.

A pair of chopsticks had been left on the counter, which she grabbed and started eating her very late dinner, glancing at her phone every so often to keep an eye on the import’s progress.

She’d managed to get halfway through her breakfast by the time it finished, so she set aside the food for the moment and picked up the phone to see whose name would attach itself to the texts. A stray thought filtered through her mind at that moment, reminding her it would be wise to start memorizing people’s phone numbers instead of relying on her phone to do all the work, but she brushed it aside, figuring there’d be time to deal with it later.

The number belonged to Miriam. That wasn’t a surprise. Vivian had figured as much by the tone of the texts and the fact that, besides her one friend, only her brothers and Samuel had ever sent her texts before. It was easy to narrow down the list when it was barely long enough to be called one to begin with.

Setting her phone back on the counter, Vivian returned to her breakfast as she tried to figure out what to send in response to the texts. Waiting until school to address Miriam face to face was her first thought, but decided that would be mean; the girl seemed desperate for a response and putting off doing so until even later felt rude.

Finishing up her breakfast, Vivian cleaned the few dishes she’d used and returned to her phone once the kitchen was as she’d found it.

\[Hey, sorry, I went to bed really early\], Vivian typed, taking her time spelling out each word. \[I don’t have a social media. Why are you confused? What’s freaking you out? Did something happen?\]

Rereading it, she gave herself a nod of approval. It covered all the questions in Miriam’s texts plus opened up the conversation for more information on what’d happened to cause so much worry.

Not letting it bother her — she’d get answers once Miriam woke up — Vivian made her way back to her room.

In the foyer, she stopped when she noticed her school bag placed near the door. It had to be hers, as she’d noticed Laurent’s in his room the previous evening. Walking up to it, Vivian stared at it for a moment, wondering how it looked like it hadn’t sat in a pool of blood.

Pursing her lips, Vivian knelt down and opened the bag to find everything as it should be, except that wasn’t right. The textbooks looked new, not like they’d gotten drenched and dried in the tub; even her notebooks looked pristine without a trace of the blood she knew they’d fallen into. Opening one, she was even more surprised to find her notes and some of the homework she’d managed to get done during class; but none of it was in her own hand writing.

Who’d gone through and rewrote everything in a new notebook? Why? And where’d the textbooks come from? That meant the school bag had to be new, too. That was a lot of trouble to go through for her and Vivian wasn’t sure how she felt about it.

A tightness had formed in her chest near her heart. It didn’t hurt, exactly, nor was it uncomfortable, but it wasn’t something she’d ever felt before and wondered what it could mean.