Deadly Silence (complete) Chapter 84

Curious who could be texting, as Miriam had only been using the group chat, Vivian pulled out her phone and frowned. She glanced over at Tyrell, but his expression was neutral as he watched the people around them.

Why had he texted her?

Opening the message, Vivian couldn’t stop the groan that escaped.

“What’s up?” Theo asked, looking a bit concerned by her reaction.

Instead of answering, she showed him the screen.

While they’d been on the ride Tyrell had taken a photo; it showed Vivian looking petrified, Theo looking amused, and their hands locked in a death grip. How embarrassing.

“Ohh, you should send that to the group chat for Miriam. She’ll love that.”

Vivian shot Theo a glare, before turning her attention to the large man who was their shadow for the day. “Seriously?”

He shrugged his broad shoulders. “You have no photos of you two together.”

“Huh…” Theo trailed off as the realization seemed to hit him. “He’s right. Let’s take a selfie.”

Vivian put her phone back in her pocket before letting out a small sigh. “Alright. But it means I’m not sending this one to the group chat.”

“Deal,” he nodded with a laugh as he brought out his own phone and held it up. Vivian moved to stand next to him, her shoulder almost tucking under his as she looked up at the screen to see their faces looking back at her. It felt weird to take a photo like this, but she ignored the feeling and gave her best smile. “Done,” he said after a couple seconds, lowering his phone and thumbing the screen.

Vivian stepped away from him, her eyes falling on the door to the ladies’ room. “Great. I’ll be right back.”

Once inside away from the eyes of others, she let out a sigh of relief. In the stall no one could see her hold up the hand she’d held Theo’s with, flexing her fingers a few times before letting it drop back to her side.

Doing her business, she pulled out her phone again as it dinged. Theo had sent the photo to the group chat and she was curious to see how it’d turned out.

She was surprised to see her wide smile in it. It looked genuine, even in her eyes. She wasn’t one to smile much or laugh often, and seeing this version of herself left an odd feeling in its wake. Theo looked like he normally did; bright, cheerful, full of energy and enjoying life. How had she managed to emulate that same feeling in her own expression?

It *had* been a fun day. She’d found herself smiling and laughing more often than usual, but she hadn’t thought much of it. Everything had come naturally in the flow of conversations and events. Not once had she felt the need to play the part of having fun.

Her fingers tightened on her phone for a second before relaxing again.

What was going on with her lately? Things had always been simple to deal with; black and white, right and wrong. Nowadays she found herself needing to make choices that weren’t one or the other but something in between. Other people’s feelings were being taken into account, how what she decided on would affect them meaning more with each passing day.

She’d started to care about other people, something she‘d never really dealt with for most of her life. The only person she’d ever truly cared about had been her mother, and that was half a lifetime ago. It had made her wary of getting close to others, the pain of losing them too great to risk happening again. There was also the betrayal, the broken trust, if it could have even been called that to begin with. Someone who was supposed to love and cherish them had turned around and done the unthinkable.

How could anyone come back from that?

Shaking her head, she pocketed her phone and finished up, leaving the stall and stepping up to the sink to wash her hands. There was a woman finishing up at the sink next to Vivian. They exchanged small, forced smiles as one does in public washrooms, and the other woman began walking away only to stop. Turning, she gave Vivian a warmer smile and said, “I think you dropped this,” as she held out her hand.

A little confused, Vivian stared at the hand for a second as she flicked the water from her own before giving them a quick dry on her jeans. She didn’t think she’d dropped something, but there was always the chance, wasn’t there?

The woman placed something black in the palm of Vivian’s hand before abruptly turning and leaving. Still confused, Vivian looked at the object, turning it around in her hand.

A phone? A very old school flip phone. Why would anyone even have one of these anymore? “This isn’t… mine…” Vivian trailed off, but the woman was gone. What was she supposed to do now? Someone must have lost it but hell if she knew who. Was there a lost and found? Maybe she should ask one of the workers for help on the matter.

Before she finished that thought the phone in her hand began to ring. Startled, Vivian nearly dropped the device. *Should I answer it…? It’s not mine, but maybe the caller knows who it belongs to.*

Mind made up, Vivian opened the phone before holding it up to her ear. “Hello?”

“Hello there, Vivi.” The voice on the other end was soft but hearing it sent chills down Vivian’s spine.

*No. No, no, no… How…?*

“If you don’t say something how am I supposed to know if you’re there or not?” The voice continued to speak as she grappled with what was happening. It was getting hard to breathe and her body was frozen in place; even if she wanted to throw the phone to the ground, smash it to pieces, her body wasn’t listening to her will anymore. “You need to speak or that lovely little friend of yours who’s currently sitting in her kitchen trying to stop her mother from ruining yet another pie… that friend? Well. Think of what I can do. Or maybe the boy waiting for you just outside would be a better one to focus on.”