Chapter 9

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 Chapter Nine

News That Made Things Worst

That evening, Ismail Ambani was in his room holding his iPad checking his Twitter account. Rushka Ambani, Ismail’s mom, prepared a very nice dinner. She told her husband, Rajih Ambani, that she was energized and inspired in cooking that night after watching a cooking show. Rushka called Ismail from his room. She only called her once when their phone rang from the living room.

“Ambani’s residence?” Rushka answered.

“Hello,” a voice said from the other end, “this is Ronald Mercandy, the guidance counsellor.”

 “Oh, Mr. Counsellor,” Rushka was kind of delighted and confused, “how may I help you, sir?” She glanced at Rajih and he was looking at her too. Rushka covered the mouth-piece and told Rajih that it was the counsellor and then, she went back to talk with the counsellor.

“Your son has been sent to detention due to fighting with another student,” said Mr. Mercandy on the other end.

“Oh my... Really?” Rushka swallowed a nerve and she suddenly saw Ismail walking from downstairs.

Mr. Mercandy explained the scene on the other end as Rushka gave her son a parental look. After that, Mr. Mercandy ended the conversation. “Okay, thank you sir. Good night.” Rushka hung up.

“Who was that mom?” Ismail innocently asked but he could sense that it was Counsellor Mercandy.

Rushka crossed her arms, “it’s the guidance counsellor telling me that you had a fight with a student!"

Then, Rajih came. “What’s going on?”

“Asked your son,” she replied and headed to the dinner table.

Rajih looked confused. “Let’s discuss that here.”

Ismail followed. He thought that his parents do not care for him but now, they seemed to be. They all sat down. Rajih lead the prayer. Then, they started eating. Rajih asked Ismail what happened. Ismail told the story which made his dad react frantically but Rushka calmed him down.

“At least, you only had a detention,” Rajih said calmly, “I don’t want this to happen again. Is it understood?”

“Yes, dad,” Ismail replied as he was looking at his meal. He looked like a thirteen year-old wearing this plain gray t-shirt 

“Are you considering this?” Rushka asked her husband. “I mean, it will appear on his permanent records.”

“At least his not suspended,” Rajih explained. “It’s way better to be sent to detention rather than be suspended.”

Then, Rajih switched the conversation and asked Ismail’s plans for college.

Ismail faced lightened. “I wanted to take Fine Arts, dad.”

“No!” Rajih frowned, “take Engineering. I thought your dream is to be an Engineer?”

“I don’t wanna be an Engineer, dad. And it’s your dream, not mine.” Ismail cried sarcastically. “I mean, why would you ask for my plans if you wanted me to take something else?”

That was the time when the argument ensued. Rushka stopped and told them that they should respect their dinner and told Rajih that they should support whatever their son wanted for his future.

Ismail rolled his eyes and just resumed eating. Unlike other kids, they would walked out in a situation like this. But for Ismail, he has a snake in his stomach which made him famished all the time.

“Don’t you dare roll your eyes to me, young man,” Rajih cried.

“Rajih,” Rushka placed her hand on her husband’s right arm.

Rajih was red in anger but the touch of his wife eased it down. He poured his anger to the piece of grilled meat on his plate with his silver fork and munched them madly.

Ismail sat proud with conviction on his chair. In his mind, he really wanted to rebel to his family but the doctrine in his religion prevents him from doing it. Although he had done something against it which was huge, he hid his secret very well and never spoke about it. But deep inside him, he was still afraid because he could not stand on his own but his trying to learn.   

Meanwhile, Louis Lockwood received a text from Travis Becker saying that there was something he wanted to tell him. Travis wanted to talk personally rather than through text. It was really urgent, so Louis informed his dad that he will go to the Becker’s. Luckily, his father allowed him

As, Louis was walking on the pavement heading to the Becker’s, there was a man jogging ten feet away behind him. Louis could hear the man jog, so he turned around to see who it was. However, the man was wearing a black hood with its face lurking in the shadows of it. When he saw the man, he got goose bumps, which was weird because the aura of the man seemed creepy yet suspicious. Louis started to breathe fast. He could really feel something weird, so he decided to walk slower to let the man jog ahead from him. When the man passed by him, the goose bumps came gnarling on Louis’s shoulders up to his head. He watch the man disappear in thin air like he was a ghost.

He then reached Travis’ house. He caught Travis drinking a lime juice on the front porch steps.

“May I join you,” Louis greeted.

Travis shot up a look not knowing who it was. “Oh, hey!” He reached a can of lime juice and reached it to Louis, “I’ve been waiting for you.”

“Cool, my favorite” Louis snapped the lid open. “Where are your folks, bro?”

“They went to the groceries except Leonard,” Travis stretched his hands, “he’s in his room though, watching porn.”

“Seriously?” Louis quizzically glanced at him as he sat on the first step of the stairs.

“Kidding,” Travis smiled and then drank on his can. Then, he took a deep breath. “Things have changed around Mapleton when you were not around, you know? People were looking at us (pertaining to Travis, Ismail and Richard) as if... like... we were the reason of Edward’s disappearance. They even consider him dead now.”

Louis analyzed Travis statement. He crossed his arms and he leaned on the rails. “What do you mean?”

“But I don’t think Edward disappeared,” Travis responded as he rubbed the sleeves of his sweater, “I think Edward is around. He’s around there somewhere… lingering on my skin.”

“How is Edward lingering on your skin?” Louis was boggled, “he was gone for a month?”

“Not literally, man,” Travis nudged Louis. “He may be out of sight, but he’s still in my mind.”

Louis sipped from his can.

Travis took another deep breath and let it out. “I received a text from someone–just like Edward’s way of talking. But I think I’m just being paranoid. I don’t know... I’m being stalked by someone or something and I thought it was Edward.”

 Louis’ eyes widened and quickly gazed at Travis as if he had seen a ghost. “Travis?”

“What?” Travis thought that someone was behind him from Louis’s expression. “Why, what’s wrong?”

Louis slowly uttered. “Are the texts that you been receiving have initials of… “E”?”

Travis’s eyes never blinked. “Holy shit. Have you been receiving those too?”

Louis’s nerves climbed up to his brain and nodded. “It has different context, though.”

“Do you think it’s Edward?” Travis curiously asked. “Do you think he’s playing with us?”

“I think he’s playing with us.”

Travis’s left brow rose. “Why do you think would he do that? I mean, he’s our best friend.”

“No clue,” Louis replied with his gaze looking nowhere. “Maybe that’s Edward’s favorite sport rather than football.”

Suddenly, sirens screamed from the other street. Ambulance sirens and police vehicles sirens were all in orchestra as they came rushing in front of them and headed to the other street.

Curious, Louis and Travis thought that the cops were heading to the Lawson’s residence because Edward’s house is located almost at the end of the street, so they ran as fast as they could to get there.

They were right.

Some cops were wrapping around tapes all over the Lawson’s house. The house looked like crime scene. Ambulances and county coroners were there too. News teams from different stations definitely did not miss a chance to cover this. There were a sea of people around the vicinity curious on what was happening. Police officers and forensics were investigating: dusting for prints and taking photos. Both Louis and Travis were clueless but was thinking of the same thing which they couldn’t confirm yet.

Richard Grayson was driving his way home after working out from the gym. Before he went to the gym, he picked up his SUV first. His van looked brand new and the machine was very swift. While on the way home, he saw an ambulance and police vehicles speeding. It was already in the streets of where the Lockwood’s residence is located, so he followed it.

To his surprise, he saw a pandemonium at Edward’s. “Holy shit.”

He parked his car on the side of the street ten yards away from the house and hopped out of the van quickly. Then, he quickly grabbed his phone from his pocket and texted the others to come at Edward’s as he ran straight to the crowd. He looked at the people around the vicinity to see anyone familiar but there were no sign of his friends but he does not know that two of his best friends where already at the other side.

Ismail used his bicycle to go to Edward’s and was shocked when he saw the pandemonium. He looked for Richard but there were plenty of people around the house. Goose bumps came rushing on his shoulders like something bad had just happened, oh wait, something bad had happened. He looked around and saw Richard’s SUV. His heart was beating fast as he entered the sea of people. Luckily, he immediately saw Richard who was wearing a black sweater.

“Rich, what the fuck is going on?” Ismail asked Richard as he was catching his breath.

Before Richard could respond, Ismail saw four coroners heading their way to the ambulance as they came out from the back of the house carrying a stretcher with a corpse covered with a shroud. The coroners surely made a scene when they were near to the people.

“Ismail,” Richard pulled him to where their friends, Travis and Louis, were standing at. They were nearby the tapes.

“Who’s on that stretcher?” Ismail asked worryingly as he saw stains of blood and dirt on that shroud.

“We don’t know,” Travis’s were glued on that corpse.

“It might be Edward,” Louis intuited.

Suddenly, Ms. Lawson came out from the front door crying as if there was no tomorrow. She was escorted by two deputies. She was screaming, “Edward! Edward!”

Then, Richard saw Abigail Lawson, Edward’s sister, sobbing as she came out from the backyard. The boys went to her and asked her what happened.

“Abby?” Richard tapped her shoulder, “What happened?”

“It’s Edward,” Abigail kept on sobbing and she was eating her words but they could still comprehend with what she was saying, “Edward’s dead.”

After hearing the phrase “Edward’s dead”, the four cringed in horror and started looking at each other.

“How did he die?” Travis asked while his lips were quivering.

Abigail was really sobbing. She told the story, “Edward’s corpse was in a body-shaped box and was sent to us a while ago anonymously in our backyard. Mom and I were curious so we opened the box.”

“What happened next?” Travis wiped his sweat.

“We were shocked because it was Edward – fully stabbed... blood everywhere!” Abigail was panting for air. “It was... we were scared. We don’t know what to do.” She added as she covered her face.

The four felt so guilty. Their eyes started to water.

“There was a paper attached on his head. There was an E written on that... using Edward’s blood, I don’t know. But I—I think that’s his blood. I don’t know what that means,” she added.

Travis and Louis exchanged looks.

Richard eyes widened.

Ismail swallowed a gob of fear remembering the message that he received a while ago that came from E.

Abigail wrapped her arms tightly on to Richard’s body as she continued weeping. Richard hugged back. Travis touched her shoulder and tears suddenly rolled from his eyes too.

Ismail wiped his sweat and his looks were really worried and shocked. “It’s gonna be okay, Abigail. Whoever that damn killer is, he will be caught.”

Louis crossed his arms as if a strong wind rushed on his body. He started scanning his eyes around the vicinity. Then, he saw a guy wearing black hoodie lurking in the shadows of the knot of trees across the street. He was just standing still and Louis remembered the black hooded guy that they have almost hit during the night of Edward’s disappearance.

He tried clearing his vision for it was blurry when a truck drove in front of the black hooded guy. After the truck passed by, the man vanished which made Louis cringe.

The surroundings of the Lawson’s house were filled with police vehicle, an ambulances and people: the cops were on the lawn guarding; the detectives were on the backyard searching for clues and taking a photo of the crime scene; different media reporters with their camera crews were also around; and curious neighbors and passers-by arrived every second and started to murmur.

 The four boys where totally horrified about that incident. It was Edward. They thought that he had just disappeared, but they were wrong. It was now confirmed. He was murdered.

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