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Chapter 13
The next few weeks where fun but I got increasingly anxious. I was in class when she noticed the writing in the drawer. I was doing my work and noticed while trying not to look like I was looking that she saw it. Her eyes grew huge, I saw her get uneasy. She wiggled in her seat a little and just stared at the words for a good couple of minutes. In my head she was trying to find a reasonable explanation. Maybe that had been there this whole time and she just hadn’t noticed it. She was backtracking and thinking of all of the strange things happening lately. She had to think back to the feeling that someone had been in her room, and the fact that she hadn’t been able to find her keys in days. Worry racked her face and I could see that she wasn’t sure how to respond. She closed the drawer and composed herself. Then went on writing my grades in the folder she had removed. I smiled to myself, that was awesome.
I had started making noise at night. It seemed like the next logical step in getting to her. After I was sure she was asleep, I would run down the hall real fast, loud and occasionally hit the wall by her door. Then I would rush back into my bed before she could muster up the courage to explore. Then when she asked me about it, I would tell her that I didn’t hear anything.
One time I thought she caught me, I had just jumped back into my bed and I heard her door close and then footsteps come down the hall. My door opened very slowly. I tried my hardest to control my breathing, it was hard because I was completely out of breath. She walked all the way over to the bed and put her hand on me. I didn’t respond and continued to fake sleep. After a minute she went back out of the room. It was exhilarating. After about fifteen minutes I slid out of bed and tiptoed down the dark hallway. I slid into the little storage room and very carefully moved all of the stuff out of the way so I could see into her room.
Edith sat on the edge of her bed with her face in her hands. She was crying. I could smell the salt in her tears. I was so happy, my games where working perfectly and so much fun at that. I watched as she tried to compose herself twice and failed. She balled for an hour and I sat there with my eye pressed against the small hole soaking all of it in. Finally she stood up and walked toward the door. Concerned she was going to come out and that she would catch me, I jumped back, quick and quiet and covered the hole. I sat there in the tiny dark closet and waited. I heard her walk away down the hall and then down the stairs. I let out the breath that I had been holding and opened the door. At first I thought I would just head back to bed. But I changed my mind.
I walked as quietly as I could to her door. Turned the knob gently and went into her room. I was terrified that she would come back quicker than I had expected. How would I explain being in her room in the middle of the night. But I pushed all of that to the back of my mind. I wanted to do something that would really get her attention. I wanted to bring all of this to a head. I was fast, and determined. I took a tube of bright red lipstick from her bathroom, I have never seen her wear any makeup and was a little surprised to find it. I slid the window in her room open and leaned out of it facing upward. I wrote on the outside of the window in quick messy letters that looked nothing like my own writing, “Im coming.” I closed the door and drew the curtains closed. I rushed as fast as possible back to the bathroom to put the lipstick back, but I decided to keep it. As I was about to come back out of the bathroom I heard the bedroom knob turn. I hadn’t heard the footsteps approaching, I must have been too caught up in what I was doing. I wanted to panic but remained in control. I quickly stepped back into the bathroom and through the door into the guest room. I heard her close her door as I was closing the door to the guest room. I walked softly but as fast as I could back to my room. I didn’t want to risk getting caught any more tonight. Although I was very disappointed that I wouldn’t get to see her reaction. I climbed into bed, feeling great about myself and really looking forward to tomorrow.
I woke up early the next and got ready for the day. I think I am going to spend some time outside today. Sarah was probably starting to feel like I was ignoring her. I hadn’t talked to her in a while, I have been so caught up with other things. I grabbed my pellet gun from the corner of my room and the box of pellets and headed outside. I noticed as I passed through the kitchen that Edith hadn’t been down there yet. My mind raced, I thought maybe she hasn’t opened her curtain yet. I ran out of the house and around the corner to the side of the house that my and Edith’s windows where on. “Yes!” I heard myself yell. I could see the writing and the curtain was still pulled across it. She must be tired from last night and sleeping in. This is perfect.
It was a beautiful Spring Saturday morning. The trees had just started growing back their leaves and the there was a brisk wind blowing through the tall grass out in the field beyond the yard and before the forest. I scavenged a few soda cans out of the recycling and sat them up on a tree stump about fifty feet from the house. I could hardly restrain myself from staring at the window. I started pumping round after round into the cans. My mind was with Edith as my trigger finger pulled off shot after shot into the little metal cans.
I lost myself between the image in my mind of Edith finding the writing and the thoughts that would shoot through her mind and the metal tinging sound as the pellets hit the cans and I reloaded. I almost missed the sound, a fairly light scream shoot through the air as I was refilling the little clip. It was muffled through the closed window and the thick stone sides of the house, but I heard it. I spun around instantly and looked up. I could see Edith’s face with her hands over her mouth trying to hold in the scream. At first she was staring directly at the words. Then I saw her catch me in the corner of her vision. I stood straight up and looked up through the window and smiled at her. Confusion washed over her face and even from this distance I could see the color drain from her face. Then she fell.
This is the time. She passed out after connecting the dots and realizing that she wasn’t crazy. Now was the time for me to act. I ran as fast as I could for the back door. I pushed it open hard and it slammed into the wall. Tossing the pellet gun onto the table I ran up the stairs pulling my jacket off as I went. I ran full steam down the hallway and surged into her bedroom.
Edith laid there on the floor. A little bit of blood dribbled down her cheek from a gash in her nose. She must have hit the window sill as she went down. She was still but I could see her chest breathing. The rest of the room looked exactly like it had the night before when I snuck in and wrote on the window. I was acting on pure instinct. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do because I honestly hadn’t planned on her fainting. Options ran through my mind, I could tie her to the bed, I could take her downstairs and tie her to a chair. But I needed something that would make for easy cleanup. Then it hit me like a freight train. The fort! It’s secluded and I already have most of my tools out there. But how the hell am I going to get her out there? Unfortunately, I am still just thirteen and she is a bit bigger than me.
She started to stir a little and I realized my window was narrowing. I grabbed a pillow from the bed and took off the pillow case. I put it over her head. I took off my belt and wrapped it around her ankles tightening it down as much as possible. I was getting more and more excited as I went. I could hear the voice in my head cheering me on “Yes, tie her up, this is going to be so much fun.” I ran into her closet and rummaged through all of the things hanging there. I came back out with a thin blouse. I used one of the arms of the blouse to tie her wrists together. I could hear her starting to make noise and she was pulling on her bindings slightly. I grabbed her wrists and pulled her still mostly limp body over to the closet door. Using the other arm of the blouse I attached her bound arms to the door handle of the closet as tight as I could.
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