Chapter Ninety


    The sun’s rays were far too weak to be of much use after only a metre or so. Instinctively, Lila turned on her phone’s torch. Asher again led the way, his torch casting beams of light across the walls of the narrow hallway they found themselves in. With another groan, the door shut behind Lila, panic settling in her chest as the darkness appeared to swallow them whole.


    After a moment, she saw Asher’s torchlight settle on an old-style light switch.


    “What’s the bet it still works?” he whispered, stretching a hand out to touch it.


    “If someone’s been living here, I reckon it works,” Lila replied, also in a whisper. Asher seemed to accept this before stopping himself from inching closer to the switch.


    “Hang on, who pays the electricity bill?”


    “A resourceful homeless person?”


    Asher still seemed bothered by the idea, but didn’t say anything further. He flicked the switch, flooding the dark hallway with an amber glow. Lila could see a number of closed connecting doors, all in various states of disrepair. The walls were filthy, the carpeted floor even more so. The end of the hallway seemed to open up into a larger room, but from this distance, Lila couldn’t see what was in that room. A couple of framed paintings were haphazardly hung here and there, with one having collapsed entirely onto the ground, bursting out of its wooden frame.


    The lightbulbs, it seemed, were hardly brighter than their phone torches. Asher disdainfully looked up at the nearest one, which dimmed and brightened every few seconds.


    “I’m impressed they work,” he hissed quietly. “But they may as well not work.”


    “At least we’ve got semi-consistent light,” Lila replied in an optimistic whisper.


    “… Well, you’re not wrong there.”


    “I try not to be,” Lila grinned. “Doesn’t work all the time, though.”


    “When hasn’t it?” Asher asked conversationally, his voice still hushed as he looked around the hallway.


    “When I thought you didn’t like me back.”


    He froze before turning his head towards her. “Y-Yeah. Guess you were wrong about that.”


    “I don’t normally like being wrong, but I’m glad I was.”


    Asher mumbled something under his breath that she didn’t quite catch. Tilting her head, she asked him to repeat himself.


    “… Just… trying to process,” he said eventually, lightly moving through the hallway to the closest door. “When you say stuff like that, it feels like my brain short circuits.” He cleared his throat before adding in a stifled voice, “The effect you have on me… it’s unfair.”


    Lila bit back the smile threatening to spread across her face. Hearing him say that set the dormant butterflies in her stomach into flight.


    “At least… we’re even,” Lila managed to say softly. The butterflies were leaving her breathless, but she kept her eyes on Asher.


    His eyes were as wide and round as golf balls as he faced her, his hand missing the doorknob he was trying to turn. “E-Even?” he stammered.


    “Yeah. Even.”


    Lila couldn’t find words beyond the two she expressed. Under the horrid glow of the lights above, Lila could see that Asher’s face was at least somewhat flushed. She heard him gulp audibly and his hand finally connected with the doorknob.


    This one opened with a rusty squeak. With a backwards glance at Lila, he raised his phone, casting his torchlight around this room before entering. Lila followed with bated breath, her own torchlight lighting her way.


    It was anticlimactic, standing in this particular room. It was almost entirely bare, save for a broken chair in the middle and a large chest of shoddy wooden drawers. Asher pressed the light switch and a single lightbulb flickered to life.


    “Weird,” he murmured, looking around the room with narrowed eyes. Lila privately agreed, but chose to say nothing as she tentatively crept across the room towards the curtains. The fact that it was so dark in here made her curious, so she pulled them aside. There were more curtains than she’d expected – a thick blackout curtain having hidden the disintegrating curtains hanging just behind the window.


    This room looked right out to the front yard of the farmhouse. It also seemed that this was the room that the… person… had been in. Clearly, there wasn’t anyone else in this room now, but Lila still felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise as though someone was watching her.


    “Hey, Asher,” Lila said in a low voice, pivoting slowly towards him. He simply looked back at her.


    “Yeah?”


    “I think this is the room that whatever it was we saw was in.”


    “Yeah. I think so too,” Asher replied, touching the drawers. “These aren’t dusty.”


    “What?” Lila came over to inspect the chest of drawers as well. Asher was right – though everything about this house should, in theory, be dusty, the top of this chest was certainly not. Had it been wiped? Why?


    “That is weird,” Lila commented, jiggling open the drawers. Each was empty, save for a few dead bugs.


    “I don’t think we’re going to get much out of this room,” Asher observed with a sigh. “Ready to move on?”


    “Yeah. Let’s go.”


    They crept out of the first room and into the next. It looked much the same, with bits of decaying furniture, including a double mattress on the floor, stained with various brownish colours.


    “Do you reckon something’s in here?” Asher asked quietly, opening the freestanding wardrobe. It creaked in response and he wrinkled his nose. “Empty, except for this rat skeleton.”


    “Delightful,” Lila replied just as quietly, discreetly touching the remains of another chair with her foot.


    “Onto the next, I guess,” Asher said with a sigh, closing the wardrobe doors. Lila nodded, and the next room turned out to be the bathroom.


    It didn’t look like even a single tile had been spared from chipping and damage. There was light filtering in through a frosted window along the back wall, but there was otherwise nothing of note to see. Both the sink and combination bath and shower were devoid of any hygiene products, and the mirror was stained and scratched. Asher turned the sink on, and it took a second or two for water to come rushing out.


    “At least the water runs,” Lila observed as he shut it off again. He begrudgingly wiped his hands on his pants.


    “Yeah, but that tap is all sorts of busted,” he lamented.


    They departed, with Lila feeling more confident that they were alone in this farmhouse. One thing that she’d noted, at least, was that there seemed to be no sign of anyone currently living there.


    The next room seemed to be another bedroom, with faded, ratty wallpaper and a broken bedframe. The light in this room didn’t seem to work and, after taking a peek from the doorway, Asher seemed about to close the door when Lila stopped him.


    “What’s… that?” she asked in a whisper, pointing.


    “Huh?”


    He swivelled his head to see where she was pointing before inching closer, his torch falling upon a dark spot in the carpet. He looked back at her, his eyes aghast.


    “I… don’t know,” he whispered back, his face clearly disturbed. “It… looks like blood.”


    Lila felt a chill rush down her spine and found herself crouched beside it in an instant.


    “What… are you doing?” he asked quietly, horror evident in each quavering syllable.


    “Checking.”


    “C-Checking?”


    She gently pressed her fingers in the stain. It felt dry, at least, but whatever it was had left a crusty residue on top of the carpet. She used her light to inspect the colour better.


    “I think you might be right. I’ve seen a few true crime docos and they show some crime scene photos. This looks like old blood.”


    “No chance it’s cordial?”


    She looked back at him, about to laugh when she saw the seriousness of his expression. “I mean, it could be,” she acquiesced, turning to look at it again. “Hard doubt, though.”


    “Let’s get outta here,” Asher insisted, crossing the room. He almost made it to the door when he tripped on something that gave an echoing metallic clink. He bent down to inspect the object his foot had connected with before leaping back.


    “The fuck is that?” he asked, pointing at it with a shaky finger. Lila stood, meeting him where he was.


    “Looks like chains,” she observed, trying to sound candid but failing entirely. They looked to be rather thick and sturdy, curled into a heap just by the door. “Don’t touch them.”


    “Well, it’s too late for that,” he hissed, shuffling away to the door. “We’re definitely going to be haunted.”


    “If we’re already going to be haunted, we may as well keep exploring,” Lila replied, snapping pictures of the chains and the mysterious stain.


    “Eurgh,” Asher uttered distastefully. “Though… I guess you make a good point. Can’t get more haunted if you’re already haunted.”


    “Not that I want to stay any longer in this room,” Lila noted, gesturing for Asher to leave. “I don’t like the look of that stain, blood or not.”


    “You seemed to like it enough to touch it,” Asher grimaced, taking the lead down the hallway again. Now that they had explored all of the closed doors, there was only one room left. Considering they’d found the bathroom and what Lila presumed to be bedrooms, Lila estimated that the room at the back would have a kitchen and dining area.


    As they slowly made their way towards it, however, Lila realised that this was most likely the last room of the house. If someone was lurking in the old farmhouse, that was the only place they could be.


    She clutched the back of Asher’s shirt and he gave a small yelp.


    “What, what?” he squeaked, looking back at her.


    “S-Sorry,” Lila mumbled, “I just realised that if there’s someone in here, they’d be in that room.”


    “Well, thanks for pointing it out,” Asher replied in a tense whisper. “Time for me to get my slap hands ready.”


    Lila pressed her lips together, her fear preventing her from snorting in response. He glanced at her before his expression hardened.


    “Let’s go,” he said softly, moving forward. Lila still grabbed hold of his shirt, and they cautiously approached the beckoning darkness of the only open room. The grotty carpet stopped as soon as the entryway opened up into the larger room, and from what Lila could tell the rest of the flooring was wooden. She hoped that the flooring would be stable, at least.


    Shards of light bounced here and there from Asher’s phone onto various surfaces – mainly kitchen appliances, as Lila had suspected. They continued through the entryway, the floorboards creaking and groaning underneath their feet until two pinpricks of light reflected back at Asher’s torch.


    Lila felt him stiffen as he stepped backwards, his hand outstretched to the side as if to shield her. No one, and nothing, moved. Lila didn’t even breathe – and she wasn’t quite sure that Asher did either.


    Shink. Shink. Shink.


    What kind of sound was that? She tightened her grip on his shirt. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to find out after all. Marlene could keep her secrets about this farmhouse.


    Asher inhaled deeply, before whispering so quietly Lila had to strain her ears to hear his words properly, “I’ll go. I’ll come back – just let go of my shirt, please.”


    “Are you insane?” Lila whispered back, clenching her fists around his shirt. “What if you get stabbed?”


    “You’re worried about a stabbing?”


    “… Well, what else could that sound be?”


    “I’m pretty sure a stabbing sound doesn’t sound like that.”


    “No, of course it doesn’t. But sharpening a knife does.”


    They halted their bickering, the insinuation behind Lila’s words ringing loud and clear. Then, Asher spoke again.


    “Look… if someone can sharpen a knife in the darkness like this without chopping their fingers off, they can stab me all they want. That’s impressive.”


    “Please don’t make jokes like that,” Lila said quietly. Although, Asher’s rational observation of the situation did make her feel slightly better.


    “Sorry.”


    “Asher.”


    “Sor- you know what, I’ll just go in.”


    Despite Asher’s bravado in his tone, she could see his phone light shake as he cast it along the walls and floor. He carefully tiptoed further into the kitchen as Lila watched tensely. He looked around for a minute, which felt like an hour, before turning back around to face her.


    “I don’t think anyo- OW!”


    A loud spluttering hiss echoed from the darkness, and Lila saw Asher’s phone fall to the ground.


    “FUCK!” he yelled, the rest of him following suit. Lila rushed in without question, trying desperately to find him in the room before something brushed past her legs. Her whole body quivered in fear but she spun around to face whatever it was that had touched her.


    What she saw, instead of a hulking, horrifying person like she’d assumed based on their previous visit, was Mr Snugglebutt the Third – or, rather, who she assumed to be Mr Snugglebutt the Third. The tortoise-shell fur seemed to match what she could remember of Marlene’s cat, at least.


    It trotted down the hallway, its tail high in the air. Lila contemplated chasing after it but instead returned to try and find Asher. She did, crouching down next to him and touching his shoulder gently.


    “You all good?” she asked gently.


    “Yeah,” he muttered. “Thanks for checking. I dropped my phone on my foot though, and it really canes.”


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    “As long as you’re okay.”


    “… You didn’t happen to catch the bastard, did you?”


    “No,” Lila sighed, looking back down the hallway. He had long disappeared, it seemed.


    “That’s fine. Uh, do you reckon you could find the light? I might be down here for a bit.”


    Lila instantly stood, pulling her phone out for a torch. “Yeah, ‘course.”


    “Thanks.”


    She found the light switch by the door and was about to turn it on when she realised that might be a bad idea to do without warning.


    “I’m about to turn it on,” she announced.


    “Yeah, go ahead.”


    The light overhead flashed a couple times before becoming stable, casting a yellowish glow across the room. It seemed that Asher was only a metre or so in front of a wooden square dining room table, clutching his foot.


    “You okay?” Lila asked again, concern etched onto her face. He nodded.


    “Just stupid,” he said. Lila snorted.


    “Hey, you’re not supposed to laugh,” Asher objected with a pout, though he also laughed. He gingerly stood up, dusting himself off with a disgusted wince. “I don’t wanna know why that floor is sticky.”


    “Ew,” Lila grimaced.


    He shuffled towards the table and used it as leverage. He seemed okay enough, aside from the mental scarring from lying on a sticky floor, so Lila turned her attention to the rest of the room. In the back left corner was an old, decaying kitchen, complete with fallen doors and an open, turned-off fridge. In the middle sat the square wooden table that Asher was now leaning against. Four matching chairs surrounded it, though it was what was on top of the table that really caught Lila’s attention.


    “What the hell?” she questioned, pointing at the shredded remains of what looked to be some A4 pieces of paper. Asher glanced at her before looking down at the table.


    “That… is hella weird,” he confirmed, picking up what looked to be a folder of some kind.


    “Wait,” Lila said hurriedly, pulling out her phone again. “We need some pictures first.”


    “Oh, right. Sorry,” Asher said sheepishly, putting the folder down whilst Lila took some pictures. When she was done, Asher picked it up again, gingerly touching the front page.


    “Was the cat just tearing these up?” Lila asked, moving closer to see what else was on the table.


    “Probably. I saw its eyes at about the right height of this table, and it obviously jumped at me when I was nearby.”


    “I didn’t know cats liked tearing paper.”


    Asher shrugged. “Depends on the cat, I think. Evidently, this cat is no stranger to doing that.”


    Lila continued to inspect the table which held chunks of paper that looked to be from the folder when something stuck out at her – ‘Forestglade Private Hospital’.


    “Asher,” she said warily, turning to look at him. “This mentions the hospital your Dad works at.”


    “Owns, too.”


    “Wait, what? I thought he was only the CEO.”


    “Well, he jointly owns it,” Asher clarified, tilting his head to see what she was looking at. He knitted his brows together in apparent confusion as he looked up at her from the folder.


    “The heck is a blueprint of the hospital doing here?” he queried, passing the folder to Lila.


    “A blueprint?”


    Sure enough, when combining the bits of paper on the table and in the folder, it looked to reassemble into some kind of blueprint. Lila lifted the top sheet and underneath saw more scratched-up pages – but this time it looked to be a list of employees at the corporate level operating within the hospital. At the top was Asher’s Dad, of course. Just underneath, though, was a name that sounded slightly familiar. Evelyn Whitley?


    “Who’s Evelyn?” Lila asked, her eyes lifting from the page to look at Asher.


    “Uh, I think she’s the Vice?”


    “Vice CEO?”


    “Yeah. That one.”


    “Why does the name Whitley sound familiar?”


    Asher blinked at her before shrugging. “Beats the absolute shit outta me.”


    Lila gave him a disapproving look and he chuckled.


    “For realsies, though, I have no idea. Do you know the Whitley family somehow?”


    Lila shrugged. “That’s gonna bother me now.”


    “Well, what else is in the folder?”


    Lila peeled apart the next few pages – more lists of names – before a new document appeared. It looked like receipts or money orders of some kind.


    “Why’s this just sitting here, though?” Lila queried, casting her eyes around the kitchen again. It looked rather unassuming, except for the fact that a cat had been clawing up the legs of the table, which looked to be wrapped in jute.


    “I have no idea,” Asher sighed. “But I think we should just take these papers and go.”


    “Why?”


    His face morphed into one of absolute bewilderment. “Because there’s ghosts living here?”


    “I see you’ve become a true believer now.”


    “Look, if I wanted to spend my holidays being haunted, I’d just move in here.”


    Lila snickered. “I doubt you’d survive past the first night.”


    “Eh, you’re probably right. I’d either get murdered or tetanus.”


    “That aside, I guess we should head back. This lighting’s too crappy for us to read these properly. Plus, while I’m glad we didn’t come across anyone else, I’m not keen on the idea of them coming back if they’d left to get something or whatever.”


    Asher shuddered before they both began to scoop up the pieces of paper strewn about the dining table into the folder. Lila took another look around the kitchen but saw nothing of particular interest – just old-looking kitchen equipment.


    They turned off any lights that they had left on as they departed, each double-checking that there wasn’t anything else.


    Exiting into the winter air felt like a mistake. Lila’s teeth began to chatter so forcefully that she thought they might break.


    “You okay?” Asher asked, holding the folder horizontally so that the shreds would be sitting along the edge.


    “Y-Yeah. Just surprised by the cold.”


    “For being such an old farmhouse, it sure kept a bunch of the cold out. Uh, it’s not much, but you could probably use the folder to give you a little bit of cover.”


    Lila snorted. “Knowing me, it’ll fly open in my hands and everything will just disappear. I trust your hands more than mine, Mr Goalie.”


    “If you say so… but… wow, it’s so warm. Ooh, it’s like a space heater,” he added dramatically, giving her a sideways glance.


    “I’m not a toddler. You can’t trick me. Wait, you’re just trying to get out of holding it, aren’t you?”


    “Nah,” Asher shook his head with a smirk. “Wouldn’t dream of it. I happen to like holding things.”


    “Glad that your grippers are made for gripping, then.”


    “Exactly.”


    They chuckled, journeying to Asher’s house with some light conversations peppered here and there of nothing in particular. Lila thought that it would probably be better for them to discuss what they’d found, and anything else surrounding why Marlene would’ve tried to hide the existence of the pictures (or perhaps the existence of the farmhouse in its entirety) in the rumpus room. It seemed that Asher felt the same, given his avoidance of such topics.


    They made it back, folder and themselves in one piece, with Asher passing her the folder so he could unlock the house.


    “Hope Gabriel’s in the pantry,” Asher said in a low voice as he opened the doors. Lila nodded in agreement – she didn’t have a plausible excuse as to why they suddenly returned from their walk with a suspicious-looking folder. Though, Gabriel hadn’t necessarily seen them leave…


    “Welcome back,” Gabriel’s warm, cheery voice disrupted her musings. He turned and headed back into the pantry without another word. Had he not noticed the folder? Or did he just not care about it?


    Taking it as a small blessing, though, Asher and Lila dashed towards the stairs after returning Gabriel’s greeting, taking two at a time.


    Bursting into the rumpus room, Lila immediately set the folder down on the coffee table as though it scalded her. She sat down on the couch, rubbing her eyes briefly.


    “I was so scared he was going to say something about the folder,” Asher confessed, flopping onto the couch next to her.


    “I was probably going to say it was homework,” Lila replied. “Though, I’m only thinking of that now.”


    Asher sighed heavily, placing a hand on his forehead. “I don’t feel like doing anything anymore.”


    “That sounds tempting,” Lila replied with a smile. “We have plenty of time to kill before dinner with Elise.”


    Asher sat up, looking intently at Lila. “You holding up okay?”


    “Me? About what?”


    “I feel like you’d be pretty stressed about Elise.”


    Lila pursed her lips before nodding. “I am a bit,” she confirmed. “It just isn’t like her to keep something from me.”


    “I’m sure she’s not in serious trouble,” Asher said comfortingly. “She’d tell you about that if she was, surely.”


    “Almost falling into a vat of oil sounds pretty serious, though.”


    “From what Isaac’s told me, that’s a pretty common occurrence. The floors are super slippery, apparently, even though they wash them frequently. He described working there as like being part acrobat, part McCustomer Service Man.”


    Lila laughed. “Of course he’d say something stupid like that.”


    “It’s part of his charm,” Asher grinned. It faded into a slight frown with his next sentence. “Though… the fact that he’s worried about Elise makes me feel worried too.”


    “Yeah…”


    They sat in a pondering sort of silence for a few moments before Asher turned to Lila.


    “If we’ve got time to kill, surely we can play a game or two?” he asked, his eyes sparkling with excitement.


    “’Course.”


    They spent the next couple of hours gaming away, before moving on to some videos, when Gabriel requested their presence for lunch.


    “What’s the bet that it’s cheese again?” Asher asked despondently, placing his set of controllers down atop the folder.


    “I reckon it’s pretty likely. I wonder if he’ll sub one of them out for another egg again.”


    “I mean, I get the point he’s trying to make, but a man can only eat so much cheese.”


    It didn’t take them long to discover what was on the menu for lunch – for Lila, a freshly baked baguette filled with various high-quality delicatessen meat, cheese and salad. For Asher…


    “A grilled cheese sandwich,” Gabriel declared proudly, placing it before Asher. The bread seemed to be average supermarket bread, and he looked down at it forlornly.


    “Thanks, Gabriel,” Asher mumbled, taking a bite. “It’s delicious.”


    Of course, his lacklustre tone conveyed that he was less than impressed with his food. Today, though, Gabriel had decided not to join them for lunch. So, once Lila was about halfway done with her sandwich, she was able to pass it along to Asher without fearing the ire of Gabriel.


    “Wonder why Gabriel didn’t join us for lunch,” Lila said absently once they finished up. Asher shrugged.


    “Lunchtime during the holidays can be a bit hit or miss as to whether Gabriel joins me or not. I think it’s ‘cause the lunches he tends to make are a bit on the lighter side. When it only takes me about ten minutes to eat lunch, I guess there’s not much point for him to stick around.”


    “Makes sense, I guess,” Lila shrugged.


    “I’ll pop the plates into the kitchen,” Asher said, already standing and poised to do so. “I’ll meet you upstairs.”


    Lila headed up and settled herself in her usual spot on the couch. Being here alone felt odd – as though she was intruding on Asher’s space, rather than having been invited. She was fairly sure that if she would express that feeling to Asher, though, he would deny that she should feel that way.


    She started to peruse the folder again, trying to piece together some of the fragments. She still couldn’t make sense of why these documents would be important enough to keep together – yet somehow unimportant enough to leave behind in an empty, abandoned building.


    Once five minutes had passed, Lila could no longer concentrate on her task. Where was Asher? Surely it wouldn’t take that long to leave two plates in the kitchen…


    She opened the door to the rumpus room to find Asher, breathless and hand outstretched for the doorknob.


    “Oh, sorry,” Lila said automatically, moving to the side to let him through.


    “You’re good,” he replied. “Sorry I took so long. Gabriel grilled me again. He’s… not so happy about our holiday plans.”


    “Did you want to give them a miss, then?” Lila’s question was almost inaudible, her inability to disguise her disappointment making her cringe slightly.


    “Definitely not. Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Asher’s voice was defiant as if daring her to object to his affirmation. He closed the door behind him and crossed the room, making a beeline for the couch.


    “On that note,” he added once he plopped down, turning his head to face her. “We should probably get tickets for the show on Sunday.”


    “Tickets?”


    “Yeah, entry tickets. I think they come with free access to one ride, but we can buy additional ride tickets there.”


    “Alright.”


    He pursed his lips. “… I’ll get your ticket.”


    Lila shook her head. “Nah, I can get it.”


    “I want to,” Asher replied, his voice sounding slightly awkward. “… Since I invited you.”


    It definitely was starting to sound much more like a date now. Should she… let it happen? Or was it confusing the point again? She wasn’t sure.


    “As long as I can buy your entry ticket to Bounce,” Lila asserted with a nod. “A compromise. Since I invited you.”


    Asher looked contemplative before sighing in defeat. “I don’t suppose you’d let me pay for you for Bounce anyway.”


    “No, sir,” Lila smiled. “I won’t.”


    “Fine,” he said, his tone resigned.


    “I’ll get our tickets now before I forget,” Lila insisted, taking out her phone as she sat back down on the couch. They were both silent as they both paid for their respective activities, swapping the ticket details for each. Feeling much more accomplished, Lila stretched, yawning.


    “Thanks for the ticket,” Asher said quietly, pocketing his phone.


    “Thanks back,” she grinned.


    “I see you were looking at the folder,” Asher inclined his head towards it.


    “Yeah. I couldn’t make any sense of it, though.”


    “I’ve been trying to think about what it all means, too,” Asher said thoughtfully. “Coming up empty myself.”


    “I think we should at least piece everything together and take clean photos of them, maybe,” Lila suggested.


    “Good idea.”


    They did just that, taking inventory of the pieces of paper. As they’d seen previously, it looked as though the folder contained blueprints, employee names, and money orders.


    “Why… was this so important?” Lila questioned, her frustration creasing her brow.


    “Dunno. But, if we assume that it is important, we could think about the why.”


    They sat in a pondering silence for a few minutes at least, but from the look on Asher’s face, he was no closer to figuring it out – just like Lila was.


    “Maybe we should move on to the photos of Marlene’s place,” Lila proposed. “Perhaps the link is in there. I mean, Mr Snugglebutt was at the house.”


    “Cats explore, though,” Asher countered. “It’s not a bad idea, though.”


    “I’ll grab the photos.”


    They continued their cataloguing and inspection of the photos as they had previously, though Lila again didn’t glean anything new. Or, at least, she thought she didn’t – until she came across the photos of Marlene’s notebook.


    “These photos,” she said slowly, “they’re definitely connected to the hospital.”


    “What photos?”


    Lila silently passed the photos of Marlene’s notebook to Asher.


    “Oh, yeah. These ones. I mean, that person there, that’s Evelyn,” Asher said, pointing to a minuscule image of a severe-looking, middle-aged woman with brunette hair that looked to be tied back, with not even a single hair out of place. Her photo didn’t have any markings on it, unlike some of the others. What was most striking about her was her blue eyes. They seemed incredibly intelligent and piercing – as though Evelyn herself was looking straight through Lila. Lila made a mental note of Evelyn’s appearance, given she was the second in charge at the hospital.


    “What’s my Dad investigating, though?” Lila whispered, gesturing to another of the photos that Asher held. That photo showed the pictures of Lila’s Dad talking with Ivaan at the hospital.


    “I have no idea,” Asher confessed. “Actually, having no idea about any of this is making my head hurt. I dunno where to even start to get an idea.”


    “Perhaps… it’s time for me to break into some things.”


    “What do you mean?”


    “My Dad’s home office. He might have something at home in his filing cabinets about what his investigation is about.”


    “Are you sure you want to do that? I don’t want to ask you to do that.”


    Lila frowned at him, folding her arms. “You’re not asking me to do anything,” she noted. “I’m nosy, remember?”


    Asher chuckled. “Yeah, I remember. Probably the only reason you’re still here.”


    “Um, rude.”


    They shared a laugh before simultaneously leaning back into the couch.


    “I’ll give it a go,” Lila confirmed, nerves bubbling up within her stomach as she said this. Usually, Asher did the breaking in – but there was no way that she was going to get him to come over to break into her Dad’s filing cabinets. If he got caught, all trust in Asher would evaporate in her parents’ eyes – that much Lila was certain about. So… she’d need to do it alone.


    Asher gave her a sideways glance before sitting up, his full attention directly on her. “You’ll be fine,” he said comfortingly. “You managed to get into Marlene’s computer room just fine. Even I wasn’t able to do that.”


    “I feel like that was a fluke,” Lila lamented.


    “No need to sell yourself short,” Asher said sternly. “Confidence is key.”


    “Confidence, huh…”


    Asher nodded eagerly. “You’ve got this.”


    “I’ll… try and get some info on Monday, maybe. Before I come over – since we’re just hanging out here that day.”


    “Sounds like a plan.”


    Lila glanced back down at all the documents and photos strewn about the coffee table. “Hopefully I can get some information that’ll get us closer to some answers. It’s surely connected to your Mum somehow.”


    “Yeah… hopefully,” Asher’s face changed to one of determination. “Has to be. Surely. If… only in that it shows my Dad is a suspect.”


    Lila paused for a moment. Despite their focus being on Marlene, it didn’t mean that Asher’s Dad could be ruled out at all. On one hand, she hoped that her Dad was investigating Asher’s Mum’s disappearance. But on the other, Lila thought that was unlikely.


    She recalled her Mum’s comment to Asher – about saying hello to Tabitha – when they’d been at Lila’s house after their various sporting matches. Though Lila’s Mum wasn’t necessarily an investigator, or part of the business in that way, if Lila’s Dad was investigating Tabitha’s disappearance, her Mum would have to know Tabitha couldn’t receive a hello. Right?


    ‘Or is Dad keeping that from her? And if so, why?’ Lila wondered briefly. Then, of course, there was the idea that Marlene was hired security. If that were the case, then doing away with her employer, whom she was meant to protect, would be unlikely… right?


    Asher’s heavy sigh broke through Lila’s thoughts and she turned her gaze to him. He looked troubled – just like she was.


    “Perhaps we should take a break,” Lila said quietly. He returned her gaze before giving her a faint smile.


    “That… would probably be for the best. I reckon we should pack all this up, too.”


    They did so, neatly ordering what they could and ensuring nothing was left behind. Now came the question – where should they hide it all?


    “Considering Marlene, or whoever, found the photos in the spare room and took the farmhouse pictures,” Asher said pensively, a finger on his chin, “I think the spare room is probably a no-go.”


    “Yeah. You got a place in your room for it?”


    “Hmm… I mean, it’s a lame answer, but probably my desk drawer. I don’t have anything lockable but… if I make it so that it looks like schoolwork, it’d hide in plain sight and no one would be any the wiser.”


    “If that’s the best option we’ve got,” Lila replied grimly.


    “I think so. If I hide it, can you check and see if you can find it?”


    “Sure.”


    “Thanks.”


    Asher bundled up all the requisite packages and took them into the depths of his room, carefully closing the door behind him. He poked his head out a minute or so later, a satisfied look on his face.


    “Try your hardest,” he challenged, beckoning her to join him. Lila smirked, ready to take it on.


    “You’ve got a head start since you already know to look in the drawer,” Asher stated, hovering beside it with a menacing edge to his posture, as she began to rifle through it.


    “Huh,” Lila uttered after a minute or so. “It really does blend in.”


    “Doesn’t it? I reckon it’ll be safe here for now. Besides, people don’t really go into my room.”


    They both returned to the rumpus room, taking the opportunity to hang out as they usually did – comfortably and with lots of laughter. Lila had almost forgotten about their plan to go to Maccas by the time 5pm rolled around. It was signalled by the crackle of the intercom and the sad voice of Gabriel, double-checking that they weren’t going to be having dinner with him tonight.


    Asher and Lila exchanged a guilty glance.


    “I think we should probably head over now. Before Gabriel guilts us into staying,” Asher recommended.


    “Let’s go,” Lila agreed, making sure she had her phone with her. She briefly considered whether she should dig out her full-sized wallet. In the end, after checking whether her bank card was in her phone wallet, she decided she didn’t need it. Asher clarified with Gabriel that they would be on their way now, to which Gabriel reluctantly farewelled them via the intercom. Lila was convinced she heard a sniff at the end of his goodbye but Asher didn’t comment on this.


    When they made their way downstairs, Gabriel was nowhere to be seen – which was better for them, really. Their bus journey took about 15 minutes, dropping them off right next to the Maccas in question.


    “Ready?” Asher asked as they stepped off the bus with thanks to the driver.


    Now that Lila’s attention had moved on from the mysteries encircling Asher’s family, she was beginning to feel nervous. Why was Elise hiding things from her? Why was Isaac so worried? And, most importantly, what could Lila do to ease Elise’s burdens?


    “Not… really,” Lila mumbled as they slowly inched closer to the automatic doors. Asher looked concerned, opening his mouth as if to say something when Lila continued. “But I have to be. For Elise.”


    “I’m sure everything will be okay,” Asher said reassuringly. Lila nodded tentatively, her stomach bubbling and twirling. They stepped through the automatic doors, the scent of freshly cooked fries and the shrill beeping of the fryers punctuating the air. Lila shook out her tense hands and shoulders, looking ahead to the front counter. Now, to track down Elise…