-VEA-

“Umm,” I said, getting up. I swayed on my feet for a while, and tried to regain my footing. I brushed my hair out of my face, and still felt a little unsteady. “Excuse me.” I laughed awkwardly, then spun around, heading for the exits.

Bursting through the entrance of the church, I ran away to the nearest restroom. When I was inside, I poured some water on my face before I glared at my reflection.

God…

Was this just going to be another repeat of my past? I didn’t want to go through with transferring to another school again. It was so god damn annoying having to deal with so much administrative shit, and every single little thing I wanted to do in each town, I couldn’t because it somehow always ended up with me having to move away with my godfather again.

I couldn’t trust that guy not to tell anyone that I was the culprit. I had assumed he was the one who sent the underwear back to me, and he shared my sentiments, but it wasn’t him. I couldn’t believe I put myself on the line to grab at the rare opportunity that I could make life entertaining with more chaos. What was I thinking?

But if it wasn’t him, then who did it?

I had to find out.

There was one way. I packed up my tote bag and beelined towards the school gates, leaving the campus before assembly had even begun. I couldn’t be bothered with the rest of that school day, and I already had a lie prepared. I could just tell my godfather that I was on my period, and it wasn’t like he could check to see if that was true anyway.

On the way home, I thought of a few ways this could pan out, but none of what came up in my mind was a scenario I wanted to go through. I contemplated for a while, and a voice in the back of my mind returned, one which I had not heard for a long time.

How about actually, you know, turning over a new leaf?

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

My lips split, and I let out a huff.

When I reached home, I pushed open the front door and let the tote bag on my shoulder slide to the ground. I lifted the cover to the security cameras at the wall next to the front door, and pressed a few buttons. I didn’t know much about the system, but I figured that I would get the hang of it soon.

After a little more fumbling about, I finally gained access to the footage from the security camera outside my home from the past few nights. I clicked into them and scrolled to the time when I was sure I heard the knock on the door.

Ruthlow.

He was leaving the home to take out the trash, and he came back in soon after. I waited for a while, and dragged the circle across the slider to look for other timings. I couldn’t remember when exactly the -

More Ruthlow.

Biting my lip, I wondered for a moment. Could it be? Was it him? I couldn’t rule out the possibility. My godfather, I grew up with him and over time, he had grown accustomed to my antics. He knew my personality very well, and there were certain times where it felt like he could read my mind. Could he be the one who -

Ah, there it is. The answer.

It was the boy’s mother.

Look at the rage on her face! I huffed and slammed the lid of the security panel back down. I would be able to recognise her anywhere. She always had a wig on that you could tell from the other end of earth that it was definitely a wig, and her lipstick was constantly smudged in some way or another. Somehow, she had found out about my involvement in the disgrace they suffered in the community, and no doubt, she was probably seeking some kind of restitution from me.

Tough luck.

I began to walk towards my bedroom, when I suddenly froze in my tracks. I paused on the same spot for a few seconds before I backtracked to the security panel and flipped the cover open again. My fingers hovered over the buttons for some time before I returned to the wealth of videos stored in the system. I looked through that same video, and went to view the other videos too.

I knew something felt wrong.

In all the videos, there was the same exact vehicle parked not too far from my home. It arrived at about the same time of the day every day and the person would stay there for a few hours before they left. I had thought the vehicle in the first video I watched looked familiar earlier, like I had seen the car while on my way to the front door not too long ago. Turns out I really had.

Someone was watching us.

What did they want? I waited, and the hours passed. Soon, that same car arrived at the curb opposite ours and I was studying it from the side of the curtains. A thrill coursed through my body, and I walked to the front door. It was almost midnight. I left my home.

To walk straight up to whoever was in the car.