Chapter Eighty-Eight

When Gabriel called Asher and Lila down for dinner, Lila was in much higher spirits. It had definitely been a weird rollercoaster of a day, but spending time with Asher in the comfort of the rumpus room always seemed to lift her.

She was still smiling when Gabriel placed a bowl of sizzling lamb curry with rice before her. It smelt heavenly, and she let Gabriel know as such. He smiled at her and placed an empty bowl before Asher, who looked up at Gabriel in puzzlement.

“Just a moment,” Gabriel said pleasantly to Asher, disappearing back towards the kitchen. Marlene entered soon after, a jug of juice and some cups sitting on an ornate tray in her hands. She wordlessly poured drinks for the four of them before tucking herself into her usual spot.

Gabriel returned, one slice of cheese in each of his rubber-gloved hands. Lila and Asher stared at him as he slapped both of them down onto Asher’s bowl.

“There you are,” Gabriel said sweetly. “Dinner is served.”

Asher tore his eyes away from Gabriel and looked down at his cheese, as though he was half-expecting it to walk off his plate.

“Uh-”

“It’s all you’ll be getting until you learn how to be a true gentleman,” Gabriel asserted before whipping around and hurrying back to the kitchen. Lila’s eyes flickered to Marlene, who looked uncharacteristically ready to burst into laughter. When she noticed Lila looking at her, she hid her mouth with her hands.

“If you’ll just excuse me, Mr Wagner and Lila,” Marlene said stiffly, getting up from her seat. “I don’t think I’ll be joining you for dinner tonight.”

Lila was certain she heard a cackle as Marlene departed, though it was quickly snuffed out. To be fair, watching Asher gawk at his slices of cheese almost made Lila want to leave so she could laugh as well.

“Go ahead,” Asher said moodily, poking at the top slice. “Laugh.”

“I wasn’t about to,” Lila lied, taking a sip of her juice.

“At least I have juice,” Asher sighed, sipping his as well.

“Oh, where’s Marlene?” Gabriel asked, carrying two plates of curry into the dining room.

“She… had to excuse herself,” Lila responded, fighting to hold back her impending chortling.

“Ah,” Gabriel replied sagely. “Sensible woman.”

He placed one plate down where he usually sat and carried the other plate back out, Marlene’s cup of juice in his other hand.

“I take it Gabriel’s still mad at me,” Asher said softly. He bit into his cheese. “At least this is good quality cheese.”

“It… looks tasty,” Lila tried to sound reassuring. “We can share my dinner if you want.”

“None of that, Lila,” Gabriel said sternly, having returned empty-handed. He settled himself into his usual seat, looking rather pleased. “Eat up.”

Asher obediently did so without complaints. Lila glanced between them both and met Gabriel’s narrowed eyes. She started eating immediately.

Once she was about halfway through her curry, and Asher’s cheese slices were long gone, Lila clutched at her stomach.

“Oh… my goodness,” she said, attempting to not look suspicious. “That was so delicious Gabriel! I can’t eat another bite. Asher will have to finish it for me.”

She chanced a peek at Gabriel who looked thoroughly unimpressed.

“Lila, that’s not the point of punishment,” he said, raising an eyebrow at her. “Asher won’t learn if you just give up the punishment. Plus, you’re not a Union. No negotiating.”

“Just look at him, Gabriel,” Lila pleaded, pointing to a pouty Asher. “He’s miserable!”

“Good,” Gabriel said shortly, though his eyes did seem troubled. A beat passed before he threw his hands up in the air. “Alright. Fine. Feel free to give him your leftovers. I suppose the punishment can be a cold, reduced portion. And no dessert.”

“Fine by me,” Asher said eagerly, pulling Lila’s bowl towards him. Gabriel pursed his lips and Asher began acting like it was a chore to be eating Lila’s food. That seemed to satisfy Gabriel, who continued eating his dinner. Asher wolfed it down as though he hadn’t eaten in years even though Lila witnessed him inhale four sushi rolls earlier today.

“Thanks for dinner, Gabriel,” Asher said appreciatively once he was done, wiping his mouth on a napkin and standing up. “I’ll head on up.”

“I’ll go with you,” Lila said automatically, also getting up.

“You don’t want dessert, Lila?” Gabriel asked, a tinge of sadness in his question. She made the mistake of glancing at him in response. He looked ready to cry. She sat down.

“I’ll meet you upstairs,” Asher replied with a smirk. “Enjoy.”

Lila didn’t say anything to Asher as Gabriel collected their bowls. Both Asher and Gabriel departed without another word. Once Gabriel returned, she saw that he had prepared a slice of sponge cake that was soaked in an orange-infused syrup and chocolate mousse in the middle. Lila was glad that Asher hadn’t stuck around to see her shoving her face with it. It was probably very unsightly.

“I’ll only treat him like this for another meal or two,” Gabriel said softly as Lila was nearly finished with her cake. “He’ll live.”

“Why do you feel the need to punish him?” Lila gave him a piercing look as she said this before wiping her mouth with a napkin.

“I’ll have you know, I’ve been a very big fan of you two getting together for a long time. Before I met you, even, since he kept going on about you. Then, of course, I saw that you both seemed to glow in each other’s presence. I suppose it’s difficult to explain, but once you started working together on that project and got comfortable, the energy about you two changed for the better. It’s something he never had with Holly and something I’ve seen very rarely in my thirty-odd years on this planet.”

“I see.”

“I suppose you could say that I’m very protective of Asher,” Gabriel laughed. “Probably doesn’t seem like it, since I’m starving him, but his future is very bright. I only want what’s best for him, and… what’s best for him is you.”

“You think so?”

Gabriel nodded. “If you were to see you two from an outsider’s perspective, you’d say the same. You chose each other, above and beyond being project partners, and I hope you continue to choose each other. Once he gets his head out of his ass, of course. So, to help him do that, he’s getting slices of cheese.”

A glimmer of a smile crossed Lila’s face. She finished her cake, thanking Gabriel for both his food and his counsel.

“Anytime, my dear,” Gabriel responded, his eyes gleaming with unbridled joy. “Truly. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Lila smiled at him before taking herself back upstairs. Out of habit, she reached for her phone to ask one of her family members to pick her up. She caught herself before she could do so, though.

This was it. Her first time sleeping over at a boy’s house. She gripped the handrail for a moment, almost losing her footing as soon as the realisation hit her. She… wasn’t going home tonight.

She gradually made it through the door to the rumpus room, the nerves replacing her legs with jelly. Asher looked up from where he was on the couch with an easy smile.

“You made it,” he said gently as she closed the door. “Welcome back.”

“H-Hi,” she stammered, unable to inch forward even slightly.

“Everything okay?”

“U-Uh huh.”

“That was thoroughly unconvincing.”

Lila stared down at her feet. “I… just realised that I’ve never stayed over at a boy’s house before.”

“You only just realised this?” Asher’s face started to turn pink and he looked back down at the coffee table.

Lila nodded. “Yeah.”

“Well, I hope it lives up to your expectations,” Asher replied, an anxious smile spreading across his face.

“I don’t think I have any.”

“Even better.”

She still hovered awkwardly by the door.

“You can sit down, you know,” Asher said slowly.

“I know.”

She remained by the door, fiddling with her nails.

“… I guess you could stay there if you wanted to.”

“Okay.”

Asher sighed heavily. “Want a drink?”

“Yes please.”

He made his way to the kitchenette counter. Lila took this as an opportunity to scurry to her usual spot, grabbing a cushion along the way and hugging it tightly. She heard Asher chuckle, but she refused to look at him.

He passed her a cup shortly after and she relinquished her hold on the cushion, which wheezed as she let go. She hadn’t realised she’d been holding it that tightly.

“Did you wanna go through the photos again?” he asked lightly, his lips twitching as though he was holding back the urge to laugh.

“When does Marlene finish up?”

“10 tonight. Well, that’s when she finishes every night. Could be different today.”

“I think it’s probably best if we leave it until after 10. That way she can’t barge in on us.”

“Noted. Good idea.”

“I’ve run out of good ideas now.”

“I reckon I could try and conjure up enough good ideas for the both of us,” Asher grinned at Lila. His grin relaxed her shoulders somewhat.

“What now, though?” he queried, setting his cup down on the coffee table.

“W-What do you usually do if someone’s staying over?”

Asher shrugged. “Whatever.”

“Helpful.”

“Never said it would be.”

They shared a small chuckle before both staring at the blank TV screen. Lila tapped the rim of her cup with her index finger. She then sighed, placing it next to Asher’s on the coffee table.

“I… well. You don’t have to answer this question,” Lila began hesitantly. “But… I think it’s going to drive me crazy and I won’t sleep a wink if I don’t ask.”

“Alright,” Asher replied, bringing a hand to his chin as he waited for her to continue.

“Uh… we saw Holly at the shops today.”

“Sure did.”

Lila couldn’t discern whether there was any particular unspoken emotion within those two words. His eyes were still fixed on the TV screen.

“… you seemed bothered by it.”

“I was,” Asher confirmed, finally turning to face her. She followed suit, her eyes searching his as if they’d reveal more of what he was talking about.

Lila’s shoulders drooped, her previous good mood vaporised in an instant. She tried not to look crestfallen, but wasn’t convinced in the slightest that it fooled him.

“However, it’s not in the way you’re probably thinking,” Asher added after looking contemplative for a few moments. “I was right, before. About not having feelings for Holly. But… when I saw her… I just… didn’t care. Not as much as I thought I would, anyway.”

“What do you mean?” Lila’s heart began to flutter as she hung onto every word he was saying now.

“What I mean is… well, when I saw her, she was just another person. She might as well have been a stranger. And that was what bothered me. I’d thought that I would still be affected by her. That seeing her would remind me about what she did to me - breaking my heart like that - and bring up all those feelings again. But… all I felt was gratitude. Gratitude that it ended. Otherwise…” his eyes flicked to Lila’s, his cheeks turning red. “Otherwise I probably wouldn’t have known that you feel that way about me too.”

Would she have told Asher how she felt if he was still dating Holly? Lila wasn’t too sure. Maybe it’d have come tumbling out of her mouth one day. What she was sure of, however, was that if that happened, she’d definitely run away and become a social recluse. Would he have broken up with Holly after he knew in that scenario?

“I also stopped feeling so guilty, actually. Guilty about my feelings for you when I was with her. Not sure why, but I’ll find the answer one day. Maybe it was because I saw her with the Debating Captain of Mulberry Heights. Wonder if he’s the father.” Asher paused before shrugging. “Eh, not my problem.”

His eyes slid back to her face before staring up at the ceiling. “I’m glad we saw her, actually. Probably wouldn’t have said that a couple weeks ago. Might’ve even been a nervous wreck.”

Stolen novel; please report.

Did… that mean that maybe they’d get into a relationship? Lila was too afraid to ask – too afraid to push the point just now. If he were only just feeling that way about Holly, then he would probably need some more time.

As if he was reading her thoughts, he started speaking again. “I’m still not ready, though. I need to ponder a bit more.”

Lila didn’t ask what he meant. Instead, she picked up her set of joy cons, unable to contain the smile on her face, the thrum of hope stirring her heart into a quickening rhythm.

“You can ponder while I destroy you,” she challenged playfully. He grinned at her, grabbing his own set.

“You’re on.”

The next couple of hours passed in a blur, though the ache of her abdominal muscles from laughing so hard served as a reminder of the passage of time. Eventually, as they giggled about how Lila cheesed the game to solve a puzzle in a way that was definitely not intended by the game developers, a knock sounded at the rumpus room door.

They exchanged a glance before Asher heaved himself to his feet and opened the door. Lila peered curiously over in that direction. Gabriel would’ve long retired to bed or headed to the club by now, so the only person it could be was Marlene. What did she want? In a panic, she cast a look around the room. They thankfully hadn’t taken the photos out after dinner, so she didn’t need to hide them.

“Oh, hi Dad,” Asher said, stepping aside to admit Ivaan into their domain. Ivaan looked weary, rubbing his face before halting altogether. His face morphed into a falsely cheery and lively expression as soon as his eyes rested on Lila.

“Evening, Lila,” he said pleasantly, his dark under-eyes a stark display of his exhaustion. He was still in his business attire, though Lila knew it was nearing 10pm. Had he only just come home?

“Good evening, Ivaan,” Lila replied, swiftly standing up. He motioned for her to sit back down before pausing and then checking his watch.

“It’s getting late, Lila. Do you need a lift home?” he asked, looking back at her, concern furrowing his brow.

“Lila’s staying over tonight,” Asher interjected, backing up so he was closer to the couch than the door. “I told you yesterday.”

“Ah, of course,” Ivaan replied, rubbing his forehead. “Sorry, bud. Work’s been… delightful as of late.” Of course, his tone conveyed that work was not delightful in the slightest. “What time are you heading home tomorrow?”

“I… didn’t have any particular time in mind,” Lila said truthfully. Her Mum’s words – “A reasonable time!” – echoed in her mind, but Lila supposed that just after dinner probably fell under ‘a reasonable time’. Besides, she needed to see Elise, and if it was as serious as Isaac had made it out to be, she definitely needed some moral support from Asher even if it was from afar.

“Of course,” Ivaan responded genially. “I’ll let you two get back to it. Goodnight.”

“Night, Dad.”

“Goodnight, Ivaan.”

Ivaan gave them both a tight-lipped smile before closing the rumpus room door behind him.

“That… was odd,” Lila commented, her eyes on Asher as he sat back down. He shrugged.

“Even though I don’t normally see my Dad, like, ever, he always makes it a point to say goodnight to me.”

“That’s sweet,” Lila smiled. Asher looked bashful, fluffing the back of his hair.

“Yeah. Even though he can’t always make time for me, it’s the little things that remind me he still cares, y’know?”

Lila felt a pang of sadness in her chest at these words. With a sentence like that, Lila could only imagine how Asher would’ve felt as a kid in order to reach that conclusion now. Being an only child and having to navigate a relatively absent father must’ve been tough…

“Anyway, another rou-” Asher’s suggestion fell short when another knock sounded at the door. He looked disgusted as he stood up again.

“If it’s Dad, I’m gonna tell him that two check-ins in a row is excessive,” he murmured grumpily as he stomped towards the door.

“Hello, Mr Wagner,” Marlene’s voice floated through the now-open doorway. “Hello, Lila.”

“Yeah, yeah, come in, everyone else is,” Asher huffed, gesturing for her to enter. Lila could have sworn that a hint of a smile turned the corners of Marlene’s lips, but whatever she saw vanished a second after she spotted it. Marlene was carrying a tray containing two steaming mugs, which she rested on the kitchenette counter.

“Hot chocolates,” she announced. “Per Master Wagner’s request.”

Master? Marlene usually called Asher ‘Mr Wagner’, and Lila didn’t see or hear him make any requests for hot chocolates.

“Thanks, Marlene,” Asher said politely. “If you see Dad, can you thank him for me too?”

Marlene simply bowed before bidding them both ‘goodnight’, which they returned in kind. After the door gently closed behind her, Asher looked warily at Lila, who had curiously made her way to the counter.

“Do you trust it?” he asked, gesturing at the mugs.

“I mean, your Dad’s home… surely it’d be hard to dispose of two people whilst your employer’s just floating about,” Lila said dubiously. Asher nodded.

“At least my Dad’s got life insurance on me,” he said nonchalantly as he took a large swig of one of the hot chocolates. He then carefully placed the mug on the counter before immediately mimicking being poisoned, complete with theatrical sound effects, whilst leaning against the edge of the counter. Lila pushed him and he collapsed onto the floor dramatically, poking his tongue out like a deceased cartoon character.

“Don’t be stupid,” Lila snickered. “Is it actually okay?”

“Look, if it’s poisoned, it’s a tasty type,” Asher grinned, sitting up. “Did you want me to check yours?”

“You’re far more precious than me,” Lila laughed, taking a sip. Whilst it wasn’t anywhere near as good as Gabriel’s hot chocolate, it was still tasty and gently warmed her. She waited a few seconds before taking another sip. Seemed safe.

“Marlene’ll be clocking off in about ten minutes,” Asher noted, picking up his drink and walking back to the couch.

“Guess it’ll be time to go back through the photos then,” Lila observed, taking her mug with her to her usual spot.

“Of course,” Asher replied with an easy smile. He took another sip before a frown deepened his brow.

“What?” Lila asked, putting her mug down.

“I just remembered what that guy said. What was his name? Marcus? Max? Whatever. About Quack Queen. What is it about the photos we took that looks similar to whatever the heck ‘Quack Queen’ is?”

“We could do some research while we’re waiting for Marlene to go,” Lila suggested, taking her phone out. Asher murmured his agreement and started looking through his phone too. It didn’t take long for a result to appear on her screen. Without skipping a beat, she let out a horrified gasp.

“What the fuck?” Asher uttered softly, tapping on his phone several times.

“Marlene’s a streamer?” Lila questioned, staring at Asher. His bewildered eyes met hers.

“Guess so.”

“Where does she get the time?” Lila whispered, clicking on the Google Images results for ‘Quack Queen’. Sure enough, there was Marlene, cat-ear headphones on, dramatic winged eyeliner, and a low-cut top, smiling. She looked surprisingly like a normal young woman, without the pretence of being a professional, respectful maid. It was absolutely jarring. Even more so when Lila recalled the attack on the would-be intruder with an involuntary shudder.

“Looks like she’s got some VODs on YouTube,” Asher murmured.

“Some what?”

“Uh… videos on demand, I think is the full term. Basically a past stream that’s been saved that people can watch without needing to be there live. Lots of people cross-post to YouTube after their stream is done. Some of the people we watch on YouTube have just edited their VODs down to, like, thirty minutes to an hour to make it more palatable for YouTube.”

“I see,” Lila trailed off thoughtfully. They exchanged a glance before simultaneously saying, “Let’s watch one.”

Asher leaned over and grabbed his joy cons, rapidly searching for ‘Quack Queen’. He clicked on the first YouTube channel that popped up.

“Bingo,” he said with a lopsided smirk.

“She’s got 10k subscribers on YouTube,” Lila observed as he scrolled through the page.

“A decent amount. Figures that most of this is WoW related,” Asher sighed. “But there’s some Minecraft. Valorant? Wow, okay. Oh, Stardew Valley… interesting variety.”

Another knock sounded at the door and Asher panic-mashed the home button.

“Yeah?” he called out as he chucked the controllers onto the couch and opened the door just a crack. He double-checked the Switch was still on the home page before opening the door fully.

“I’ve brought some cookies. Also by request of Master Wagner. He hopes you continue to have an enjoyable break from school, Lila,” came Marlene’s usual, politely measured voice.

“No hopes for my break, I see,” Asher quipped. Marlene didn’t respond to his comment as she carried in the tray, placed it next to the previous one, and patted down her apron. “Are you finished with your hot chocolates?”

“I’ll bring the cups down in the morning. You don’t need to worry about that,” Asher said. The only hint that he was freaking out was his marginally stilted breathing. Marlene simply nodded.

“Alright. I’m leaving for the night now. I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight, Mr Wagner. Goodnight, Lila,” Marlene said sweetly. They both bid her ‘goodnight’ as well and she swung the door shut behind her.

Lila squirmed in her seat slightly. Now that Marlene had truly left for the night, she was hyperaware of the fact that they were now rather alone together. Technically, Ivaan was most likely on this floor in the master wing of the house, but did that really count? The master wing was certainly far enough away from the rumpus room that he probably wouldn’t be able to hear anything…

‘Wait, hear anything? What am I going on about?’ Lila thought to herself, placing a hand on her chest in an effort to calm her furiously beating heart.

“I’m gonna get changed,” Asher announced, stretching his shoulders. “I’ll double-check that she’s going to the cottage while I’m changing.”

“Y-Yeah. I might get changed, too,” Lila said hesitantly.

“If you wanna grab the photos, they’re just in the closet, folded in between the second towel in the bottom drawer,” Asher suggested, heading off to his room. Lila nodded, though she wasn’t sure whether he’d seen that.

Her bags were sitting neatly on the round, blue Persian-inspired rug before the queen-sized bed in the spare room. The bedspread looked to be a dark grey, luxurious fabric – was it real silk? Lila bent down to inspect it, but she had no idea what she was looking for to determine that. A small, teal feature cushion sat neatly by the pillows, perfectly matching the knit teal throw blanket folded along the bottom edge.

The rest of the room’s decor was tastefully minimal, with baroque-style lamps sitting upon carved wooden side tables, and an extravagantly framed landscape painting of some rolling hills and trees softly swaying in a fictional breeze. The closet was hidden behind two standard mirror sliding doors. She slid one open to see a few empty coat hangers and a small pop-up ironing board and iron. The other side contained a white drawer set, which was mostly empty except for the bottom drawer which contained several fluffy white towels.

Lila reached into this drawer, unearthing the bundle of photos from the recesses of the towels. She placed it on the bed before getting changed into her colourful-print pyjama shorts and matching long-sleeved shirt. For a brief second, she contemplated taking off her bra but instantly refuted the idea. Perhaps when she was sleeping, she might take it off.

Glancing in the mirror, she nervously smoothed down her hair. Nothing was going to happen so she didn’t need to get so worked up. She reminded herself of this fact several times whilst breathing deeply. Surprisingly, it worked to calm her down. Taking one last deep breath, she grabbed the photos and returned to the couch.

Asher was already sitting in his usual spot, looking through the ‘Quack Queen’ YouTube channel again. He was wearing long plaid pyjama pants and a loose white t-shirt, looking effortlessly comfy. His eyes darted to her before looking back at the TV, clearing his throat slightly.

“I was just thinking about putting on one of the VODs as we go through the photos,” he said somewhat abashedly. “If you want to watch something else, or think we shouldn’t watch anything at all, we can do that too.”

“No, that sounds good. Two birds with one stone and all that. I just have to grab my laptop,” Lila said, jumping up and doing so.

Asher selected the latest VOD and opened his own laptop. The VOD started with a message about the stream starting soon, so they started itemising their stacks of photos. Every so often, Lila would check to see whether the stream actually started, but nothing happened for about fifteen minutes of concentrated silence.

Lila just finished setting up her table of evidence and had begun putting further details of the photos in when the stream suddenly started.

“Hellooo my Quacklings!” Marlene’s voice startled Lila into looking up at the TV. Marlene was wearing a skin-tight top, a smoky eyeshadow, and an assortment of stackable necklaces. Her hair was in loose curls, and she was resetting her headphones on her head.

Behind Marlene was, in fact, the exact display case featuring assorted figurines, as well as the fantasy landscape and fairy lights, that Lila recalled from their digging around in her cottage. There was a soft pink glow coming from above, which Lila supposed was from the LED strip lights that Asher had accidentally turned on.

“Everyone, say hi to Mr Snugglebutt,” Marlene purred, picking up her cat and waving his paws at the camera. Lila saw a flurry of comments flash up on the left side of the screen. Most of them were saying ‘Hi kitty!’ or some variation of that.

“Quacklings, I’ve added to my duck collection,” Marlene announced, holding up a simple wooden duck. “This one was from an antique shop. They’ve dated this little guy to sometime back in the 70s! Crazy.”

She leaned forward, peering at her screen. “Yeah, Mr Snugglebutt is feeling a lot better after his vet appointment, thanks for asking. Aw, thanks for the subs guys! Good to see you all tonight. Hm… what’s my day job?”

Marlene leaned back, setting down the wooden duck somewhere off-screen. She flashed a charismatic grin at the camera. “I work as a barista. I’m not gonna dox myself, but if you happen to see me, feel free to say hi! I look pretty different, though, so you might’ve already seen me.” Marlene giggled before opening up WoW.

Lila exchanged a look with Asher. This was a side of Marlene that she’d certainly never seen before, and Asher looked like he’d seen a ghost.

“Who is that?” he asked, blanching.

“QQ, apparently,” Lila replied simply. “She seems quite bubbly on stream.”

Lila watched Marlene set up her game before returning to her inventory of photos. This version of Marlene was surprisingly pleasant to listen to, her voice blending into the background seamlessly.

Half an hour passed before Lila noticed something was slightly odd with her pile of photos.

“Hey, Asher,” Lila said, her voice puzzled. “Do you have the farmhouse pictures?”

“Huh? Oh. Those. I didn’t see them in my stuff, but let me check.”

He rifled through his pile before shaking his head. “Definitely not with me.”

Lila frowned, flicking through her pile. It didn’t seem like she had them, either.

“You don’t see them anywhere at all?” she queried, craning her neck to check whether they had fallen somewhere around the coffee table.

“No… are you sure they were even printed?”

“Dead sure. Besides, Max said everything from the cameras was able to be printed. And I definitely saw them when we were looking at them before. I turned them around ‘cause they gave me the creeps.”

Asher stood up, pausing the video. “I’ll look under the coffee table,” he said, lowering himself to his hands and knees to take a look. Lila rummaged through what was on top of the coffee table, but just like before, she couldn’t find the farmhouse photos.

“That’s so weird,” Lila observed quietly.

“I mean, are they important to the pics we took of Marlene’s place?” Asher asked, sitting back down on the couch.

“I don’t think so, but… now that they’re missing, that’s gonna bother me for ages…” Lila trailed off as she picked up the list of printed photos. Everything was as it was when Max showed them this receipt – except…

Lila brought it close to her face, inspecting it with laser-sharp focus. The last page of the receipt seemed odd. The receipt itself had a lot of white space, yes, but… there were several raised sections of white here.

Lila touched one of the sections. It felt like white-out.

“What the heck?” she muttered, running her finger along the rest of the raised sections. Looking at it in its entirety, the white-out sections lined up perfectly with where the listed details for the three other photos on this portion of the receipt sat.

A shiver ran down her spine as she dropped the receipt onto the coffee table, her stomach twisting in knots.

“Asher,” she whispered, catching his attention immediately. “Asher, someone’s tampered with this.”

“What?” he questioned, his eyes as round as plates.

Lila shakily pointed at the offending receipt and he picked it up, alarm raising his eyebrows almost to the point of disappearing into his hairline.

“You’re joking,” he murmured, running his fingers along the receipt. “Why?”

He tried to scrape the white-out off with his fingernails, but it didn’t budge.

“Was it like this when we picked up the photos from the shop?” he asked, looking through the other pieces of the receipt.

“No idea. I feel like I would’ve noticed, but I didn’t look at the receipts in depth.”

“… Did Marlene take the farmhouse photos and do this to the receipt?” Asher’s voice was hushed as if hardly daring to believe the suggestion.

“Why would she? Well, why would she take the farmhouse photos and not any of the photos of the literal inside of her house?” Lila countered. Asher pursed his lips, looking pensive.

“If you didn’t do it, and I didn’t do it, and we had the photos when we came back from the shops, then it must’ve been Marlene. I doubt Gabriel would care about photos of Marlene’s side of the cottage - he wouldn’t get past the first couple,” he eventually said. His eyes drifted to the TV screen, which showed Marlene laughing a shrill, kookaburra-like laugh. “But you’re right… why would she let us keep the rest?”

“I wish I’d had a closer look at those pictures now,” Lila lamented. “Maybe there was something super important in those. Something she needed to hide.”

“… Something to do with the… thing… we saw in the farmhouse?” Asher proposed in a whisper. Lila met his gaze, a grim expression on her face.

“Maybe.”

They both fell into a thoughtful silence.

“… Let’s check it out in the morning,” Lila suggested.

“No,” Asher said flatly. “Not happening.”

“I wouldn’t suggest it if we had the photos. But the fact that Marlene, or whoever, selected only those photos to remove? And tried to erase them from the receipt? It has to be significant somehow. What if it’s related to your Mum?”

Asher inhaled sharply before burying his face in his hands. He sat like that for a few moments before slapping the sides of his face and looking back at Lila.

“Fine. You win. We’ll go back to the creepy ghost-infested farmhouse. Tomorrow morning, so we can come back in time for lunch.”

Lila tried to not look excited at the idea. While she was mildly terrified of the farmhouse and its resident (or residents), she would be lying if she said she wasn’t curious about it.

“I… guess we should keep looking through these,” Asher said after another pause.

“Yeah,” Lila’s eyes fluttered down to her pile of photos. They both continued for a time before a wave of exhaustion took hold. She could hardly keep her eyelids open and she began to yawn almost continuously. Asher closed his laptop lid, looking at her with a soft smile.

“We can go to bed,” he said gently. “It’s been a massive day.”

“Are you tired?” Lila yawned again before shaking her head as if to toss the fatigue out of her brain.

“In a manner of speaking,” Asher said quietly. He yawned into his hand and stretched his arms. “What time do you think you’ll wake up?”

“Dunno,” Lila replied honestly. “It’s a bit hit and miss, being in a different house and all. But I do want to go to that farmhouse.”

“Alright,” Asher smiled. “If you’re not up by, say, 9, did you want me to wake you up?”

Lila’s face flushed. What would waking her up entail?

“S-Sure. I should be up by then, though.”

“No worries,” Asher smiled again, standing up. “Well… goodnight, Lila.”

“Goodnight, Asher. See you tomorrow.”

He grinned broadly this time, his eyes twinkling. “See you tomorrow.”