Chapter 169 – A Step Away – Holly Hayfield

Lilith talked me into helping her with the chores her aunt gave her. There was something amusing about Lilith being fed up with her aunt’s long lists of demands and pushing half of them onto me. I didn’t mind. It gave me a way to bide my time instead of dwelling on Ellie and Crystal.

The work Mrs. Wilson wanted us to handle was regarding the Meredith Family estate. The property was slated to be rented out to a regional research organization. They were hosting a two-day summit and needed a place for their members to congregate while they were in the city.

It was the middle of the week by now. Lilith and I had the next three days to get the place into shape before the guests showed up. Originally Mrs. Wilson was going to hire a professional service, but Lilith vetoed that. The money for that would come out of the estate’s funds, Lilith’s future birthright.

The rental proceeds would recoup such losses, but not by a wide margin. Lilith wanted to conserve as much of that money as possible for her own future plans. Normally the rentals at the Meredith estate were for the sake of long-term maintenance funds, not about turning a profit.

Lilith argued that if they did the cleaning themselves then they’d be able to benefit more greatly. Mrs. Wilson agreed, but she was too busy with her own work to clean the place with Lilith. The place was also far too large for Lilith to handle alone. That was how my name got thrown into the hat.

Granted, Lilith didn’t mean to drop so much work into my lap specifically. The rest of the student council was invited to the estate with us. That didn’t turn out as Lilith hoped. Valentina and Jay had their own work outside of school. Sam was dedicating more time to her girlfriends after school now that she wasn’t grounded, Silver too.

Alyssa planned to join us, but only for a few hours per day. She had duties at home to attend to and couldn’t afford to sleep over at the Meredith estate with us. She was loathed to leave us by ourselves when it started getting dark. She jokingly warned me against cheating on her with Lilith. She was smiling about it, but I got a feeling that she wasn’t joking.

The proposition of staying over at the Meredith estate for a few days sounded alluring at first. It was a mansion, after all. It wasn’t every day I got to visit one, let alone sleepover there. I was having reconsiderations after spending the entire evening cleaning.

I worked up a sweat by just sweeping, mopping, and vacuuming the many floors of the place. The building was so large that I wasn’t even done by nightfall. There would be more floors to clean on the next day, never mind any other tasks. The work for a place of this size was grueling.

Lilith and I hardly interacted during the entire evening. We were forced to split up to cover different areas and tasks across the property. Although I didn’t say it to her, I was beginning to have serious doubts that we could handle all this on our own.

Unless we could get help from our friends before the weekend, we’d likely have to go with Mrs. Wilson’s original plan of hiring additional helpers. I gave it my best, regardless. The work was hard, but the environment was quiet and peaceful.

This was cathartic for me after stressing out about how to talk to Ellie again and wasting time worrying about Crystal Gray. While wiping the dust away inside the mansion, I tried to wipe away my internal worries as well. This new goal gave me an excuse to take my mind off of all that.

Lilith and I met in her bedroom once we were finished cleaning for the night. We both collapsed on the bed. She worked every bit as hard as I did, which was impressive. She was acting responsibly about her future inheritance. It was encouraging to see such maturity in her.

Her room here was changed since last I saw it. Before, all the decorations were essentially frozen in time from her childhood. Now her room looked like a split between her past and her present. She moved a new desk into the room, along with some of her electronics. Books messily lined the shelves and were beginning to pile on the floor.

“You know that we’re going to have to clean this room too, right?” I asked Lilith while gesturing around the room. “Your aunt did put it on the list.”

“We’ll save it for last. It’s not that important. It’s not like any guests will be coming in here while their meeting is happening.”

“True, but I think your aunt is trying to demonstrate the point that caring for this place is harder than you think.”

Lilith sat up in bed.

“It’s a stupid point for her to stress. I know exactly how hard it is. I used to live here.” Lilith said. “She’s probably mad about the fact that I plan to move in here sometime after high school.”

“What?” I asked.

“She wants me to live with them for much longer, but I want to live on my own.” Lilith said, massaging her tired muscles. “I’ve been part of the Wilson family for so long that they don’t want to see me go. The thing is though… I always planned to move into my family home when given the chance. I don’t like seeing it rented out to strangers.”

“Didn’t your family originally move out due to the upkeep costs?”

“Yes, but I have enough inheritance that it shouldn’t be a problem for a long time. Hopefully by the time those funds run dry I’ll be making enough money to take care of things.”

“Maybe, but that’s a big demand for a place of this size. I don’t know how much money it takes just to keep the lights on, but it can’t be cheap. This is too much for one person.”

Lilith turned in the bed to face me fully.

“Actually, I was hoping that you’d move in here with me.”

I sat up in bed beside her.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yes, but not just you. Any of our friends from the student council are welcome to live here once I take over.”

Imagining all of us living beneath the same roof made me smile. We could probably make some great memories together.

“That sounds like it could be interesting.”

“It isn’t merely out of kindness. Like you mentioned, I can’t handle everything by myself. I trust you all enough to help me keep this place from falling apart. It would mean a lot. I’d finally be able to return to my family home…”

I couldn’t help myself. I pulled Lilith into a hug.

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“Of course I’ll join you.” I said. “I’ll have to talk to my mom about all this though. It may take some time to convince her.”

Lilith pulled away and nodded.

“I expected as much. It’s no matter. This isn’t something that I plan to do immediately after high school. It’ll be gradual. There are conditions that have to be fulfilled for legal ownership to be transferred to me. That includes having an income above a certain threshold. It may take some time.”

“I’ll talk to the others about this on your behalf. At the very least, I’m sure Alyssa would love to be a part of this.”

“Thanks.” Lilith said.

Lilith got up and walked over to her computer desk. My feet were so tired that I was inclined to stay on the bed. This was a lot of extra work for a school night. I lied back down and watched Lilith from the edge of the bed. I sprang back up when I saw her laptop’s background image.

“You have the Killing Cat as your desktop wallpaper?!” I asked in surprise.

“You like it?” Lilith asked. “I commissioned this artwork from Silver. She didn’t charge much. She said this was based off a sketch she made weeks ago.”

“What if your aunt was to see something like this?”

“She already saw it. She doesn’t think much about the Killing Cat. She thinks the entire story is fabricated to explain senseless violence.”

“That’s one take I’ve never heard before…”

“The brutality of the Killing Cat is hard for her to accept. She’d rather believe it was the work of gang violence instead of a remarkable, determined outlaw. It’s rare when an individual out maneuvers the police and her targets this thoroughly. The Killing Cat is a living myth! That’s why I love her!”

“You sound like a little kid right now.”

She spun around in her chair to face me.

“This artwork wasn’t the only thing I commissioned! I reached out to an online 3D printing service about making a custom figurine of the Killing Cat! It’ll be nearly the same size as my other figures back at home!”

“Correction, you are a little kid!” I said. “Lilith…”

“What? The Killing Cat is popular now! I’m hardly the only one geeking out about her these days. I still haven’t even bought one of those masks yet. I should probably look into it before they become too expensive…”

“Do whatever you want.” I said with a sigh.

I lied back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling.

“I’ll buy one for you too.” She offered.

“No thanks, I already have one.”

“Aha! So you are a fan after all!”

“Ugh… I’m going to take a shower.” I said, rising from the bed.

A slightly heretical part of me wondered how Lilith might react if I told her the truth. My worst fear was that she’d be afraid of me, but that might not actually happen. She might be over the moon and want to be involved with every mission.

I didn’t want her, or any of my student council friends to think of me as a killer. Alyssa was the only one I could trust to not change her image of me after learning the truth. For Lilith, she would at the least be upset that I chose to take these extreme measures without her involvement, especially after warning her against doing something extreme herself.

When I got out of the shower, I found that Lilith moved from the desk to the bed. She was busy typing something on her laptop. I momentarily watched her from the doorway. She was so lost in her work that she didn’t acknowledge my return. I grinned wickedly.

I walked over slowly, crawling onto the bed with her. She noticed me but didn’t turn away from her laptop screen. I positioned myself right behind her so that I could hold her from behind. She snapped out of her trance-like state when my arms firmly wrapped around her waist. Surprisingly, she didn’t turn back to tell me off.

“I sort of expected you’d do something like this when you said you wanted to sleep in the same room.” Lilith freely admitted. “You can be easy to read sometimes.”

I laughed.

“Was I that obvious?”

“You were. I got the impression that this was your ulterior motive for agreeing to help me so readily. It didn’t take you any convincing to give up your free time for the next few days.”

“And here I thought I was being sneaky by resisting this for so long…”

“I don’t get why you don’t just do this sort of thing with Alyssa instead.” Lilith said while still typing on her laptop. “It seems like she’d be more receptive to your brand of touchy-feeliness.”

“True, she is.” I said. “But it isn’t the same. Your size is a perfect fit for me! You’re still my favorite person in the world to hold!”

She finally stopped working and turned back to glare at me.

“I hope that isn’t your idea of a compliment.” She said sternly. “But I’ll allow this for today since you’ve helped me out so much.”

“Hooray!”

“Don’t make me change my mind.” She warned.

“Haha! You’re too capricious!” I teased.

“And so are you!” She shot back, turning back to face her laptop screen. “I’ve noticed how busy you’ve been for the past two weeks. Now you’re suddenly willing to dedicate essentially the rest of the week to me. What’s up with that?”

This was a rather shrewd question couched in an otherwise nonchalant comment. So my prolonged absence from our group didn’t go unnoticed by her? Not that I thought it would. I just thought she’d be more indifferent towards my time spent focusing on other things.

My high spirit deflated a little while thinking up an answer.

“I got lost in my tunnel vision while chasing a meaningless goal. I didn’t know it at the time, but my work and plans were undone by outside interference.”

“That sounds… Exhausting…?”

“Yeah…” I agreed. “Let’s go with exhausting. It doesn’t help that my past is coming back to haunt me. I feel like I’m stuck in a loop.”

“Is it because of Zara?” Lilith asked. “She told us that she came from the same school as you. Her presence must be a constant reminder of your past life.”

“That’s very observant of you to say.” I noted lightly.

She held her head up high.

“Well of course! I know you well enough by now to know when something is funny. And let me say, you’ve definitely been acting funny.”

I squeezed her sides.

“Oh yeah?!” I asked provokingly.

This caused her to push my hands away in a huff.

“Yeah!” She said while returning to her work. “To be honest, I’m glad that you’re in a better mood today. I’d feel guilty if you were moping around the place while helping me clean up. Regardless, I’d still need your help cleaning this place no matter what.”

I laughed.

“How thoughtful!” I said.

“That’s why I’m willing to let you hold me for a bit. I want you to be in a good mood.” She said.

I smiled and wrapped my arms around her again.

“Thank you, Lilith.” I said.

“Considerate a rewardd for the help you’ve given me, and an advance on the next time we have to clean this place.”

“You’re already thinking about the next time?”

“Of course! I can’t let my aunt waste my inheritance carelessly. If I had known that we could save money by inviting other students over for a few days then I would’ve tried harder to make more friends at school.”

“I don’t know if I should laugh at that or cry. Either way, it isn’t too late to branch out and meet more people at school. I’m trying to do something similar for Alyssa. We still have a few months before graduation.”

“Pass. I’ve got too much on my plate, especially now.”

“What are you working on right now anyways?”

“This…?” She asked, pointing at her laptop screen. “This is an email to Malorie’s brother.”

“Jacob…? Why…?”

“I’ve been annoying him into sending me more information about the messages he received in the wake of Malorie’s funeral. He eventually just decided to forward me all of the ‘fan’ e-mails he received so that I’d stop bothering him.”

“You’re really something else…”

“The messages he received were fascinating! It was amazing to see so much love directed at Malorie’s memory. However, he recently forwarded me something strange. I don’t think he’s read that particular e-mail himself. That’s why I’m contacting him about it now. “

“What stood out about this email?”

“Nothing… Everything… It was a death threat. It wouldn’t be the first that he received, according to what he’s told me before. But this one was odd…”

“Show me.” I demanded.

“One second,” Lilith said.

She minimized the email she was typing up to open up a folder. There, she opened up a document in a ‘Malorie Fan Letter’ folder. The message was just as Lilith said. It was a vague death threat, the person pointing out the Noelle household address and warning Jacob about going to the police.

“Wait!” I shouted, pointing out something at the bottom of the document. “These symbols down at the bottom!”

“Yeah, this was the image that was attached to the message. That’s why I find it so odd. It’s in some language that I’ve never seen before. Maybe it’s just gibberish, but it looks like the person went out of their way to take a photo of the text and attach the file. I was writing an email to Jacob to ask if he knew anything about this.”

I stared at the image with a wide-eyed expression. Lilith didn’t know what this was because she had never seen this code before. This was the same code language that Cora Wells and Ms. Sampson used to communicate between each other! I even knew what some of this said…

‘I’ll be waiting for you, at…’

Lilith watched me intently as I stared at the message in the image.

“Do you recognize what language this is?” She asked. “I’ve never seen text like this.”

I refocused on Lilith.

“Before you send your email, ask Jacob if he’s seen text like this before.” I said. “There’s a coded message here.”