Stella's Secrets

by Menaka Ravikumar

  “I hate feeling like this.” I slid onto his lap and he buried his face in my hair. We sat like that for a while.

  I was starting to think that maybe I should tell him the truth. Mom and dad told me that Mr L recommended Maria. That meant he was involved.

  Even if it was an attempted rape, if my parents had found out who did it, they definitely would have gone to court.

  And Mr L would have been the lawyer on the case. I glanced at my watch. It read 4:01 pm.

  “Hey, why don’t I make us some coffee? You need something to calm your nerves, yeah?”

  Max nodded, and I slid off his lap and went to make coffee. I decided to stay till Mrs Leary came because I knew I had to go home and talk to mom and dad.

  I tried Caitlin’s cell phone a few times, but only got her voicemail. I was freaking out. What if Anonymous got her? Soon after we finished our coffee Mrs Leary’s car arrived and she drove into the garage, parked her car, and got out. I stood on the front porch and watched Max collapse in his moms’ arms.

  I made sure Mrs L had everything she needed before letting Max walk me to my car. “You’re sure you’ll be ok?” I asked, leaning against my car.

  Max smiled goofily, orbs twinkling. “Yeah. I just needed to calm down.” He stepped closer and leaned in so our foreheads were touching.

  “Thank you.” Max whispered.

  “Any time.” I whispered back, and then kissed Max’s cheek. If he was surprised, he didn’t show it. “So you’re going back home, right?” Max enquired, and I hmm-ed in reply.

  He sighed. “Can’t you stay?”

  I shook my head. “My parents and I fought, so they’ll probably be in a Spanish inquisition mood.

  Max chuckled, and smiled a little. “Yeah. Good point.”

  Usually I would like the fact that Max didn’t ask a lot of questions, but right then, it just annoyed me. I forced myself to smile. I gave Max another kiss, a short one, then got into my car.

  “Are you going to file a missing persons report?” I wondered as I opened the door.

  Max sighed. “Yeah, I guess.” Mom might wait till tomorrow.” I turned and looked at him.

  “I’ll call you, ok?” He nodded in reply and I slid into the drivers’ seat and closed the door. I really wanted to tell him everything, but I was so scared about Anonymous.

  Though I doubted Tyler was Anonymous, I was starting to suspect Samira.

  She had disappeared after two days of hanging out with me. It was weird. And she left right after she gave me Mr Leary’s key, as well as the first task from Anonymous.

  I thought she might’ve gotten it by accident, or maybe Anonymous texted her, telling her to give it to me, but when I thought about it properly, I wondered if maybe Samira was Anonymous.

  Maybe she had intentionally led me to Mr L’s apartment. Maybe that’s how she knew Tyler.

  Maybe….

  Chapter Eighteen

  Abduction

  The house lights were on when I got home. I quietly climbed the stairs to my room. I stayed up to do my homework, then brushed my teeth and went to bed.

  When I sat up in bed I immediately knew I wasn’t in my own room. I got up and moved towards the door. But when I reached for the handle I heard a piercing scream, and it made me want to burst through to help whoever was had screamed. I gripped the door handle and tried turning it, and to my surprise it opened.

  There was another loud wail. I clapped my hands over my ears and turned to face the bed, then gasped. A thick bed sheet was wrapped around her, and it was soaked with blood. Another scream echoed in the room. The little girl lay there, sobbing. I realized she was me. It was my scream. I backed away slowly.

  When I woke up I was screaming again. My parents rushed into the room. “Stella, honey, you ok?” Mom put her arms around me, while dad wiped my wet cheeks with his thumb.

  “I had a bad dream.” I said, my throat dry. “It was just a bad dream…”

  X-X-X-X-X

  The next day Max went to the police station after school and filed a missing persons report for Caitlin, along with his mom. I had offered to give them a drive, since they both were way too tense. I didn’t take my eyes off Max, till my phone showed 1 new message. But this time it came with a picture. I swore under my breath when I saw that it was a picture of Caitlin Leary, her hands bound to the arms of the chair she was sitting on. Her mouth was gagged, but I could see the fear in her eyes. Below the picture was a message in text:

  ‘Task 3: Sneak into the filing room and

  find your file. See that no one

  notices you. If you

  get caught I’ll kill her.

  -Anonymous’

  I put my phone in my pocket and looked around. Max and his mom were in Mr Miller’s office, and I was outside, so I was able to sneak into the filing room. While they were inside I was casually leaning on the wall outside. There was a room full of filing cabinets, from what I remembered as a small kid.

  It took me a moment to remember, before I found the room. I checked that no one was looking before slipping inside. The room was small. It had a table in the middle of the room, with a few chairs surrounding it. There were several filing cabinets leaning against the walls, all in different sizes. How in the world was I going to find my file?

  I looked around, then decided to test my luck and went over to one of the cabinets. The cabinet had four drawers. I frantically flipped through each of them and found the file. Unfortunately there were a ton of blocked out words, so I couldn’t get a name. It said that there were two people were involved, but every single name was blacked out. The papers were mainly from the court trials. Details of the kidnapping and the attempted rape.

  Someone must’ve meddled with Mr L’s book. It was all a trap. Anonymous knew I would take the bait. I slammed my fist angrily on the top of the cabinet. How come my parents hadn’t told me about this? They must’ve known that there were two people involved, right? I shook my head and closed the file, and put it back in its place. I then stepped out of the room.

  I returned to my place near the door right on time.

  X-X-X-X-X

  After dropping Max and his mom home and waiting till they went inside I drove the long tiring drive all the way home, hoping my parents wouldn’t be home. But when I stepped into my house I got another message. Someone’s watching.

  ‘So that’s what I have to do

  to make you obey me? Though

  I’ve always found your stubbornness

  a turn on.

  - Anonymous’

  Oh, ew. A wave of nausea washed over me. Whoever Anonymous was, he was a sicko. And why was he acting like he knew me? I went to my room. I needed to think.

  X-X-X-X-X

  That night I went to the groceries store to get the vegetables mom needed for dinner. But as I walked into the parking lot I felt like someone was watching me. I tried to walk as fast as I could, but the heavy bags I was holding pulled me down. Footsteps. I whirled around, and saw no one. Shaking my head, I found my car.

  I was loading the bags into the trunk when I felt it again. Someone’s watching. ”Hello? Hello?” My voice came out in a whisper, and it felt like it got carried away by the wind. I walked a few steps forward, my boots making the pieces of gravel crunch beneath them. I looked around. Left, then right. Then I turned back to my car.

  Maybe I was just being very paranoid. But just as I opened the driver’s seat door, I realized how wrong I was. A hand clapped over my mouth and I was jerked back, hard. I tried to scream, but my voice was muffled. My keys dropped from my hand. I kicked with all my might, trying to escape, but whoever was holding me had a death grip.

  My legs grew weak, and suddenly I felt myself losing the strength to breathe. No. No. Stay awake. The world faded into darkness.

  X-X-X-X-X

  ”Stel
la. C’mon. Hey.” The cold hand on my cheek made me sit up. I found myself looking at two pairs of eyes. One was Mr L’s, the other, Savannah. They were crouching beside me.

  “Am-am I dead?” My voice came out in a squeak. Mr Leary and Anna both chuckled.

  “Of course not, sweetie.” Mr Leary said. I frowned at him. His eyes went serious. “Stella, we don’t have much time.” He took my hand in his, and I felt his big eyes pierce mine.

  “I can’t believe you’ve gotten so far, Stella. Thank you so much.” I didn’t know what to say. All I could do was listen.

  “Tell Max I love him, ok? And Caitlin. You can do it, Stella. You can put the killer away.”

  ”H-how? Mr Leary, I can’t. W-why do you believe in me? Why not Max?”

  ”Max is destined to do something else, Stella.” Savannah spoke suddenly, and I turned to look at her, and she smiled.

  “Now, you’ll need this. It’ll help you.” Anna revealed a small pen knife in her palm. I gasped.

  “T-that’s your lucky pen knife! How did you…”

  “Well, did you really think I would die without it?”

  “And you should give this to Max.” Mr L held a chain out, before putting both items in my pocket.

  “Now, it seems like we have to go.” Savannah said, and they both stood up from their crouched position on either side of me.

  “Goodbye Stella.” Mr Leary said, and within a blink of my eyes they both disappeared.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Anonymous revealed

  Pain. The first thing I felt when I woke up was pain, all over my body. There was darkness everywhere, so my eyes took a moment to adjust. My hands were tied. Ow, my butt hurts. I tried to move but realized what I was tied to-a chair. The image of Caitlin was the next thought that popped up in my head, and I immediately struggled to pull my hands from the ropes that bound them.

  Suddenly a door opened, and light streamed in. Two men stepped into the room and one closed the door, but not before flicking the light on. I could examine my surroundings thoroughly with the small bulb hanging from the ceiling. The whole room had dirty walls, with wallpaper peeling.

  From what I could see it looked like an old storage room. Warehouse. I decided when I spotted a single window to my left. “Well, well. Hey, Stud, look what we have here.” One of the men sneered. I noticed his teeth were yellow, and he had reddish-purple hair styled in a Mohawk. Both men looked in their twenties.

  I should’ve kept my mouth shut, but I couldn’t help myself. “Stud? Really? Wow, that’s original. Who are you, then? Mohawk?” Both of them glared at me.

  “Shut up.” ‘Stud’ growled. His voice made him sound older than he looked, since it was deep and gravelly but his face looked a little too young and slightly innocent. He had a Mohawk as well, but it was completely dyed red. Both of them had multiple piercings. They actually looked like they were pretty young… like twenty two or twenty three..

  I grunted. “Wow. You look really scary when you’re glaring like that. I’m like, gonna pee in my pants any second now.” I rolled my eyes. What the pair of sucky villains didn’t know was that my hands were tied behind my back, but I was slowly trying to loosen the ropes by rubbing against the chair, so I made the split decision to stall as much as I could.

  “What do you want to do with her?” Mohawk asked, and Stud’s smile made me feel uneasy. “We could always take her to the room…”

  His words kind of freaked me out a bit. What if they really did something to me? I already had enough forgotten memories in my head, slowly coming back like a tornado. I did not need any more to add to my collection. I scoffed. “Dude, seriously? Do you really think I’d sleep with you? Gross. And by the way, I’m taken. My boyfriend is not gonna be happy about this…”

  “I said shut up!” Stud’s face turned red with anger, and he took a few steps forward and punched me right in the jaw. Pain spread like fire all over my face and I winced. Mohawk pulled out a knife out of nowhere and pressed the cold, sharp metal against my skin, making me shiver. Every bit of sarcasm drained out of me.

  “Say one more word and I will happily slash your throat.”

  “There wont be any need for that, Simon. I need her alive.” The voice came from behind the now half open door, and then a man walked in. He was the same man I had seen at school, and in my dream, after Savannah died. Oh shit. He’s real. The man stepped close to me and Mohawk stepped back.

  “You can go. I will handle this.” The man said, and I finally saw his face up close. He had reddish blonde hair tied in a pony tail, and he had eyes that didn’t match the rest of his body-a beautiful shade of Valkyrie blue, while his body was somewhat overly tall, and his face had an ugly scar that slashed across his right cheek. Both Mohawk and Stud left the room.

  “Hello, love. I’ve been waiting a long time for this moment.” He twirled a strand of my soft hair around his fingers, then let the strands slip away, through his fingers. Then he suddenly grabbed my hair and yanked on it, hard. I couldn’t supress a scream of pain.

  “You look just like Savannah.” He said, then laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world. I shuddered involuntarily. “I should probably introduce myself.” His accent was pure British, extremely visible, and his voice was guttural.

  “My name is Greg,” He leaned down to whisper in my ear, and his stale breath, dripping with the smell of alcohol, tickled my cheek.

  “And I’m your worst nightmare.”

  X-X-X-X-X

  “What do you want from me? And where’s Caitlin?” I was pretty sure that he would buy my act of acting totally unfazed, as long as my voice didn’t give away how shaky and freaked out I was.

  Greg stared at me for a second before suddenly guffawing in laughter. Then he started clapping, slowly, as if I had recited something to him and he was impressed. I must’ve looked confused, because Greg rolled his eyes. “Do you know why I took her, Stella? Do you know who her father is?” Greg stepped back, gazing at me with an expression that I couldn’t read.

  “Well, yes. But what does that have to do with m -”

  “It has EVERYTHING to do with you! How, how is it possible for you to not know? After ALL this time?” He was hysterical then, eyes wide, and he had his arms crossed over his chest. “Did he not tell you? Stella, the ANGELS are coming.”

  I didn’t understand anything that he was saying. I decided to keep my mouth shut and just listen to him. He stopped, though, and he grinned out of nowhere, then let his beady eyes trail over my body while simultaneously licking his lips.

  Then he silently reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife before sliding it down my neck lightly. Panic set in when he pressed a little harder on my neck, and I had to bite down hard on my lip to refrain from screaming in pain when I felt a sting and the smell of my blood filled my nostrils.

  I didn’t move, even when he began to cut my shirt open slowly. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to calm down, but the memories were coming back. In a blur mostly, but I could hear voices. Then me screaming. I didn’t believe my mom and dad when they told me that I was almost raped. I had my own memories, and I was sure that they were not figments of my imagination. It was pretty clear that my parents couldn’t be trusted anymore, since they kept lying to me.

  Just as he finished cutting through the shirt to reveal my bra clad chest, a woman walked into the room. Unlike Stud and Mohawk, the woman didn’t have multiple piercings. Her caramel coloured hair cascaded just past her shoulders, and in the light I could see a few purple highlights in between the perfect silky looking hair.

  “Greg, he’s here. He’s demanding to see her.” She pointed at me and glared.

  “Thank you, M. guard her, will you?” And with another nod Greg left the room. M stood silently for a second, her eyes looking at anything but me. She was leaning against the door. But after a few seconds she stepped towa
rds me, and to my surprise she reached into my pocket and took out-to my amazement, Mr L’s pen knife.

  “How did that-” I almost said “How did that get there?” But I stopped mid-sentence when I realized that Anna had given it to me. But… That’s impossible!

  “We don’t have much time.” M said suddenly, snapping me out of my thoughts. She cut the ropes from my hands and I rubbed the red marks on my wrists.

  “Why are you helping me?” I questioned as she bent down to remove the ropes on my legs.

  “Because I’m a friend.” She said simply, looking at me as if that was the simplest, most uncomplicated answer ever. There was an abrupt, loud bang from outside the room. I pulled off the loose ropes from my legs and I was standing up when M grabbed both my shoulders and pushed me back onto the chair, then handed me the knife again.

  “Keep this safe. And wait for my signal.” I didn’t get a chance to reply though, because suddenly the door opened and Stud walked in, and right behind him was Caitlin.

  She had a gag in her mouth, and as soon as she saw me, she started struggling. She didn’t talk, she didn’t scream, she just struggled. Her eyes were wide, filled with fear, I think for me and for her.

  What I saw next shocked me. I recognized his clothes instantly, and I wanted to run to him, but M hadn’t taken her hands off me, and she was digging her nails into my shoulder.

  Max had a blindfold over his eyes, and his hands were tied in front, and he was struggling. “M, undo her binds. I want to know how Max here reacts when I rip her to pieces.” M pulled off the ropes that were already loose on my hands and legs and pulled me up before roughly pushing me forward.

  I stumbled forward, and I fell into Mohawk, who grabbed both my arms and held me tightly. M walked over to Max and untied the blindfold. He blinked, and then his eyes focused on me.