I stand here waiting for this lady to say something; anything but she just stands there. “So can you take me to my mom’s apartment?” I ask her. “Yes I can. Cahira your mom said if you ever showed up here without her it meant she was in trouble” she says. I am not sure if she is asking me a question or telling me a statement. “Cahira!” I hear Grace in the distance. “Who is that?” The lady asks. “That’s my sister.” I tell her as I wave to Grace. “Your sister?” She asks. “Yes, that’s my sister. Did my mom not mention I had a half-sister?” I ask her. I am not sure how much this lady knows or even what this lady knows. Grace walks up. “Who is this?” She asks. “I never got her name” I tell Grace. We both look at the lady. “Hope said I wasn’t to give anyone my name if they came looking for her. I am just supposed to take you to her apartment. Is Hope in trouble?” She asks me. “I really can’t say. I just need you to take me to her apartment please,” I tell her. The old lady nods and points to the apartment across the way from us. She starts to walk towards it very quietly. She doesn’t say a word to us as we walk over there. The apartment is on the top floor. We follow her up the stairs. “Key?” Grace asks the lady. “I am afraid I don’t have a key. She said her little warrior would know where to find it.” I look around at all the figurines she has on her little porch. All of them are animals expect one. One is a figurine of a child warrior. I am sure this is where the key is. “Thank you for all your help.” I tell the nameless old lady. “No problem. So I just have one question.” She says to me. “What is it?” I ask. “Is Hope alive?” I look at Grace. “Yes why would you think she isn’t?” Grace asks her. “No reason. I should let you be. I have to be on my way.” She rushes off down the stairs. “What a strange lady.” Grace says. I pick up the child warrior to see a key taped to the bottom. “Got it” I tell Grace as I show her the key. Grace looks at the key and then looks back. “Something isn’t sitting right with me. I am going to check something out. You go inside I’ll be back in just a second.” Grace says as she takes off.
I unlock the door and walk into the apartment. It smells like Hope. I look at how normal her place looks. She has art on the walls but no personal pictures which is to be expected. I walk looking around her living room and I don’t see a letter from our brother. We found the apartment but where is the next clue or letter of how to find Percy. I hear a thud outside. I run back out the door and Grace is dragging the old lady up the stairs. “What are you doing?” I ask her. “She called someone to warn them.” Grace says as she continues to pull the lady. “PLEASE STOP!” The lady screams. “Grace STOP!” I tell her as I pull her off the lady. I push Grace back and look at the lady and I help her sit up. “Who did you call?” I ask her. “Hope left me with very specific instruction for if she got herself into trouble.” The lady says. “What were they? Please I have to know. If you called the wrong person I could lose my mom” I tell her. “She gave me a number to call. She said if you ever came looking for her to call the number and tell the man who answers that Hope is missing. She said the man would know what to do from there.” The lady looks a little beat up but not too bad. “Can I have the number?” I ask her. “No, Hope was very clear that I was not to tell you about the man or the man about you.” I step back to think. I look at Grace not sure what to do now. Who is this man? Where is the next letter to find Percy? I need some answers. Grace kicks the lady in the face. I am in shock, I was not expecting that. “My sister said to give her the number.” Grace demands as she lifts the ladies head up. The poor old lady, her nose is dripping with blood. “It’s in my phone!” The little old lady said as she pulls her phone out and hands it to Grace. “That was a much better of an answer. See I knew you were a very smart lady and I would hate for what happened to your cat to happen to you.” Grace says as she hands me the phone. I look at Grace. “What happened to her cat?” I ask Grace. “I am sorry to say the cat is no longer with us.” I hit Grace. “You have got to be kidding me! Please tell me you didn’t kill this poor ladies cat.” I tell Grace. “Of course I did. We don’t know who she called. It could be him! She could be a spy of some sort. So I killed her cat so she would talk. She didn’t though she just started crying uncontrollably.” Grace says. I am so mad at Grace. “She was helping us! Like we don’t have enough going on! You need to focus because I didn’t see a letter in there! We need to find Percy!” I yell at her. “I get that but first we need to figure out who she called Cahira we have to know what we are up against.” Grace says. “We know what we are up against! Our own blood, someone who’s much like you with no value for life!” I take a deep breath trying to calm down. I look down at the phone in my hand. Grace is right we do need to know who she called.
No comments:
Post a Comment