Locks and Keys

The next day, Miss Stromal informed me that I would be without my phone until next Monday, so that would be three whole days without it, which was slightly depressing, but I was lucky we had a spare brick phone with each family member's number on it. I was advised by the family not to tell anyone about this phone; so that the Creeper couldn't find out I didn't have my phone anymore.

Miss Stromal had further told me that the police couldn't track the location of the texter, because they were sending the messages from a burner phone. What they were able to do was keep an eye on the messages coming in and try and find any clues or patterns as to who it might be sending them; but until they found that out, we had to wait.

I was growing more and more paranoid about what the Creeper was going to do with Jamie, never leaving him alone, even at home where I knew we were safe, which was making him get frustrated with me because of all my hovering around. It was needless to say that he did turn to physical violence to fight me off from sleeping in his room last night and just thinking about his annoyance made me laugh.

"What are you chuckling about, you crazy person you?" Ollie said from the seat beside me. We had been sitting in DT for the past half an hour, doing our coursework, so in other words, killing time.

"Nothing of your concern." I said, still snickering. Ollie simply raised an eyebrow at me, which only made me laugh more.

"What?" He asked.

"Your face looks funny." I said and poked his cheek. I couldn't help but wonder why his face looked so familiar as I continued to poke it. "Have you ever lived anywhere else, other than London?" I asked out of the blue.

"Uh, yeah, I was living in Nottingham before I came here, why?"

"Wait, where part of Nottingham?" I asked, not quite believing what I was hearing.

"Near the university. Why are you asking me all of this?"

"Hush now, Child. Now, which primary school did you go to?" I grabbed his face and squashed his cheeks between my fingers. He looked slightly scared at my outburst, as did Connor and Emily, but I just ignored them and continued with squeezing Ollie's cheeks.

"Beeston Fields Primary!" He got out through his distorted mouth. His response made me let go of his face.

"Damn, so close, Lock and I were at Round Hill Primary, but close enough."

"No way! We were so close. Please tell me you went to that Beeston mother and toddler group, my Mum is obsessed about reminding me of the 'good old days' when I was a toddler and we would go to that group."

"You've got to be joking, you went there? We went there! Oh my, we have something else in common." I said, running a hand over my tied up hair.

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Ollie chuckled and I hit him on the arm.

"I'm not! I'm just surprised."

"Alright class, it's getting a bit loud in here. Tone it down for the rest of the lesson please." Our teacher shushed us, leaving us to work in silence for the rest of the lesson.

 

At lunch I was sitting at the table when Emily and Ava walked up to join us and I couldn't help but notice the pair of grey ankle boots Emily was wearing. I nudged Brook and pointed at the shoes and her eyes widened in fear and shock. That answered my question.

I got out the brick phone inconspicuously and texted Lock, who was sitting on the other side of the table. He read the text and then looked down at the floor around Emily and frowned, before sending me a look. I cleared my throat as Emily sat down next to me, and Ava sat on her other side.

"I love your boots, Emily! Where did you get them?" I asked, sounding enthusiastic, while I was screaming curses at her in multiple languages within my head.

"I got them from American Eagle! They were on sale and I fell in love with them, so did Ava, she's always bugging me to borrow them." Emily laughed, looking all innocent, but I knew her guilt. 

"Nice, how long have you had them for?"

"A few weeks now, I love them, but sometimes they are too high for me to walk in. but today isn't so full on, so I thought I would wear them." She smiled at me and I returned it, trying to make it look as genuine as possible, which was hard to do seeing as though I thought that this was the girl was the one currently targeting my brother.

I wasn't sure about everyone else, but I thought the rest of lunch went really stiffly. I couldn't help but just sit there consumed with my thoughts of the person sitting next to me and my discovery about Ollie. I knew I had recognised him from somewhere.

I knew I had to corner her, just like we had with Trent, so I made plans to talk to her in the library during our free period that afternoon. Both Ollie and Lock walked me to the study room and I told Lock about Ollie's childhood.

"No way, man! That's crazy!" Lock said and slapped Ollie on the back.

"I know right, it's so weird that we ended up in the same school after all this time." Ollie agreed.

When we got to the library, Emily was already there waiting for us, looking slightly confused at why we were asking to talk to her.

"Cut the crap, Emily, we know it's you." I accused, once we had made it over to her.

"Key, what are you on about, me what?" She asked looking slightly scared at my outburst; only I saw that as her guilt.

"You're the one sending the texts and the one that put Brook in the hospital! We know now Emily, so just admit it." I snapped back, my fists clenched at my sides.

"Why on earth would you think it was me? You know I could never do something like that!" Emily protested as she ran a hand through her red hair.

"So the person that attacked Brook just so happened to have exactly the same shoes as you did?" Lock questioned, sceptically.

"What? Same shoes? Brook saw who hurt her? And you think it's me?" She looked taken aback from our accusation.

"Yes, that's exactly what we think!" I shouted, earning me some shushes from the librarian.

"I have been your friend ever since that first DT lesson, how could you accuse me of such hateful things? And why would I be the one to send you texts about staying away from boys when you know I like Kent!" She whisper-yelled. She had a point, but it all could have been a façade. "And anyway, Brook was attacked on a Friday, which is one of the days I wouldn't have worn the boots because they're too high and my bag is stuffed full of text books on that day." As she told us this, her eyes widened slightly in realisation. "But I know who was wearing these shoes last Friday."

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Ooo, cliff hanger! Thanks for reading this chapter and please comment, vote and tell me what you think! I know this is a short chapter, but I wanted to quicken the pace, the end is nearly in sight, so don't stop now...  Please!