Blue at Midnight by S D Wile, D R Kaulder Page B

my
nerves.
    Speaking
louder than usual meant that my dad was speaking on the phone, in the living
room. Probably to Dr
Mathews but I couldn’t care less. I wasn’t going unless I wanted to. Personally
I thought I could never really be ready to talk about my personal life to a
complete stranger. What was even worse was the fact that my dad would have told
the therapist I attempted suicide regardless of what I had said. According to
him the first step to recovery would be admitting that I tried to end my life
and that I have a problem. The fact that my mother passed away last year would
become a contributing factor to this idea and I would then be helplessly
drowning in a sinking ship. Sadly my mother had spent many years suffering with
ill health and deep down I knew that she was losing the strength to fight. The
thought of her being able to finally rest in peace without suffering was what
helped me grieve.  
    Right now I knew
I had no choice but to sort this mess out myself.  
    “Sonia’s coming
to see me.” I shouted quickly, barely opening the living room door. Before my
dad had a chance to respond I’d already made my way upstairs.
    Vibrations
flooded the driveway and unsurprisingly it was twenty-six minutes since I ended
my phone conversation to Sonia.
      She sounded out of breath and I’d barely said
hello before telling her to follow me upstairs to avoid speaking to my dad.
After shutting the door it dawned on me why she was so out of breath.
    Collapsed on the
floor and half rolled over was a camping rucksack almost the same size as
Sonia. Probably the same weight too.  
    “And why are you
dressed like a ninja?” I asked whilst desperately trying to hold back the urge
to laugh hysterically at the appearance of a short but slender girl wearing
shades, black gloves, slim-fit jeans and a ribbed top, accompanied by black
pumps. It was as if a piece of night itself had walked into my bedroom. This
was clearly a big deal as you had more chance of seeing an eclipse than Sonia
out in public without her high heels. Even her slippers had heels!
    Maybe telling my
weird but wonderful friend what I’d seen was a bad idea after all.
    “Isn’t this a
bit over the top?”
    “Over
the top! Izzie, you
don’t understand the danger you could be in! The danger we all might be
in!   Either he’s come back to kill again
or to secretly live in the old shoe factory, opposite your house!”
    Sonia had
thought of all the possible reasons the stranger may have been here and out of
all ten possibilities only one of them didn’t involve danger. I couldn’t help
but wonder if she was right and whether ignoring what I had seen would be a big
mistake. Unfortunately, there was only one way to find out but I certainly
wasn’t brave enough to attempt it.
    “Why have your
brought a rucksack?” I felt almost too afraid to ask her about her plan as I
knew whatever she was going to say next was not going to be legal.
    “Look we need to
find out what’s happening there. Who knows, we might even find a person that’s
in need of help. We could save someone’s life!”
    “Why don’t we
just call the police? They can do all that for us and we can watch from here.”
    “You really think
they’re going to take seeing a shadow and a dim light as sufficient evidence
for searching the place? Trust me they are too preoccupied with the rest of the
goings on in this area.” She did actually have a good point there. Who would
believe us? Especially with my reputation at the moment and one conversation
with Sonia would be enough for them to think we were both crazy. As petrified
as I was with the idea of breaking into a place, especially one where they
found a dead body, I couldn’t help but wonder whether there was someone in
there that needed help. We all need help when we are in real trouble, just as
someone helped me when I had drowned, even though I can’t remember exactly who
it was. Perhaps someone was being held prisoner or even