After I read the text, I readied my house for company. As soon as everyone had left, my room had somehow become dirty again, as it usually was: clothes strewn across the floor, a faint odor evident in the room, the blankets that belonged to my bed haphazardly layered at the foot of my bed, and the overall arrangement of my room was just off somehow, like the pieces of furniture had been randomly discarded around the room – which they probably had. I cleaned it up, though, fairly quickly.
I gathered all of my dirty clothes and rushed downstairs to place them in the wash. That's when the doorbell rang. I hurriedly threw all of the clothes into the wash, poured the detergent into the dispenser and started the wash. Then, I literally ran to the door, unlocked it, and opened it, desperately trying to catch my breath as I did so.
Astrid was standing there when I opened the door. She was dressed in a yellow tank-top, white jeans, leopard-print high heels, and earrings shaped like moons dangled from her ears. Her blond hair was as poised as it always was, her smile the only indicator that she wasn't one of those girls who liked to control everyone. Her smile was small and tight, but also sweet.
"Hi, Tanner," was all she said before walking in. I stepped to the right, so she could walk through, her high heels echoing on the marble floor. I closed the door and we walked further into the house before we ascended up the stairs leading to my room.
"You can sit down and get settled. I'll be downstairs waiting for Sam and Gwen to get here," I said, walking out of the room and closing the door before I could even hear Astrid's reply. She probably thought that was rude, but I had other things on my mind. Things that involved Gwen.
As I waited for Sam and Gwen to arrive, I was alone with my thoughts. They were swarming around my brain, making every moment more irritating than the last. As much as I tried to push them to the back of my mind, they still dug into it, burrowing into my conscience, never to go away. Within minutes, I was sweating from the stress of trying to make my thoughts go away, so I took one of my shirts from the laundry basket in the laundry room and changed into it.
Just as I had pulled my shirt over my stomach, the doorbell rang again. I hated the sound of our doorbell. It was insistent and had this high, whiny sound that made me want to cup my hands over my ears. But, I pushed these fruitless thoughts away – just like I was trying to do with my other thoughts – and ran to the door, pulling it open with one fluid motion.
Gwen and Sam were on the other side of the door, Gwen with a smile on her face, and Sam with hardly any expression – which was usual. I was about to ask why they had arrived at the same time, but Gwen answered my question, without me asking anyway. "Oh, Sam arrived here just a few seconds before me and he waited to ring the doorbell, so you wouldn't have to open the door twice," she said, her voice sweet as she spoke.
"Oh, okay, well you guys can go upstairs. I'll be up in a minute. Astrid's been waiting up there for about ten minutes, so you might not want to make her wait any longer," I replied, Sam and Gwen starting the trek to my room. I went back into the laundry room and made sure everything was okay and nothing was leaking before taking the stairs to my room also.
I could hear chatting and conversing as I was just a few feet from my room, but it all stopped when I opened the door. Everyone's faces looked a little annoyed for stopping the fun, but Gwen was smiling at me just slightly, which made me feel a little better.
"Well, I hate to stop the fun, but anything to do with Anonymous...is something I need to hear. So, Astrid...how are we going to trap Anonymous?" I asked, an awkward silence filling my room.
Astrid's face contorted a little, as if she had been dozing off and I had woken her from her daydreaming. She then looked around the room, as if stalling. But, she did eventually speak. "Yeah, sorry. I guess it's just late for me. I mean, I know I asked you guys to come here...but I'm still pretty tired."
"It's fine, but go on," I replied, sitting down on my bed next to Gwen. She moved her hand away when I sat down. I took that as a sign not to bring it up and forgot about it.
"Okay, well I thought about this while eating dinner. I don't know why or how, but it happened. I think the only thing we can do is trap him, because we have no idea who he is and no idea what he's going to do. So, I think maybe we need to use something as leverage to get his attention, first," Astrid said, uneasy as she spoke. It might just have been because of fear, but I think there was something else bothering her.
"What do you mean, leverage?" asked Gwen, confusion laden across her face. I was pretty confused too, and so was Sam, based on his facial expression.
Astrid sighed and her eyes darted towards the window, and a sorrowful expression appeared on her face. Everyone else turned their heads to the window, as if it was a movie screen and it attracted the eye's view. I could see a broad figure moving below, close to the entrance of Astrid's house. Based on the silhouette of the figure, I could tell it was a man. He seemed to be walking in one clear direction: to Astrid's front door. His image was lost, though, as he came to the porch.
That's when I remembered. "Oh my God! I forgot about David. I should've stayed downstairs until he arrived," I said, rushing downstairs to open the door for David. I was back upstairs with David in a matter of thirty seconds.
"Hey, David," Gwen and Sam called out as soon as we entered the room. Astrid was silent, though, resting her head against the window. A mask of unease was wrapped across her face.
"Hello to you, too, guys!" David replied, sitting down on a couch at the edge of my room, next to Sam. I sat next to Gwen on the opposite side of my room.
"So, how are we going to catch Anonymous, Astrid?" David asked right away, his elbows digging into his legs and his chin resting on his hands. He was truly intrigued to find out what Astrid had wanted to tell them about trapping Anonymous. But, I had a feeling that the night was going to get a lot crazier than just making up plans to catch a lunatic who has been blackmailing us for the past week. That was for sure.
"Oh, yeah," Astrid said, perking up after dozing off. She rubbed her eyes free of sleep, and then continued, "well, I think the best way to trap Anonymous is to bribe him with something, sort of like leverage. But, I don't exactly know what to use yet. My heart's set on the journal or..."
"Or what?" Sam asked, obviously seeing how much Astrid was in distress. Now, everyone could see it: the clear lines of strain and worry on the sides of her face, under her eyes, and at the edges of her lips. But, they went away with what she said next.
"Or you. I think we should use you as leverage," Astrid said, her gaze pointed towards David. The room filled with an eerie silence. Everyone was shocked, even me. I mean, I sort of saw something like this coming, but I didn't know it would be this. I guess it's true what they say. Nothing's ever as simple as it seems.
* * *
"What!" Sam screamed, surprise evident in the presence of his wide eyes and his mouth hanging open. We were all surprised as hell, which was to put it lightly, since none of us had seen it coming. It was hard to see how Astrid could've come up with something like that. I mean, we were talking about putting David's life at risk for God's sake.
"Astrid, how can we even do something like that? You're literally talking about handing David over to Anonymous," Gwen exclaimed, her face expression showing that she thought this was unbelievable. I did too, but...if it was going to work, then why not? You know?
"I'm sorry, but the idea just came across my mind," Astrid replied, new lines of unease distorting her face slightly, but this time there was fear on her face. Maybe she was scared that we weren't going to like her anymore, or that David wasn't going to like her. Maybe she was scared for David.
"Look, guys. I know you think this is a rash plan – which it is – but it could work. We might actually be able to catch Anonymous if we go along with this plan," I said, sticking up for Astrid. I wasn't defending her idea exactly, but just trying to get people off her back. We couldn't spend the whole night arguing.
"How can you be on board with this?" Sam asked, incredulous to as why I would think this was a good idea.
"I'm not saying it's a good idea. I'm just saying that we have to take all possibilities into consideration...before we go with a particular plan," I defended myself, hoping that Sam would understand and calm down a little bit.
"Good, because this definitely isn't a good idea. David will most likely get hurt by Anonymous if we go along with this plan...or worse," Sam replied, a hint of sarcasm in his voice, but none of it injected into the conversation itself.
"Look, we can use David as leverage or the journal. Either one, but we need to make a list of things that could go wrong with each plan, that way Anonymous doesn't stand a chance. We need to make a plan. I still think we could use David to get to Anonymous, but maybe you're right," Astrid admitted, back to her usual, calculating self, "we can't risk him getting hurt. Not for any cost."
"Thank you, Astrid," David said genuinely, a smile spreading across his face. Astrid smiled back at him, and just like that the argument was finally over. But, we still needed to make a plan and we were probably going to have to stay up all night making it. Ready yourself for tonight, I thought to myself. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
* * *
We literally stayed up all night. Sam, Astrid, and I made a plan for using David as leverage and David and Gwen made a plan for using the journal as leverage. After making a plan for both versions of leverage, we compared. Everyone knew it could work either way, so we weren't surprised to see that both plans were really good, but we picked the safest one: the journal. Astrid had been a little hesitant to give up her plan, but she wasn't an evil person. She wouldn't dare risk someone's life just to get Anonymous off her back.
After going with the "Journal Plan", we made a list of things that could go wrong and then tweaked the plan as we went, so that Anonymous couldn't find a crack in our plan and mysteriously get away. It was around two in the morning when we were done with the plan, and everyone was exhausted.
Astrid literally passed out on the couch at the far side of my room within minutes and Sam slept on the couch beside her. David reluctantly slept on the floor and since there were no other places to sleep besides my bed, Gwen and I slept there...together. We were on opposite sides of the bed but we were still in close proximity to each other.
I fell asleep within minutes, my eyes heavy with sleep and anticipation of tomorrow. For all I know, maybe all this stress and fear would end with tomorrow. I mean, we literally had to close the blinds, turn the lights off, and speak in hushed tones, just in case Anonymous was watching us. I can't ever remember being that cautious in our mysteries before. It would either all end tomorrow...or it would just get worst.
* * *
The sun wasn't shining in the window when I woke up, which told me it was late in the morning – probably around 11:00 or maybe even closer to noon. For all I knew, it could've been past noon. I had a split headache from staying up so late last night and an overpowering wave of nausea passed over me as I sat up in bed. I used the window sill for support as I tried to get up, but eventually decided against it for the time being.
The first thing I noticed, though, as I sat up fully was Gwen. Gwen's face was expressionless and I was about to caress her forehead, but she started to stir. I stood up immediately as I saw that she was waking up and practically raced out of the room and took the flight of stairs two steps at a time as I sprinted to the kitchen, hoping Gwen hadn't noticed that I had been leaning over her just a second ago.
I walked over to the fridge and opened it. I was welcomed by a blast of cold and relished the cold for as long as I could, but as I turned around, I saw someone coming down the stairs.
"Oh, Gwen!" I rushed to say something, but I knew I was acting awkward in all this. I tried to calm down a little bit, hoping that I didn't embarrass myself in front of her.
"Actually, it's Astrid," she said as she came down the stairs and I could now see that it definitely wasn't Gwen. I was surprised to see that Astrid's hair wasn't messed up, like it should've been from sleep. I guess pretty girls never had a bad hair day. Wow, did I just think that? I asked myself.
"Oh, well, have a seat. Do you want soda or coffee on this wonderful morning?" I asked, except I wasn't necessarily joking, even if my tone of voice was misleading.
"Umm...excuse me?" Astrid asked, laughing as if she couldn't believe I was asking her if she wanted soda for breakfast. I guess Astrid didn't know where I was going with this. But, I guess I wasn't exactly being clear with my question, either.
"Well, we have to be completely focused for tonight if we're going to trap Anonymous, which means you need to drink a lot of caffeine," I explained, and Astrid's perplexed expression vanished just like that. I smiled, hoping that she wouldn't think that drinking soda for breakfast was a regular thing for me.
"Oh, well okay. I guess I'll have coffee then," Astrid finally replied, kind of disappointing me by refusing to have the more sugary drink. I mean, we weren't adults yet, were we?
After about five minutes of awkward silence, Sam, Gwen, and David had arrived in the kitchen, and things weren't so awkward anymore. I stepped into the pantry to get a box of cereal and reached into the fridge for a milk jug, setting both of them out on the kitchen table. Now, everyone could serve themselves, which they did – with no questions asked.
Breakfast was filled with a number of things: first, peaceful conversation, and then other conversations. "So, could you give us a recap of the plan for us? I don't want to accidentally forget it tonight," I asked, setting off a conversation, which I would soon regret.
"Yeah, sure. So, Gwen, Sam, me, and you will assemble at some deserted place in the woods, which we will text Anonymous to come to. We will bring the fake journal with us, which we made last night, and David will guard the real journal in the library. That's the only place that I can think of that will be safe enough for him during all this," Astrid said, and was about to continue citing the plan, but David cut her off.
"Wait, has anyone noticed that part of the library is in shambles, yet? I mean, don't you think it's weird that no one has come to the library and somehow saw what was done to it?" David asked, bringing up a very good point to which none of us had the answer to. I guess it was a good thing David was with us. He wasn't necessarily a big part of the plan, but he was still helpful to us.
"Hmm...good point," Astrid spoke, her eyebrows twisted in confusion.
"Well, I guess it doesn't matter. I mean, if people haven't noticed it in the past week, then they're probably not going to notice it today," Sam said, ending our speculation.
"Well, anyway, here's the rest of the plan. We're going to tell Anonymous to pick up the journal at a specific place, and then place the journal there. Also, we're going to set up a trap there, so when he bends down to pick up the journal, he'll be caught in a net. Anonymous will want us far off during this, but we'll only be a short distance away, obviously out of seeing distance, though. Then, we'll call the police and Anonymous will be arrested," Astrid said, a smile spreading to either side of her mouth. She was obviously proud of our plan to trap Anonymous.
"Well, when should we text Anonymous? Also, where are we going to tell Anonymous to pick up the journal?" Gwen asked out of the blue, probably about half a minute after Astrid gave us a recap of the plan.
"That's a good question. I guess we should all go to the place we want Anonymous to come to and set up our plan before sending the text. That way, there's no chance of Anonymous getting there before us. But, I don't know exactly where we should tell Anonymous to meet us. Someplace secluded, like the woods behind the library," Astrid said, trying to answer Gwen's question, but failing to do so. I mean, I think we still needed some time to make sure this plan was going to work, so it wasn't a shocker that Astrid didn't know how to answer this question. I was about to throw out an idea myself, but decided not to after figuring that it wasn't good.
"Yeah, that's a good idea. But, there's no landmarks out there or anything, so how are we going to send Anonymous an address?" David asked, putting a tiny hole in our plan. Well, I guess that was what he was good at. Without him, our plan might not have been full-proof. For all we know, we might not have even been able to come up with a plan without him.
"Well, maybe we could send him coordinates. I mean, there are a dozen apps on the App Store that let you pinpoint a place in coordinates. We could find a place we want Anonymous to meet us at and then see what the coordinates are. Then, we would text those coordinates to Anonymous," Astrid rushed through her words, the final parts of the plan coming into focus inside her head.
"Well, then it's settled. Let's eat breakfast first and then head out to the library! Cheers," Sam shouted, raising his cup to clink it with everyone else's.
I knew that our plan was great and didn't have any cracks in it for Anonymous to break through, but I was still slightly nervous and fearful about tonight. I could almost feel that something bad was going to happen. Just as I was about to eat a spoonful of cereal and milk, I became dizzy and my vision became blurry. All of a sudden though, a new image filled my vision. The image depicted a middle-aged man in a library getting slaughtered by someone dressed in all black. The image wavered after a torturing two minutes and I was back in reality.
I was panting, though, and a wave of nausea overpowered me, so that I had to sit on a stool. I moaned a few times from the pain of the nausea and this held everyone's attention. Gwen rushed over to me and put an arm around my shoulder. "Tanner, what's wrong? You look like crap all of a sudden," Gwen said, feeling my forehead for a fever. She pulled her hand back and by the expression on her face, I could tell that I didn't have a fever.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm okay. I just feel nauseous all of a sudden. I need to lie down for a little bit, that's all. Trust me, I'll be okay to go scout out the library and I'll be especially okay for tonight," I replied, trying to reassure everyone that I was okay.
"Okay, whatever you say," Gwen responded to me, her face sweet and calm, like it always was. I moved from my stool to a couch aside from the kitchen. I lay down for what feels like hours, and when I check the time on my phone, I know I'm right. It was an hour from noon and we needed to go find a place in the woods behind the library to set up the trap.
I mentioned this to my friends and they said as long as I was okay, we would all go. And, that was pretty much the end of the conversation, because I was feeling much better.
* * *
Since we didn't want to attract people to the library, we had to walk the whole way there, because we obviously couldn't ask anyone to drive us. It took us about thirty minutes to walk there, various maybe six minutes to drive there. After walking for thirty minutes straight, my legs felt heavy as if they were lead, and overall, I was exhausted. "Some walk we just had," I said primarily to myself despite the tone of voice I used.
"Well, at least we're here," Sam said, which was the most enlightening thing I've ever heard him say.
The front of the library looked perfectly fine, as if nothing supernatural had occurred inside its walls, with a 'closed' sign in the right corner of the window closest to the mighty double doors at the entrance to the library. I guess that's why no one had noticed that the back of the library was in ruins. Sam gestured for us to flank him along the side of the library and to the mess of brick and shrapnel in the back. Even though I had seen it before, I was still a little surprised to see how damaged the back of the library was. It looked almost as if it could collapse at any moment.
There were maybe about ten yards between the library and the woods. The soft grass crunched under our feet as we headed into the woods, the weeds swaying in the wind beckoning us forward. As Sam pushed the weeds away, so we could enter the woods, Astrid had her phone out, ready to pinpoint the location we wanted to place the trap. The expanse of weeds and grasses filled the woods, but stopped at a creak that inclined downward and then upward. We carefully crossed the creak and then treaded onward.
After walking for close to an hour's worth of time, we took a break from pushing our way through weeds. I know I sound sarcastic when I say this, but I'm not lying.
"This seems like a good place to set up the trap. I mean, we're probably far enough from the library, right? And we don't want to go too far. I've never really figured out the extent of these woods before," I said, hoping that someone would say "yes", so I didn't have to walk any further. I mean, I was in really good shape from surfing, but I was still exhausted. This got me thinking of surfing, though, so I was now lost in thought.
The California Surfing Competition would be in just two months and I had to get admitted by the end of September, which was in three weeks. First of all, I needed a coach. If I didn't have a coach, I couldn't compete and then my dreams would be over. I was pretty lost in thought at this point, but I was able to hear Astrid say "yes" and then tell everyone to help her set up the trap. I pushed these thoughts to the back of my mind and started spreading the net out, which Astrid had stuffed into the backpack on her shoulders earlier this morning.
I just hoped this would work. I couldn't help thinking that it wasn't as I helped lay out the rest of the trap.
* * *
As it started to get dark, David headed over to the library with the journal that Astrid had reluctantly handed over to him. As the sky turned a dark violet-blue, Astrid texted the coordinates to Anonymous. The trap was set up, so we hid in a secluded spot about twenty yards away from the trap. The trap blended into the ground, so Anonymous would have no idea it was there. We set the fake journal in the middle of the trap, so no matter what direction Anonymous came from, he would get caught in the net.
The net was trigger-plated, so when Anonymous stepped onto to it and bended down to grasp the journal, the net would capture him or her and we would be able to see who Anonymous was and this whole nightmare would be over. But, it's never that simple, I thought.
Astrid, Gwen, Sam, and I hid behind a bush, Astrid watching with her binoculars. Astrid watched from the seclusion of the bush for thirty minutes, and it was completely dark now. Astrid checked her phone and I could just barely see the time: 9:35. It was getting real late and I already knew that Anonymous wasn't coming. Something was terribly wrong. The only reason Anonymous would pass up the opportunity to get the journal would be that he knew it was a trick. Anonymous knew, I thought. He knew and he was probably laughing his ass off right now that we still thought he or she was coming.
Astrid finally dropped the binoculars, though, and turned to look at us. "Anonymous isn't coming. Our plan failed," Astrid spoke, a hint of sorrow and disappointment detailed in her voice.
"We can't just give up! I'm not going to spend the rest of sophomore year being scared of this bastard, okay? We need to at least try!" Gwen shouted, a hot burst of red color now evident on her face.
"Look, we've already tried. It's better just to go find David and go home," Astrid said, putting a sympathetic arm on Gwen's shoulder to calm her down, but also to make her realize that she still had her friends to accompany her along the bumpy road to getting rid of Anonymous.
"Wait, guys!" I shouted out of the blue, everyone turning their heads towards me to see what my outburst was about.
"What's wrong," Astrid asked, her eyes pleading. Everyone seemed highly concerned to see what I had to say. They knew it was important – which it was – and I could see it clearly laden on their faces.
I spoke several seconds later, a bubble of anxiety inside me trying to surface, "Earlier today...right before I felt nauseous, I had a vision. Well, at least I think that's what it was. In the vision, I saw someone dressed in black from head-to-toe slaughtering someone. I guessed that the person in black was Anonymous. I didn't think it meant anything, but now I'm sure it does. I think David was the one being slaughtered."
"What?" Astrid, Sam, and Gwen demanded in unison, their expressions showing their shock.
"I'm sorry I didn't say anything earlier, but..." I tried to say, but wasn't able to get out an answer.
"Whatever, let's just go make sure he's okay," Astrid said, leading us back to the library.
We hurried back to the library and the trek was much faster this time, because we were running through the woods, instead of walking through them like before. We were back to the library within twenty minutes. The looming library felt huge as we approached it. I guess it was just the realization that something bad most likely happened inside it. Astrid sprinted around the damaged part of the library, obviously not wanting to take a chance of it collapsing on her. The rest of us followed her and as we entered the library, we could hear Astrid screaming. Astrid turned around to look at us.
She seemed frantic and scared. That's when I took a look around the place. Blood was splattered in nearly every place, paths of smudged blood telling me that someone had been dragged along the floor. The carpet was darker now, stained with blood. Book shelves had fallen, as if they were dominos crashing into each other, furniture had been thrown across the room, and wooden legs from tables were crushed, wooden shrapnel littering the floor.
"What the hell," Gwen said, obviously taken aback by what had happened. What she had said was not so much of a question as it was a statement of shock.
"David's dead," Astrid said, her voice loose, quiet, and small. She slumped down against a wall, one not smeared with blood, fresh tears cascading from her eyes.
"Anonymous killed him and most likely took the journal, too. Great! Our whole plan failed and David is dead now," Sam said, not sad, but angry. His expression told me that much. I was angry, too, but I guess I was better at hiding it.
This is your fault, I thought to myself. You caused this. If you had just told your friends what you saw, David wouldn't have even been in the library in the first place.
"Guys, I need to tell you something," Astrid said all of a sudden, wiping her tears away and sniffling, so she could speak freely. Everyone gathered around her, Sam kneeling down to rest a hand on her shoulder. Sam was a really good boyfriend to Astrid. He always knew what made her feel better. I mean, it seemed to work, because Astrid stopped crying a little bit.
"What is it?" Gwen asked, obviously not in the mood to ask questions at the moment, but still wanted to know what was up with Astrid. She was a really good friend to her, too. I guess I was, too, but just not really showing it at the moment.
"We still have the journal. David never had it in the first place. I knew that there was a possibility of Anonymous coming to the library to retrieve the journal from David, so I made another fake journal to give to David. I have the real journal right here," Astrid told us, reaching into her purse and pulling out a journal, burgundy in color.
"Oh my God," Sam said, almost losing his balance from shock. Everyone had shocked faces on, but I sort of saw this coming. I guess I had a subconscious vision about this or something.
"How could you do that, Astrid?" Sam spoke again, seconds later, a whole new wave of anger overpowering him.
"I'm sorry. It was the only way to make sure we still ended up with the journal. It was either David and the journal, or just David," Astrid sobbed, tears streaming down her cheeks yet again. I felt bad for Astrid. She was just doing what felt right to her. No one should blame her for that.
No one spoke after this. We were all ashamed of not being more careful. Sam might now think this was Astrid's fault, but it wasn't. I still felt like it was mine a little bit for not telling my friends about the vision, but overall, it was Anonymous' fault. It was his, her, or its fault.
My friends and I sat there in the bloody library for the rest of the night, holding onto the last shred of hope we still had that David was still alive. I guess it's true what they say: never trust your enemies.
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