Trails of Secrets

7. The Plan in Action

This time, when Annalise walked up to the front door of the old house, she didn't knock. She waltzed right in. Annalise knew that if she had knocked, the girl wouldn't have let her in. 

As she quietly closed the door behind her, she sang out, "Hello? It's me, Annalise!" 

Before Annalise had the chance to do or say anything else, the girl jumped out from behind a doorway and slammed Annalise against a wall. 

"Who sent you?!" The girl's hair sprung out everywhere and her eyes dangerously shot out daggers.

"No-No one!" Annalise sputtered. This wasn't how it was supposed to go at all. She needed to turn this around and stick to her plan. 

The girl narrowed her eyes. "Tell the person who sent you that they are too late. I already found it." 

"Found what?"

"Found it." 

This didn't make any sense. Maybe she should start with her questions. "Who are you?"

"Nunya. Nunya Biznus."

She should have seen that coming. Annalise figured her next planned question would result in about the same answer, so she skipped it and went to the one after that. 

"Are you in some kind of trouble?"

The girl snorted and pressed Annalise against the wall even more. "No more than you are right now."

"I am so confused," Annalise gasped. "Who do you think I am?"

The girl growled, "The associate of my enemy, who is trying to steal what is rightfully mine!" The girl threw Annalise to the floor and prepared to attack. 

In order to delay the inevitable assault, Annalise prepared to ask more questions: "Who is your enemy?", "What is rightfully yours?", " Do you want some potato chips?" But before she could ask any of her questions, a male voice shouted from across the house, "It's not in the floorboards of this room either. Should I try checking the fire place? I know it's kind of obvious, but didn't your sister hide one in a fireplace before?" 

The girl slowly closed her eyes and groaned. Then she grabbed Annalise's arm and yanked her across the house and into the room where the voice had come from. 

A guy about Annalise's age, but taller (she was short), stood up from the floor of the rickety house and stared at the two girls. His eyes grew to twice their size. 

"Oops."

The guy ran both his hands through his short blond hair and said apologetically, "I'm so sorry. I didn't know someone was here." 

The girl shook her head. "It's not your fault; it's hers."

"What are we going to do with her? She's going to tell him that we haven't found it yet," the guy asked. 

"I'm still trying to figure out what it is," said Annalise who was clearly confused. "Also, I brought chips."

The other two stood silently for a moment. Then the guy muttered something like, "She's not like the others."

But before the girl could respond, someone outside of the house shouted through a window, "Give the message to me! I have a gun!"

Annalise did the first thing that came to her mind. She quickly grabbed her bag and pulled something out. "So do we!" She shouted.

The girl and the guy snapped their heads toward her direction. Annalise shrugged and bit her lip.

"Thats a lie. Now hand over the message!"

"Never!" She shouted uncertainly. Annalise hugged her bag of chips to her chest and hoped it would make the noise she wanted it to. 

It did. 

They all heard a growl come from outside and they listened as footsteps faded into the trees. 

Annalise sighed with content and turned to the other two. "So what message was he talking about?"

The two turned to each other and the guy whispered, "She already knows too much. If we don't get rid of her or tell her everything, then she'll blab to the whole town. Including the exact people we don't want to know."

Annalise nodded, even though she realized it wouldn't help her case if they decided to "get rid of her." 

The girl looked over at Annalise. Then back at the guy. She tightly closed her eyes and let out a defeated sigh while she sat on the dirty floor. 

"Pass the chips and I'll tell my story."