Down The Highway

Chapter Twelve

I opened the door when I heard someone knock on it. I was alone at home, both mom and dad were at their works so I had the freedom to conquer the whole house and live like I owned that place. I saw Jannet standing on a red mini jacket and a skirt. She went inside as I invited her.

My hands met the door when I closed it, then we both sat on the chair. "So, what were you wanting to say?" The fear that Xanny was watching me was still bothering me that day.

She held out a piece of cardboard from her pocket and I grabbed it after she offered it to me. I read what it was saying. Just like what she stated the night before that day, numbers were the only things that were written in it. I ignored it, I was also clueless about what it was saying even if I tried to think of what it was trying to convey.

My mind was as empty as the ceiling above us when I sat beside Jannet and said, "remember when we promised never to keep secrets from each other 12 years ago?" We were friends since we were in middle school and like what I told him, we promised not to keep secrets from each other.

She nodded in response and did not say a word since her mouth was filled with popcorn that I offered her. "What's the problem?" She asked. I was left with no option but to tell her since she found out about it anyway. "Like what you said last night, I saw a letter on my chair at school and I even blamed you for that. But then the sender who is hiding by the name of Xanny keeps sending me more and more letters."

She froze, looked at the floor, and thought then she faced me. "Where are the letters?" She asked, then I made a hand sign saying, wait for me. I immediately went to my room and grabbed all the letters that Xanny has sent me. I scattered them on the table as Jannet scanned each of them through her eyes. It took her five minutes to finish reading each letter.

"Unbelievable" she expressed, and I raised my eyebrows to agree while I took some popcorn to eat since I was craving for it. "I know," I said back, agreeing to her statement as she continued. "I can't believe you, and you believe in these?" I rolled my eyes, even she did not believe me. "Look, I was actually not believing these. Until our professor died" she raised her shoulders and thought for a while then she asked, "what does that thing get to do with these letters?"

Of course, she did not know, I did not tell her anything about the conversation that our professor and I had. "Well, you see. Our professor has told me that he had the same experience like mine but I did not tell him that I am actually receiving letters from Xanny since it was not allowed to be broadcasted, but he told me. And I think that it is the reason that he died" now, I realize I was too dumb when I said those words and believed in those. It brought me so much embarrassment.

We both took some sips in our juice and once again, she scanned all the letters using her two eyes. "I know, nothing is impossible. But my point is that fifty percent of the population are scammers. Thus, we're not in a movie or something so it's a little impossible for someone to send you these kinds of things when social media is a sensation"

She had a point, and I agreed, but I did not focus and tried to understand what she was trying to convey. "But there's nothing wrong with believing" I foolishly complained. Then she frowned when she grabbed the odd cardboard among them all. It was the letter I saw at the party.

She looked at it and observed every single word from the short text written in it. "So, this is the reason why you left the party?" She asked, pointing her hands up with pieces of popcorn. I nodded then she looked at me like I was the coolest girl in the world, well I actually was.

"Because I thought that there was truly something wrong that will happen just like what Xanny said," I said in defense. She looked at me as if she was not believing anything that I said. Then she took a deep breath deeper than the whole bowl of popcorn in front of us.

Before saying a single thing, she gulped. "I got to tell you something" my mouth was filled with plenty of popcorn so I did not say a word. I just nodded to let her continue with what she was saying. "There was a thing that happened at the party."

My eyes widened as I choked on the popcorn I was eating. She continued, "three girls were raped, one was kidnapped and the house was robbed." I choked harder on the popcorn considering my shocks at what she said. I was unable to process it all in my mind. Like everything she was saying was stories she just made up, fake.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" I asked.

"Because I just did not want you to worry about it since no one that we know was involved" she answered.

"This only means one thing" she looked at me and I continued,

"Xanny exists and Xanny is true. She protected me from the danger that happened at that party" she raised her shoulders, not paying too much attention as me. My heart was already beating in my chest it was beating as if it was being chased by a horse or a cheetah.

Like it wanted to get out of my body. The slightly strong wind blew my hair away as I has some goosebumps when I felt that I was being nervous for just a single thing and just because of some letters.