Obsession Starts with a V

Chapter 12

Because of Veronica's wonderful aiming skills, they had to leave the abandoned arcade early so Edgar could go home and wash his new cologne out of his hair. After switching into dry clothes, Sam and Veronica ended up wasting the rest of the day riding their bikes at the nearby park. Veronica decided to head home early since they were so close to her house. She told Sam she would pick up her stuff tomorrow from his house, waved good-bye, and casually rolled off toward her home. Once she walked through the front door, she found her mom in the office room, where she was busy figuring out paperwork.

"You're actually home?" Her mom looked astonished when she picked her head up from the car wash's tax returns.

"Yeah, I remember you telling me how you needed to go to the library and I thought I would come along." Veronica started playing with a few knickknacks decorating the only shelf in the room.

"Don't break those," her mom warned. "Did you finish Twilight already?"

"Mom, I finished that a few months ago." Veronica rolled her eyes with the start of her pre-teen attitude. "I'm still working my way through Dracula, but I think you were right- I am still a little too young. Most of it is going over my head. So, I thought I would tag along with you and pick out a different book."

Her mom smiled. "I like it when you tell me I'm right. That sounds fine, is Sam tagging along, too?"

"Nah, I'm doing this solo."

"Alright, I'll be done in a few minutes." Her mom nodded and went back to the paperwork spread out on the desk.

Veronica realized she didn't know where her library card was, so she started a chaotic search for it. After tearing her room apart and beginning on the living room, she realized it had been in her wallet, which was in her overnight bag...which was at Sam's house.

"Hey mom? Veronica popped her head back into the office. "We might need to stop by Sam's house. My library card's spending the night there."

"Oh alright," she sighed without looking up from the paperwork that seemed to double in size. She did look at the clock that read 6:27 pm. "How about you pull out some leftovers and warm them up while I finish this? We can eat then head to the library after picking up your card."

"Mom? The library closes at seven. We don't have that kind of time."

"Today's Saturday, they're open until eight."

She heard her daughter sigh in exasperation and picked up the phone on her desk. "Fine, let me call Max and see if someone's home so we can pick up your card. Go get your shoes on." She looked at her daughter and noticed her surprisingly dirty feet. "And after dinner you're taking a bath."

"Can we stop at Wendy's for dinner?" Veronica pleaded.

"Do you promise to jump into the shower as soon as you step into the house?"

Veronica batted her eyelashes with an angelic smile. "Yes!"

"Sounds like a plan, then." Her mom dialed the phone and waited for Max to answer.

                                                                  ()()()()

"Hello Marko!" Veronica's mom beamed as the two walked into Max's house. Veronica felt her throat tighten as her mom ignored Max and headed straight for the young adult.

"I should be off, I needed to be at work at least by six-thirty and now it's almost seven. Maria's going to kill me." Max smiled, knowing that Maria was too kind to do such a thing. He said his good-byes to the visitors as Sam came trampling down the stairs with all of Veronica's items. Michael ushered Marko away from Veronica's mom after saying their greetings and headed out to the garage. Star was nowhere in sight.

"It was so nice to see you again, Marko!" Veronica's mom waved as Michael's grip tightened on the grinning boy's arm.

"I do hope we get to spend more time together, but Michael's bike isn't working and the dweeb can't fix it himself."

"Can it, Marko" Michael growled under his breath. He didn't seem to be in such a great mood like Veronica was used to.

Sam handed over the bags and said hello to Veronica's mom. There was an awkward silence, so Veronica decided to make the trip a short one and promised to come back over tomorrow with her library findings. Sam gave a half smile with a nod and they went their separate ways.

Meanwhile, out in the garage, Michael was giving Marko an earful about staying away from older women and leaving Veronica with a mother. Marko leaned against a wall and started daydreaming about winning a motorcycle race that was happening tomorrow on the beach. Too bad it was in the afternoon.

                                                               ()()()()

At the library, Veronica sped off as her mom headed toward the adult romance section. Veroinca started hunting through the young adult paranormal romances until she was positive her mom wouldn't be able to see her sneak off to the history section. She went up to the help desk and asked the librarian where they kept the Microfiche films for the Carla Communications articles.

"Is there a specific date or event you are looking for?" The sweet, older librarian looked at Veronica through her large glasses that were about to slide off her nose. She had the traditional librarian look with a flowered dress, messy bun, and comfy leather shoes.

"Mmm, well I don't know the exact date, but it happened about three years ago. Actually, I don't even know if it really happened."

"Explain yourself better, child." The librarian smiled. She was confused, but found Veronica to be too cute to grow impatient with.

Veronica felt her face grow red from embarrassment as she tried to explain without saying the words 'vampire fight'. "I heard from a friend that there was a fire at this old arcade calle-"

"Zapper Center! Yes, yes, yes, I know what you're talking about." The librarians' eyes lit up with understanding. She abruptly stood up and started quickly walking to a door a few feet away. Each time the soles of her shoes struck the floor with a loud clunking noise, Veronica cringed, paranoid her mom would come out from the rows of books and look to see who was making such a racket. Once the librarian opened the door, she flipped on the lights to reveal boxes and boxes of Microfiche film and a Microfiche reader next to them all. It didn't take her very long to pull out the right one.

"There's many articles about it, but this is the first one and most informative. I assume you're doing this for a summer school project?" The librarian asked, looking down on little Veronica.

"N-no, I was just curious about what my friends were talking about. I wasn't here when it happened and I couldn't believe their story,"

"I can understand why, it was one of the biggest rumor mills to go around Santa Carla. Don't believe what they tell you, the bodies did not have any trace of blood in them because the fire dried it all up. Any simpleton would know that." She left Veronica with a pat on the head.

Veronica suddenly felt very, very cold. But not the kind of cold that a blanket and hot coco could fix. It was a cold that made her feel tingly and want to cry. She blinked away the tears as she skimmed through the article:

Last night a fire broke out at the local arcade, Zapper Center....There were a total of nine deaths, one of the deaths being fireman Thomas Symon. The roof had caved in on him before he was able to escape. A memorial will be held in Traver's Park this weekend....The eight teenagers that were trapped inside will have a memorial on the 14th of this month....There has been no sign of foul play, but also no sign as to what set the fire off....One more odd detail to this case is that there were two bodies that were not completely burned, yet had no trace of blood in them. Will this add to Santa Carla's notorious vampire legend?....A few of the witnesses that escaped said there was a fight that broke out right after the alarm went off....Unfortunately, the police are not able to identify who was fighting at the time....If you have any information, please contact local authorities. 

☢ ♥‿♥ 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓴 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝒇𝓸𝓻 𝓻𝒆𝓪𝓭𝓲𝓷𝓰! 𝓓𝓸𝓷'𝓽 𝒇𝓸𝓻𝓰𝒆𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓿𝓸𝓽𝒆 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝒇𝓸𝓵𝓵𝓸𝔀 𝓲𝒇 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝒆𝓷𝓳𝓸𝔂𝒆𝓭 𝓲𝓽 ♥‿♥ ☢