DARK AND TWISTED

CHAPTER 3

First the scream, and now the man? I fixed my gaze on him. He is real, right? I see him, so he's real. I know the scream was fake. But I heard the scream too. He didn't move at all, just staring at me.

"Hope!" Renee called me.

I flinched as I moved my gaze, "Yeah?"

"What's wrong? You okay?" She grabbed my hand. "Why are you sweating so much? It's not so hot right now."

I glanced at that spot he was standing but he was gone. Was it in my head again?

"I," I licked my lips. "I didn't get enough sleep." It took me a while to come up with that.

"If you're seeing things again, tell me. But don't let Dan or Kate know. They're going to make fun of you," she whispered. She was right; Dan and Kate would make fun of me.

But the man looked so real and so did the scream. I could've sworn I heard it outside the supermarket. It could be my imagination because I was anxious about going outside. I haven't been outside my home for almost a decade; not a lie. I went outside just to go to school. Mostly because of what happened a few years ago. I felt safer if I stayed home with Maya.

"Let's go. We need to follow Christian now," Renee pulled my arm.

I got in, trying to distract myself with something else. I caught Renee staring at me from the corner of my eyes. Turned out that she wanted to send me a playlist that could help me calm down. I put my earphones on and put them on a shuffle.

During the ride, Dan munched some of the chips, shoving a few into Kate's mouth because she was driving. Tessa cursed at them because they didn't offer any of it to us at the back. Dan must have had enough of her so he threw a bag of chips and it hit my eyes.

"Dan!" Tessa yelled. "What the heck, man? You tryna kill her or somethin'?"

I covered my eye while hissing in pain. It got watery, then Renee handed me a piece of tissue as she checked on me.

"Chill. It's just a bag of chips, not a knife. I'm not a monster," Dan kept shoving the chips into his mouth.

Kate scoffed, "Okay, Hope. Stop acting."

"I'm not acting!" I fumed.

"Woah! Chill!" Dan turned his head. "I said I'm sorry."

"You didn't say sorry, Dan," Renee clarified. Her eyes were dark as she glared at him.

"Fine, sorry," he apologized.

"Do it properly," Renee didn't let it go.

I grabbed her arm, "it's fine. He apologized. Let it go." I snatched the bag of chips next to my shoes and gave it to Renee. I felt guilty for starting that argument. If I dodged it, they wouldn't argue and things wouldn't get awkward.

Tessa gave me some but I didn't like salty food. I was glad Tessa and Renee were there though.

After the fight, we arrived at a two-story suburban house. Kate parked on the driveway and told us to bring our bags and plastics inside the house.

I got out and carried my bags all together; I wasn't going to go back and forth. Luckily, I only had two bags with me. Renee checked on me while Tessa bickered with Dan about the incident earlier. Christian, on the other hand, left the door open for us. I got in first and placed my bags on the floor to make sure I didn't sprain my shoulder.

"Do we have to pay for all of this? It's like we're renting the rooms." I asked.

He shook his head, "no, you don't have to. It's my job to make the tourists feel welcome. A lot of us do this when we see them who can't find any place to stay."

After a while, the others came inside and a few of them took a while to catch their breaths. I won't complain about it, the bags were pretty heavy. I only had two with me but it was nothing compared to the rest of them, who had more than three.

A guy around 25 years old sauntered toward us with a smile on his face. "You people must be the tourists my dad talked about." He scanned us one by one. Then, his brown eyes stared at our bags on the floor.

"This is Zayne," Christian introduced him to us. He was also pretty built. His jackets wrapped around his biceps highlighted how muscular he was. His brown hair bounced in front of his eyes. He waved, acting like a shy new student on his first day of school.

"We have a lot of rooms upstairs. Choose which one you prefer but four of you have to share rooms." Zayne informed us.

Good, finally I could have some alone time to recharge my batteries. I couldn't stop thinking about the man at the supermarket. He was visible inside my head. He kind of looks familiar.