Sincerely, Red

Chapter Fifteen

"I'm not comfortable with this," I muttered. "Claire's going to get worried."

"Well, you shouldn't have left the house then, should you?" he said under his breath. "The last thing I need is the police coming 'round here."

"Shut up, Lucas," I told him. "This isn't entirely my fault."

"Yeah, well, it mostly is your fault," he replied. "If you hadn't gone looking for answers like you always did and are continuing to do now, none of us would be in this mess."

There was a moment of silence as I let his words sink in.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Nothing," he muttered.

Another moment of silence settled over us. It was awkward and tense. Every moment felt as though it was being magnified and tested under pressure. What type of pressure it was and what had caused it, I didn't know.

"It's not like you would understand anyway," he said under his breath.

His words struck a nerve.

By that point, I was angry and scared. The last thing I wanted running through my mind was Lucas and his stupid riddles, most of which were half truths displaced further by lies. And, as we were all aware by now, in my angry states I often made stupid mistakes.

So picking up a rusty umbrella from under a water bottle, I poked Lucas hard until he fell over and on to the floor.

"What the hell?" he groaned. "What are you doing?"

"Claire said that I have to learn self-defence," I muttered. "I'm just practicing."

"Self defence for what?" he whimpered, rubbing his back. "I wasn't even doing anything to you!"

"That's beside the point," I answered.

"No, it's really not," he replied. "You're stupid."

"You've said that, like, five times now," I muttered. "You're a broken record."

"Is someone there?" Tim shouted out. A few seconds later, he added, "It's probably just a bird."

Apparently birds could talk now as I well, I thought sarcastically.

I continued to think stupid things (there was that word again) as we waited inside the dusty closet for what felt like an hour. Lucas's 'ten minutes' were clearly not ten minutes and it was obvious that someone couldn't tell the time.

"You want to play hide and seek?" I asked after a while.

"Oh, sure," he began, over exaggeratedly. "Where should I hide? Oh! I know! I'll hide behind this coat, but that won't work. I wonder why."

"Because your head would poke out and rip the fabric-"

"Because we're stuck in a closet-"

"Which is completely your fault, by the way," I added.

"And there's nowhere to hide," he finished. "Let me repeat: you're stupid."

"I was only asking," I muttered. "How was I meant to know that you were even less creative than I thought?"

"Shut up," was all he said.

We delved back into silence, with Lucas occasionally tapping his foot to an irregular beat. I tried to mimic it at one point, but failed miserably. Somehow, my foot ended up in the opposite trouser leg at a really weird angle.

Lucas laughed, which was even weirder.

"When can I leave?" I whined. "This is ridiculous."

"Can't you just text Claire?" he asked. "You did remember to bring your phone, didn't you?"