Weeping Angel: Malvada (Book 1 of the Weeping Angel Series)

Chapter IX

Two weeks have passed ever since the mad gorilla and I established our hatred for each other.

Two weeks have passed, and the angel statue still isn't bored of playing hide-and-seek around the house with us. At one point, Clarice and I got so fed up with it that we confronted our mom about it who looked at us like we asked her where babies come from. Mom was confused at first before she told Clarice that she hasn't moved the angel statue around for the past week and that she did change some locations for it a few times to see where else it would look good. This freaked Clarice and me out a little, but we tried not to think much of it and ignore it, thinking we're hallucinating.

In school, Mason occasionally asked me about the angel statue out of the blue as if he was worried something worse happened or is yet to happen. I told him there was nothing strange or new going on besides the usual location change, but he wouldn't say anything about it.

Sometimes, Gabby and Ethan were there going on, or she was hiding something. Ethan would change the topic by cracking some jokes or just be stupid in general. I didn't push either of them for reasons behind their weird behaviour since it would be awkward or seem like I didn't trust them. I was still new in their little group, so I didn't want to make things awkward or uncomfortable.

Coming back to the Grinch himself, Josh and I rarely spoke to each other ever since that day. In school, we'd try our best to not turn each other into stone by having crazy staring contests, but every time our gazes met, Josh would grimace and immediately look away while I scowled at him, making up new, mean names for him in my head. Whenever he would look in my direction, it was like everything nice in him dissipated away, and all he could focus on was his hatred towards me.

When I told Clarice about my "boy drama" on Sunday as we were doing laundry in the basement, she agreed with me and told me there was definitely some "tea" between the boys that they didn't want to spill. I sigh and tell her how weird and difficult boys are, to which she laughs and agrees.

Right then, mom calls out to us and asks us to come downstairs to help her with something. We march down the stairs and into the living room to see what they were up to, and I see dad cleaning the fireplace and mom finishing up vacuuming the carpet. Clarice and I greet dad, who smiles in response, and mom gives Clarice a box of stone and glass decorations while I get the heavy ass angel statue. I look down at it and frown, feeling the hair on my arms rise. Its hands were covering its face like the day we bought it. I immediately put the statue down a few feet away from me, and Clarice settled the box on the floor.

Clarice grimaces at the sight of the statue and looks at mom. "You should seriously get rid of this thing. I feel like it's watching me." Mom rolls her eyes and mutters something about not wanting to argue over something dumb and that the statue will stay.

"I need you to take this stuff I gave you upstairs into our room. I'm thinking of putting the statue there," Mom casually says as she unplugs the vacuum wire and ties it up. I shake my head at her. She's seriously obsessed with this statue, and it's starting to freak me out. "Mom, you're going crazy over a piece of stone. It won't even look good in your room."

Mom sighs in annoyance and turns to face me, giving me her full attention. Her green eyes pierce through my soul as she says with a stern expression, "What you think of the statue doesn't concern me the least, Emma. It doesn't matter what you have to say because I'm keeping it."

I could picture Clarice rolling her eyes beside me as she scoffs, clearly not interested in mom's attitude. She doesn't like it when mom talks low of me or when we argue. Dad stiffens in his spot but doesn't say anything as he continues to clean the fireplace. I take a deep breath, trying to choose my next words carefully and not create an argument. I grit my teeth and calmly say, "I'm just saying that you don't even like statues, and this one has been doing strange things, but you wouldn't believe me if I told you-"