Handsome Lying Jerks

Chapter 40

Chapter Forty

It Was an Anagram

The night sure was a blast. But for some them, it would be more fun if they were alone. Louis Lockwood and Claire Summers went behind the Lake House. They wanted to escape from the loud noise of the party. Party music wasn't really their thing. But they didn't deny enjoying it. And they pretty much wanted their night to be intimate.

Behind the house was the lake.

"Let's sit over there," Louis pointed to the end of the dock.

"That looks romantic. But if you push me to the lake, I'll kill you," Claire joked.

Louis giggled. "Same here."

Claire slapped Louis' right arm and grabbed on to it. As they were heading to the lake, Claire saw a greenhouse.

"On second thought, let's just go there," she pointed to the greenhouse.

"Really, the greenhouse?" Louis clarified.

"Yeah," she replied. "You know, to be safe just in case you would push me."

"So, you really think I would do that?" Louis rhetorically asked.

Claire didn't respond. She pulled him to the greenhouse and they curiously peeked in. When they entered the greenhouse, it smelled grassy and leafy – well obviously.

Louis looked for a light switch. Luckily, he found one right beside the entrance door. As they headed inside, they could still hear the bass of the music inside the house but it was not really that loud.

When the light shined the room, Louis heard Claire's gasp of amazement. He watched her eyes dazzled as the flowers greeted them. There were Baby's Breathe, Hydrangeas, Bird of Paradise, Yellow Bells, and especially, her favorite, red roses.

"Beautiful," she said.

Louis realized why Claire loves flowers: she was the Vice President of the Earth Club at Mapleton High.

"My mom used to plant red roses in our farm in Pennsylvania," Claire recalled.

"That's lovely," Louis blushed. He thought of picking up those flowers, but they might get reprimanded by Jude O'Brien. All the plants were healthy and blooming.

"Yeah," her expression suddenly changed. It seemed that the rose was a poignant reminder of her past.

"What's wrong?" Louis noticed her switched of mood.

Claire tried to keep her smile but sadness was registering on her face. "My mom actually passed away last January."

"I'm... deeply sorry."

Claire smiled at Louis. She retained her composure. "Flowers really make me relaxed."

Louis could still feel her sadness. "Yeah, I like them too."

Claire moved around and as she breathed in, she saw a surveillance camera with a sign underneath ten steps away behind Louis. "Oh."

It caught Louis' attention, so he turned around. "A surveillance cam."

"Do you think we're allowed in here?" she curiously asked.

"Why wouldn't we be?" Louis replied. "It's not like we would do something stupid."

"Look at that," she pointed to the sign below.

Louis squinted as he read the sign underneath the camera. "The eyes – They see. Huh?"

"I think it's an anagram," Claire said. Then, she waved her hand in front of the camera.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Louis asked. "I mean, it is just a greenhouse. Why do they need to guard this?"

"Maybe they wanna see if someone would... you know?" Claire joked.

Louis laughed and re-read the sign. "The eyes – they see? Make sense to me."

"It is an anagram. I really love anagrams." Claire shoved her hands to her pocket and grabbed her iPhone. She searched for a message. "I received a text message about anagrams and they were all awesome. I'm pretty amazed by this."

"You don't say," Louis stood beside Claire to view the message with anagrams in it. She started scrolling her screen to view the list.

...WilliamShakespeare: I'll make a wise phrase

Astronomer: Moon Starer

Geologist: Go get Oils

Silent: Listen

Mother-in-law: Woman Hitler

Goodbye: Obey God

Dormitory: Dirty Room...

"Impressive," Louis said. "So, the word seems to be related with each other."

"Not all, really," Claire said. "You know, I have an app where you could generate your name into an anagram. Wanna try?"

"No kidding?" Louis said.

Claire tapped her Anagram Generator on her iPhone. She typed Louis's full name. Then, the results started to load. "Here it goes."

Then voila! Results popped out. There were many results, hundreds of Lodowick soul–o in different versions appeared.

"Wow," Louis was awestruck. "Mine made no sense."

"I'll try mine," Claire giggled. She typed her name on the box and generated the anagram. There were versions of "Securalism Me R", "Securalism Em R", and etcetera. They both laughed in seeing their results. "Mine is way more non-sense than yours. I mean, what is securalism?"

"Never heard of it," Louis simpered.

"I know, right?!"

"Let me try something."

Claire handed her phone to Louis. He thought of a word to generate.

"What are you going to generate?"

Louis was still thinking. Then, he tapped on the screen. When he clicked the OK button, he was gobsmacked.

"What's wrong?" Claire asked.

"Nothing," Louis abruptly replied. He stared at the screen not knowing what to think, for what he typed was Edward Lawson's name.

The results were full of Rosenwald Wad in different versions. He remembered the old guy that they met yesterday. The name was Wad Rosenwald. Same name. Something was dodgy. Is this a coincidence or a setup? But Louis knew better, so was E.

He remembered his best friend, Travis, saying that there was something with Wad that was familiar. Louis' thoughts started to circle. Could it be that they knew that guy? Maybe E lured them to him because it was a ruse. Maybe Wad Rosenwald wasn't even legit at all. Maybe the name was a pseudonym. But who would disguised as Wad Rosenwald? The killer? Wad Rosenwald, an anagram for Edward Lawson. But was Louis over-thinking everything?

"Louis? What's the matter?" Claire asked.

Louis was still staring at the screen. Suddenly, the lights started to flicker.

"Okay, what's going on, Louis?" Claire started to panicked.

Louis glanced at the camera. He narrowed his eyes and saw the lenses revolved as if it was being zoomed. They were being watched. But who? Jude O'Brien? Or maybe the killer?

"We have to get out of here. We need to warn the others," he said.

"Wait, warn?" Claire asked. "Warn about what? What's going on, Louis?"

"Just trust me," Louis said.

Then, the lights completely shut down. He pulled Claire out the greenhouse and ran their way back to the lake house.