Dead rose garden

Screams

I lied still in my bed, like a statue.
The front door clicked shut.
Familiar footsteps descended up the stairs.
Another click indicated that my dad closed the door to his room.
Only then I dared to move.

I made my way to Gabby's room.
The notebook in my pocket was cold to the touch.
I took it out, and my fingers searched for Gabby's night light.
I found the switch, and watched the baby blue light fill the room.
She always refused to get rid of it, because it was a gift from our mom.

Before she died.
Before she died in that horrible-

I shook my head as if trying to shake the negative thoughts out.
Now is not the time to mourn.
Now is the time to play detective.
As stupid as it sounds.
I opened the notebook. The pages were left blank.
I turned every one of them.
Blank, blank, blank.
Empty, just like my life without Gabby.
Except for the last page in the book.
My heart skipped a few beats. There was one scentence written in cursive writing:
She is dangerous.

The reality of this situation hit me hard.
It felt like a rock being shoved down my throat, and falling into the pit of my stomach.
Gabby got herself in danger.
She wouldn't just leave like that. Something sinister is going on.
For what other reason would she clean her browsing history.
When I proceeded to look in her cupboard, I heard something.

A chilling scream filled the night.

I tensed as another scream started up. It came from our neighbors house.

I could recognize that scream anywhere.
I was sure it's Gabby.

Without thinking, I opened the window and jumped out into our swimming pool.

I remembered that Gabby and I used to jump out of her window into the swimming pool at night. That is also how she broke her arm.
Falling onto the bricks surrounding the pool instead of in the water.
Dad forbid us to ever do it again.
But look what I was doing again.

The cold water felt numbed my senses, It was nice not to be feeling anything. That way my mind got distracted from thinking about her, but I couldn't stay here the whole time.
I climbed out of the pool, letting the icy water run down my legs.

I ran out of our driveway towards the neighbors house.
The lights inside was still on.
It was one o'clock in the morning.
"What do these people do this late in the night," I wondered.
Taking a gulp of fresh air, I walked towards the door.

When I got onto the porch I heard things inside crashing.
Furiously I knocked on the door.
For a second the noise coming from inside stopped.

The door opened on a crack.
A lady that could be in her late thirty's peeked out from behind the safety lock.
She looked around, her eyes darting from me to the road, and back again.
Something about this woman looked familiar. Our family photo flashed in my mind.
This woman looked exactly like my mom before the accident.
It couldn't be her, because we identified the body and it was buried. This made me feel numb all over again.

I didn't realise that I was staring at the woman until she spoke.

"What is it that you want?" She asked, almost choking on her words.

"I heard a scream coming from your house five minutes ago, and this is two days after my sister's disappearance. Don't you think this is a little sketchy? I don't want to assume anything, don't get me wrong, you look like nice neighbors, but I just want to be sure. I want to find her" I said.

The woman stepped back for a second then opened the door completely. She stared at me with a dead look in her eyes.
A nervousness entered my stomach.

"It must've been the tv," she calmly replied.

"I don't believe you," I said.

The woman stepped inside.
"Come with me then," she said and walked down the halway.

The halway was clean and empty, except for a little table with photos stacked in frames. The photos was from the woman, and what I supposed was her daughter.
Strangely there was no baby photos.

I followed the woman into a white living room. It was so clean, there has probably never been food in this room.
Laura sat on the couch watching When a stranger calls.

She looked at me and frowned.
"Mom what is he doing in our house?" She asked, shifting herself on the couch so she could look at me. "And you're completely wet."

"Fell in the pool on the way here," I answered and felt embarrassed for letting her see me like this.
The woman looked at Laura.
"He heard screams coming from our house, and thought it was his sister. I wanted to show him it was just the tv." Sudden tears formed in the woman's eyes. "Maybe you're imagining things. Like that time I-"

"Mom not now please!" Laura interrupted her.

The woman took a deep breath in.
"I'm sorry. Anyway, my name is Maxine, and you are?" She said holding out her hand.

I put my hand in hers. It was cold.

"I'm Cody. Sorry for bothering you," I said whilst making my way over to the door again.

Maxine nodded.
"This is Laura," she said pointing at the couch potato.

"We've met before," she said smiling.

"You should go home, it's late," Maxine told me, suddenly looking nervous.

I nodded, and ran over towards our house again. Outside of my window the water pipes climbed the wall. I always used to sneak out to party's and come back up the pipes to my room.
The pipes just held my weight, and I made it safely into my room.
***
When I lied in my bed staring at the ceiling I thought about what I did. What will those people thing of me now. That I am a druggie looking for his long lost sister that maybe doesn't even exist.
I felt embarrassed and confused.
I felt confused because this Maxine woman looked exactly like my mom, but maybe she was right, maybe I was imagining things.