Trouble In Paradise

19. Dead Girls Do Tell Tales

"Shh"

"What?"

"Shhhhh"

"I really can't hear you. Speak up!" Ethan all but yelled at Owen.

"Shut up, dumbhead," Mae barked at Ethan. "We're in a funeral home, at a wake, not a fucking Taylor Swift concert! You have to lower your loud ass voice, idiot."

"Why you gotta be so mean?" Ethan pouted but snickered with me when I fist-bumped him.

"Will you guys shut up?" Rhea glared at us and we immediately dropped our grins.

"Guys, come on. They're almost done," Matt told us in a hushed tone.

All of us stopped talking and looked in the direction of the coffin. Elektra Queen's coffin.

We came to know through the obituary that Elektra's family had organised a wake at the funeral home of Paradise before the funeral, that would be taking place tomorrow morning. Being the nosy little shits that we are, we decided to attend the wake (more like crash, but, po-tay-to po-tah-to!).

It wasn't going that well so far, seeing as a few people in the funeral home were glaring at the loud group of teenagers.

A blonde woman was standing near the coffin, her hand wrapped around the arm of a dark-haired man, her husband, presumably. They seemed to be the relatives They were talking with another couple. Their conversation seemed to have come to an end when the blonde woman gave them a sad smile and hugged them. Something about the woman seemed familiar to me. As if I had seen her before.

"Well, she seems nice," Matt said, as the couple left the blonde woman and the dark-haired man by themselves.

"I guess it's our turn now. Aria," Mason turned to me, "you wanna tell them who we are?"

I scrunched up my nose, "Why should I be the one who has to engage in a conversation that is definitely going to be awkward as hell?"

"Because you are better at conversing with people than any of us," Owen pointed out.

"Yes, and I'm sure none of us wants Ethan to talk to them, " Torryn said quietly, raising his eyebrows towards Ethan.

Ethan immediately scowled at Torryn. "Hey, fuck you, Torryn. And fuck—"

He was interrupted by the sound of a loud gasp. We turned to look at a woman and a small girl looking at Ethan with wide eyes. The woman, probably the little girl's mother, gave us a dirty look and marched away from us as fast as she could with her daughter.

"Yeah, I think it would be wisest if you didn't speak at all, Ethan," Torryn looked at Ethan, whose only response was to pout.

"Guys, I don't think we should tell them the truth. I mean, think about it. How are we even going to introduce ourselves? 'Hello, we're the ones who last saw your relative alive on the night she was murdered'?" Rhea said.

We all shared a glance. She had a point. Maybe we hadn't entirely thought this through.

You think? My subconscious snorted sarcastically.

I thought for a while. "I'll handle it, let's go," I took the box of brownies from Mae.

Apart from sleeping, threatening people, and sharpening her knives and other weapons, Mae Jackson's hobbies also included baking. Torryn recovered at an astonishing speed of 2 minutes after receiving that particular fact and simply nodded at Mae, who returned the nod. Owen recovered next, a close second with the record of 5 minutes (yes, Rhea, Mason and I were jotting down the time), and gave Mae a frightened smile. Matt and Ethan still hadn't gotten over it.