Arabella Academy: Perfectly Imperfect

12. Old Bob's Abandoned Garage

A good friend keeps your secrets for you. A best friend helps you keep your own secrets.

~Lauren Oliver

***

Jane stared in disbelief as her son gobbled up what was remaining of breakfast in a hurry.

"Relax Marcus, you'll choke yourself eating like that," she pleaded.

"Sorry mom," Marcus sputtered. "It's just that I'm late for something."

"Can't that something wait until you finish breakfast?"

"Apparently not mom."

Marcus grabbed his sneakers and wore them. He then kissed his mother and ran out of the house, leaving Jane wondering what he was up to.

"Well someone knows how to not keep time," Jeff remarked on seeing Marcus. They had agreed to meet at the town square before proceeding to the abandoned garage.

"Sorry, I woke up late," Marcus defended himself. "Can we just go before Michelle starts thinking we stood her up."

As they rushed towards the garage, Marcus couldn't help but think why Michelle had told them to meet at Old Bob's.

"Hey, Jeff, do you have an idea why Michelle told us to meet her at Old Bob's?" Marcus asked Jeff, who was half-running.

"Maybe she hid something there and wants to show us, or maybe she wants to kill us there cause we started asking too many questions," Jeff remarked.

Old Bob's Abandoned Garage was an old place on the outskirts of Middlewood. The residents had added the word 'abandoned' to its name in order to differentiate it with the much more recent Old Bob's Garage which was located inside the small town. The management had decided to move the garage inwards for better reachability. The abandoned one was thus left at the mercy of the street children and local gangs who made it their personal vault.

Marcus and Jeff reached the road near the garage and looked around for Michelle. Astonishingly, she hadn't arrived yet. They waited around for a while before a girl in a blue spaghetti top and denim trousers appeared. It was Michelle. She spotted the boys and ran towards them.

"I'm sorry for being late. I overslept," she excused herself.

"Seems like you're not the only one with that habit," Jeff commented, eying Marcus maliciously.

They proceeded to the garage where they entered through where a gate once stood. They made their way through the rummaging pile of car junk and stopped at a clearing inside.

"Why did you bring us here?" Jeff complained, dusting his shirt. He was not a fan of dirt and he usually maintained an aura of cleanliness and organisation around him.

Michelle looked around the garage. Seeing that the coast was clear she turned and looked at Marcus and Jeff. The two boys realised that she had something really important to tell them and they paid attention.

"I chose this place because it was relatively secluded so no one can hear what I am about to tell you. The truth is I've been keeping a poker face because I didn't know how to really react to Sheila's death as the news hit me pretty hard. Anyway, that's not the point. What I've been hiding was that before Sheila died, she sent me something that morning."

"What was it?" Jeff asked, eager to know.

"Okay, so you see how in a Samsung phone you can send an SOS message whenever you're in trouble? You press the power button three times and it sends a picture and a five-second voice note to any contact of your choice?"

"Yes," Marcus and Jeff replied in unison.

"That was what she sent me," Michelle revealed.

"Well do you have it with you?" Marcus asked, his voice betraying his impatience.

Michelle took out her phone from her pocket. Marcus and Jeff gathered around her to get to see. She showed them the picture first.

"Oh my God!" Jeff was the first to react.

On the picture was part of Sheila's face, and the fear was clearly visible in it. What scared the boys was the axe on the background. It looked like it was headed for her.

Marcus took a deep breath and said, "I understand your reaction now, it must be hard having the last picture of your best friend as one in which she is being murdered. That is scary."

Michelle looked at Marcus and spoke earnestly, "That is not the scary part."

She then played the voice recording and their faces widened into horrific expressions as they listened to what were presumably Sheila's last words:

"Don''t...please...I beg you...Mr Stevens...nooooooo—"