Trouble In Paradise

30. "Oh, kind Aria!"

"Did you get it?" Ethan uttered as everyone gathered around me in the empty classroom.

"No. I just called everyone here for a refreshing yoga session," I replied with a straight face.

"Please don't feel afraid to keep your stupidity to a minimum, Ethan," Mae glared at him.

"Sorry," Ethan grumbled, "Of course, you have it. Now, will you, oh, kind Aria, please show it to us too?"

I smirked. "Since you've asked so sweetly, I will," I removed the worn out diary from my bag.

Placing it on the table, everyone huddled closer to look at it.

"Uh, should I read?" I raised an eyebrow. Everyone nodded.

"Okay, so this belongs to Thomas Lake. This is the first entry and it's dated October 1, 1916.

"'I still remember the day when Elizabeta first came to town. Her moving here was pretty hard to miss, as the entire town was buzzing with curiosity about the new owner of the Queens' house. She came to Father's bakery on the very day she moved.

'With blonde hair and electric blue eyes, she was the prettiest girl I'd known. She wore intriguing necklaces and a long dress. She wore those necklaces and long dresses every time she visited the markets. She had become a regular customer at the bakery. Soon, we had become good friends. Our small town of Paradise seemed brighter because of her presence. Only if she hadn't died.'"

"Well," Rhea was the first to speak, "That was certainly not the ending I was expecting."

"Tell me about it," Matt whistled.

"So, she is the Elizabeta Queen. As in, Elektra Queen's ancestor," Owen raised his eyebrows, an eager glint in his eyes.

"Apparently," I tilted my head. "You guys wanna read on?"

Torryn shrugged. "We've already invaded this person's privacy, might as well do it properly."

"Agreed," Mae nodded.

I shrugged, turning to the next page, only to find it blank.

"What the hell?" I murmured, going through all the blank pages until I saw another entry.

"Why are there, like, 15 pages blank in there?" Matt asked looking confused.

"Yeah. So many trees were cut down for those. He can't just not use them," Mason complained indignantly.

"Okay, chill out, we'll see what's written next," I patted Mason's head like I often did to Caleb.

The next entry was dated November 20, 1916.

"' It's been almost two months since her death, ' " I read out loud, "'and they still don't know who did it. Who murdered my friend so brutally. Who knows what would've happened if a few of my friends and I weren't walking past the Queens' house and smelled the foul stench? Would her corpse have even been found if we hadn't thought of telling the Chief about the stench? As if the murder was not enough, around 7 young women have died of natural causes. Only the Lord knows what is wrong with this town!' "

"So, this guy and his friends were the ones who found Elizabeta!" Owen exclaimed.

"Uh-huh," I nodded. Looking at the diary, I frowned.

"Why'd you stop reading?" Ethan asked, taking the book from my hands. He flipped a few pages. "Blank pages again. What's the deal with Thomas Lake? I kinda don't wanna read this," Ethan shuddered.

"Well, I do," Torryn snatched the diary and flipped a few more pages. "Here. The next entry— it's dated December 2, 1916." He started reading:

"'I got in trouble today. Richard has been acting strange lately. He pelted stones at the Chief's daughter's cat when Mark, him and I went on a walk this evening. We tried to stop him but the Chief caught him and us, too. He will decide our punishment tomorrow morning. The bakery has not been doing very well as of late. The only good news in the past few days is that thankfully, no more deaths have happened. Maybe Paradise will go back to being the happy town it was before but I don't know if I will. I still miss her terribly.'" Torryn read the whole thing in a monotonous voice which was weirdly comical.