The Story of Mute Girl

Chapter 30

Harry's P.O.V

“Harry? What are you doing here?” Mr. Smith asks, faking innocence, I think.

“No, the question is who the hell are you, really? And why do you keep bothering her?!” I shout in his face.

“What are you talking about? Who's 'her?' And I'm your teacher so you better stop yelling at me and give me respect!” He yells back, starting to look annoyed. Good.

His voice sounds like the worst sound I've ever heard and all I want to do is to beat him up. Instead, I open my mouth. “I know it was you, you killed Rosie's parents!” I waste no time in accusing him.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard what I said.” By this point my breathing is becoming uneven from all the anger I feel.

“Harry come in, you look like you need a glass of water.” He looks worried, he's probably just trying to distract me.

Wanting to get answers, I push past him to get in. His house is much bigger than I would think a high school teacher would get. The living room is huge and is decorated as if it was worth thousands, which it probably was. I hear Mr. Smith, or Ricky, clear his throat behind me. He makes his way to the kitchen to get me a drink. I can't help but feel a little scared. This guy is one of our teachers who might have killed Rosie's parents and might be her stalker, and I'm standing in his living room. Not my smartest decision.

“Sit down Harry, don't worry we'll work this out,” he smiles from the other room. I hesitantly sit on the edge of the couch, only because my legs are starting to get sore from all the running.

When he comes back, he hands me a glass of water along with a towel wrapped around an icepack, for my knuckles. Ricky sits next to me, and I feel really uncomfortable so I stand back up.

After I chug the water down, he begins speaking. “Okay now we can talk, what were you saying?” He gives me another one of those creepy smiles.

“I was saying that I know what you did. You ki-” I start to feel really dizzy.

“I'm sorry, what did you say Harry?”

“I said, I know what you di-” my head starts to hurt even more and I feel like I'm about to pass out. Realizing he probably put something in my water, I grab hold of his collar.

“Why?” Before I can get answers, I start seeing black and fall back, hitting the marble coffee table.

Mackenzie's P.O.V

I luckily calmed Rosie down and decided to stay over. I'm not leaving her... Again. I can't believe I ever left this sweet innocent girl by herself. Worse than that, I even bullied her. All the times she gave me the look of vulnerability while we were harassing her, you would think I would've realized how stupid I was being a while ago, but I didn't. Now when I look back at it, it seems like decades ago, but it hasn't even been a week. Now I understand just how hard Rosie's life is. Not only did her parents die but, she became mute, her friends left her, her foster parents aren't really there for her, and now this stalker is threatening her.

I set up the movie Forest Gump, trying to cheer her up. She sleeps halfway through the movie after shedding some more tears. I hate that she's going through all of this, but there's not much I can do. If I could, I would. But I can't. I wonder where harry is right now and what he's doing. I know Rosie felt extremely hurt when he unexpectedly left. Why did he leave? He loves Rosie, I know he cares. But what was so important that he had to leave when our friend was having a panic attack? And why did he look like he was in such a rush? Even if his parents called to tell him he had to go home, I know he wouldn't, unless it was a big emergency. Tired of thinking of what happened, I go into Rosie's room to get her a pillow and a blanket. When getting the blanket, something falls. I look down and see a picture frame. Putting the blanket down, I pick the frame up and see a picture of Rosie's parents, Jessica, and I. It was at a barbeque, I remember this. The picture was taken by Rosie. She always had a thing for art and photography. I remember that at that barbeque, after the picture was taken, Rosie had said that she wanted to remember the people she loves most in life. I smile, most people have pictures of them and their close friends in picture frames placed in their rooms, but not Rosie. She's not even in it. She just wanted to remember the moment with the people she loved.

I observe everyone's faces in the picture. Her dad is barbequing while her mom is standing next to him, looking as if she were in the middle of a conversation with him when the picture was taken. They are both smiling, but it kind of looks as if Rosie's mom isn't really happy. She looks worried, scared even, just faking her smile. Rosie's dad doesn't seem to notice his wife's expression, and he's smiling. Jessica and I were laughing while doing a weird pose to the camera. I almost don't recognize her because now she's almost completely changed her image. From losing weight, to putting pounds of makeup on. I'm not one to talk though, I have also changed quite a bit. Nevertheless, everyone looks so happy in this photo. I miss this. I miss the happiness.

Just as I'm about to put the photo back on the bedside table, I notice something odd about the picture. Squinting my eyes, I see a familiar pair of eyes behind Rosie's parents. Mr. Smith. I don't remember him being there, or even knowing any of us. In the photo, he's talking to someone from Rosie's dad's work who's name I remember being Sam, he was a very creepy man. However, even though Mr. Smith is talking to Sam, his eyes are obviously on Rosie's parents. More specifically, her mother. I recognize his expression as a look of longing. Did he know her parents? And why was he looking at her mother like that?

All of these questions cloud my mind but only one sticks out the most, did he have something to do with all of this? I know it's weird to think that your teacher could possibly be a murderer, but he is new and we don't know much about him. Everything he does is sketchy, and we all know that. Maybe that's where Harry went. He could have gone to find Mr. Smith and find out what's going on, and here I am standing here like an idiot instead of actually doing something helpful.

Finally putting the photo back on the bedside table, I pick the blanket back up. I go to the living room and put the blanket on Rosie, covering her from the cold. I wish I could also cover her from the evils of the world.

Once I'm sure she's comfortable, I go into the kitchen and take my cellphone out. Finding the contact 'Fuzzball', I click on it and put the phone to my ear. He doesn't answer. I call him three more times, not caring if it's annoying him. I need to know why he left. After calling for the fifth time, I begin to get worried. Even if he dislikes me, he'd still answer, especially to see if Rosie's okay.

I need to find out where he is and what's happening. But I can't leave Rosie by herself. I just hope Harry's alright because Rosie will be devastated if anything were to happen to him. I feel useless not doing anything to check up on Harry so I just text him.

Me: Hey, I got Rosie to sleep. Where are you? Why'd you leave? Please call me when you get this.

After I send the text, I watch the muted TV until I too fall asleep, thinking about all the things that have changed and wondering what happened to Harry. If he isn't back by the morning, I'll drop her off at school and go find Harry. 

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*Crawls out of hole* Hey... I'm back!! 

I know you probably all hate me for leaving so long, but this break helped me. I had too many things going on and I was too stressed to think about this story. After months of thinking, I finally decided that I'm going to finish this story whether it's the last thing I do. Since I'm still really busy a lot of the time, updates won't be too consistent but I will try my best. I'm sorry for leaving but I'm back and I just wanted to thank you all for the support I've gotten. This story has 31.7K all because of your endless support. So yeah, I love you guys, you're the best! 

~ Rawan