Masquerader

Chapter 1

              Cenne was mad at her dad for not paying that much attention in helping her in the school story writing competition while every year before he had helped her in writing the perfect story, in the submission. They did it all together but not this year. Dad was busy preparing his friend's son for a  job test and interviews. So she did it herself.

              It was summer. The soft wind blew at night and the hot sun shone at its highest in the day. Like every other twelve years old, she also was eager to make as many as possible friends and experience new things. She wrote her diary, hanged out with her friends, and went to school. Cenne was a straight-A student but didn't really have any idea what she was gonna study in college or anything about her career choices and didn't even care about it.

             In August, when she went out with her friends, she would see the same person every day. She didn't have any idea who was that person. He formed a heart symbol with his hands for two of her friends when they once passed him from a distance. Once Cenne was coming back from the mall with her friend, they had just reached her street when they saw him again. He started following them. He was right behind them and Cenne and her friend did not exchange a single word as they were afraid of a stranger following them. They took the first turn they could into the street and they were relieved to know he went straight ahead. Cenne used to chat on a website with her cousin who was older than him but they were good friends more like Lil sis and big bro. She told him, Ben, about that stranger. 

                One day in the chilly November, she was coming back from school when she saw him again. When she reached her house, she went straight into the backyard where her mother was, a chubby, fair complexed, middle-aged woman who was working out some clothes. She said, "How was the exam?" Cenne replied happily, "Great, mum. I did well. I attempted the whole paper and all of the objectives are also correct." She went to the kitchen to get a glass of water for herself when her eye caught the sight of two people sitting in the park right in front of her house. It was the same person! For a while, she was shocked to see him but then she heard her mother calling her so she went to her. Her mother told her to get something from the front yard. When she was still away from it she saw that same person putting something in her way and going away. She got a little scare but she went there anyway. She picked it up, it was an envelope, an empty envelope. She was wondering and getting angry about why would he leave an empty envelope in her way when her eyes stopped on the phone number written on the seal flap of the khaki envelope. She was staring at that person for a minute or two but then she came back into the house. She noted it down on a scrap of page. In the evening, she told her friends about it. They taunted her and freaked out about why she had even picked it up. She saw him again and took out the envelope and tore it into pieces right in front of him. She did it on the advice of a friend of hers. Cenne had her Arabic exam one day after. She was in the front yard at noon holding a book and learning from it while walking randomly. She saw the same two persons again but this time they passed from the footpath. Cenne was standing right beside her mother's car when they threw something on the car's hood. She was gonna freak out but then she saw that it was candy. She threw it away because obviously, she was not gonna take anything at all from a stranger even if it's just candy. Two days later in the evening, when she was coming back home with her hands in her jacket, she felt somebody coming after her, her heartbeat increased and she was scared. She didn't look back until she was taking the turn to her house when she finally caught the glimpse of the person behind her. THE SAME PERSON AGAIN!! She was so scared and kept on walking. That man put a khaki bag on a step on the stair that she was gonna reach, Cenne kicked it away with her right foot. it made a breaking sound but Cenne didn't have any idea what was inside it. She ran to her house and called her friends. They again taunted her for not picking it up to at least know what was in it. Cenne was confused and felt lost. She could not understand what that person wanted and most of all, what her friends wanted from her. For a moment, she could not feel anything, and then she was all panicked and puzzled she did not how to react. After many baffled thoughts, she decided to call him.