Midnight Secrets

Chapter 9

There were no planned times after that and no spoken agreement about what the possible future bump ins would be like. In fact, I did not know after the initial meeting that there ever would be any following ones. It was a onetime occurrence in the night. A onetime shift in normality.

The next evening, I had a little run in with my father. He was in one of his moods and barked at me from his office.

"Ellie. Here. Now." He snapped his fingers in my direction, not looking up from the pile of paper he was deeply studying.

I stopped halfway through the hallway and changed direction, so I was walking inside his office. "Yes?" I asked him, making sure my voice came out even and toneless. Any hint of insolence or impoliteness would be used against me.

"I need you to look into Dr. Harris for me."

I frowned down at him. Why hasn't he still looked up at me from his work? Am I that meaningless to him?

"Who is he?"

He shook his head, "she."

"Anything else I need to know?" That was one question I knew to always ask earlier on. This stopped any hidden skeletons from popping out to scare me when I started poking around. Although over the years, things were slowly becoming less scary for me. And that fact chilled me to the bone every time.

"She needs to be gone." My father replied instantly.

"Gone as in?" I asked, forcing my father to elaborate. This was another thing I quickly learned to establish before I left my father's presence. He needs to make things clear for me, so I did not mess up as I had done in the past. The re-precautions from that mess up led to various chain reaction of events that until now, I was picking up the pieces.

"Dead." As though no thought was required in hanging out a death sentence. As if he had the right.

I nodded at him, and he dismissed me with a flick of his hand. I turned on my heel and sped away, ignoring the loud thumping in my heart that always seem to happen when he made such orders. Did he think I could live with blood on my hands? Did he think this was okay? I physically could not let my mind wander to such dark places right now.

So, I did what I knew I could only do. I rounded the corner of his hallway and sped up my feet towards the kitchen. There was door to the right that led into the cook's kitchen and that is where I found Lorna, chopping up all sorts of vegetables. "Why are you making food so late?" I asked her, glance at the watch attached to my wrist. It was a few minutes to ten in the evening .

She peered down at my clothes, my shoes and then back up to my face again. "Where are you heading off to?"

"Fresh air." I answered nonchalantly.

"At this time?" she asked, with a perch of her eyebrows.

"Is there a problem to want fresh air?"

"Is there a need to dress up for it?"

I lifted my pink sweatshirt, kind of tattered at the hems but still did its job. I also had on my only pair of black jeans. This was not an outfit I was rarely in.

"This is not dressed up. Be concerned if I'm wearing my heels."

"You in heels would not be concerning. In jeans and trainers are."

I let out a deep sigh. Although I had known Lorna my whole life and had become an important fixture in my life since the passing of my mum, sometimes she could get right under my skin. "I am going for fresh air Lorna." I repeated.