Chapter Eight

 Adira kept glancing at the phone as she cooked her instant noodles. The phone had charged enough for her to see the vibrant colors of the screen come on. She had been going through the contacts and then the gallery for the pictures to find out if her hunch had been right, when a message had popped up, informing her of an update.

The black box wouldn’t budge until she had to agree to accept the update. Right before she touched on the OK button, she saw a picture of Sibyl with Ramon at a park.

She hated that she couldn’t enlarge the photo before she had been forced into agreeing to the update.

New phones, new problems and so many updates to fix the bugs. What the hell?

As she ate her lukewarm noodles and ketchup, she stared at the wall in front of her, trying to piece together everything, but unable to do so.

“Ramon was telling the truth. He was friends with Sibyl?”

She twirled a noodle around her plastic fork and looked at the phone again, where five colorful dots rotated and a green bar underneath had still not filled up.

Disposing off her dishes and most of her noodles, she picked up the phone, saw that the updates had still not installed. Groaning, she decided that she might as well sleep and check first thing in the morning.

Hopefully, by then it would have charged.

She had changed into a pink nightshirt and red shorts and lying on her bed, when she remembered that she hadn’t checked her own phone. Jumping out from bed, she rushed to the living room and saw her phone lying by her book bag. Pressing on the buttons, she realized her battery had completely died.

“Ugh, I give up!” she put her phone near the other phone and went back to bed.

*****

It was four am when she was awakened by a loud incessant beeping. Her heart pounded in her chest and she jumped out of bed, not thinking about anything but reacting reflexively to the phone ring.

She picked up her phone, pushing away the strands of her long hair that had entered her mouth. “Hello?” She knew it had to be bad news. No one called so early if it wasn’t bad news.

Then she stared blankly at the screen, slowly remembering that her phone battery had died and she hadn’t charged it because…

She saw the other phone flashing and beeping again.

Because she had been charging the other phone. She pulled out the charger and picked up her phone. It was then that she realized that it hadn’t been a call, but an alarm. On screen, there were several messages, most of them updates of social networks and others about the weather forecasts and breaking news.

Adira unlocked the phone, distractedly plugging in her own phone. There was no screen lock which bothered her.

If this is Sibyl’s phone, wouldn’t she have tried to safeguard it by using a PIN or password?

She went to the gallery and sucked in her breath. All the pictures were gone. She went to the messages and saw only an empty folder.

“No messages? Yesterday there were notifications for at least fifty.” Adira sat down on her sofa and flipped through the pages of the phone. The contacts toom,

When she clicked on the social network icons, she found only a white screen.

She tossed the phone angrily on the table and put her hands in her hair. She was sure it had been Sibyl’s phone, could still be, but now there was no proof. There had been a picture of Ramon as well. Now she had no proof to study.

She looked at the time, saw it was ten minutes after four and then rubbed her forehead.  As soon as the shops opened, she planned a visit to the Mobile HotSpot. Maybe the salesman could help her retrieve the deleted files.

“But how in the world did they get deleted in the first place? Stupid software updates!”

She got up as her own phone signaled unread messages. She was about to pick it up, when the phone behind her gave a shrill sound. Adira grabbed it and saw a notification for a text message. She opened it and felt her heart skip a beat.

“Hi Adira.”

She sat down slowly back on the sofa, staring at her name on screen. Her mouth went dry as she kept staring at it, her thumb hovering over the touch keyboard.

Someone knew she had the phone. Someone was sending her a message. Not Sibyl. This probably wasn’t even her sister’s phone.

Her hands trembled and she was reaching out to switch off her phone when she recalled what Ramon had told her yesterday.

Sibyl had been using my name. Mine. Maybe it wasn’t only for the company. Maybe she was using it at a lot of places.

“What do I write back?” she sat cross-legged on the sofa and kept staring at the message that didn’t have the name of the sender.

“The contacts got wiped out. It could be a friend. It could be Ramon. What do I do?” She hadn’t realized she was speaking out loud to herself.

“Phone problems.”

She typed, “Who is this?”

There was no reply for a minute, then three dots appeared, signaling that someone was sending her a chat message.

“Don’t trust Ramon.”

Adira let her legs drop and she leaned forward, staring at the screen. “Why not?”

“I’ll explain everything very soon. Until then, trust me.”

She pressed her lips together. Of course, she couldn’t trust a random person who had sent her the text, but her eyes kept going up to the messages.

Don’t trust Ramon.

“Who is this?” She felt panicky as she wrote.

“You know I can’t tell you.”  Then a few seconds later, “How about we meet today and I tell you everything?”

Adira felt an excited tug in her heart. She started to type ‘yes’, then waited for common sense to prevail. Here was someone she had no idea who, but clearly knew her sister.

Probably someone from the office. Was it one of Sibyl’s sources?

She had to meet him in order to get to the bottom of her sister’s disappearance, but how many stories had she read where people who met online often haphazardly came across predators?

This was a bad idea, but Adira was tired of waiting for the answers to fall into her lap. She had to take a risk. Of course, it would have helped if she had a friend who could help keep an eye on her.

Neil really did like me once, would he help me if I asked him?

She stared at the messages of the chat and tapped a finger on her knee. She had to reply quickly before the sender vanished and she lost her once chance to find out more about Sibyl.

“Where should we meet?” she typed, as she argued with herself inwardly.

The three dots appeared immediately and she pinched her bottom lip with her thumb and finger.

“Somewhere secluded. How about...”

Adira was about to type the name of the park that was right in the corner of the town, and where no one ever went and was so vast that there was a town council meeting to be held to decide to cut out the park and build more roads.

“Eastfield Park.” was the message she received.

Adira suppressed a smile of surprise. Exactly what she had been thinking. “What time?” she typed.

“One-thirty in the afternoon. Sharp.”

Adira frowned. That was pretty specific and the last word sounded like it was an order. She was about to type where exactly they would meet in the park and how she would recognize them, when she saw that the sender had gone offline.

Adira leaned back, resting her head and staring at the ceiling.

This was going to be a long wait.

*****

Her class once again clashed with her rendezvous with the mysterious stranger so she decided to instead study in the library for an hour rather than attend only half her class.

In the library, she had chosen the table right at the back, trying hard to ignore the other students who deliberately circled away from her. Adira gritted her teeth and opened a textbook on philosophy and tried to read.

Damn Neil! Damn, stupid Neil. What did he tell everyone that has got them all avoiding me like I have something contagious?

After half an hour of reading the same paragraph twice, Adira looked up from her book at the large clock on the wall. She wasn’t getting any studying done and ever since she had found out her sister was missing, she hadn’t been prioritizing her academics at all.

“You’re going to fail this semester, Adira,” she told herself and used both hands to run her temples. Her eyes fell on two girls who were standing by a shelf, eyeing her with a frown. Behind them were four more students, all whispering among themselves.

A quick look around showed her that all the tables had filled up and she was the only one who had occupied a table that would seat six. Adira went back to staring at her textbook. She didn’t care if they were waiting. They were being rude and she wasn’t going to be bullied into vacating her seat.

She heard footsteps and saw one of the girls come up to her. “Do you mind?” she asked, rudely.

Adira clutched her textbook. “About what?”

The girl flipped her hair back and raised an eyebrow. “Leaving? We want to study.”

Her arrogance and her talking slowly as if she were talking to an idiot, irked Adira. “So am I,”

“Yeah, well go study outside.” The girl scoffed. “Or a brothel or wherever girls like you spend most of your time.”

“Excuse me?” Adira asked, horrified.

The girl was joined by her friend who made a face at her. “Isn’t she leaving already?”

The first girl sneered. “Don’t pretend to be so innocent. We know what you are and what you did. Poor Neil.”

Adira stood, closing her textbook. “What did he tell you?”

“It’s what he showed us. Or rather, what you flaunted in front of him. So insensitive.” The girl made a disgusted face and her friend nodded.

“She has no shame,”

Adira looked at both of them. “What did he show you?”

“Pictures of you seducing other guys,” The girl spat. “The way you were throwing yourself at guys. You sent him those pics to tease him and show him how popular you were with guys. Such a slut!”

Adira felt her heart drop into her stomach. “He showed you pictures?”

“Yeah.” The girl put her purse on the table. “So excuse us if we don’t want to associate ourselves with a whore.”

Adira almost raised her hand to strike her, but instead, grabbed her textbook and bag, and walked briskly to the librarian. Blinking back tears, she checked out her textbook and slipped it into her bag.

She could hear snickering as she left, but she couldn’t dare to turn around. Once outside, she wiped away a tear and crossed her arms, making sure not to make eye contact with anyone.

Apparently all her classmates thought she was a lascivious girl.

How could Neil have fallen to such depths as to spread such baseless and crude rumors about me? What have I ever done to him? Just because I wasn’t an obedient girlfriend?

“Adira!”

She turned around and blinked as the sunlight blinded her. Shading her eyes, she saw Ruby waving her hands. She was sitting on a bench with Neil and had a folder open on her lap.

Adira considered ignoring her and then stopped.

Maybe I should punch Neil and get it over with.

She stomped over to them with her hands clenched and then stopped inches away from them.

If I do that, everyone will sympathize with him even more.

“Are you going?” Ruby asked, her eyes twinkling with excitement?

Adira hadn’t realized she was glaring at Neil who was trying hard not to make eye contact with her. “What?” She asked, a bit harsh.

“There’s a charity ball going to be held next week.” Ruby brought out two tickets from her purse. “We got ours. It’s for providing education to small villages. It’s going to be fantastic and has a prom theme. Everyone is going to wear gowns and tuxedos. You are going right?”

Adira bit the inside of her lip. She imagined attending such an event and have nothing to do but stand in a corner while people willfully avoided her.

“I have an assignment to work on,” she said in a controlled tone, aware that she was on the verge of tears.

“Yes, the assignment.” Ruby patted Neil’s knee. “He has been having trouble working on it. I told him it is a group project and he should be coordinating with you.”

It was Adira’s turn to look away. The truth was, she was having trouble working on her assignment as well. The interview with the marketing manager hadn’t been too fruitful and without Neil’s assistance, she wasn’t sure how to prepare the presentation. Whether they liked it or not, they had to work together or end up looking like inadequate fools when they had to submit their assignment and give a presentation on their findings.

“Pick a time and day. Both of you should be working on it together.” Ruby smiled up at her and Adira tried to respond in the same way, except her smile faltered.

“I have to go now,” she told her.

“See you later,” Ruby said melodically.

Adira turned away and raised a hand in a casual wave, then rushed to the gate, anxious to leave behind the terrible, hurtful people. She removed the other phone and checked for any more messages from the mysterious sender. When she didn’t see any, she headed straight down the Garden street and then headed for the Eastfield Park.

It was a twenty minute walk which Adira covered distractedly. All she could think about was how Neil needed to pay for what he did to her.

It was one-twenty-five when she walked through the ornamental wrought iron gates and it took another ten minutes to walk up the small hills to look all around the park.

There was only grass, a few wild plants and a couple of trees. Since it wasn’t frequented by many visitors, with most people preferring the walkway in the promenade to the garden, no one seemed to be maintaining the park. There were weeds everywhere and the only swing set was in shambles.

Adira walked down the hill, feeling the cool breeze sweep back her hair as she did so. She walked down the red brick pathway and then looked at the time.

“Where are you?”

Her phone rang and she instinctively reached for the new phone. When she saw a blank screen, she frowned. It took her another second to realize it was her own phone ringing.

She saw Ramon’s name flashing and immediately canceled the call. Turning it on vibration mode, she slipped it into her pocket and unlocked the other phone, deciding she should ask if she had to wait longer.

Her thumb had barely touched the screen, when a message popped up.

“Can’t meet today,”

Adira quickly typed, “Why not?”

“Ramon is following you. I’ll get in touch later.”

Adira felt like she had been struck by a blast of icy wind. Her hands clutched the phone tight and when she looked all around, she saw only a blur of green. Her heart started to beat soundly until she could feel like her ears were pounding.

She turned again and this time, saw someone standing outside the fence. Blinking twice, she finally recognized a figure in a dark blue suit. Suddenly furious, she stomped over to the high fence, making up her mind to let him have it.

So what if I didn’t punch Neil today, Ramon isn’t going to get off that easy.

Before he could say anything, she cut him off. “Are you following me?”

“You cut my call,” he said, obviously being evasive. Again.

“I could go to the police right now and tell them you’re stalking me,” She almost screamed.

It’s his fault I couldn’t find out more about Sibyl today.

“What are you doing here?” He asked, seemingly unperturbed by her rude behavior.

Adira seethed. “What does one come to do in a park? I was taking a walk.”

“I thought you didn’t like coming here. Because when I told you to meet here...”

“How dare you follow me?” She threw the phone angrily in her bag.

“I wasn’t. I decided it wasn’t fair to track you, and after the other day when you got so angry, I’ve stopped,” He said.

“Then why are you exactly where I am?” Adira asked, cautiously.

“I live around here.” Ramon gestured with his hands, behind him.

Adira let out a small laugh. “Oh, really? I find that hard to believe.”

Ramon sighed. “I’ll show you.”

“Fine.” She put one foot on the circular designs at the bottom of the fence and hauled herself up.

“What are you doing?” Ramon took a step back. “The gate is right there.”

Adira shook her head. “It’s too far.” She put her other foot awkwardly on the square design in the middle of the fence and put one hand between the spikes.

“I’ll wait.” Ramon suddenly broke into a smile which caused Adira to get irritated. “Okay, look, just put one leg over that pillar. Do not go over the spikes or you’ll hurt yourself.”

Adira didn’t want to listen to him. Eleven years ago, she had been playing with a ball when it had bounced over the fence of someone’s house. Since no one had been home, Sibyl had offered to climb the gate. It had been almost like this, except the spikes hadn’t been sharp and rusted like the ones in the park.

If Sibyl can do it, so can I.

“You’ll fall and break your bones.” Ramon was now watching her with amusement.

“Yeah, because I’m a hundred feet up,” Adira snapped, sarcastically.

Very carefully, she pulled one leg up, stuck her shoe in the space between two spikes and pulled herself over. Once she was on top, however, she had to admit that it was quite a height that would result in some injuries if she were to just jump.

“I’m on my break and just wanted to grab a file from home. You’re taking a lot of time,” Ramon mocked.

Adira held her breath and readied herself to jump. Ramon moved back a step and she could see him trying to hide a smile. With renewed vigor and anger, she jumped and landed on her knees.

Picking herself up, she dusted her jeans and ignored the small stab of pain she felt on both knees. “Let’s go. Prove that you do live here and aren’t following me.”

Ramon didn’t say anything and started to walk, while she stayed a step behind, checking for cuts. Hopefully, she hadn’t suffered a deep cut that would bleed through her jeans.

He stopped by the pedestrian crossing and looked at her, still not saying anything. She looked up defiantly, certain that he was lying.

When the signal turned green, he crossed the road and went in the alley between two buildings. Once on the other side, Adira found herself staring at the building that Sibyl supposedly lived in.

She looked at him. “This is...”

“Where I live as well. The flats are given to us by the company. Accommodation is one of the perks.” Ramon walked inside the lobby and then to the elevators.

Adira played with the strap of her bag. “It’s a shortcut.”

“What?”

She shook her head. “The guards knew you. I heard you inquiring about  Sibyl’s apartment.”

“Like I said, I wanted you to believe what you did. It was my way of directing you to the apartment so you could find the clue.” Ramon got in and pressed the button for the twenty-third floor.

“The clue? You did find something.” Adira followed him out when they reached. He took a right and walked down the long passageway.

He went to the end of it and stood in front of the door. Taking out a key, he unlocked it and entered the apartment. “Come in,”

Adira looked in and hesitated. Ramon didn’t notice her as he straight away went inside the rooms and she heard sounds of drawers opening and closing.

Sibyl trusted him.

It was that thought that made her enter the apartment. She stood in the entrance, saw how sparsely furnished it was and frowned. It looked exactly like Sibyl’s apartment. All in white and hardly anything else.

“Can I get you something?” Ramon asked as he walked into her view through the arched doorway.

“No.” She stayed where she was, frozen, uncertain of what to think about him. “You didn’t answer my question. If you want me to trust you, tell me what was in the packet you found.”

Ramon put the file in his briefcase and she could see him taking time to contemplate. “It was something that didn’t make sense to me.” He looked at her, leaning against the small dining table. “I sent it to have it examined. Once I know what it means, I’ll tell you.”

“You’ll tell me?” Adira crossed her arms. “You haven’t been that honest with me.”

“I will be now,” Ramon promised. “Now, that you know that I do live here, I hope I’ve earned some of your trust?”

“Whatever,” she muttered and then turned to the door. When she saw it was closed, she suddenly felt a bolt of nervousness. Her hand closed over the door handle and when it didn’t budge, she suddenly realized what a grave mistake she had made.

She had been too trusting, and now she was trapped!