Chapter 21 – The Wicked Girl – Holly Hayfield

Jacob opened the diary up and flipped through a few pages. Once he found what he was looking for he turned the diary towards us. The page had a photograph of Malorie and two girls standing in front of a school. I recognized the school as a nearby public school. It was probably the school Malorie went to before transferring to Meredith’s School for Troubled Girls.

The trio stood out like sore thumbs compared to the students walking by in the background. They looked like they were in the wrong time period in this image. The three were all gothic girls with frilly black dresses that looked like they belonged to the Victorian era. They all wore heavy make-up. Chiefly, they wore heavy black eyeliner.

“This is Malorie and her friends before she switched schools.” Jacob said.

He flipped the pages until he was in the middle of the diary.

“This is a picture of her at your school.” He said.

The difference was massive. With her wearing the same standard uniform this picture looked like it could’ve been taken yesterday. She didn’t have heavy make-up. She also didn’t have anyone in the frame with her. Her biggest difference wasn’t something that could be noticed at a glance.

The biggest difference was her expression. In the earlier picture she was smiling and linking arms with her two friends. In the second picture she was bleak and lifeless. She looked like she had just come back from attending a funeral. It was a depressing contrast.

“She didn’t like our school?” Lilith asked.

“Unfortunately I wasn’t close enough with her at the time to know. In hindsight I wished I had spent more time with her. Although, I’m sure a lot of people say something like that after they’ve lost someone. It’s just that I never imagined she’d vanish so damn suddenly. Her disappearance tore my family apart.”

“I know how you feel.” I said, “I’ve lost two people I that I care about. Did Malorie ever say anything about wanting to go away? Was school stressing her out?”

“I don’t think Malorie expected she’d go missing either. The day before transferring schools she was telling the entire family about how excited she was. By the end of the first day she was already burnt out. She hardly even spoke a word about it that night at dinner.”

“I’m ashamed to say that our school is a cesspool.” Lilith said, “It’s far from what my great grandmother intended it to be. I wanted to become a teacher to try changing things but sometimes I wonder if change is even possible.”

Lilith wasn’t looking at me or Jacob as she said this. She was staring off into the distance. She was speaking from her heart now. I took Lilith by the hand. She looked at me curiously, as though she didn’t quite understand the act of holding hands. I smiled at her and nodded.

“I believe change is possible. If anyone can do it, it’s you.” I said.

Lilith gave me a short-lived smile as though she wasn’t sure rather or not to believe me.

“The school’s problems run deep.” She said.

“You’re not the only ones who think that. There’s a page that I want to show you.” Jacob said.

He flipped through the diary and showed us another page.

“Look here, Malorie was writing about that same thing.” He said.

Malorie, like everyone else, was privy to the extensive unrepaired damage the school had. What amazed me most was the fact that her descriptions of damage around the school were consistent with damage in the present. Such long lingering problems still went completely unchanged. That fact is made worse now that someone from her generation served as vice principal. It demonstrated, in reality, the level of apathy the school administrators and school board members had towards the school itself.

The school administrators were a point that Malorie talked about on the very next page. She noted that her public school teachers that were a mixed bag. She wrote that even the teachers she didn’t care for had redeeming qualities. Unlike them, the teachers of Meredith’s School for Troubled Girls were overwhelmingly negative towards the students. This, again, was true even in the present.

This stemmed from the very nature of the school’s population. These were mostly girls from mostly poorer families that had troubled homes, troubled minds, or troubled pasts. They were girls like me. In a perfect world we would have teachers that saw past that and reached out for us to become better people. In reality, that was too much to ask of not only the teachers, but the students. In reality both sides needed to make efforts if there was going to be true reformation for anyone.

Malorie saw that clearly according to her diary. Here she was ten years ago eloquently writing about topics that I had trouble voicing even to myself. I reached out for the diary and Jacob let me hold it. I flipped through the pages and skimmed the writing to see just how much more Malorie knew. It was enlightening to read such intelligent writing from a like-minded individual.

She talked about what it would take to change the school. She even wrote about bringing her proposals to the principal himself. She was denied by both the principal and the staff. She continued to write about changes that she believed in. Lilith and I read these texts in wonder.

“Your sister was truly a wonderful person.” I said.

“Thank you.” Jacob said, “It means a lot to hear you say that. I was afraid that people had given up on her. There has been so little information regarding her case recently that I was afraid that people forgot all about her. I don’t want that. I’m glad you two showed up today.”

I looked away from the diary and up at Jacob.

“You’re a good older brother. I’m sure your sister would appreciate that.” I said.

“I only wish I was a good older brother back then when she really needed me. I know it’s not my fault that she went missing but sometimes I can’t help but feel somewhat guilty. If only I had kept more of an eye out for her maybe it wouldn’t have happened.”

“Have you talked to any of Malorie’s friends after she switched schools?” I asked.

“That’s the weirdest part. Malorie didn’t write about any of her friends after she changed schools. She used to write about her friends all the time before she switched. Once she switched schools her diary became more and more abstract over time. She did talk about her fellow club members, but never specified anyone by name.”

“None of her friends ever visited you about this?” I asked.

“Some of her friends from the public school did. No one from the all-girl school visited. They showed up en masse to the school assembly held for Malorie of course but no one approached my family privately to speak to us about Malorie other than some of her teachers. There was this one teacher I specifically remember bawling her eyes out even harder than my own mother during the assembly. Malorie’s disappearance was harder on her than anyone else.”

“Do you remember that teacher’s name?” Lilith asked.

“It was like something that started with an H. I think she was a science teacher or something. Malorie used to say she was always nice to her.”

Lilith looked away from the diary and at Jacob.

“This is a wild guess, but are you talking about Ms. Hoffman?” Lilith asked.

“Yes! That’s the name! How did you know?”

Lilith gave me a sly nod, and then looked back at Jacob.

“Ms. Hoffman is the teacher that used to run the Art and Theater club. I met her once as a kid. Both of my parents used to work at the school. Sometimes I’d get dragged along to school events. I met Ms. Hoffman before she left the school.”

“Lilith, was it? You were named for your great grandmother, Judith?” Jacob asked.

“Yes, in a way. My great grandmother Judith was named for her mother, Edith. My parents were trying to honor her memory.”

“Malorie would’ve loved to meet you.” Jacob said.

“Actually, it looks like she already did.” I said and turned the diary so they could see it, “Look at this.”

The entry was describing a school event commemorating the anniversary of the school’s founding. Most of it was a monotonous description of everything that was happening. However there was magic in the details. The event was being held inside the gym. There were chairs being laid out for each student. Malorie managed to meet someone while she was volunteering to help with preparations.

She stopped working to talk to one of the honored guests invited for the event. She talked to ‘Jonathan Meredith’ about his grandmother’s legacy. He was the only person she had ever met that was as fascinated with Judith Meredith as she was. There was another important detail. Behind Jonathan there was a little black haired girl too shy to come out from behind her father’s legs.

“I can’t believe it.” Lilith said.

“Wow, what a coincidence.” Jacob said.

“Do you remember her?” I asked Lilith.

“No. The school had more than one anniversary event over the years. My parents made me attend several. Turn the page. Maybe she wrote something else about this.”

I turned the page to reveal a new page that was far more alarming. The entire next page had a drawing of a black cat labeled ‘Nyx’. Lilith and I shared the same expression of terror when we looked at each other. That couldn’t be a coincidence, could it? We were searching for the Killing Cat before this wild goose chase started.

The page beside the sketch was an explanation of the Killing Cat story. It went on into the next page leading into Malorie’s thoughts on the matter. According to Malorie the Killing Cat was still out there somewhere. She wrote about exploring the school to find the Killing Cat. She wanted to adopt it as a pet.

“Malorie was obsessed with that cat.” Jacob said, “She used to bring home random black strays all the time, haha. My mother used to argue with her about it every time too. Every single time Malorie would insist that this one was the one. To her disappointment we never got to keep any due to my mom’s allergies. Shame. Malorie could’ve used the companionship back then.”

There was a sudden chirping sound. Jacob pulled out his cell phone and looked at the screen.

“Oh Christ, I’ve got to get to work or my partner will kill me.” He said.

“Should we get going?” I asked.

“You’re free to stay as long as you want. I’ll just be down the street fixing up a house. It’s not often I get someone for Malorie. I’d like to talk to you girls again if that’s okay.”

“Of course, I have more questions about her.” Lilith said.

“Great. I’ll be back in about an hour or so during my next break. Also I’m off on Sundays and Mondays every week. Feel free to help yourselves to anything in the fridge.” He said.

He walked out in a hurry. Lilith and I didn’t even get the chance to say a proper goodbye. Lilith raised an eyebrow at the door.

“He’s quite a trusting man, isn’t he? I wouldn’t let two students from our school stay in my house unsupervised.” Lilith said.

“I don’t think it’s like that. He’s seems more eager just to talk to someone about this, like he said. He doesn’t want to scare us off.”

“Maybe… or maybe he thinks we know more than we’re letting on.”

“What are you talking about?”

“We should tell him about what we found in the school basement.”

“Please, Lilith, not this again.”

“I’m serious! He deserves to know the truth!”

“The truth…? We haven’t discovered if that was really her down in the basement. We haven’t even disproven that it wasn’t another mannequin.”

Lilith scoffed.

“I can’t believe after all this evidence that you still refuse to believe it. I thought you were smarter than that.”

“I am. I’ll agree with you that there’s something suspicious going on but I’m not about to break this man’s heart over a theory. Try to think about what you’ll be doing to him if you spill the beans. He’s clearly in deep pain about his missing sister. Christ, I mean, look at this room. All of her belongings are still here like he’s expecting her to show up any day now. I can’t deprive him of that hope.”

“What if it were you?” Lilith asked, “If one of your family members had gone missing wouldn’t you want to know the truth of their fate? Doesn’t he deserve closure?”

“I’ll agree to tell him once we know for a fact that it was her. Once we have absolute proof that it was her we can tell him together.”

Lilith stared at me with a look of annoyance on her face.

“We may never have ‘absolute proof’. He’s been waiting ten years. Is proof just going to pop up?”

“No.” I said, “We can search for it. I’m willing to go back down to into the basement.”

Now Lilith was starting to really hear me out. She folded her arms and tilted her head up haughtily.

“Just how do you plan on doing that? I went back by myself and found the door to the discipline hall chained up. It’s impossible to get in now that the vice principal knows that we know.”

“Maybe not, remember when we were talking about how the basement had been so well maintained? We realized someone else was coming down there. Sam said there had to be another way in. We can find it. First we need to talk to Naomi. Her group has between ten and twenty members, right? If we can convince Naomi to help us we can outsource the search.”

Lilith put a finger on her chin.

“That isn’t a bad idea. If we do it that way then the vice principal won’t suspect the original four of us as snooping around again.”

“Exactly, in the mean time we can focus on the student council. It’ll make for a good cover and give us more options to look into this. You went as far as telling Jacob we were part of the student council as our cover up, right? We can expand on that.”

Lilith nodded and looked down. She began pacing around the room in thought. She fiddled with the decorations as she did.

“Would Naomi be willing to help us?” Lilith asked, “I don’t even know why she was with us in the first place.”

“I called her the night before our search. She was so desperate for me to join her group that she was happy to tag along. I think I might be able to convince her to help us.”

“Are you sure about that? You can’t join her group now that you’re on Val’s student council team. She doesn’t have a lot to gain, but a lot to lose. I recall she was the one that got the best deal after our little chat with Ms. Sampson.”

“If we tell her about what we found out today then maybe she’ll be interested in learning the truth for herself.”

“Maybe, I’m still not convinced that-…”

Lilith was cut off by a loud beeping sound. The sound was coming from me.

“Oh no.” I said as I realized what was happening.

“What’s that noise?” Lilith asked.

“We’ve got to run!”

I said as I left the room. Lilith followed behind.

“Why? What is that?!”

“Just run!” I shouted.

We ran down the steps and dashed out the front door. Lilith stopped to make sure the front door was closed all the way. I on the other hand couldn’t afford to be so cautious. I kept running straight across the front lawn and down the street. The beeping just wouldn’t stop. I was sure the perimeter of my ankle monitor was close, but I wasn’t sure how close.

It felt like I would run out of breath and collapse before I found it. In the middle of the street, far down the road from Jacob’s house, the beeping finally stopped. I went over to the side of the road and lied down in the wild grass growing there. Lilith, who was lagging far behind, finally caught up. She was completely out of breath.

“What…” She said as she caught her breath, “What the hell was that?”

She stumbled over and crashed into the grass beside me. We were both panting heavily. I was too worn out to even give a proper explanation. I rolled over in her direction and kicked off my shoe. I pulled down the sock, revealing the ankle monitor that was finally quiet.

Lilith sat up to get a better look at it. She gave me a dull look of disappointment. A look like she should’ve been told about this beforehand. That would’ve been reasonable but honestly I didn’t want her to know. I didn’t realize the house was just outside of range.

“Let me guess. You got that for stealing, didn’t you?” Lilith asked.

“No. Why would you say that?”

Lilith picked up the item that was lying beside me. It was Malorie’s diary. I forgot to put it down before running out of the room.

“Whoops.”