Chapter 7 - Maven

She yawned as she headed downstairs. The letter she found yesterday had bothered her ever since not being able to sleep she felt super tired as she entered the kitchen. She was surprised to see her sister's boyfriend, Sam, sitting at the dining table in the kitchen.

"Uh morning...?" She said, a little bit unsure if she should say anything. Sam glanced over at her and gave her a little smile.

"Morning Maven, you look a bit tired, did you not get some good sleep last night?" Sam questioned.

"Yeah, something was on my mind." She replied. She wasn't really close with her sister's boyfriend, she only saw him 4 times. Although he was pretty nice, she just didn't feel that comfortable with him around yet. She went and poured herself a glass of water to help clear her foggy morning mind.

"Sam brought donuts over, there's still quite a bit left." Her sister informed her, nodding towards the long box sitting on the island top. When she opened the box there were 3 donuts facing her, she wasn't a big fan of sweets but she knew Scarlet was. She grabbed a pink topping one with sprinkles on the top, glancing at the time on her phone. Glancing ever so often over at her sister and her boyfriend sitting close together and looking at something on her phone while laughing softly. She couldn't help but shudder, even though she was 18 already she hated the idea of getting a boyfriend for now. The subject was simply too mushy for her.

It was then that she heard a small knock on her door, her sister didn't bother to glance up knowing that she would get it instead. She made her way over to the front door and opened it a peek. Usually, it would be a neighbor coming over to say hello, to chat, or to bring some homemade food over. Expecting to see one of her neighbors standing there smiling, instead, she was greeted by her friend Scarlet.

"Scarlet?" She exclaimed, rather surprised. She wasn't expecting her friend to be there, but something else concerned her. It was the expression on her friend's face, she was almost shocked when her eyes went down to the dry bloodstain that stained her friend's hoodie.

"Maven..." Scarlet managed to whisper before collapsing forward, she tried to catch her friend in surprise but only managed to slow the impact down as her friend crashed onto the floor.

"Scarlet?!" She shouted, this sight of her friend was rather scary, it's as if she was dying. "Sister!" She called out for help. It wasn't long before her sister rushed out along with her boyfriend.

"What in the world happened? Why's she on the floor?" Her sister exclaimed in shock.

"Help me get her upstairs, please! I think something happened." She begged her sister.

Without a moment of hesitation, Sam helped lift Scarlet up off the floor and carried her upstairs to her own room. Her friend looks terrible, she was terribly pale but her face seems to be flushed like she had a fever. Both her sister and Sam stood in the doorway kind of just watching as she pulled the cover of her bed over Scarlet. She felt one of her hands on her friend's forehead, flinching at the burning temperature.

"What's going on? She has blood on her clothes, did she kill someone?" Her sister asked with a hard look in her eyes. She couldn't answer her sister's question, she didn't have the answer herself but she knew that her sister wouldn't allow Scarlet to be in the house if she had committed a crime.

"She's running down with a fever, can we wait until she's awake and feeling better before asking her any questions?" She lightly replied instead, glancing at her sister with hopeful eyes. This was a favor she was asking her sis, and she was hoping her sister would agree. It took a moment as they two stared at each other before her sister finally sighed and dragged Sam downstairs with her. She glances back at Scarlet, who had an uncomfortable and painful expression on her face. She couldn't do anything but only tighten the cover over her friend.

She got up and left the room, closing the door quietly behind her. She went down the hallway so that she wouldn't wake Scarlet up as she made this phone call. It took a few tries before Yukanie finally picked up the phone.

"Hello?" Yuka answered from the other end, she sounded like she just woke up but at the same time like she was awake late into the night.

"Hey Yuka, Scarlet shows up at my door I have no idea what's going on but she's a mess right now." She explained, glancing back at the closed door once again. "She's coming down with a fever, as well as...I don't know what in the world happened but there are bloodstains on her clothes." She was almost unsure how to explain the last part.

"Blood???" Yuka's voice shouted in surprise from the other end. "Did you check for any injuries? Is she hurt or something?"

As soon as Yuka said that she wanted to kick herself, why didn't she think about that? Why did her mind go to bloody murder? What if Scarlet was really hurt and she never realized. She quickly made her way back into the room again as quietly as she could, she lightly lifted the hoodie Scarlet was wearing up a bit, seeing that there was no visible wound she sighed with relief. She left the room once more when she made sure that the cover was over her friend.

"No, there's visible wounds as far as I can tell." She replied.

There was a moment of silence before the sound of movement came from the other end of the call. She heard the sound of rustling as if Yukanie just got out of bed.

"Hold on let me come over right now," Yukanie said and hung up the phone.

With nothing else to do, she went downstairs to her parent's room. opening drawers she tried to find any medicine that would help bring Scarlet's fever down, even pain killers. She finally found a small bottle of pills that would help with fever, placing it on top of the dresser she leans against the wall of the small closet and breathes a sigh. She wanted to know what was going on, but there seems to be no one she can think of to ask for answers, her eyes lit up as a person did come to mind.

"Of course! That's it." She exclaimed, taking her phone out from her back pocket. Searching through her list of contacts before finally digging up the number of Scarlet's aunt, she waited for someone to pick up, but only to frown when no one picked up after she had called several times. Was her friend's aunt already dealing with the aftermath of whatever Scarlet did? Her sister's voice broke her chain of thoughts.

"MAVEN!" She heard her sister called.

"Yes?" She called back, grabbing the bottle of medicine with her as she made her way out of her parent's bedroom. She found her sister standing at the front door with Sam, both of them all dressed to head out with their coats on.

"Are you guys going somewhere?" She asks, keeping her voice down, wondering if her sister's loud call had woken up Scarlet.

"Sam and I are going out to see a movie, you..." Her sister stopped and glanced back towards the stairs before looking back at her. "I want to know what's going on after I come back." Her sister finished sternly. She could only nod and wave as they left through the front door. She breathed a sigh of relief and went into the kitchen with the bottle in hand. Glancing at the clock on the wall, reading 11:56 am, she set the bottle down on the table. She heard no movements upstairs so she could only assume that Scarlet was still asleep. Leaning against the counter sides, she glanced at the empty pots and pans on the stove. She had to cook something hot for Scarlet for when she woke up, but she was not sure when that would be, pushing the food thoughts aside, not feeling hunger or having the stomach to eat. Her thoughts wandered back to the letter from yesterday.

Still tons of questions were still on her mind, the same questions that had kept her awake yesterday night. The words 'you might need it' were written, yet there was no name of the sender. But the letter was clearly addressed to her. Was this somehow related to Scarlet showing up at her front door this morning? Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard her doorbell ring. She quickly made her way to the front door opening it to Yukanie.

Yukanie stood there with her hands on her knee, breathing heavily as if she ran all the way here as fast as she could. Her coat was not zipped properly nor did it seem like she bothered to comb her hair after waking up.

"I came...as quickly...as I could," Yukanie said breathlessly standing up to face her.

"Hey calm down, breathe. She's still asleep, come inside and have some water first." She said, opening the door wide letting Yukanie walk past her inside. She closed the front door behind her and placed some unused slippers for Yukanie to wear.

"I went to the store to get some stuff that might help her when she wakes up," Yukanie said digging through all the white plastic shopping bags she was carrying. "I got some fever medicine, painkillers, some ginger tea bags. It'll help with headaches, oh I also brought some hot porridge for when she wakes up." She listed.

"Let's put all those aside until she wakes up." She said leading her panicking friend into the kitchen. Yukanie set all the bags down and took off her coat, it was rather warm in the house with the heaters blasting.

"Do you know what happened?" Yukanie questioned, hanging her coat on the back of a dining chair.

"No, I tried calling her aunt as well. If anyone knows something it would be her." She replied, placing a glass of water out for Yukanie. "But she didn't pick up and I called her many times."

Yukanie frowned, taking a large sip out of the glass cup.

"That reminded me I tried calling Scarlet yesterday night...." She trailed off with a look of terror in her eyes, but it was gone after a split second. "ahem...but she didn't pick up, I didn't think much of it." Yukanie said, clearing her throat.

The mood between them darkens as if each were reminded of something that soured the atmosphere.

"Actually there's something I-"

Both of them started with the exact same sentence, pausing and looking at each other in surprise. The mood lightened a bit allowing them to each share a small smile and laugh.

"Go on you go first." She said, offering Yukanie to speak first.

"Yesterday-"

She was interrupted by a loud crashing sound from upstairs that made both of them jump. It can only mean that...

Scarlet was awake.