The Culprit

In Mai's hand was a note that had been pulled off the fridge, but not just any note. It was one written by herself. Her future self had written a note in the past. She had read it over several times, to try to gather whatever information she could from it.

'So, I guess that explains what happened then?' Mai thought. 'I was wondering if the Mai from the future of this world had used the crystal to make sure she ended up with Chris somehow, after all that's what I would have done.'

'But according to this, in her timeline the crystal had already been destroyed. I can't imagine what she must have thought as her memories were changing, and the note I left.'

Still, although this was all interesting, the thing that concerned her the most was the end of the message. That no matter what she wanted her to save Chris.

'Future Mai must have really loved him. I mean I like him now, but the way she, or I wrote the message is bordering on obsession. What happened to Chris in the first place for someone to murder him. Was it not just an accident?'

The problem was, no matter how much Mai thought about it, she wouldn't get the answers she was looking for. Perhaps if she suddenly got the memories of Mai from ten years in the future, but judging from the pages of the diary she had found from Future Chris a while ago, it seemed like Future Mai had no clue either.

'I would have at least left a note telling myself about the suspects. If you want me to do a favour for you, you need to help a girl out.'

Walking around the house, Mai went to see if there was anything else she could find, until Shirley was meant to come over. Although she had found many things that belonged to both Future Mai and Future Chris, she found nothing that belonged solely to Future Chris.

There was a tablet on the table that she thought might have something on it, but whatever pin combination she had tried it just wouldn't work.

'Why didn't they set up a fingerprint scanner for this thing? Even in my time we have those. Who is still using a pin!' Mai thought, although she remembered she herself didn't trust the fingerprint scanners on phone and had a pin, so perhaps it was her.

Leaving another note, on the tablet, she asked what the Pin was for the next time she would be here. Maybe she could learn more about herself.

Resting on her bed again, she thought about what to do, but she didn't fall asleep, for she was a little afraid even if she didn't cry that when she woke up she would go back to the other world, and at the moment that wasn't her goal.

'Wait, couldn't I record a video? And then on my phone, and then ask whatever questions I need to. With that, I can get Future Mai to tell me information. Things like how she won Chris over, and when we got together!'

Just then though, a knock was heard at the door, and when checking out the time she couldn't believe that it was already this late. It was 6 o'clock in the afternoon. She had spent so much time looking over things.

'That must be Shirley, I guess if Shirley can answer all those questions, then I wouldn't need to ask future Mai. It really seems she didn't know much about Chris's mysterious past.'

When looking through the peephole she could tell it was Shirley straight away, unlike herself she didn't look to have aged too much, with only a few wrinkles under her eyes, and she was wearing a stunning suit and skirt that hugged her body quite tightly.

'Wow! Shirley sure looks good in nearly everything.' Mai thought, as she opened the door, and the usual nervous heart beat was heard.

As soon as the door opened Shirley went in for a grand big hug.

"Oh you poor thing, I can imagine how you must have been feeling these last few days. I knew you must have been upset but I didn't expect you to not call me for this long." Shirley said.

At the moment, Mai felt awkward hugging Shirley. She had only known this girl for a week but she was embracing her fully with a hug.

"Come on, let's sit down, we have a lot to talk about." Shirley said, as she made herself feel comfortable at home.

She had gone in, and opened the draws as she started to make herself a cup of coffee. Everything seemed so natruell. Not even Mai knew where everything was in her apartment yet.

'Wow, the two of us must have been close, it looks like she came here all the time. Maybe I can ask her about Chris.'

Sitting down on the table two coffees had been prepared, and for once she was quite happy that Shirley was leading in with the questions otherwise she wouldn't really know what to say.

"So how have you been, with Chris's death and all?" Shirley asked.

'Damn, Chris…I don't know much about the current Chris, what am I meant to say? I wanted to ask her about Chris and now I realise how strange that would be.'

"It's been hard." Mai replied. "I feel a bit lost…" she said as she paused to make it seem more dramatic. "..You know, I caught up with Simon again." Mai said.

Suddenly, Shirley nearly spat out the drink that was in her mouth.

"After nine years, all this time you finally spoke to him again. Wow, I thought you didn't want to speak to him again, in case it made it awkward between you and…Actually I guess that isn't really a problem now." Shirley awkwardly laughed.

It seemed like Shirley did know about what happened between her and Simon, and she just wanted to check this fact, maybe this was the information she needed.

"Do you remember I called you up when Simon confessed to me?" Mai asked.

Shirley nodded in response, waiting to hear more.

"Yeah, I guess we started to distance after that huh." Mai's idea was to keep on throwing out bait, for Shirley to give her more information, but she seemed to keep nodding away.

"Do you remember when my clothes went missing? I've been struggling to remember things these days." Mai said, touching her head.

'Why is she talking about things that happened so long ago.' Shirley wondered.

"Where were they found, did we ever figure out who took my clothes?" Mai asked. After getting the question out, there was still much tension coming from Mai, she didn't want to get caught out for saying something stupid, but then again, it was something that happened ten years ago so perhaps she wouldn't find it strange.

"You don't remember something like that?" Shirley said. "You can't remember who stole your clothes?"

Mai shook her head.

"Seriously, well this is a bit awkward to be bringing that up again, I can't believe you don't remember, well the thing was, it was me."