Chapter Seventeen

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We spent the whole day playing with the children and I must say that it was fun playing with the kids. But there is one kid that caught my attention.

I saw her playing by herself with a doll. I saw that she looked up the wall with stars imprinted on it. I thought she's just admiring the wall decorations when she suddenly said, "I wish, I wish, with all of my heart to get freed from the evil spirits' grasp."

Hearing her wish kind of gave me goosebumps all over my body. What is she? Some kind of a witch in disguise? Out of curiosity, I walked towards this girl and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Hello, little girl. Would you mind sharing the wish you just made? I heard that you wanted to be freed from the evil spirits' grasp. Can you tell me what that means?"

She looked up at me and I sat next to her. "Yes. I've got a few friends at our house. No one could see them but me. But I didn't know that they were evil spirits. We should never get fooled by smiles."

I don't know what to do. Does she have a third eye? And more importantly, does such a thing really exist? I don't want to conclude, but this kid might be unwell. "What made you say that they are evil?"

"They would wake me up in the middle of the night and whisper something bad. And when I woke up, something bad happened." She explained. What a creepy experience she had.

"I see," I answered. "Can you tell me how many spirits are in your house?"

"There are 3 of them," She answered. "Two little girls and one little boy. "At first, I thought they were good but as the time goes by, they've changed or maybe, revealed their real nature."

Being honest, I don't believe in such things. It made me go wondering whether this girl is having delusional states or whatever mental health issues she got, but is unaware of it.

"Does your parents know about this?" I asked.

"Yes, I told them but they wouldn't believe me." She said sadly.

"Did you tell others about this?" I gently asked.

"Only my family knew and now, you" She answered. "Oh, Enn knew about this too and Audrey."

After gathering all that information, I walked up to NJ and told him the things I found out about the odd girl.

"I think she needs help," I told NJ. "Maybe we can take her to a hospital for a check-up? Or maybe we can find a therapist."

"That's right but we have no consent from their parents. Her parents don't seem to believe her," He said. "We can't just take actions, you know?"

"They won't know if we keep this a secret," I said. "It seems to me that she's having delusions or whatever mental health issue she's having. Why don't we seek help?"

NJ pondered for a while at my suggestion. I understand if he was hesitant. He's right that we could not just jump into a situation without letting her family know.

"How about this," NJ started. "Why don't we approach her parents first to talk this matter out and see what we could do?"

"That's not a bad idea either," I answered. "Do you know where she lives?"

"We own this daycare center, remember?" He reminded me. "So yes, I do."

"That's good to know. When do you think we can call her parents' attention?" I asked.

"I'll get back at you on that one," He responded. "Why are you so worked up about it?" He asked, curious. "I remembered! You were once a delusional, so you knew how it felt to be delusional."

I never told NJ that I used to drown in my delusional state but yes, he's right. My journey back then wasn't funny. It's a nightmare! It's like you could no longer recognize the difference between reality and fantasy. That's why it was such a relief when I got a hang of my delusional state.

"I never told you about that..." I answered. "Have I?" It was suspicious that NJ knew something that I never told him. We just met so I never told him about my past. Has he been stalking me?! That creep!

At my question, he suddenly looked anxious. He averted his gaze from mine and said, "Yes! You did. You may just have forgotten about it."

I gave him a suspicious look and said, "Really, huh? What if I found out that you're lying to me?"

"I'm telling the truth! You mentioned that to me while we were cleaning." He insisted. Filthy liar. If he thinks I'm gonna believe him, he's totally wrong. This isn't the first time he told me something about my past that I haven't told him yet.

I remember that one time when he told me that he thought I hated writing when he found out that I've been working on a novel.

It's true that I used to hate writing. But I never told him that one fact about me. I smell something fishy.

He looked at me again and diverted the topic back to our main topic. "Anyway, we can go next Saturday to visit her home?" He suggested.

"Sounds good to me. What's her name again?" I asked. I forgot to ask the kid's name while I was talking to her.

"Cynthia," He responded. "That's her name."

After talking about her situation, we gathered the children around to take some photos. NJ said that they do that all the time and put it inside an album or scrapbook that the children made with Audrey and NJ's help.

The closing time was 5PM but we left at 7PM so we could still hang out with Audrey and NJ.

I helped them with cleaning the daycare before shutting the door.

"Since when have you started working here as a part-timer?" I asked. "NJ never mentioned that you work together."

"I just started 6 months ago," She answered while cleaning the mats. "It wasn't that hard and the pay is reasonable."

"You're rich so why bother working here?" I asked.

"For starters, I like children and my nephew plays here too. So I've decided to apply as a babysitter. Sometimes, I clean." She answered.

"Ooh, is someone here getting jealous?" NJ said, obviously trying to tease me. "Don't worry, if you want to be with me that much, you can apply as a storyteller. We don't have a storyteller anyway."

"I am not jealous! What made you say that? Jeez." I answered. "And we always see each other, even when it's not Saturday. You always barge in without letting me know first, remember?"

"You two are pretty close," Audrey jumped in. "You two are getting chummy. Is there something going on between the two of you?"

"Aside from fighting? Definitely none!" I answered, giving her the right expectation.

"I don't fight," NJ said. "You're the only one who keeps pushing me away and yelling at me. You always hurt my feelings, don't you know that?"

"Whatever," I answered and rolled my eyes. But he's quite true about the fact that I tend to push him away and yell at me. To Be honest, there are times that I felt guilty. But most of the time, I couldn't refrain myself from talking back. I mean, clearly, we got opposite mindsets.

As if Audrey could hear my thoughts, she said, "You two are opposite, that's why you tend to fight. Like a cat and a dog!" She giggled. "But you know what they say, opposites attracts."

Then NJ added, "And could be a perfect match."then winked.

"I totally disagree!" I answered.

"I think having an opposite buddy isn't that bad. After all, you always get to learn and try new things that you haven't tried before." Audrey stated.

"That's true. You hated going out and I loved going out. So whenever I force you to go out, it'll make you discover new things that you haven't before. You get what I mean?" NJ said.

"Then if I like sleeping the whole day, why don't you try sleeping the whole day?" I stated.

"You're no fun! I only sleep during the night because I go outdoors to make the most of my life." He said.

"Hey! Do not underestimate staying indoors," I said. "We can enjoy our life too even though we're staying indoors."

"I'd rather keep it balanced," Audrey said. "I make time for staying indoors and I make time enjoying being outside."

"I like Audrey's way of spending time indoors and outdoors," NJ said. "Too much isolation could make you go beyond crazy!"

"If I were to be perfectly honest, I agree. I've already experienced being isolated by force for like, a year. It was a total hell!" I said and heaved a very deep sigh at the memory of that freaking nightmare. "I never thought I would be able to regain my sanity."

Suddenly, I heard my phone ring. It was the notification sound from my Facebook account. It has been a while since I last got a notification. After all, I am not that active so out of curiosity, I checked my phone to see tagged photos.

Nicholas Johnson tagged you on a post.

And when I opened that notification, I saw that the photos he tagged were the ones we just took earlier. I smiled looking at the children's faces and smiles. Oh, so innocent and sweet. Let's see how long they can stay like that. 'Cause sometimes, growing up and adulting could make you less sweet.

After we cleaned, we went home altogether. NJ drove and he took me home and Audrey as well. He dropped off Audrey first then next, me.

While at the car, I've decided to swipe on my Facebook to see what's the new trend since I haven't been active in a while. While scrolling, I received another notification.

You have 1 friend request

It was Quila.

And I never expected that she'd think of adding me on facebook. I clicked the accept button and I stalked her account for a while. She doesn't share memes or quotes that much, but she posts her selfie and groupie with the whole cheerleading group a lot. They looked happy on their photos.

And while I was busy stalking her account, I received a message from her.

Hey twinny! Thank you for accepting my friend request. I thought you're not going to accept it.

No worries, Quila. What made you want to add me?

Stop the formality. You can call me twinny, alright?

Well, fine twinny. I am not used to having an endearment. Especially since we're not couples.

Haha. That's fine! You'll get used to it eventually. You know, friendship is endearment. We all do that, right? Or most of the people use endearment.

That's true. It's so nice being friends with you.

I stopped when I realized that we had arrived at our destination - my house.

"Aren't you going out or would you rather come with me and stay at our house tonight?" NJ asked.

I slapped his shoulder and said, "Shut up! I'm going inside. Thanks for the ride."

"The ride's not free," He said. "But I am richer than you so I don't need money. I need you to do me a favor."

Oh, wow. So riding in his car was a trap? I should have seen it beforehand but I didn't.

I was too tired to fight so with an arm on my hip, I asked, "What favor?"

"I have a little sister," She started. "She's 6 years old and is interested in learning how to write stories. Can you teach her to write?"

"Sorry but I am not the best person to approach when it comes to teaching," I answered. "I learned writing on my own and by reading a lot of books. Also, I just wrote what I've created in my mind."

"I am not going to leave unless you say yes," He said. "It's already 9:30 PM. You want to sleep already, right?"

Truth to be told, it's getting late and I would like to sleep. I became even more exhausted because he woke me up at 5AM and we arrived at 9:30PM. I would probably drop my body down the bed without changing my clothes. That being said, I've decided to say yes just to finish this matter.

"Ugh. Fine, fine! Just text me when I will be teaching her." I said.

"Awesome! Thanks Buddy, you're the best!"

With that, he left and I walked inside our house to get some goodnight sleep.

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