Well, I am pleased to say that the creativity has went on for two days in a row. Might even keep up with it!

I decided I may as well draw if I can't write, and the website needs six profile images, two of which are now complete. Two of the characters getting profile images have never been drawn in detail and color before! I mean, Westin and Mr. Worden have been sketched, but that's it! I'm excited about Mr. Worden. He's but bushy salt-and-pepper eyebrows and always looks irritated, so that should be fun.

So yeah, these girls!:





And, you know, since I've got their faces right in front of ya, why not throw in some charming interaction between them that nobody has read yet?

Her hands prodded through the notes again before she asked if she could read what he'd said that night from my phone, and I obliged, as quickly as I could, but she took her time answering. “So he made you go through all the trouble of meeting him somewhere else, but he didn't want Mariam to be there,” she clarified, just as Mariam returned, hearing her name and immediately interested in the context. I could feel my tenseness rising; I could realize in the back of my mind that something was off about this, but I would defend him, still.

“Who didn't want me to be there?” Mariam went straight for the onion rings again, sitting on her knees to reach them from across the table. I was swatting my hand like we should drop the subject all together, but Paulina had no discretion.

“Her Note-Sender.”

“He just said he was shy, is the thing, and she made him nervous. He only trusts me, he said,” and out loud the messages I'd received that day suddenly sounded strange. Or, at least, they did to Mariam and Paulina, judging by their expressions.

“So he was standing around in the dark and planning to come out all of a sudden, to meet you, if you were alone.”

“Wow wow wow, what are we talking about?” Mariam asked, and Paulina too seemed confused, I assume because she would have figured I'd told Mariam this story already. The glass light fixture above our heads became my point of focus as I clarified this admittance, but in my peripheral Mariam was just sitting there, with nothing to say. When I looked down, I could sense that Paulina wanted to say something, but she was never quick to jump to words. She finally formulated a question as Mariam had pointed her wide eyes and sarcastic grin to the table-top.

“How much evidence do you have that he's a part of that play?”
“She doesn't have any evidence,” Mariam answered for me. “And he won't give her any, either.”
“He could be in Stage Crew,” I offered.
“Maybe you should find out who he is before you meet him,” Paulina suggested. “And I don't mean asking. I mean finding out for yourself.”

“I agree. I mean we barely tried,” Mariam said. “But I watched that make-up closet constantly, and he never went in, and he never came out,” she trailed. I didn't know how to respond. The idea fleshed out in my mind of finally quelching this feeling of helplessness, of beginning something of an investigation about him, and in a way it seemed exciting. But was I the only one who gave him the benefit of the doubt?

“Well, I wonder if he stayed away from the house because he knew I'd recognize him. Or maybe Mariam would recognize him.”

“Maybe,” I answered softly.

“Yeah, but that means he doesn't want to be recognized. I thought the whole point of last night was that he would tell Lily who he is,” Mariam said, swishing her hand in my direction.

“It's definitely a little odd, but, again... if he's worried we'd recognize him, then he might be someone closer to you than you thought.”

“I bet you anything Paulina knows him; she knows everybody,” Mariam said, and although Paulina wouldn't quite brag about it, neither did she argue against it.

“Well, I'll tell you one thing: he seems like a senior. He even sounds older. Not that he is.”

The two of them were beginning to have ideas that I momentarily tuned out, simply getting lost in the notion of his age, and his intelligence. I couldn't admit it, or use it to mean anything about what I should do from there, but it attracted me and flattered me. Would either of them understand that the way he appeared... sounded... smelled... had already ensnared me, despite the peculiarities? Did I dare say it excited me that he wanted us to be alone, despite the dangers? I wouldn't believe yet that he was dangerous, and peculiarity – the very fact that we had to have a discussion about him to understand him better – was drawing me in every second.

Paulina took out a notepad, and she wanted to know everything about him. We went over every detail we could gather from the notes, and I started harnessing my smiles again, and everything remained on my mind even as the conversation shifted to other things.

On the ride back, Mariam complained she had eaten too much candy and gone to bed with a tummy ache.
“HA! Just as I had hoped,” I said.
“Shut up,” she answered, just as Paulina found herself with another question:
“You don't know anything about what he looks like... do you?”
“From what I saw of him, he's tall and thin. And I would think he was wearing something dark, but it was Halloween, so I guess that doesn't help.”

“Slenderman,” Mariam uttered, and I turned around from the front seat and slapped her on the knee just as Paulina pulled in front of her house. She faintly smiled before slinging her bag over her shoulder and stepping out. “Keep me posted,” she said with stern enthusiasm, even pointing a finger at us.

G'byyyyye! *leaps away*
-J