by A. Yber
“Chill, Nora. I will go in with you, and check it out.”
“Wow! I feel so much safer!”
“Would you rather I leave?”
I knew he wouldn’t. “If you leave, I’ll tell Melanie all the sick thoughts you have about her.”
“She already knows all my sick thoughts.”
Ned had been nursing a crush for my sister, Melanie, since we were in pre-school. He wasn’t half-bad looking, with an average build, although a bit on the skinny side. He usually wore glasses, and studied a lot. Hence, his nickname “Nerd”, at school. But, Ned’s romantic dreams would never be realized. Mel was popular, and Ned was part of a different crowd. He played chess…in fact was a little too good at chess…and most importantly, was not a jock. My sister only dated jocks, and Ned was a year behind her, so basically his chances were next to nil. And just in case he was holding out for that “nil”, I made it crystal clear, that I would kill him, if he ever made a move on my sister. Of course, I described what would happen to him, in far more graphic detail, just to make sure he understood. But, we were like family, so it would be the same thing as incest - Ned and Melanie together. And besides, no one was really good enough for my sister, anyway, in my opinion.
As far as Ned and I, we were just buds. Nora and Ned. Melanie called us “N squared”. We were always together.
“Okay, never mind. Let’s just go in, already.” I pressed the button, and climbed out of his AV. Ned was already ahead of me, halfway to the front door. I raced to catch up, grabbing his forearm. “Wait, let’s go in slowly. And for God’s sake, try to be quiet, for once. We don’t know what is waiting for us, in there.”
We cautiously opened the front door. I had the feeling of being a thief, breaking into my own house. We slipped through the entryway, and I thought I heard something shuffling around. I inhaled sharply, grasping Ned’s arm, again.
He shook me off. “Calm down!” he snapped. “You about made my heart abrogate.”
“I swear I heard something. And you have to have a heart first, for it to abri-whatever.”
“Well, I didn’t hear anything, so calm down. You’re making me jumpy.”
“I can’t help it. I feel like bugs are crawling on the back of my neck,” I said, my voice a sharp whisper.
“They probably are,” he fired back.
I rubbed my neck, to rid myself of the feeling.
We left the lights off, as we moved through the house, checking closets, under beds and behind doors. Nothing. No one here. I started flicking on lights upstairs, while Ned went down, clicking more lights, as he descended. I continued to look around upstairs. Everything seemed normal.
“Nora, you need to come down here!” Ned yelled.
Oh God. What did he find? Is it Melanie’s body?
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