9 Chilly Tale of a Summer Break - Part 3 (1/2)

That night, Emma couldn't take Aleta's face off her mind. How the girl's eyes looked empty scared Emma. Later, when alone with her grandma, she inquired the old woman about it. All that grandma said was how Aleta was a nice girl, and that Emma didn't need to be afraid of her.

”I know that.” Emma thought while throwing herself on the bed. ”I'm just worried.”

The long walk made her exhausted. It was starting to rain outside and the calm sound of water running on the roof was relaxing. Her eyes became heavy and slowly closed without her realizing.

RIIIING

She woke up with the phone ringing. Looking at her cell phone, she realized it was 11 PM. The ring sounded through all the room but it came from the telephone instead of her cell phone. She had no choice but to pick it up. Only her grandma or Aleta knew how to call her room.

She put the receiver on her ear and said: ”Hello”.

Silence.

When she put the handset on the base, it started to ring again. She put the receiver on her ear again, but this time just listened. For several seconds, no voice or sound came out of it, which was weird, as it should at least get some environment sounds if it was a proper call from another room.

After some seconds, a faint voice came from it. Emma didn't recognize its owner.

”Bud.” a weak female voice said; then it started to repeat the same word, again and again, intermittent. ”Bud. Bud. Bud…”

Emma put the handset on the base again startled. It immediately started ringing again. She didn't pick it up.

She knew that device couldn't be reached from an outside source. Her grandma and Aleta were the only ones who knew how to contact that specific room, as far as she knew. Maybe someone else could get that information, but she had no basis to believe that was the case.

Her grandma wasn't the kind to play pranks and she didn't think Aleta would do it either. Still, she couldn't think about anyone else who could contact her like that. She got away from her room and walk to Aleta's room. She knocked on the door.

Silence.

”Aleta!” she called, knocking again. But no one gave an answer.

Emma got scared. She knew Aleta wouldn't be out at that time. Maybe she was downstairs again. But Emma could only think of the worst possibility. She put her hand on the knob and deciding to force the door open. Surprisingly, it opened easy.

Aleta was sitting in front of her desk and moving her hands in front of her. Emma approached her and realized she was making a drawing on a piece of paper. A beautiful sketch of a woman with long hair on her underwears.

”Wow, that's beautiful,” Emma said without thinking.

”Wha…!”

Aleta turned around fast, almost falling from her chair. She stared at confusion at her open door.

”Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just,” Emma started to explain, moving her hands agitated. ”The door was open and,” Emma gave two steps back. ”I didn't know you could draw.”

Aleta took pulled the paper close to her as if hiding it.

”They're not that good, so…” she said, avoiding looking at Emma.

”Are you kidding? It's beautiful. Do you have more?” Emma said, walking to the desk. She saw a group of papers with drawings on them on it. ”Can I?”

Aleta nodded. Emma took them in turn. They were all long-haired women. Sometimes they were nude or on their underwears.

”They're really beautiful,” Emma said, looking drawing by drawing. While she was looking at them, Aleta jumped from her chair and took all the drawings from Emma's hand.

”I,” she paused, blushing.” I am a little embarrassed by them.”

”Because some are nudes?” Emma said, giving a smile. ”Don't worry. That's art, right? Well, show me them again sometime if you feel more comfortable. You're talented.”

Aleta put the papers on the desk, avoiding facing Emma. Emma seemed to finally remember something.

”Oh, but, that's right. That's not why I came here,” she surveyed the room with a serious face and her eyes fixed on the telephone on Aleta's room. ”Say, were you drawing all this time?”

”Y-Yeah.”

Emma scrutinized the room, again. The telephone was on the other side, beside the bed. It was too far away from Aleta's current position.

”Someone called my room by phone. I guess it wasn't you, right?”

Aleta stared at Emma and to the phone in turn. When her eyes fixed on Emma again, Emma had this weird impression that Aleta's eyes weren't fixed on her. Maybe on something else.

”The first time they didn't say anything,” Emma said, ignoring the chill she felt by Aleta's stray look. ”Then a voice started saying 'bud' over and over again. You were drawing here the whole time, right?”

Aleta didn't say anything. Her expression looked troubled. She fiddled with her skirt while avoiding looking straight at Emma.

”So, you see...”

”You,” Aleta interjected before Emma could say anything. ”You can go back to sleep now. I promise you, it won't happen again,” again, Aleta's eyes seemed to stray behind Emma. ”I promise you…”

”What do you mean?”

”I'm sorry Emma,” Aleta stood up and threw a stare at her phone. ”I can't explain, but trust me. Please!”

Emma hesitated. She looked at the troubled face Aleta made and gave a nod. Saying good night, she exited the room. She waited in front of the door for some seconds. A sound like a mumbling could be heard coming from inside but Emma couldn't distinguish what it was saying.

She gave up and went back to her room.

***

Emma woke up the next day feeling something hurting her face. After walking to the small bathroom that was part of her room, she looked at the mirror. Turning her face, there was a mark on her cheek. The red mark resembling a circle. She went back to her bed and searched where she used to rest her head. She found something hard and shiny. Emma reached for it and held a ring in her hand.

She looked inside, but there was nothing engraved in it. She knew for sure that ring wasn't there before she went sleeping and her door was locked during the whole night. She felt a chill on her spine considering that someone went inside her room while she was sleeping.

Emma decided not to tell anyone about that. After her talk with Aleta the other night, she felt like bringing another weird happening would make things worse, or worry her more. She wanted to know what was going on before doing anything. She needed concrete proofs. Putting the ring inside her bag, she went outside for her breakfast.

She met Aleta by the stairs. The girl looked at her and gave a nod, greeting her.

”Did you, huh, sleep well?” Aleta asked.

”Yeah,” Emma said. She fought against her wish to talk about the ring.

They went down for breakfast and talked to each other as always. When Emma went back to her room, she saw the half of something under her door. She picked it up. It was an envelope.

”Wait!” Aleta said while reaching for the envelope, but Emma opened it. Inside there was just a name and a line.

”Emma.

I think I'm in love with you.”

Emma showed the letter to Aleta. Aleta's face was pale already, but suddenly it looked even paler.