I stuck my head inside, but only the eerie glow from the line of stars that continued to run along the ceiling could be seen. I stepped farther inside and spun around slowly. There was a good chance the stars had been there for years, but I hadn’t noticed them the night before. Maybe Zara had thought I’d like them? Or maybe Finn did it? Giving up, I was about to walk out when I heard a light stirring near the back of the closet. I stepped farther in, looking for some kind of weapon in case a murderer, or more appropriately, Nadia, was hiding behind one of the dresses. My breath hitched as I pictured a rat the size of a small dog launching itself at me.
Funny - how a rat could elicit more fear in me than a murderer or Nadia. I didn’t have much more time to contemplate who was sharing the closet with me before three figures plunged out from the darkness and smothered me in a hazardous four-person hug in the middle of the closet.
“What are you guys doing here?!” I screeched at my three roommates. “I thought you were a murderer! Or a…rat. Or…whatever! You shouldn’t be hiding in my closet!”
“It was the only hiding place we could all fit!” Carmen jumped on the bed and tested out its springiness.
“The perfectly good living room wasn’t big enough for you?” I put my hands on my hips.
“Sticking stars to the ceiling and hiding out in your bedroom closet were much more fun.”
Willow laughed. “Plus, the guards outside let us in because we had food.”
“I voted for cutting off the electricity and blasting the door down, but Carmen said that would be too obvious.” Phoebe shrugged as she inspected the pictures on the wall.
“Or…” I emphasized slowly with sarcasm. “And this might sound crazy, but you could have just knocked on the door and woke me up.”
“Once again, that doesn’t involve stars or closets,” Phoebe informed me. “Not to mention, we wouldn’t have had an excuse to get all dressed up like army guys!”
She twirled around to show off her outfit. All three of them looked more like duck hunters than army men, as they were covered in camouflage from head to toe with black war paint smeared on their faces. Willow’s gorgeous hair was tucked up under a bright, neon-orange knit hat.
“Good thing you wore camouflage - If it weren’t for your hair, I wouldn’t be able to see you right now.” I rolled my eyes and laughed.
Carmen put her hands on her hips, “I sacrificed at least three dollars for these diamonds in the rough at a yard sale last week. I knew they’d come in handy some day. Besides, yours are in this bag.
We can’t bust you out of here in that.” I looked down at my jeans and sweater and then back at Carmen with skepticism. She tossed the bag at me with a wicked grin. “You’ve got two choices. Put them on or we put them on for you. You pick.”
“And just what are you busting me out of here for?” I retaliated. “And just how do you propose we get back out without the Sons seeing us?”
“I can be very persuasive,” Carmen answered darkly.
Phoebe snickered and rolled her eyes, “Your money can be very persuasive. Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dumb didn’t take a lot of convincing to agree to be our escorts for the night.”
“And what exactly do we need camouflage outfits and armed guards for?” I wasn’t convinced.
I eyed my own camo outfit awaiting me in the bag sitting on the bed.
“Operation ‘Zara Dark Thirty’,” Carmen announced, clearly proud of the name they’d come up with; a play on the move title “Zero Dark Thirty.”
“We are not going on a mission to kill Osama Bin Laden,” I disagreed vehemently, “And most importantly, we are NOT navy seals.”
“You’re right.” Willow flung the bag of clothes at me, “We are Tydes and we are going on a mission to find out who Zara is. So get dressed soldier, it’s time to move out.”
“I’m getting the three of you checked out for Bat-Shit Crazy Disorder at some point. I have a feeling you are prime candidates for the disease.”
“Well, you’re gonna be our leader…” Phoebe laughed, “so what does that say about you?”
“Good point.” I sneered at her and began to pull on the biggest camouflage pants I’d ever seen. I twisted around to inspect the tag. “What size are these…? Men’s large!?”
“Army pants don’t come in size 2 Petite,” Carmen enlightened me sarcastically. I pulled them on without having to unbutton them, and then rolled down the waistband to my liking. A black tank top completed the outfit, along with the black paint that Phoebe smeared all over my face. Once my hair was in a pony tail, they clapped their hands and I smiled in spite of myself.
“So what’s the plan, Staff Sergeant?” I regarded Willow formally, with a less-than-accurate salute.
“We found an address in Zara’s house earlier that we think is worth checking out.” Her voice had dropped, but I didn’t miss the undercurrent of excitement. “Zara is definitely up there in her bed as we speak, so I know we won’t run into her.”
“What kind of address is it?”
“I’m not exactly sure, but she received a phone call after dinner and was extremely secretive about it. She left the room, so Carmen pretended to go to the bathroom, but followed her to her study where she wrote something down. Once Zara left to go back to the dining room, Carmen found the paper she had written on and copied the address.”
“You guys are amazing,” I shook my head in wonder. “Did you hear any of her conversation?”
“Not really,” Carmen frowned. “But my superpower of intuition tells me that we’ll find something at this address. I just feel it.”
“Let’s just hope the ‘something’ we find isn’t a serial killer who collects the tongues of seventeen year old girls,” Phoebe inserted off-handedly.
“Yes, because finding a serial killer who collects comic books would be infinitely better…”
Carmen snorted.
“I’m hoping he takes your tongue first,” Phoebe sneered at her.
“Alright!” Willow put up her hands, “If you keep it up, I’ll cut out both of your tongues so neither one of you can talk anymore. I don’t think anyone else will object.” She looked to me for back up and I shook my head.
“If we’re going, we need to hurry!” a deep male voice called from the living room. We filed out of the bedroom to see the two guards waiting impatiently for us. Both were over 6’5 and could more than likely bench press a train. I had to admit, I felt much safer knowing they would be with us.
After consulting Mapquest.com, we found out that the address was a mere half mile north from Zara’s house, so we decided to make the trek on foot. We all agreed that a golf cart would be too noisy, anyway. If it had been any other night, I would have been able to enjoy the cloudless night with the bright silver moon smiling down at us. It lit up the tops of the sea oats and sand dunes to our right, and glinted off every metal part of houses and garages to our left. The roar of the ocean accompanied us as we silently skulked in the shadows just off the road. Every house was dark, their occupants using common sense to stay in bed instead of embarking on a recon mission in the middle of the night.
Luckily, common sense was especially lacking in our little group. One of the Sons walked in front of the group, while the other followed behind to scour our surroundings for potential threats. I did my own scouring in search of Nadia’s evil essence, but so far the coast was clear. As we ticked off the house numbers, we reached the end of the road and were confronted with sand dunes blocking our path. Willow checked her phone one more time to make sure we were right.