22:00
That lasted over two hours.
Ella brushed her teeth and got a kiss to the forehead and just like that she was alone.
The night wasn't over. Ella actually looked out the window, staring up into the sky past the trees which suddenly shook and a bird shot up squawking awkwardly.
Ella stared with a raised brow and shrugged before stepping onto the windowsill, her legs swinging. Her eyes up into the stars, her face the picture of misery.
But no tears, just a frown into the silence before running and jumping onto mattress, her head under her sheet.
Kate could finally breathe, able to move her arms and legs. There was dark bruising from where she'd been caught between the branches after nearly getting caught and slipped.
But to feel her arms again, the joy!
Kate dropped onto their yard and pulled her dart out of their snoozing Rottweiler.
Kate shot a rope up to Ella's roof and climbed to her open window tied a rope around her foot and put her weight upon it.
Okay, yes. Ella was an idiot. Mother would never allow a window to be left a window open, and all parts of the house were 'Mother's House' unless there was a way of setting up alarms to take care of a window being open.
Kate pulled up five screens from her back pocket, she wrapped more rope around her shoulder for balance. Kate pointed the screen at the window and, yes, there were laser lights against the window. Ella had no idea.
That got Kate thinking. She bent the second screen in half and pulled out powder from her over back pocket blew it over the window and then rested that screen on a corner and rushed inside.
Then she broke into a sprint and jumped onto Ella's bed. Ella groaned out a kid's name, sat up and gaped upon seeing Kate right there.
"Don't scream." Kate said.
"Why shouldn't I!"
Kate hesitated. "Because… I don't want you to?"
Ella's face did a lot of things and said a lot of things. A lot of it consisting of a battle on whether Kate was an idiot or not.
"What?" Ella grunted.
"I want to talk to you."
"Why, to trick me into being a part of your bullshit?" Ella hissed.
"Yes, exactly. I'm surprised. Please think exactly that."
It was Ella's turn to hesitate. In the extreme low light it was most interesting to see how ghostly the girl looked, the shadowsacross her face incredibly deep as if she were the surface of the moon.
"No. I know this is a trick." She managed.
She was on the backfoot. It would be rude for Kate not to sweep the leg.
"Very good Ella, that's exactly what this is. But I still want you to be my friend and as a friend I need you to stop the boys too."
"What? Why am I going to stop the boys?"
"Because even though I told them no. I have a feeling they're gonna. And I bet you're gonna feel dragged along."
Ella looked hurt. Kate had no idea why.
"They're my friends." She whispered.
"Exactly." Kate said. "And I'm really sorry. Convince them to say no."
"Of course I will."
"Yes!"
"No, yes." Ella argued.
"Yes, exactly."
"Stop that." She hissed.
"Done stopping. The alarm in your window will go off in less than five minutes. No idea how you will explain it. Feel free to tell the truth. That's okay with mom. She won't do anything to you. Before I go, what did you tell your mom about at the dinner table?"
"You were watching us eat? Then you know."
"Watching, not listening. Big difference."
Ella's mouth did the goldfish thing and then gave up.
"We were talking about what your mom said about my chemical balances."
"They say my mom was lying?"
"No. Not exactly. They said we didn't need it and the stuff was impossible to get."
"It is. So bad idea."
Ella looked the most perturbed there. Kate was clearly lying but what on earth did any of it means. On and on, it went in her mind. And Kate was not there to help. She wiggled away from Ella who looked ditched.
"Gotta go!"
Kate rushed out, grabbed her rope and shot it into a tree, the sound of zipping loud in their ears. Kate was out of sight before Ella's father came rushing into Ella's room.
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✨ Stand with me — follow and share as Zenith dives into the fragile edge of trust. ✨
A private room, a stranger's smile, a hospital sponsored by shadows.
Elsie's beauty was armor, her words evasive, her shrug a weapon.
Kate pressed for answers, but found only hints of Sakura's influence.
And when jealousy slipped through Elsie's mask,
Kate knew the game was far from over.
Next time on Zenith:
What secrets tie Elsie to Sakura—and how long before Kate pays the price?