Act 2 | Chapter 4

A yawn escaped my mouth as I leaned back against the bench beside the photo booth.

"Getting tired?" Riley asked, chuckling.

"Yeah. Don't know why. Guess I'm just a bit exhausted." I sighed.

"Maybe we should get whatever you need at your place and go set up the tree?"

"Yeah. Let's." The two of us were sitting, and waiting for Riley's mother to finish with her photo in the machine. A long line of people had started to form just as we were stepping out from behind the curtain. It shouldn't take Miss Blackmar too long unless she's just in there and taken several photos until she gets one she likes. I leaned forward and rubbed my eyes again. I could help but notice someone familiar standing by the mall window. It looked kinda like Hannah Bolton, one of Maria's friends. She was carrying a large stack of papers with her on a clipboard, along with some roles of tape. Hannah would take a piece of tape, and paste one of the sheets of paper onto the wall, before moving onto another spot. My eyes followed her as she moved along the wall, placing one at every store entrance.

"Is that one of Maria's friends?" I asked Riley, pointing her out.

Riley leaned forward beside me and squinted her eyes.

"Looks like it. The hell is she doing?"

"Don't know?"

Once Hannah was gone, Riley and I stood from our seat and walked over to one of the paper's she put up. It was a missing poster, with Maria's school photo on it. Below it was her name, age, height, appearance, and everything else one would need to know. Contact information, for both family and friends, as well as her own phone number. I ripped the flyer down and looked closer at it. This was to be expected. People would have no doubt noticed that Maria is missing after a day or two. I made sure to cover my tracks though. I couldn't leave any evidence or anything. Guess all that was left was to see if I got away with it or not.

"Maria went missing?" Riley asked, tilting her head. "Serves her right." She said, just before getting a gentle slap across the back of her head. I turned my head and saw Miss Blackmar standing behind Riley.

"M- Mom!"

"I don't want to hear you saying that, Riley. Maria may have been a bully, but you can't say that kind of stuff when she's actually gone missing."

I frowned and looked back at the poser. Riley was right. Maria did deserve it. A part of me wanted to smile at the thought of her being gone forever, but I held the feeling back.

"So. We have two hours to kill. Want to go get something to eat? Or maybe do some last-minute shopping?"

Riley looked back to me and nodded before saying: "I wouldn't mind some last-minute shopping. I wanna check out some game's for sale."

"You two girls go have fun with that." Miss Blackmar said, "I want to go get some coffee, we can meet up at the mall cafe when you're done."

"Sound's good." I nodded and started walking away with Riley. I technically already had a gift for Riley, but another one wouldn't hurt. Besides, this could be an opportunity to see what else she might want. Riley let go of my hand as the two of us reached the game's shop. It was busy with people carrying stacks of games and whatever other junk was in the store to purchase. The store was small and divided into a few different sections, each one having games only for that specific console.

Riley let go of my hand and broke off to look at the RPG based games on the nearby shelf. A few TV's overheads where plying news on the upcoming game's, as well as insiders look into a few of them. They were playing over the faint music in the store, which was already being drowned out by the sounds of people talking and arguing. Riley always was excited when in these stores. The idea of getting a new game is what I think usually overtook her. Eventually, Riley found a small stuffed plushy of a character from a game she played a lot more. A chubby knight whose armor and helmet closely resembled an onion. The knight had a large sword and a small spiked shield on his back with a mug of what looked like beer in his stubby hand.

I knew what game it was from and that Riley was a huge fan of those games. "What about that?" I thought to myself. "I just need to get her away from it and the counter." I started looking around the isles, finding something that might distract Riley long enough. There was a shelf further back in the store. It was mainly clearance stuff, but it had a couple game's that might keep her distracted. Beside it was one of the consoles on display. You could play it and test it out with the TV in front of it.

"Hey, Riley," I said, tapping her shoulder.

"Hm?"

"Isn't that the new console you wanted?" I watched as she turned her head and looked over at it.

"Oh yeah, it came out like a year ago though." She started making her way over to it and picked up one of the small controllers. They could fit in the palm of her hand. With her distracted, I took that as my opportunity. I quickly grabbed the plush animal and purchased it at the cash register. It wasn't very expensive, but then again it also wasn't very big. I put the new plush into the shopping bag and made sure to tie it up so Riley couldn't see inside.

"Zoe! You'll never guess what game I found!" Riley practically yelled, happy.

"What?" I asked, holding the grey bag behind my back. She glanced down at it and looked back up at me.

"Whatcha got there?" She smirked.

"Nothing," I smirked back. Riley tried peering over my shoulders.

"Come on! You know I hate secrets!" She reached out and tried grabbing the bag from me. Quickly, I took a step back, and away from her.

"Noooo." You'll have to wait till tomorrow." I replied in a teasing voice.

"Not even a peak?"

"Nope." I giggled a bit.

"Not even a tiny hint at what you bought? It can't be that embarrassing can it?"

"Nope. You'll have to wait." I kept teasing her, backing up with every step forward Riley took. She eventually crossed her arms and pouted.

"Fiiiiine. I'll wait."

"Good."

"Anyways." Riley chuckled and held out the game she was going to show me. "Remember this?"

I looked closely at the games box art and tilted my head a bit. It looked familiar, with bright green colors, and a fantasy looking setting.

"Not really?"

"It's the game we played together back in middle school! They made a sequel to it!" Riley explained excitedly.

"Oh!" Now I remembered. Even in their early years as friends, Riley would invite me to her house to play and sleepover. She would always bring out a specific game for both use them to play. A top-down dungeon crawler. "Man, I actually remember that old game. Do you still have it?"

"Yeah, but I don't have the console anymore. We could buy this new one and see what's changed!"

"Sure, why not." I chuckled. Riley went through with all the purchases and the two of us left the store. The mall was still busy, but just as we were turning to head to the cafe, I stopped Riley and asked: "Oh, hey, can we stop at the art store real fast? I want to check something."

"Sure!" Riley nodded and held my hand as the two of us walked over. All I really wanted to see was how much paint cost right now. I'm completely out from working on the massive painting for the contest and needed more. Some of the paint on the shelf was pretty cheap, at ten dollars, while other colors were much more expensive.

"Hm. Still a bit much." I frowned.

"What are you planning on using paint for?" Riley asked, looking up at the massive shelf of colors.

"I..." I smoked a bit, "I wanted to recreate the painting. The one Maria destroyed."

"Oh!" Riley nodded, "Well you have the sketchbook for it so at least you have a reference point?"

"Yeah. I also still have what's left of the painting. So I have another idea on what to do. Plus, since everything is already planned out, I can just start it when I get the chance."

"Do you need anything else other than paint?"

"Well, new brushes would be nice too. And a new canvas. I'll need one of those too."

"Don't you have a canvas already?"

"Smaller ones. Nothing as big as the one I originally used."

"Huh, I see.."

"Yeah. Those bigger ones cost a bit too." I shrugged. "Anyways, anything you want to do before heading to the cafe?"

"Nope, I'm good to go."

"Well then let's go!" I smirked and took Riley's hand again. As the two of us started making our way out of the store, there was a loud banging sound. We both turned our heads in the direction to see a shelf having toppled over. It was a small rack displaying several different colors of red paint. I stopped and stared at it as one of the employees was drenched in the colorful liquid. It dripped from his hair and over his clothes, completely covering him in shades of red, and crimson. I couldn't help but think of Maria in his place. Drenched in not paint, but blood. I smirked a bit and kept on walking with Riley.

"Bad luck huh?" Riley commented.

"Mhm... bad luck."