My Life After the Disaster

Chapter Twenty Four

With everything finished at the shelter Annabelle hands over the keys to me and Alexia then we all head out for lunch, going to a fancy restaurant to celebrate our new milestone. The starting of a shelter for abused women in Halifax. Any woman that needed to find a safe place to heal and rediscover herself. We all go into the restaurant and get seated at a big round table in the middle of the restaurant. Because there was six of us we needed a lot of space.

“This place is so fancy, I feel under dressed,” I say as I look around the room.

“Don’t be silly Rose, you’re perfect,” Alexia says, grabbing a strand of my hair.

“Says the beautiful doll sitting next to me,” I response, smirking at her.

“You two need to get a room,” Daniel says, joking.

“Daniel, they’re not even doing anything,” Annabelle tells him, staring at him with a face of disappointment.

“Sorry if I offended anyone, I was just getting Rose back for our time in Ontario,” he tells us honestly.

“You said that to them when they first got together?” Alexia asks, not sounding happy.

“I did. I thought I loved Annabelle and she fell head over heels in love with Daniel. I was really jealous and didn’t like seeing them lovey dovey together,” I admit to Alexia.

“You were in love with Annabelle?” Alexia asks, shocked, showing it on her face.

“I thought I was. Till I met you and realized what love really felt like. I just admire Annabelle and think she’s very beautiful. That’s all. She’s my friend and she never wanted me as anything else. Please don’t be mad,” I tell her, desperately.

“Don’t worry Rose. I already knew all that. And I know how you feel about me. I’m not going anywhere. I love you. I just wanted to freak you out a bit,” Alexia says with a sly smile.

The waitress comes over and takes our orders then walks to the back to hand our order to the kitchen staff.

“Are all adults like this?” Julian asks us.

“Like what?” Annabelle asked him curiously.

“Weird,” he tells her, looking serious.

She bursts out laughing and says, “Adults are not weird. People are. If you aren’t strange in some way then you’re a weirdo. It’s normal to be weird. You’re no exception there Julian.”

“I love it when you laugh,” Daniel says, smiling at Annabelle.

“I love your laugh too sissy,” Molly says shifting around in her seat.

“Why do you have to be so mean sometimes Alexia? I thought you were going to leave me. I love you so much. The thought of losing you just kills me,” I tell her honestly.

“I’m sorry Rose. I’ll try not to do it again. I love you too and I don’t ever want to leave you,” she tells me, sounding sincere in her words.

“I guess I am kind of weird,” Julian says, looking over at Rose and Alexia.

“Of course you are. Only a weird boy would be thinking about love at your age,” Molly says.

“Where did that come from? You’re six years old, what do you know,” Julian says, glaring over at his little sister.

“You’re thinking about love?” I ask, looking over at Julian.

“I was. On Annabelle’s birthday. But she talked some sense into me. I’m going to wait for love to find me. I’m not going to go looking for it,” he tells me honestly, looking down at his hands.

“That’s some deep thinking for a ten year old boy. You’re going to be a true romantic,” Alexia says with a smile.

The waitress comes back over with our food and puts it down in front of us, along with our drinks.

I grab my fork and start eating my food. I was so hungry I could feel my stomach grumbling. I shove my food into my mouth and savor the taste of it, it tastes amazing and I love every bite of it. I look up from my plate to see Annabelle looking freaked out and Daniel looking pissed off, he was angry cutting his steak. “What’s going on over there and why do you look pissed Daniel,” I ask as I shove some more food into my mouth.

“It’s nothing,” she tells me, not taking her eyes off her plate. She looked almost terrified.

“Hey guys, I just noticed you all here and was wondering if I could join you. I came by myself and it gets kind of lonely eating alone all the time,” a charming male voice says.

“I’m sorry but this table is all filled up. You’ll have to find someone else to eat with,” Alexia says in a clear and calm voice.

“Alright. Just thought I’d ask, sorry to disturb you. It was nice to see you again Annabelle, lovely as usual,” he says.

Annabelle looks up and smiles politely. “Enjoy your lunch,” she tells him, waving him off.

He turns and walks back over to his table, not too far from ours.

“You just lied to me Annabelle,” I say in a someone hushed voice.

“I didn’t want you to look at him and draw more attention to him,” she tells me honestly.

“That’s understandable. I forgive you,” I say, bringing my attention back to my food.

“Was that the bad man you were talking about yesterday?” Molly asks Annabelle, looking over at him.

“Yes, it is. You really shouldn’t be looking at him,” she tells her, not wanting to draw his attention to her.

“He’s being followed by a bunch of spirits,” she tells her, turning back in her seat.

“How many is a bunch, exactly?” I ask curiously. “You see spirits?”

“I do. For as long as I can remember. I can’t really count them all but there’s more than ten. And a couple of them are children. But they’re all girls,” Molly tells me.

All of us had shocked expressions. That’s insane. He should’ve been caught a long time ago. “Did they say anything?” Annabelle asks her, curiously.

“They’re mostly screaming at him and telling him that it’s his fault. You did this to me. Over and over again,” Molly tells her.

Alexia and My eyes go wide, understanding what Molly had just said. He killed all those woman and children. And now Molly knew it too.

“Well then. I was not expecting that,” Annabelle says in a quiet voice.

Julian looks over at Alexander then quickly turns back around. He shivered and went back to eating his food.

“That man is sick,” Daniel says beside her, sounding disgusted. “Hopefully they catch him soon.”

“How about we take our food to go,” Alexia says, not feeling comfortable around a serial killer. She knew she wasn’t his type but she didn’t like the idea of being around him.

“I think that’s a great idea,” Molly says. “I don’t feel comfortable here anymore.”

“I’ll go find our waitress,” Daniel says, getting up from the table. “I lost my appetite anyways.” He walks off in search of our waitress.

“I think I did too,” I say, putting my fork down. I shove my food away from me and turn to look at Alexia. I reach out my hand for Alexia’s hand and grab hold of it.

Annabelle looks over to the chair where Daniel had been sitting and looks sad. That sadness turned into fear after a few seconds.

Daniel comes back over with the waitress and Annabelle grabs onto him, pulling him down beside her. “Whoa, did you miss me that much?” he asks her, smirking.

She looks him in the eyes, and says, “Of course I did…”

Daniel reaches his arms out and pulls her close to him. He says something too her but it’s too low for me to hear it.

The waitress walks over with six containers and a slip of paper. She hands the paper to Annabelle and asks how she’ll be paying.

She pulls away from Daniel, sitting up straight, picks up her purse and takes out her wallet. “I’ll pay with my debit,” she tells her, pulling out her card.

“Sure thing,” she says. She takes a debit machine out of her apron and punches in some stuff then she hands it off to Annabelle.

She sticks her card into the machine, clicks on the screen, tapping on stuff then she removes her card and puts it back into her wallet and in her purse. She hands the machine back to the waitress. “Thank you so much,” she tells her with a smile.

“Same to you. Have a pleasant day,” she tells her, returning her smile with her own. She waves and walks off.

I stick my food into my container. I had only managed to eat a small amount of it before this Alexander stuff went down.

I watch as Annabelle shoved her pasta into her container while everyone else does the same with their food.

Julian helped Molly to put her food into her container after doing his own. She smiled at him and thanked him for his help.

I get up first, grabbing my bag from my chair. “Let’s get out of here,” I tell everyone, looking around the table.

Molly and Julian get up, grabbing their containers and walk away from the table.

Alexia grabs her container and gets up, looping her arm with mine. “Right here with you,” she says, smiling.

Annabelle gets up with Daniel, putting her purse up over her shoulder and grabs her container from the table. With her free hand she takes Daniel’s hand and says, “Let’s go.”

Walking together with our food in our hands we all head out of that restaurant walking as quickly as we could.

Once outside Molly tugs at Annabelle’s dress and says, “Sissy, I need to tell you something.”

She leans down to Molly and says, “What is it Molly?”

She puts her hand up to her ear and quietly says something that I can’t hear. But by the looks on their faces it can’t be good.

Annabelle pulls away, looking at her little sister and says, “Why would she tell you that?”

“She saw me looking at him, but she could see that I was really looking at them. She wanted me to find out why he did it. But I can’t talk to him. He scares me,” she tells Annabelle, shaking a little.

She wraps her arms around her and says, “It’s okay Molly. I won’t let him touch you.”

I wonder what Molly had told Annabelle to make her react that way. Maybe she’ll tell me later.

We all walk towards the van, getting away from the restaurant.