Page 107 of Mask and the Magnolia

Everything is clean and in its place. My notes have been transcribed up to now. Because I run my one-on-one sessions here, I don’t have a TV or anything else like it in order to prevent distractions and shift focus during them.

Wonderful.

I’m so boring and needy I can’t even entertain myself when I have to.

Annoyed and growing anxious, I let out a frustrated huff as I do another lap but this time, something catches my eye.

With a frown, I make my way to the bookshelves, my gaze locked on the shiny almost glittery pieces of something scattered on the floor in front of them.

I crouch down to get a closer look, lightly fingering the shards and realizing they’re bits of tempered glass.

How bizarre.

None of my decorative pieces are missing, the knickknacks all accounted for when I do a quick scan and even if they weren’t, I’d know this isn’t from something I own. Most of my things are ceramic or whatever, a thicker, sturdier material that wouldn’t splinter like this.

I scratch my chin as I pick up the largest piece, looking it over carefully for a moment before I begin searching for its point of origin.

Crawling on hands and knees, I look under my furniture; the coffee table and wingbacks, the end tables and grandfather clock. I pull my phone from my pocket and turn on the flashlight as I peer under the couches, the light reflecting off of something just out of reach. So, I get to my feet, brush off my slacks then push the couch toward the middle of the room, exposing the treasure I’ve been hunting for but when I realize what it is, my stomach drops to my fucking balls.

It’s Magnolia’s phone.

I’d know it anywhere.

It’s a purple iPhone with a sticker of a middle finger over the logo.

She doesn’t have it in a case despite being clumsy and dropping it constantly. I don’t think she would have considered a screen protector until I put one on the device myself, and that explains the tempered glass.

It’s the only thing that’s explained though, because Maggie hasn’t been here since Friday so I don’t know why her phone is here and broken at that, and learning why I haven’t been able to reach her does nothing for my nerves.

Neither does the knock at my office door because I almost jump out of my skin the second I hear it.

“Sorry to bother you,” Eve, Maggie’s best friend, says as she pushes it open. “Do you have a minute?”

I nod slowly as she enters, unable to form words over the way I can hear my pulse pounding in my ears.

This is no coincidence.

Finding Magnolia’s phone here after forty eight hours of no contact, only to have her best friend and roommate show up at my office first thing Monday morning?

No one could convince me that these things aren’t extremely, unnervingly connected.

“I’m not sure how you want to do this.” Eve closes my door then walks toward me before motioning toward the couch I just moved. “But I am sure you’re going to need to sit down for what I’m about to tell you.”

Slowly and with more fear than I have ever felt, I sink down onto the leather and wait for my world to get flipped upside down.

“Maggie was attacked.”

“What?” I jump to my feet as my ears start to ring and I feel my chest go tight. “Attacked? How? When? Is she okay? Can I?—“

“She’s at our apartment resting.” Eve gently pushes me back down on the couch. “Finallyresting but to be honest, she’s really not okay.”

“Tell me what happened.”

She nods her head and fiddles with her sleeves, twisting the cuffs between her fingers, which is when I notice Eve is wearing baggy sweats and fuzzy boots. She works on the ward below ours and while I’ve seen her there only once, that was enough to know this is not how she normally dresses.

“You aren’t working.”

Eve shakes her head as tears form along her lower lashes. “I’m taking care of her.” She sniffles and I reach out, taking her hand and guiding her onto the couch beside me. “We’re both on medical leave. After what I came home to, I’m not letting anyone near her. Not unless it’s me or one of you.”