THE VOICE AT DAWN.
Oh my God! You are so loud Lucas!” Emma jolts up in her bed and shouts at the little yellow parrot in a small cage on the table near her bed. The little parrot has been trying to wake her up by talking loudly. Emma looks at the clock, “It’s just 6 in the morning.” With irritation, she flops down on the bed. After twisting and turning for several minutes, she drops the idea of sleep. She sits up on her bed, shoots an annoyed look at the parrot and reaches for her phone under the pillow. That's when she notices a piece of folded paper under her transparent phone case. “I don't think I kept this in here, did I Lucas?” The parrot replies shrilly, “No!” Emma opens her phone case and takes the paper outside. She unfolds it and reads it aloud. “Tonight. At 11pm. Near the Reem Lake. -Theo” “Theo? I don't even know anyone named Theo. Maybe Evan is just playing a prank on me, right?” She looks towards the parrot who was already dozing off. Evan, Emma's little brother is a 13-year old who loves to prank others. “But how did he manage to get it into my phone case without waking me up?” Emma glances at the clock again. It was already 6 : 45am. “Maybe he slipped it in last night and I might not have noticed it.” She shrugs it off and tucks the paper in one of her notebooks and gets ready for school. When Emma went downstairs for breakfast, Evan had already left for school, which left her with no choice but to wait and ask him about the paper in the evening. After school, she sits down to complete her school work. She had forgotten about the note the whole day and found it while she was flipping through the pages of her notebook. She hesitates for a while and decides to find a conclusion for the note. She calls for Evan who was immersed in a video game. “Evan, did you plan another prank on me?” Evan quirks an eyebrow at her, she contemplates what to say in case he doesn't know about the note, “You know, like…..uhmmm…pranking me with a paper note or something like that?” Evan observes her suspiciously, “No.” He diverts his attention back to the video game. Confused, Emma walks back to her room and stomps towards the parrot. “He is just joking, right? I mean, even if it was someone else, how did they manage to get inside the house with no doors or windows unlocked?” The parrot just stares at her blankly. “Yeah, it's probably nothing.” She tickles the parrot and goes back to complete the rest of her work. After dinner, she flumps down on the bed and tries to sleep. She couldn't stop thinking about the note. She tried her best to ignore it and go to sleep but her curiosity got the best of her. She turns on the bedside lamp and searches for the note. The note mentioned 11:30pm and the Reem Lake is only a five-minute walk from her house. Emma peeks at the clock, “Oh shoot!!” It was 11:20. She rushes out of the bed, pulls on a hoodie and grabs a flashlight. She sneaks out of the house without getting caught. It was so dark outside even with the flashlight that she started regretting her decision to venture at night because of a stupid note that she wasn't even sure was legit. She finally caught a glimpse of the lake and made a run for it.
