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    Chapter 9

    I jumped out of my hiding place, and lunged forward to face the woman. She was so concetrated on weeping over my wife, that she didn't notice me standing there until I exclaimed,

    "Who are you?!" I was almost as surprised at myself as she was, as she jumped and immediately turned around, a guilty look on her face. Looking at my dead wife and the woman, they looked almost identical, and if they by any chance switched places, I would've never telled the difference. Then, on her right hand, I noticed something. A strip of bandage cloth, wrapped right inbetween her index finger and her thumb. I opened my mouth to say something, but the words never came out, as a different voice boomed,

    "I knew you'd be here." My head made a sudden 180 degree turn, and another guy decided to join the party. Charles. Atleast, it looked like Charles. His voice...that was another story. It sounded as though he went through a second state of puberty, seeing he had to have jumped from a tenor to a bass in a matter of...a minute. But that didn't matter, and I immediately asked the first question that came to mind,

    "What's going on?" He tilted his head to the left, and still with that low, grave voice, he ignored my question and said,

    "Now, I didn't know you'd be here." I glanced back for a second. The woman was frozen still, a stupefied look on her face as she gawked at Charles. I turned back, and repeated,

    "What's going--" Charles put up his right hand and closed his eyes, a sign that meant "shut up", and then said,

    "Heard you the first time, Chad. Don't repeat questions. It gets on my nerves." He took a pause, and just as I thought he'd spill the beans, he said,

    "Well, you failed the test."

    "What test?"

    "The test to see if you could refrain yourself from snooping around. The test to see how desperate you were about your wife."

    "I want to know what's going on," I said again, except this time not in a question form. He smiled, and said,

    "I know. But what would be the fun in that?" He turned around, and started to walk off.

    "Wait! What are you doing? Where are you going?" He stopped, and said,

    "Do you like games, Chad?"

    "Ch--"

    "I'm especially fond of cat and mouse. You ever heard of that one? I'm the mouse. Your the cat. Catch me if you can!" He bolted off down the stairs, leaving me still and speechless.

    "You going?" I turned back around. There she was, walking right up to me, a nervous look on her face. The woman who's name still doesn't come to mind. And what do you know, her voice was almost exactly the same as Elizabeth's as well.

    "Yeah..." But even as I said that, I was reluctant to step any further. Charles had been my best friend for two years.

    What is going on? I thought, my mind racing to find conclusions. What is the bandage on the woman's hand from? Who is she? What does Charles know about this? Is Charles actually the bad guy? I shook my head. Once again, too many questions. I set them aside, and even though I didn't know why Charles was acting strange, I would figure out.

    If Charles wanted to be chased, he was going to get more than he bargained for.