Chapter 20: Seven days of silence

It had been a week since the Marlowe family's emotional outbursts.

Seven whole days of being grounded. Also my first and hopefully last experience of being grounded.

Turns out being grounded in my house didn't mean sitting in your room and staring out the window, thinking about what you've done like they do in the movies. Being grounded I'm the Marlowe house meant living like someone in the nineteenth century and I'm not even kidding.

No school which meant no rehearsals or training.

No friends.

No Internet.

And no phones.

Just me and my happy family.

I spent half the day reading my books and practising my lines till I could say them in my sleep. By the fourth day I was sure I could perform the entire play myself and solve questions I found difficult about a week ago.

The other half of my day was mostly spent with my parents downstairs.

Which were either helping mom in the kitchen to chop vegetables, do basic kitchen duties or even listen to her childhood stories she never got tired of telling or I was with dad who single handedly recruited me for the ‘greatest challenge in human history’.

And what is this challenge you might ask?

His puzzle– one million pieces of suffering scattered across the dining table which was supposed to make sense by the time we're done.

We worked it every evening and eventually on the last day of my grounding, we finished it and the image did make sense.

It was a tall lighthouse standing on rocks during sunset, waves crashing around it.

I could see the light in dad's eyes when he places the last piece right at the middle. He was happy, we were happy.

Somehow it didn't feel like I was grounded, it rather felt like I was given a chance to spend a full time with my family, to understand them. And now that I do I realised I haven't been a good daughter entirely.

I slowly walked into the kitchen and let dad do his victory dance alone.

“hey mom” I said and she immediately dropped the knife she was using to dice some onions for dinner.

“If it's about your phone we still have a few more hours to go before you're free so I'll appreciate if you want till then”

She said, seeing the long look on my face, she dropped her tone and moved closer “what's wrong princess”

“I just wanted to say I'm sorry for saying those horrible things to you” I said lowering my gaze.

She smiled and lifted my chin “it's alright princess, I would think the same thing If I were you” she said and pulled me into a tight hug “I love you princess”

“Love you too mom”

“Awwwn I want in on this too” dad said then joined the hug and for a second we just stood there together.

Dinner was loud but it was a good kind of loud.

Dad didn't stop talking about the symbolism of the puzzle. Mom kept hinting at her perfectly grilled chicken and I was worried about the fact that I disappeared from Maya’s a week ago and I've not heard anything about her – not like I had the means to.

“Oh and maya” mom said as she passed the salt to dad “I threatened her that I'd she climbed through the window or found a way to even look at you I'd call the police”she said casually.

“Whatt mom!” I tried not to shout

“I needed you to be grounded properly honey” she said and went on to feed dad like he was some child.

I was given my phone after dinner and I couldn't wait to call Maya.

I sat on my bed, switched on my phone and went straight to my message box.

I expected to see Maya's messages first updating me on how the outside World felt and moved without me in it and she didn't disappoint.

I saw texts like

‘Yo tessa if you're still alive and not eaten by your parents that I suspect to be zombies, I need you to scribble sos OK your window and I'll come runnig’

‘It's literally SOS tessa, the universal stress signal???’

I laughed and scrolled through her endless messages of what of pigs can fly, I might get married tomorrow, do you think I should build a boyfriend making machine and the list goes on and on.

Then I came across Klaus’s Message. It wasn't more than one simple message – we need to talk.

I felt this tingle in my chest. What did he want to talk about? Why didn't he text again?

Questions kept on popping in my head but I brushed it off and checked the other messages.

Ethan had also texted but unlike his brother – which I'm still shocked and surprised he is, he dropped more than one message.

‘tessa you have every right to be angry but i can explain’

‘please text back when you get this’

‘we need to talk, seriously’

I fell back on my bed staring at the ceiling as my phone rested on my chest.

Funny how I thought that after a week away From my phone getting it back would feel like freedom but it just got annoying.

I sighed and started scrolling through the rest of my notifications.

“Workout streak ended”

“Screen time report ready to view”

Different tiktok notifications on videos “I might like”

Old messages from forgotten group chats “Yeah no way I'm opening those”

And then “your AI boyfriend misses you”

“Realy….that's so fucking pathethic”

I tossed my phone to the side and sighed. A while week had passed by and nothing life changing or even life threatening happened.

Why did I even want my phone back?

This Week I spent was actually peaceful, of course I wouldn't admit that to mom but it actually felt comforting.

And trust me , comforting is not the word I'd use to describe my life as it currently is.

My eyes were starting to close with the promise of taking me into a smooth drift to lala land when I heard a tap by the window.

My eyes flew completely open and I stood up in an instant.

Maybe it was just a tree branch or the wind delivered something by my window so I laid back down.

Again, another tap.

This time I walked slowly to my window.

Maya already figured out how to open the window from the outside even if it's locked so it's definitely not her.

For a moment, I got really scared.

Then I saw a dark figure hanging by the tree right outside my window.

Now I was frightened.