I expected to be in a warehouse or some sort of headquarters after being kidnapped, but I found myself tied to a chair in the bedroom of some person. I raised my eyebrows and shouted, "What kind of joke is this?"
"Hey, Margot," someone whispered. I turned around violently, almost breaking my neck and tipping off my chair. The bedroom lights turned on and I found my best friend Quinn Owens, his face still hideous and bruised, sitting on his bed and staring at me blankly. My heart instantly filled with joy.
"Quinn!" I shouted, but then he instantly hushed me. I lowered my voice and asked, "Was it necessary for you to kidnap me and tie me up like this?"
"Sorry, Marge," he muttered, untying the ropes. I was then able to wiggle free from the tightness. "Things are growing tough nowadays, and it would be very strange if I would just walk up to you and start talking to you. Look," he rummaged through his drawer and took out a parcel wrapped in green gift wrapper. "Here's your belated birthday gift, cookie." He threw the parcel at me, and I caught it. I felt giddy. Finally, a birthday present. I kept in my backpack, careful not to squish it.
"Margot." I snapped my attention back to Quinn, who was serious and grave. "T.K. must've warned you already about what has happened and what's going to happen to you. The Sapphires have already affected my life badly enough."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
Tears started to fall from Quinn's eyes. "Granny Lydia's dead."
Those three words pierced my heart like a hot knife ā Granny Lydia, Quinn's only caretaker and relative left, dead. A lump formed in my throat as I tried to process what he had just said. Is it even true? I looked at Quinn and the tears on his cheek. Of course it's all true. He wouldn't be affected by it really badly if it wasn't. "Howā how did she die?" I asked awkwardly.
"I received this letter two days ago from a messenger droid," he explained. "It said its message in a riddle type of way that I didn't really understand it. I still memorize it word per word: 'If you don't look at the hurdles, you'll find yourself stumbling over.' It's just plain weird, Margot. I ignored it, thinking that it was probably not really meant for me. But the next day after that, Senior Undersecretary Melissa Dawson sent me a letter, too. This time, it was on point. Something I could understand. 'You have failed miserably, and you will suffer the consequences'."
"What did you fail?" I interrupted.
Quinn shot me a deadly look. "I'm not supposed to talk about it, Margot, but all I can say to you is that you're not supposed to speak of it to anyone else too once you've come of age," he said coldly. He then continued, "I woke up the next morning, and found Granny Lydia sprawled out on the floor, blood trickling from her neck, her eyes all white. The image still sticks in my mind.
"So I called the local police, and they came immediately. They took Granny Lydia's body in a stretcher and said that they would take it to the mausoleum. They asked me if I knew anything before and/or during her death, but I shook my head and said that I was asleep the whole time. It was true, but how can I open up to the police that it were the Sapphires behind all of this? They warned me before, too, yet no matter what I did I just couldn't prevent what's going to happen next..."
"I'm so sorry, Quinn," I whispered.
He looked away immediately. "It's not your fault, Margot. I just want to make sure that you won't end up like me, regretting everything."
I went over to him and squeezed his wrist. "You still have me, you know. I'm your best friend," I said softly. I wanted Quinn to know that I'm there for him, in whatever he's going through, even though he won't tell me. That's what best friends are for, right?
Quinn smiled, but in his eyes there was pity for me. "Thanks a lot, Margot, but in the real world, best friends don't last forever."