Chapter 14- Highschool Sweethearts

Iris looked over the footage that Finn had gathered. She was back in her room at this point. The first thing she had Finn do was ask his parents some simple, unrelated, questions. After he woke them up they seemed confused and annoyed, but there was no abnormality with the way they answered his initial questions. On the other hand, when Finn asks Iris's other questions something strange happens. 

"Finn, can this wait till the morning? Why did you wake us up for this?" Finn's mother asked.

"I promise I'm almost done, I just gotta ask you a couple more things." Finn said, trying to rush.

"Well hurry up." She rushed.

"Okay. So um.." He paused, seemingly to remember the questions he had to ask.

"When did you give me that large sum of money?"

As soon as Finn mentioned the money they gave him, Finn's parents stiffened. Their faces slackened and their eyes glazed over.

"11 days ago." They answered at similar times. Their tone was monotone and flat. But Finn didn't notice, he was obviously trying to get this over with as fast as possible.

"And why did you give me that money?"

"To pay your school fees." That was the excuse Finn had told them in order to get the money.

"Okay, and do you know what I did with that money?" He asked, his voice smaller than before. His parents were silent for a long moment.

"...You paid your school fees."

"Okay that's all, goodnight." Finn said with a relieved sigh.

"Goodnight, Hon." His mother answered, life returned to her eyes.

Iris watched the recording a few times, trying to catch as many details as possible. The video quality wasn't amazing, certainly worse than what she was used to in her original life, but it was enough to see the couple's expressions. As soon as Finn mentioned the money, his parents suddenly acted very unusually, it was eerie. She had Finn ask vague questions, she didn't want to make his parents suspicious. And it seemed like the right call, his parents likely weren't the ones who gave him that money in the first place. They likely wouldn't have any valuable answers if they asked more in depth questions. So it wasn't worth potentially startling the snake.

But realizing this didn't help Iris very much. From what she read, this world didn't have any sort of magic. So how did this happen? And why? Why would someone specifically target her? Her tasks didn't involve any powerful figures, just high schoolers. She hadn't offended anyone influential, as far as she knew.

She decided to go to Lily's house tomorrow and see if there was any more information there.

-

However, even after going to Lily's house and snooping around, she didn't uncover anything new. Instead of meeting directly with Lily, like she did Finn, she decided to place cameras around their house. She wasn't as sure that Lily would cooperate as obediently as Finn had. Thankfully, her judgment had paid off- she didn't have to tell Lily to ask her parents questions related to the money. She had done it on her own, trying to gauge if her parents were suspicious of what she did with the money.

Similar to Finn's parents, Lily's parents became strange as soon as the topic was brought up. They became similar to puppets on strings, their movements and words halted and controlled. As Lily asked about the money, she appeared to be creeped out. She was conscious of her parent's strange transformation. She asked them about it, but as soon as she stopped talking about the money they'd given her, they returned to normal.

Iris stopped the recording. Lily's parent's situation was no different from Finn's. But neither gave her very much insight. She decided to direct her attention to the group Lily and Finn had hired; she'd try and track them down.

As Iris dove back into her research, her phone suddenly vibrated as her ringtone sounded. She picked it up and looked at the caller ID- Leon.

"Hello." She said with a frown. Today wasn't a day she usually tutored him.

"Iris? Can you come over? Quickly?" His tone was urgent.

Iris's brows furrowed and her frown deepened.

"What happened? Are you okay?" She questioned as she headed out the door.

"...Yeah, I'm fine. Please, just hurry over." The call suddenly hung up and Iris stared at her phone before stuffing it in her pocket. She rushed in the direction of Leon's house.

-

Iris reached his door and knocked a few times before growing impatient and forcefully opening the door. She was met with the sight of Leon walking down the steps, a big smile on his face.

"You came!" He happily rushed over.

Iris just glared at him. He was obviously fine, and she had obviously rushed over for no reason.

"Why did you…" She ended her statement with an angry huff.

"You never accept when I invite you over normally, So I didn't think you'd come over unless it sounded urgent." He explained sheepishly.

"You were right." Iris turned around to leave. Leon hurriedly held her arm, drawing closer to her.

"Don't go, don't go! I just wanted to talk to you in person." As Leon got closer she became aware of how much taller Leon was than her. Sometimes it was easy to forget, but when he was this close it was very apparent. She looked up to meet his pleading eyes and was silent for a moment. Ultimately, she pushed by him and headed for his room.

"Let's talk then." 

As if given amnesty, Leon perked up and followed Iris. She sat down on his bed and Leon sat beside her.

"What did you want to say?" She asked, refusing to look at him.

"Not much. I guess it would just be nice to see you more since we're about to graduate."

"I see you almost every day. Besides, we still have a few more tutoring sessions."

"Yeah, but that's different." He leaned on his knees with his chin in his hands. He seemed a bit melancholy as his eyes trained on the carpet.

"Once school ends, we're probably not going to see each other often, if ever." He said.

"You're not going to miss me at all?" He mumbled.

Iris stayed silent. He was a fictional character. And she was going to leave soon. This was not the time for her to get sentimental.

"No. I'm not." She spit the words out. 

Leon let out a sad laugh, but stayed silent otherwise. He'd expected this. But he was still disappointed. They sat in silence for a few minutes. It felt like they were saying goodbye. Leon eventually stood up.

"Sorry for tricking you over here." Leon's back was to Iris, she couldn't see his face.

"You don't have to tutor me anymore. I'll still pay you for the 2 or 3 sessions we have left though." 

Iris stared at his back for a few seconds before getting up.

"Okay. Bye." She left as quickly as she had arrived.