Chapter 2

After they arrived at Ashley's house they rushed to her bedroom.

"Who do you think that person was?" asked Ashley.

"I have no idea," said Erica.

"Do you have any idea what the numbers mean?" asked Ashley.

"Not really," said Erica.

"Come on, think. You always figure things out," said Ashley.

"I'm thinking."

Erica stared at the numbers written on the paper. The numbers were written in the Gypsy Curse font.

"Kinda seems like that person was someone evil," said Erica.

"Why would you think that?" asked Ashley. "He was definitely mysterious."

"Look at the font, it's written in the Gypsy Curse," Erica replied.

"How do you know that it's written in Gypsy Curse font?" asked Ashley.

"Because I notice details like fonts. I even looked them up and read about them at times," replied Erica.

"Really? You never told me you studied fonts," said Ashley.

Ashley was shocked that Erica had never mentioned she investigated fonts.

"I never told you because it never came up before. I may have thought you wouldn't like it or would think it a bit odd," said Erica.

"So you think that someone from an evil organization wrote it?" Ashley asked, bringing up a new point.

Erica didn't bother asking Ashley why she brought up the idea of an evil organization because she knew it would just be wasting time.

"Well, I'm not quite sure if it's someone from an evil organization who wrote it. It could just be some random kid from school who dressed up in all black trying to prank us or..."

"Okay, okay, there can be lots of possibilities," Ashley interrupted.

"So do you think the numbers might mean something?" asked Erica.

"Maybe."

Suddenly Erica had an idea about what the numbers might indicate.

"I might know what it is," Erica said in a calm, nonchalant voice.

"What?" asked Ashley.

"Each of these numbers represents a letter, so we have to figure out which number goes to which letter," said Erica.

"So how will we do that?" asked Ashley.

"From an alphabet chart, of course," said Erica.

"Look," said Ashley. "Here's an alphabet chart that is already numbered. Do you think it will align with the numbers on the paper that creepy man gave you?"

"I don't know," said Erica. "Let the decoding adventure begin!"

"It looks complicated," said Ashley. "W and f, those two consonants together don't even form a word."

"Precisely, my Dear Jessica Fletcher."

"Jessica Fletcher? Who is that?" asked Ashley.

"She's a fictional character," said Erica. "Well, actually she is a real person. She was an English teacher who wrote mysteries after she retired. In one series that name was used as the name of the detective."

"So you're saying that I'm applying clever detective skills," said Ashley.

"That would be the implication," responded Erica.

"Are you figuring something out?" asked Ashley.

"It's going to take a while to decode the message," said Erica. "Because, as you said, w and f are not consonants that go together to form a word. Or perhaps we should google and see if any words actually do begin with wf. Use your phone to look it up while I continue using your laptop."

"Oh my," said Ashley. "There are actually words that begin with wf. I've never seen these in print or heard of them before."

"What are they?" asked Erica.

"I don't know how to pronounce them," said Ashley. "Look at them."

Erica gave it her best shot as she read them.

"I didn't know you were a linguist. How did you know how to pronounce them?" said Ashley.

"I'm not sure if I pronounced them correctly. I just tried to sound them out phonetically," said Erica. "See if you can find the word meanings and how they are used in sentences, that might give us a lead."

"Oh my!" said Ashley. "They are bad words from an urban dictionary."

"Okay, let's hope they aren't a lead to the encrypted message."

"No joke," said Ashley.

"I think I've got something," said Erica. "We are evil? So the person who wrote this is evil."

"Yea, I think so," said Ashley.

"Why would someone tell us they are evil?" asked Erica.

"Who knows?" said Ashley.

"Let's see if there are any more clues," said Erica.

"How should we find clues?" asked Ashley.

"I don't know. We should just wait until clues come to us," said Erica. "Keep looking at the numbers and the alpha chart till we decode something."

"Okay," said Ashley.

It was 7:00 PM, the sun had already gone down and it was dark outside.

"I better go home now, it's getting late. We can hang out tomorrow," said Erica.

"I thought you were going to spend the night," said Ashely.

"I changed my mind," said Erica.

"Okay then, bye!" said Ashley.

"Bye," replied Erica.

Erica went out of the front door and walked through the thick snow towards her house. She noticed footprints leading to the wooded area behind Ashley's house. Erica wanted to see if there were any other clues left outside of Ashley's house.

Maybe I shouldn't be out here alone. I'm intrigued. Yes, but this could be dangerous. I'll look around a bit before I go inside.

Erica found a paper besides one of the box hedge shrubs in Ashley's yard. It was the same kind of paper that the person at the restaurant gave her. Erica picked up the paper and placed it in her pocket and walked into her house.

I'll show it to Ashley tomorrow.

The next morning after breakfast, Erica knocked on Ashley's front door.

"Hi!" said Ashley, as she opened the door.

"Hi," said Erica.

"Come in."

"Good morning," said Erica.

Ashley led Erica to her room and where they sat on the bed.

"I found a note by a shrub in your yard last night," said Erica. She grabbed the note from her back pocket.

Ashley leaned in to look at it. It was still folded into an origami shape.

"So have you opened the note yet?" asked Ashley.

"Nope, let's open it now," said Erica.

Erica opened the note and this time it wasn't in numbers, it was a sentence written in English.

"What does it say?" asked Ashley.

"Here," Erica said, handing Ashley the note.