Through the Dark | ✓

Sixteen

"Thank you so much Ethan, I had never gone to an arcade before."

They were on their way home, both couldn't take the smile off their face.

Ethan felt amazing, knowing she had a fun time, "you're welcome."

–

"Hi Greg, come in please."

"Thank you Jack." They headed to the living room and sat down. "So what's this important thing you must tell me?"

Greg was one of Jack's closest friends, though he was 11 years younger than him, so to him he was like a younger brother.

"I need you to follow someone, more specifically, my step-daughter."

"Danielle?"

"Yes, she decided to move out yesterday. The person she left with aimed a gun at me." He took a deep breathe and acted like a concerned father, "I'm worried for her, I don't know who this person is. And if they hurt her, I won't be able to carry it in my conscience that I didn't do anything to protect her."

Greg obviously didn't know Jack's real intentions, he just wanted Greg to feel sympathy to help him. "I'll do it, I'll start tomorrow. Don't worry, I'll make sure she's okay."

Jack smiled at him and he left soon after.

–

"Can you pass me the black paint please?" Dani asked Ethan, they were in the studio, once again, working on their project. The outline of the official drawing was done and they just need to paint it.

"Sure." Ethan stood up and walked to the table, which was a complete mess. Wanting to light the mood a bit off the serious side, he grabbed the brush that was inside the bucket and quickly brushed it over Dani's nose.

"OH MY GOD, ETHAN." He quickly moved away from her, laughing. Seeing he is not paying attention, she grabs the white paint and does the same thing to him.

"Oh it's on." Dani quickly runs to the hallway and down the stairs. "DANI!" She hears him behind her.

She can't stop laughing as she enters rooms, runs down the stairs and into the kitchen. "You can't catch me," she teases.

She opens the back door and runs toward the woods. The sun is barely setting, so there is only a little light out. She hides behind a tree and she tries her best to stay quiet.

"DANI!" She hears Ethan's voice from afar.

Ethan isn't playing anymore, he's more worried. He continues walking straight until he notices a figure peeking and quickly hiding behind a tree. He smiles and playfully still screams her name, "Danielle where are you?" He walks toward the tree, "Found you!"

She screams and closes her eyes, scared from the unexpected surprise.

"Let's go inside, it's dark out and coyotes like coming out when the sun goes down." Dani tenses and begins walking fast.

Once back inside she decides on heading to sleep, since she has class early tomorrow. "I have my Astronomy class tomorrow at 8:30am to 10:30am." She tells Ethan.

"I have Urban Studies that exact time as well. We could leave a few minutes before 8:00am to get to school before all the commotion and traffic." He was putting the paints away and covering up the canvas with a white cloth.

She helps with the brushes, "okay, uhh where do I put these?"

"You could leave those in the sink to dry." Dani walks back to the sink and places the brushes inside.

She quickly washes her hands and face, and walks back to Ethan, "do you need anything else?"

He wipes his hands on his shirt and looks around. "I think that's it, we'll continue the painting tomorrow and I guess we'll be done since it's just painting some last touches."

"Okay well I'm going to sleep now, and thank you once again for today. I had fun." She smiles at him.

He smiles back, he hadn't smiled as much as he did today, it was something he had missed. "I had fun too, I'll walk you to your room."

They exited the studio and walked down the hallway to Danielle's room. "Good night." She said after giving Ethan a quick hug and walking inside. He didn't even have time to say it to her, so he just walked to his room smiling.