Chasing Shadows

Part One ~ Chapter Three

“I was so used to the mayhem that came along side this crazy school that I wouldn’t be surprised if we found him sitting in the longue at this very moment, knife sharpened and in his pocket, ready to strike.”

-Amy

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            Matt, Julia, and I were in the basement of the library, staring at the computer screen as it slowly loaded. “Come on… Come on…” I slowly coaxed it. We had to print out our flight tickets back home for tomorrow, and the printers were all the way in the library basement where the internet was the slowest. After what seemed like forever, the tickets finally popped up.

            “Let’s just hope we get seats together tomorrow,” Julia sighed. “Or at least Johnny and Ethan do. After the plane crash here… I’m not sure how safe I feel on airplanes.”

            Oh right. I had totally forgotten about the plane crash until Julia had brought it up. Now that she mentioned it, I could feel a pit of fear starting to grow in my stomach. I never thought a plane would be hijacked, at least not the plane I was on, but that was before I came to Hamilton. Now anything could happen. Especially when Mr. Grey might still be alive for some twisted in messed up reason.

            “Earth to Amy,” Matt waved in hand in front of my face.

            “Huh? Sorry.”

            “Here.” He handed me two freshly printed tickets, one for me and one for Johnny.

            “Thanks.” I glanced down at it. Our flight left for back home at nine in the morning. “Are we taking the six o’clock shuttle to the airport?” Matt nodded. “Great, getting the boys packed and ready is going to be a challenge.”

            Matt laughed. “Yeah… Come on, let’s get out of here. The basement gives me the creeps.”

            It was around four thirty and the sun was setting on the lake. As we came out of the library, we took a turn down to the beach. “Want to procrastinate on packing and go hang out by the water?” Julia asked us. We all agreed.

            I kicked off my shoes and laid down in the sand. For November, the weather was a lot warmer than it should have been. Global warming.

            “You guys ready for Thanksgiving?” Matt asked us with a wry smile. We both laughed. Every year, all three of our families all had Thanksgiving together because none of us had close by relatives. And we considered each other family. This year it was at the Elias’ house, and Thanksgiving at the Elias always was bound to be interesting.

            “Let’s hope the turkey doesn’t catch on fire this time,” I replied, remembering what had happened three years ago.

            “Or the curtains,” Julia added in.

            I looked over at Matt. His face seemed so distracted. “What’s worrying you?” I asked him.

            “Mr. Grey… It’s just…” Matt sighed.

            Both Julia and I gave him some time before he was ready to talk.

            “Mr. Grey said he was going after my dad, “the cause to this whole problem” as he would put it. I’m not sure if he’s doing this because he truly can’t get rid of us, or if this is just a whole part of his mind games where he’s trying to put us through the most pain possible by making us suffer. Either way, he knows that we’re going back home for Thanksgiving break. And he probably knows where we live. There’s going to be no stopping him from going after my dad. Or us for that matter.”