Project GoldCrest ✓

Chapter 3

Mickey groaned, "You're probably right."

Henry looked at us in awe, "Are you guys scared?" I saw Mickey roll his eyes out of the corner of my eye.

"Henry, we should really go." I said, continuing to take a few more steps back. Mickey just walked behind me, being faster than me.

"What the-" I heard a girl's voice. Oh who am I kidding? It may have very well belonged to Chloe. I wasn't prepared to face her for our stalker-ish ways. I doubt that we'd even be able to find a good excuse for what we were doing there. Sneaking out here wasn't even my idea.

This is it. We've been found out.

I turned around and began running on instinct. I could've sworn that girl's voice was Chloe's but I couldn't be sure. I'd barely heard the girl speak since she moved to our small town a few years ago.

I saw Mickey dash ahead of me. We were going to his car. Suddenly, it seemed farther than when we had left it. But I knew that it hadn't moved an inch.

Then just as I turned to steal a glance at the girl who'd discovered us, I instead found that Henry was missing. I couldn't see him where he was standing before.

I looked around, but he was still nowhere to be found. I wasn't looking where I was headed, and I almost tripped because of the momentum I'd gained while running. But Mickey steadied me.

I knew that I almost didn't run like a normal person. Almost. But it felt natural while running for me to gain momentum. Like I could almost bounce or something. That's part of the reason why I was so fast. I looked up at Mickey, as if suddenly remembering.

"Have you seen Henry?"

"I think they got him. Come on, let's move fast." He said pulling gently on my arm.

"Wait a sec, who's 'they', huh?" I asked him, but he had already kind of dismissed me.

We opened the car doors and slid in, then closed and locked them. I felt restless. I couldn't believe that we were leaving Henry behind. What had he been doing with us in the first place?

"So we're just going to leave him?"

"What choice do we have? He's fine." Mickey started the engine and drove out of the shadows.

"How do you know that?" I asked, seriously doubting it and about to go crazy. Oh my gosh, what had I been thinking following Mickey here?

"Stop worrying about it, he's fine. You'll see." He kept his eyes on the road. My heart was beating fast because of the sprinting we'd just done, and because of Henry.

I decided to trust him. Besides, I felt like I'd had enough of whatever that was for one night.

"Should I drop you off at your place?" Mickey interrupted me when we neared the small gated community.

"Um... If you can just hide me then I'll sneak from your house into mine. Sound good?"

"Sure." We entered through the main gate and I crutched low below my seat so that the security guard couldn't see me. Thank goodness it was dark.

I timed myself when I opened and closed the door so that it would open and close at the same time as Mickey's door, so as to not raise suspicion. We met in the middle, in front of the car.

"Thanks for dropping me off."

"No problem."

I felt it in my bones that we wanted to say more to each other. But we just didn't know each other well enough to cross those boundaries. And I didn't really want to, because he told me that Henry was going to be fine even though we practically handed him over to those people. I should've just gone home immediately after Cole's call.