|1| The Flora Felony |EDITING|

18 <> Still Two Chapters Left

|<>|

I took off my glasses, rubbing my face. No.

No no no no no.

This can't be happening.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to force the thoughts out, but they flooded past my barricades.

He's the guy.

Too many people have been lost this week.

Nate.

Allegra.

Tony.

Mason.

Nate. Allegra. Tony. Mason.

NateAllegraTonyMason.

No!

I sucked in a breath, trying to calm myself down. My hands squeezed the chair so tight that all of the color had drained from my knuckles. This is my life now. In the past three days, my life has changed more than I could imagine it to. It's time to accept that.

Taking deep breaths to calm myself, I opened my eyes. Okay. You can do this.

Gingerly, I pressed the key again to let the footage play. Professor Cox stormed out of the lab through Rex's hiding spot, so he scurried away. Mason was left alone inside the lab. He started pacing, hugging his son's photo to his chest. Soon after, he followed.

I wouldn't see him take it tonight. He had ensured that. He wouldn't take the plant until Saturday.

Just as he was putting up his phone, I heard a knock at Tony's door. Whipping my head up, I saw him there. Mason held up my Dad's manuscript like a shield, marching in like he was defending himself. "I finished," he muttered quietly, casting me a suspicious glance.

How did he know I was here?

I chuckled weakly, barely concealing my nerves. "Oh. Hey Mason." My voice sounded oddly robotic. He brought the manuscript forward, placing it on the filing cabinet behind Tony's desk. Remembering the footage of him on my screen, I quickly slammed my laptop shut as he walked behind me.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

It was obvious that we both knew that I knew, but neither of us said anything. We simply danced around the fact that he had committed multiple felonies in cold blood.

"So. What's up?" I inquired shortly, my tone clipped. He shrugged, looking out the windows at the empty campus sidewalk.

Mason pointed at the folder he had just laid down. "Finished your dad's manuscript," he sighed as if it weren't the most obvious thing in the world. His hand twitched at his side nervously.

"Oh that's nice," I replied, closing the log notes. Clearing my throat, I bought myself some time. "How was it?"

With an almost maniac chuckle, Mason glanced over his shoulder at me. "Well your old man faked me out." He took a sideways step towards me, moving along the window line. "Axel Hendrix got the killer locked up, but there were still two more chapters left."

Swallowing harshly, I nodded. My voice was even and hollow. "Oh, so he locked up the wrong guy?" Pinching the bridge of my nose with one hand, I ranked forward; resting my elbows on the table as Mason took another step.

"Exactly." Sitting back up, I cast a glance over my shoulder at him. He was smiling out the window, a shadow of malice in his grin.

Turning back, I held my breath. "Yeah. But you knew that because there were still two more chapters left," I commented dryly. This was so ruining the book for me, but as of right now I wasn't sure if I would be alive long enough to read it, so it want exactly my biggest priority.

"I should've," he muttered, placing a hand on the back of my chair. Having no idea he had gotten that close, I wasn't able to smother my small gasp. My eyes widened as the noise escaped my lips. I could feel his breath moving my hair slightly as he leaned over the chair. Counting down the seconds, I waited for him to move.

Eventually, he did; running his hand along the back of that chair as he paced to the other side of Tony's oaken desk. "But the suspect seemed so perfect," he explained, talking with his hands as he walked.

"He had a motive," I pointed out, knowing we were no longer talking about the novel.

"Big time." He strolled over to the door, poking his head outside to see if anyone was there.

My eyes bored into the back of his skull. "No alibi for the time of murder."

"You know it," he affirmed, still looking.

"I bet the suspect wasn't a nice person either."

Mason turned back to me, taking one step forward. He was just in front of the door, resting his hand in the knob. "No, he wasn't," he laughed nervously. Shrugging slightly, he offered me a weak smile. "And the irony is..." he trailed off slightly, eyeing me. "The real killer was a nice guy. Someone nobody would suspect."

Unlike him, I maintained a somber expression. Sighing, I leaned forward again. My elbows dug into the log notes folder, but that hardly mattered now. "The thing is, he had a motive too." I was almost on the brink of breaking down now, but that wasn't an option. I had to stay strong. I had to survive this.

"Just not one anybody ever thought of," I concluded, bringing the metaphor to a close as I sunk my head into my hands. Moving my head back up, I realized that Mason still hadn't moved.

He seemed frozen; staring at me, waiting for me to say it.

I took a deep breath, channeling all of the anger, hate, and disappointment I felt at that moment into my glare. "How's your son doing with all those expensive cancer treatments, Mason?"

The door slammed. I shuddered, whimpering quietly as he fumed in front of it. It seemed to take a great effort for him to do anything - even speak.

Finally, in a trembling voice, he confessed. "I knew you'd crack it." With a shaky hand, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a glock.

My eyes widened, and I leaned away from him as he stepped up to the desk again. "Mason," I whispered, betrayed.

"I... I..." he seems to have as hard of a time believing this as I did. "I'm going to need your cell phone, Alex."

The sleek, black gun was placed onto the smooth surface of Tony's desk. Mason slipped his finger into the trigger's hole and - keeping it there - spun the barrel to face me.

|<>|