Poisonous Serpents|| Sweet Pea [2]

17

Chapter 17- The Man In Black
Natalie

I awoke the next morning and Archie was already gone. I groaned as I sat up, running my hand through my hair and looking around the barn. I could hear Archie outside so I put my shoes on and slowly headed outside. I spotted Archie as he was already doing the hay job that Laurie had mentioned about.

"Hey" Archie said as he smiled at me. "You missed eggs and bacon for breakfast"

"Meanwhile, you are literally moving bales of hay" I sighed as I looked around in surprise.

"Yep. Feel free to help out, too" Archie said with a grin.

"Actually I was going to check out the town" I sighed.

"You going to be okay here?" I asked him.

"I think I'll be fine, Nat" Archie smiled at me.

I sighed as I walked away, finding myself walking down the completely empty road of the town. It was quiet and looked completely trashed. Buildings were boarded up. Cars were rusty. If the place wasn't already creepy enough there were more G&G related symbols. I pulled out my book, using one of my pencils to quickly sketch the different ones down.

I caught sight of the first person other then Laurie and Gracie I had seen in the town. An old lady, sitting in her chair at a now old and abandoned gas station.

"Uh...excuse me" I spoke as I approached the lady. "Hi... I'm Uh... a little lost"

The lady gave no reply. She just sat still, like I wasn't even there.

"I saw some strange symbols on the side of the buildings. Didn't look as faded as the rest. You know what they mean?" I questioned the woman.

"Town wasn't always like this" Spoke the woman. "First it was the jingle-jangle. Now we're back to fizzle rocks"

"Fizzle rocks. Like the candy?" I questioned. "I used to eat that when I was a kid"

"That's Normal Fizzle Rocks. What we got nowadays is laced with drugs. As for them symbols, they started showing up in town about the same time Fizzle Rocks trickled in" Spoke the woman.

I nodded, opening my book and writing Fizzle Rocks down. Another drug.

________

"You've done so much for me. You don't have to do this too" Archie spoke as Laurie shaved his face.

"I used to do this for my father. And you did move all that hay" Laurie sighed.

"My dads a construction worker, so... I'm used to physical labour" Archie said.

"Well, there's a lot of that around here. If you and your friend wanna stick around for a few days" Laurie mumbled as she carried on shaving Archies beard.

"I'm not sure about El, but... I would be, I think. There's something about this place that just makes me feel at home. I don't know why" Archie sighed.

Laurie looked down at Archie, their eyes staring into each other and Laurie slowly lowered herself onto his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck and lowering her lips onto his. They passionately kissed until Archie slightly pulled back.

"I'm sorry, Laurie. I just- I can't do this right now" Archie mumbled. Laurie quickly got off his lap, now embarrassed and awkwardly backing away. "There's a girl back home"

"There always is" Laurie sighed.

"Even though we're not together, I still love her" Archie mumbled.

"If you love her, Cal, why are you here?" Laurie questioned.