Beyond Her Final Breath (Book 1- Shadowland Duology) | Wattys2015

.Chapter Twenty-Five.

"Yeah."

They dove into the mildew smelling boxes, pushing webs out of their way as they did so. Some boxes contained decorations ranging from Western, with spurs and cowboy hats, to under the sea with shimmering scales. 

Sandra picked up a seashell bra. "This is all lame."

They pushed on, even when Sandra gave a shriek when a black spider scuttled across her arm. Finally, they found a promising box with HW scribbled onto the side. 

"Hopefully," Sandra said as she pulled the tabs open, "this has what we need."

Fake spiders, or real ones, covered the bottom of the box; spools of stretched-out white cotton created fake webs. There was a bottle of fake blood and fake bones, witch hats and fake bloody weapons. 

"This looks like the only box."

Sandra closed the box and picked it up, heading towards the stairs. 

"I can carry that, you know," Nathan said.

Sandra gave him a sharp look. "I can handle it. Unless you think I'm too weak."

She creaked down the stairs. 

Nathan began to follow when something caught his eye. A box that they hadn't even touched was open. He went to close it when he saw it. 

Brown crusted garden gloves were hastily hid under a dusty Elvis wig. He flipped the flaps of the book outwards. He was no expert, but even a fool could tell the gloves were covered in dried blood. 

Be reasonable, Nathan told himself. It's probably a Halloween decoration put in the wrong place. 

But then why would the box be open?

Nate swallowed hard and picked up the gloves between his forefinger and thumb. 

"Nate? You coming?"

Unexplained guilt and panic scrambled Nate's thoughts, like he was the one who put the gloves there. But then again, he could have. He tossed the gloves back in the box. 

"Coming," he called, afraid that maybe somehow his voice could give him away.

He shut the box and dashed downstairs. 

Sandra was combing dust out of her hair when he got down. Guilt rested in his throat. Nate shut the door behind him and took a steadying breath. 

"Nathan? I know you really loved Evelyn-"

His mind was clouded, and he couldn't focus. What was he going to do about the gloves?

"-but I really like you."

Reality sharpened around him, becoming dizzily in focus. Sandra was close enough that he could almost touch her. She smelled like vanilla and dust and warmth... Emotion and panic buzzed in his mind until all his thoughts ceased to exist. 

Nate tried to focus. Focus idiot! You may have just found a murder- but his attempt to clear his head was cut short with Sandra's lips.

His mind went a pleasant sort of blank. Everything from the past few months flew from thought, and he wrapped his arms around her. All he could think about was how warm her lips were, how she melted against him like warm chocolate... and how she wasn't Evelyn. 

Evelyn. 

Her name jolted him out of his trance, and he pulled away.

Sandra gazed up at him with wide, blue eyes. "What's wrong?" Her voice sounded hurt. 

"Nothing's wrong. With you that is." He took a few steps back from her. 

Her face made something inside his chest ache. Her lips were swollen from the kiss, and she had a smudge of dirt on her cheek. And he couldn't help but think that she was perfect. But...

"I need time, and Evie is- just-"

Sandra placed a finger to his lips, silencing him like her lips silenced his frantic thoughts a minute ago. "It's okay. I probably shouldn't have done that. How about we just forget it even happened?"

She smiled a sweet, sad smile and left, leaving Nathan confused about kisses and worried about bloodstained gloves. 

|<>|

The following meeting with the other volunteers took place shortly afterwards. Despite Sandra's attempt to make things not awkward between them was impossible.

Nate sat tense, anxious, and high strung next to her. 

"Alright," she began. "Is everyone here?"

When no one said otherwise, she continued. 

"So we have some Halloween decorations already," she gestured to the box they found, "but first we need a plan. How are we going to decorate?"

A short silence followed after, but was interrupted by a volleyball member. 

"We could make it a big collection of fears: darkness, spiders, getting lost, snakes."

Sandra beamed. "That's a great idea."

The rest of the meeting was lost on Nathan. He was haunted by the gloves. He didn't know what to do. Tell Sage? Get rid of them? Report it to the police?

He couldn't bring himself to even think about going back to the attic. A part of him, foolishly, hoped that it had in fact been a misplaced Halloween decoration, or perhaps that it never happened. But he couldn't fool himself. 

He was brought out of his thoughts when Sandra handed him a paper. 

"This is the stuff you'll need to bring on Wednesday evening," she told him. "Remember that we'll meet up on Wednesday after to school to start getting things ready. And I believe it was you, Aeron, who said you could get the fog machine?"

Aeron rubbed his nail against the edge of the table and nodded. 

Nate and Aeron's eyes met. Nate wondered if he was thinking back to the incident at the Burger Shop, and by the way he was looking at him, Nate guessed so. 

A/N: As promised, here's the next chapter! I know, it's a long one, but I hope you guys like it. :) Let me know how you feel about Sandra in the comments below.

-Sophia ^_^