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

.Chapter Twenty-Six.

The rest of the ride was quiet, both guys lost in thought and a little uncomfortable. Eventually, the counseling center appeared around the bend.

Cars glinted in the sun, a lot of them resembling Blake's truck with junk piled in the back.

Blake pulled into a spot near the entrance.

Sandra was talking to someone, a blue binder clutched in her polish-chipped fingers. She caught a glance at their car and waved. She said something to the girl in front of her and then headed towards them.

Blake rolled the window down. "Hey."

"Hey, guys." Sandra's cheeks were flushed . "Isn't the turnout great? Look at all the stuff we've gotten so far!" She neared them until the tip of her nose was in the truck. "How are you guys?"

She looked honestly concerned, and Nathan didn't miss her eyes resting on him a second too long to be a glance.

"Great," Blake said, avoiding further awkwardness between the two. Nathan gave him a grateful look. "We're just happy to get all this junk off her hands." He jerked a thumb to the back.

She smiled and headed to the back. Sandra rummaged through the junk, picking up an item every now and then with an appreciative look.

She banged the side of the truck before saying, "This stuff will work just fine. If you guys could start taking it in, that'd be great."

The car door slammed behind them as they got out. They took the smaller things in first: broken chairs, a picture frame with shards of glass hanging onto the wood, lengths of heavily rusted chains, and green lights.

Inside the building, piles of junk towered high in the corners. Nate bent down to inspect a creepy, broken doll with a voice spoke up behind him.

"Hey."

It was Aeron.

Faster than Nathan thought possible, he ended up alert and a couple of feet away.

"What do you want?"

The hair on the back of his neck brisled, and his senses heightened. Sandra was looking through a pile of junk, scribbling things into her blue binder. Another girl was sorting junk into smaller piles. And then he focused on Aeron.

He stood, dark and imitating, or maybe it only seemed that way to Nathan. Aeron was what girls called "tall, dark, and handsome". But would they still call him that if they knew the rage inside him?

"Just need help taking the fog machine out of the trunk."

Something in Nathan's blood boiled. A sweat broke out on his forehead, and it didn't have to do with the manual labor he just did.

"Fog machines are usually really light. I don't think you need my help."

"Wait, Nathan." Aeron grabbed his arm as he turned to walk away. "I wanted to talk to you."

Nathan ignored him and pulled his arm out of his grasp, heading to the first person he saw. Sandra.

She looked up from whatever she was doing when he got closer, and a look of uncertainty crossed her face.

"Hey, Nathan." She was guarded, tense. "What's up?"

"Just wondering what the game plan is."

"Oh." She brightened. "Well I'm going to go through everything and draw up plans to which room everything will go in. Then we'll out things into the corrects spots..."

Nathan nodded along, oblivious, trying to spot where Aeron had disappeared to. He could've sworn he felt someone's gaze on him, but nothing was there when he turned around.

Blake was gone, too, probably flirting with girls.

Nate continued to work until Sandra called it quits. He found Blake outside already, and they left as the sun sunk below the horizon. He flashed back to that day with Aeron, and he tightened his grip on the seat belt.

In the dying light, Nate could've sworn he saw Aeron and Sandra talking in the rearview mirror. When he looked again they were gone. He decided it was a trick of the light. He had something else to focus on.

A ritual.

A/N: Are you guys excited? Who do you think the murderer is going to be? Let me know in the comments below :) You will find out who it is in either chapter twenty-eight or chapter twenty-nine. The next chapter is really short.

Vote/comment/follow!

-Sophia ^_^