"Hey, Jay! It's alright, he's just trying to scare us," Nate screeched, tugging on Jay's arm when he walked off.
"No, it's not! We don't know what's coming. For all we know..." Jay sprung back and looked down, throwing his arm out into the distance to his right.
"He could jump out and attack us any minute!" He finished, rubbing his nose against his arm. He held his head in one hand, completely exhausted and frustrated. His eyes sprung up to Nate again. A long beat passed in between the long, silent pause.
"It's just a threat...we all know he wants to take me back and lock me up..." Sarah's face differed as she looked at the newspaper sheet in Jay's hand.
"Yeah, but we're not going to give him what he wants," Nate stepped up, watching as their mortified faces looked back at him.
"Pfft. Last time that happened somebody died, remember?" Sarah muttered under her breath, unable to figure out which side she was going on here. She couldn't get the thought out of her head that she was the problem that broke out.
"Yeah, and I'm next," Jay added anxiously. Sarah couldn't believe he heard her input.
"Listen. No one is going to be his next 'target', or whatever you want to call it. We are going to keep walking and get out of here today. If we don't..." Nate drifted off, looking hazily into a galaxy of swirls, as if he was hallucinating.
"Then we're pretty much screwed," Jay said anxiously, dazing off into the distance.
"Don't say that," Sarah swerved in between Nate and Jay, placing a hand on each of their shoulders.
"Nate's right. There aren't any targets. We're not going to let there be any targets. We're going to get out of here as soon as possible, ok?" Sarah nodded, looking deeply into Jay's eyes.
"Alright, I guess..." Jay said sheepishly. The bags under his eyes dragged and drooped down as he buried his head in his hands again. He just had to accept the fact that they had absolutely no more time to waste.
They all continued to walk further amongst the riverbank. Jay still held both newspaper pieces of him and Chuck. He kept his eyes open in case there were going to be more of the others or any more signs, although there were none in sight.
Jay strode beside Nate, almost having the feeling he was going to push him in the river, although he really didn't feel like wasting extra, precious time right now.
"Hey, Jay..." Nate hesitantly looked at Jay and dug his fingers underneath his curls. He squinted over his shoulders at Sarah and Vince talking behind them, then looked back in the distance that lay in front of his eyes. Jay followed his gaze, scrunching up his face when not knowing what to expect. Here we go. Please don't tell me what I think you're going to say.
"Can I ask you a question?" Nate moved one foot in front of the other ever so quickly, perhaps trying to quicken his pace from Sarah and Vince. The two of them laughed behind them, unaware of what was going on while they continued their conversation.
"Sure, what's up?" Jay's bemused expression caused Nate to rush. Jay's finger brushed inside his pockets, feeling nothing but empty space.
"Well...it's something I've been meaning to ask you for a while now..." he struggled with his sentence, hoping it wasn't going to come out to Jay in the wrong way.
"D-do you like her or something?" He said, as if they were already in the middle of the topic.
"Huh? Like who? There's no girl," Jay answered, shooting the words out of his mouth ever so quickly. Nate looked behind their shoulders, his head reaching over. Way to make it look obvious.
YOU ARE READING
Meet Me Halfway (EDITING)
Mystery / Thriller"It's only going to be the four of us, and no one else." There was a long pause on Jay's end of the line. "Are you sure about that?" Jay scoffed, scrunching up his face. He pinched the bridge of his nose and rolled his eyes in pure annoyance. It was...
