I'd Sell My Soul

Chapter 8: Things ARE different

Allison Monroe's POV
We loaded up the truck bed with the frozen case of fish sticks and a few other boxes of items like cleaning supplies. Levi lifted the door on the truck bed closed and we walked around to our prospective sides of truck, climbing in.

"I'm not in a huge rush to get back to the restaurant, that cooler will keep the case frozen for awhile. Do you have anything you need to do?" Levi turns to face me.

"Yeah I need to go to a normal grocery store and get supplies for dinner. Carla kind of cleaned out the fridge when Farrah died so there's not a whole lot of food back home." I sigh strapping my seatbelt.

"Perfect! We'll go to Sherry's Market in town." Levi nods and turns the key over. He guides the truck out to the open road. "So, your last relationship just ended?"

"Yeah we weren't really together long. Nine months to be exact. Her name was Maura. We were just too different. She's nice but too free spirited. I have more responsibilities than she does. Sophie was kind of the big deciding factor in that relationship." I shrug.

"Oh. Well...if you're looking for serious then it shouldn't be hard to come by in your thirties. Usually that's when people settle down." Levi says.

"I don't like the term settling down though. It sounds like you could do better but choose not to. Like sometimes you find the one and it's right and you start a life together, not 'settle down'." I explain as I look out the window at the landscape flying by.

"That's fair." Levi nods in accord, eyes on the road ahead.

"So Rebecca just wasn't the one? Did you have kids?" I ask.

"No and no. Kids just wasn't in the cards for us. Relationships are work but Rebecca and I's marriage was beyond that. It was...just not working." Levi concludes abruptly.

"But we like Bri?" I turn and look at him.

"I mean it's not really a relationship and she's a lot younger than I normally would go for." He shifts uncomfortably and glances at me briefly out of the corner of his eye.

"She's cute like I said and she seems really into you." I smile.

"Yeah I guess." He keeps his eyes on the road. I turn my attention away, feeling the awkwardness of the moment. Levi doesn't care to talk about himself and it strikes me as odd. Most people love to give their life stories and it's not like we're perfect strangers. It makes me wonder, what's keeping him bottled up?

We arrived at Sherry's and immediately take note of how little parking is available which is strange for a mid afternoon on a Monday. Levi parks and we walk inside. It looks like a Black Friday sale in the tiny store front mercantile. I gasp as someone nearly knocks me over running to a dry goods display next to me. Levi grabs me and pulls me next to him as a man drops his basket sending groceries everywhere which people take no time before picking things up and taking them like vultures on roadkill.

"What the hell?!" I turn and look at Levi.

"I've never seen it like this. Even at Christmas." He gawks at the frantic scene before us. It's a mad dash.

"What is going on?" I gently grab a woman's arm.

"Did you not see the email?! There's an emergency town hall tonight!" The woman gasps. I let go of her and turn to Levi who's already busy scrolling through an email on his phone.

"God it's in regard to recent criminal activity, not Armageddon!" Levi looks over at me. I look back around at the store and the utter chaos.  People shoving each other to get to the two checkout lines.

"Let's just leave." I say right as I get body slammed again. I topple over a display and flop onto the floor. "Ouch." I sit back up and scowl at the person who did it, just trying to get canned goods.

"Jesus! People relax!" Levi helps me to my feet and holds the door for us as we make a break for the safety of the truck. We go back to Dawson's and I help him unload the truck into the walk in freezer and the supply closet. As we finish up and close the truck bed Katie meets us outside.

"Katie." I wave to her with a smile but the expression on her face has me wavering.

"Shut up and listen to me closely." Katie says to us in a whisper.

"What's going on?" Levi approaches us, slamming the truck bed closed.

"The town hall tonight is about that party that Sophie was at." Katie looks around the empty gravel staff parking space, scanning the tree line.

"What about it?" I brush a lock of hair away from my face.

"Two teenage girls were murdered at that party. Their bodies were found recently." Katie says in a low whisper. I gasp.

"How do you know?" Levi asks.

"I saw the sheriff. He told me." Katie crosses her arms and glances around us again.

"Okay so Sophie goes nowhere until she dies. That's it." I start to pace.

"Did you tell the sheriff we were there?" Levi questions and grabs my arm to stop my pacing.

"No! Of course not! That would be dumb as hell to implicate us in any capacity." Katie takes a step closer and aggressively asserts.

"What the hell is going on in this town? I thought it was safe and better than Seattle! Now there's a killer on the loose?" I throw my arms up.

"Well the nice part about Colfax is they won't be on the loose for long. It's a small town. People talk. Somebody's bound to get exposed. You can't keep a secret for too long here, ya know." Katie shrugs.

"The mercantile was a mad dash. It was like a zombie apocalypse." Levi shakes his head.