FIND HER (short story) ✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡

Chapter Five / Retracing

I woke up to find the house still, silent even. As I turned over in my satin sheets, I caught sight of my alarm clock; its luminescent digits forced me to blink away the glare. It was  8:42 AM. Reaching for my phone, I decided to FaceTime my mom.

"Kaylee!", she said answering on the first ring, my volume all the way up, her voice blasting my speakers. I quickly turned the volume down.

"Belen, I miss you. I haven't seen you in days." I always call my mom by her first name, I'm not sure why. "Where are you guys?", I ask, referring to my Dad and Alia.

"I miss you too, we're at Grandma and Papa's. I was going to have Alia wake you but she said you we're out like a light this morning", Belen giggled to herself, and sipped her black coffee out of one of my Grandma's antique cups.

"Tell them I said hi, and tell Alia thanks for not waking me up. I needed the sleep", I said with a yawn, pulling the comfortable snugly around my shoulders. After a few minutes, my mom passed the phone to my Dad, Alia, and then to my Grandparents, Just as Belen was about to hang up, I saw crumbled pieces of paper behind her. My intuition lunged at me.

"Wait!"

"Yes?"

"What are those papers behind you?", I ask, propelling myself out of bed with curiosity.

"Oh these?", she picked up the papers and uncrumpled them, showing me through the screen. It was pictures of Leighton, the night it all happened. Four pictures of her from the security camera from her house. "They were hung up on everyone's door all around the neighborhood. There was one on our door this morning too", Belen explained, confused on why I was asking.

"Why would somebody do that?"

"I don't-"

"Hold on, Lennon is calling me. Check Grandma's and our security system, let me know if you can identify the person putting these pictures up", I say, and take Lennon's call.

"We have an issue", he greets me.

"I heard. Anyone checked their security cameras yet?"

"Yes...", he paused. The silence was so loud. "All the security cameras around the neighborhood are hacked." One step back. Great. I think about how the Silent Sovergeniors can cover up their steps almost perfectly every time, but I won't put it past myself I can figure out how to retrace those steps.

"I know a place where a security camera is never visible", I say, my phone balancing on my ear as I struggle to throw a hoodie on.

"Where?"

"The Lavinson's yacht, right near the coast. It's built in to their tiles, I remember Mrs. Lavinson talking about it when I was out there for a job a couple months ago." One step forward.

—————————————————————————

Mrs. Lavinson kindly let me into her yacht. She has lived in Pacific Cove for thirty two years with her husband Craig, a multi millionaire CEO of The Floater, a bar and yacht lounge located in the middle of town. Mrs Lavinson doesn't speak much, she said Craig doesn't like it when she voices herself, so she doesn't. She's a stay at home yacht mom who spends her days drinking coconut rum while searching for 10,000 piece puzzles on EBay.

I nodded, greeting her. "Layla."

"Kaylee my dear, how are you? What is it you need?" Her voice softened as she spoke a full sentence. Mrs Lavinson luxurious. She is always in full glam, every single day. Chanel this, Dior that, Prada, Gucci, Louis, you name it she is wearing one of those.

"Could I see your security system?"

"Did Lennon bring you here for another job?" She chuckles, tucking a strand of her bleach blonde hair behind her bedazzled ears.

"Not today." She smiled and lead me to Craig's home office.

She logged into her security system and handed me her phone. I pressed the file that read "TODAY." All of the boats, yachts, and trailers have got these pictures hung up on their property as well, so there is no way I wouldn't see this person.

At 6:09 this morning, movement was detected. A figure dressed in all black from head to toe, sunglasses included, carried a stack of papers and a roll of tape. I watched them tape the paper to the entry door, then look straight at the camera. How did they know? As they were about to put tape over the camera to block out the view, I catch a glimpse of their arm when their sleeves go up, and I see it. The tattoo. The S. The Soundwaves.

"Forward this to me?", I ask, opening the front door and ripping the tape off of the camera. Mrs. Lavinson nods elegantly and shuts the door behind me.

—————————————————————————

Grayson invited me over his place, a cozy single family complex, the view right next to the ocean. As he opens the rustic wooden door, I peer inside. The walls were painted earth tones that gave the interior a sense of comfort. I walked over towards the panoramic windows, that met the ceiling and let the sunset hit the corners of the house. It was clean, cozy...for a guys place. Too clean.

"Please tell me you deep cleaned this place before I came or are you just a freak?", I laughed, circling the polished granite counter tops and overly organized state-of-the-art refrigerator.

"Freak", He laughs and grabs a bottle of wine and two glasses and places it in on a little glass table in the living room.

—————————————————————————

"So what does this tell us?", he asks, pouring me a glass of red after I explained everything that happened.

"That they are everywhere. Do you think there is  a big factory of them in Germany?", I take a sip, the warmth filling my body.

With a hint of amusement, he chuckles and leans closer to me. "Factory?" The scent of his cologne envelops me. Spicy and seductive lingers in the air. He continues, "Honestly, yeah. It's a scary thought, there has to be an army of them." We share a moment of silence, taking this all in.

"We're aware that Leighton has a connection with this group, the tattoo and the meaning, how secretive and dangerous they are, and their German. What else?" I hand him the security footage and we both rewatch it together, over and over again, trying to spot something that we didn't already find.

"So, we go and investigate more. It's been two days, Kaylee."

I sigh, "I know, do you ever wonder what it's like in there?" I was captivated by this thought. I wanted to know about their world.

Grayson leans back slightly, his forehead wrinkled with the thought. "Every day", he responds, his voice tinged with a level of seriousness that matched the energy in the room. "But some doors, once opened, can never be closed again. And you...", he pauses, eyes locked into mine. "Would you dare open that door?"

Yes. I thought.

"What's our next step?" I finished the glass of red and Grayson fills the glass back up.

He smiles, his eyes glazed with destruction. "We get them to trust us."