Algid (#TronnorAU)

Chapter 41: Connor, cold as ice

With shaking fingers, he inserted the key into the lock, and turned it. The door opened with a prolonged squeak, slowly allowing entrance to the pair. Connor gave a couple of tentative steps forward, with his fearful eyes analyzing the room. The windows were shut closed with their drapes, all the lights were off. There was a strange muskiness in the air, as if it had been abandoned for years. He heard Troye walking inside behind him and closing the door, and after a few seconds of Connor standing still and Troye looking around, he finally asked.

-"... What is this place?"

Connor walked slowly towards the door that lead into Red's bedroom. Inside was just like the living room and kitchen area. Dark, cold. The same air filled every bit of the chamber, as well as the bathroom. Troye didn't like being held in silence.

-"... Connor, where are we?"

-"... This is... Alexa's suite."-he explained-"Her parents, they own the motel... they... they let her sleep here..."

Connor's eyes were fixed on the nightstand bedside table to the left of Red's bed. The lamp on top of it was off, and there wasn't anything resting on top of it. Troye had turned on the lights of the bathroom, and was currently watching the rusty mirror inside of it. He was playing around with the faucet and the several empty pill flasks inside the bathroom's cabinet.

-"... Do you plan on waiting for her here?"-Troye finally asked.

-"... She's gone."

At Connor's dry reply, Troye turned around fully, his cheeks paler than what they were before and his blue eyes darker than black.

-"What do you mean?"

-"She left. She's not planning on coming back."

Troye gulped down saliva, and started to walk closer to Connor.

-"You don't know that; she might come back any minute now-"

-"No. You don't get it."

Connor pointed towards the empty nightstand.

-"Her happy pills; her medicine for depression. She took them with her."

Troye looked at the direction Connor pointed. Effectively, the table was empty.

-"And here"-Connor said, walking towards the frame of the window inside Red's bedroom-", here is where she keeps her favorite scented candles. She has four of them she wanted to use soon. Vanilla, Lavender, Cinnamon and Rose... She took them with her, too."

Troye observed silent. Connor turned around and headed towards the living room.

-"And here!"-he said, reaching the centerpiece table-"She keeps her favorite books here. They aren't here anymore. She keeps them on top of here to remember to read a bit every day after she comes home from cheerleading practice... And... And the picture she had of her grandmother at the kitchen's counter; it's gone, too."

Connor was going over bit by bit to all of the missing items inside Red's suite. Troye was standing by the main door, watching him as he went about all of them.

-"... She left."-Connor whispered finally, choking on his own tears and watching the closed window, facing away from Troye-"She left, and she's not coming back."

For an entire two minutes, nobody moved nor said a word. Connor was thinking to himself the terrible truth; Red was gone. She was really gone. She was out alone in the world, hating him with every fiber of her crimson heart. And it would be that way until the day she died.

"It's your fault." Connor thought to himself, "Even if you didn't put up the posters, you did this. This is your fault, Connor."

A cold chill went down Connor's spine, extending to his arms. Trying to catch some heat, he embraced himself and rubbed his arms with his hands, but to no avail. He could hear himself shivering, and could see his breath in the cold air.