The Music We Make ✔️

26. Peter Bryerson

A knock at my door brought me out of my world of studying and I looked over at Drew in confusion. Who could possibly be at my door? All of our friends went out to see a movie while we stayed back to study for a written music test we had soon.

What if this time it really was the person that had been threatening me? Every other time I'd gotten scared when someone was at the door I had no reason to because I was expecting someone, but this time everyone I would normally expect was out.

Drew saw the panic in my eyes and answered the door himself, which I was grateful for. I didn't have the courage to answer it this time, I was paralyzed in fear.

From my bed I had the perfect view of the door, and my heart hammered in my chest as Drew turned the handle and pulled it open.

"Rufus?" We said at the same time.

Why was the Bates family's butler here?

"Mr. Bates, you parents have requested that I pick you two up." He explained, stepping into the room.

Drew and I exchanged a confused look.

"They know I have a car, why didn't they just ask me to come over?" Drew asked.

"We're not going back to their house, we're going to a surprise location. Now we must be going or we'll be late." Rufus replied.

With one last confused look passed between Drew and I, we followed Rufus out of the room.

Once we were in the back seat of his car I tried to figure out where we could possibly be going.

Why would Trevor and Cecelia want to meet at some surprise location? And why would they want to include me?

For a while we silently drove and city turned to country. Soon we were on a snowy dirt road that had dense forest on either side.

It was getting increasingly dark outside as we made our way down back road after back road, and with the growing darkness came my anxiety.

Maybe we were lost.

I decided to study Rufus through the mirror in the front to see if he gave away any clue as to where we were headed or if we were in fact lost, but he didn't give anything away. His face was natural and impassive. And something about him suddenly seemed oddly familiar to me. I'd seen Rufus a few times before now but as I looked at him closer I felt like I'd seen him somewhere other than at the Bates' house.

Suddenly the car came to a halt and I was pulled out of my thoughts.

Drew and I looked around as we got out of the car, and all that surrounded us were trees illuminated by the moonlight.

"What are we doing here Rufus? Where are my parents?" Drew questioned.

The butler just smiled back at us in reply and that's when it dawned on me.

I knew where I'd seen him before and my blood ran cold at the realization.

Rufus made his way to the trunk of his car and popped it open, giving me the chance to warn Drew.

"Peter Bryerson, he's Peter Bryerson. That's why you recognized him." I whispered in his ear.

Who knew what might happen if Rufus, or should I say Peter, knew we were on to him.

Drew shook his head, "There's no way. I've known him for a couple years now, he's not a killer."

I sighed in frustration as I thought of how I could convince Drew that we were in danger.

"How long has he been working for your family? A couple years? Which was not long after Peter Bryerson died." I pointed out.

His eyes widened a fraction but he was still in denial, "They don't even have the same colour hair, or eyes."