Chasing Shadows

Part One ~ Chapter Seven

            “You’re just jealous we thought of putting food coloring in the water. Should’ve seen your face when blue water exploded all over you.”

            “Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was one of my good shirts.”

            “Oh yeah?” I raised an eyebrow. “The one you got for two dollars at some random market?”

            “Money doesn’t matter,” Matt scoffed. “Catch.” He threw down two utility knives, and I managed to just barely catch one.

            “What, are you trying to kill me?”

            “I said catch.”

            “Oh, my bad.”

            We both laughed, heading out of the garage. It seemed like being in there made everything feel alright. Like it had been before we went away to Hamilton and everything changed. But the minute we stepped back out into the world, looking at Simeon’s car in the driveway, it all came back to me and I realized what a dangerous situation we were in. I wished I could’ve just gone back in the garage and have everything be the same again.

            Julia, Johnny, and Ethan came out to join us at Simeon’s car.

            “Where should we put the note?” Julia asked, holding it up.

            Matt pointed to the wheel. “In between the wheel so that when the mechanic takes out the wheel, the note will fall out.” Julia nodded and folded up the sheet paper so that it was super thin.

            “Dad’s inside with the other’s,” Ethan said. “They’re all talking, drinking beer, we should have time.”

            “Great,” Matt said. He looked to me. “I take front, you take back?”

            “Will do. I handed him one of the knives and then flicked mine open. “Here.” I gave Johnny and Ethan the bag of nails. “Make it look like the nails were what caused these.” I then went over to the back of the car and stabbed into the wheel of the tire. Didn’t even make a dent.

            “You gotta put some muscle into it!” Matt called over from the front.

            This time I welled up all the anger inside of me, all the hate caused by Mr. Grey. “This one’s for Kathryn,” I whispered as I slammed the knife down into the tire. It hissed as air started to come out of it. I moved over to the next tire. “And this one’s for ruining our vacation.” I watched as both the tires deflated dejectedly, no match for the knife.

            Ethan and Johnny came over and carefully placed the nails under the tires. The whole thing was done in under five minutes.

            “And now we wait,” Matt muttered.

            “That’s one of Mr. Grey’s specialties,” I sighed. “Making us sit around and wait in fear.”

***

            “I’m going to go out and get some food before the game!” Simeon called out to Elly downstairs. All of us were in Matt’s room, and instantly perked up when we heard that.

            Johnny pointed towards the window and we all ran over to watch. Simeon opened the door to his car and got in, like he hadn’t noticed anything was wrong. He then turned on his car and tried to drive. Shutting off the engine, he stepped out of his car and his face look horrified when he saw his tires.