A Starry Eyed Mystery

Chapter 8

I was so close to screaming from fury and rage and fear. So close. "Aidan, who the hell do you think did this?" He looked angry, angrier than I've seen him. "This is what you're thinking about at a time like this?" He almost yelled, his voice raising immensely. "Well yes. In fact, I'm going to bet and say this is connected to the mystery. A little too coincidental to not be, don't you think? I mean look, why else would some idiot slash all four of your tires? Maybe one as a prank. But four? No, someone did this to keep us here, keep us away from something maybe." I retorted, feeling my detective instincts kicking in. He sighed loudly. "I'm sorry for raising my voice, and yeah, you may be right, but really, how are we getting out of here anytime soon?" I didn't reply, thinking and trying to figure out how we were getting out of here. "Okay, let's not panic. How about we take a walk to clear our minds? We do know our way around this area, so we'll be fine." He nodded and we began to walk back towards the beach, where there was a trail hidden in the back. Our strides were in sync as we continued to ponder an escape from this situation. The silence was surprisingly comforting though. I hadn't realized how much energy I used up whenever I was with Aidan. He always seemed to bring out the defensive side of me. But now, with the escape, the loneliness of this area seemed to get more eerie with each step. Twigs and gravel crunched beneath our steps as we got closer to the beach. It probably hadn't even been five minutes when Aidan broke the silence. "What if we walked back? I mean, we still are in town so maybe we can walk out of here?" I shook my head. "That's not going to work and you know it. First of all, it's way too dark to walk, and given the state of your car, God knows who's lurking out here at this time. And if we even were to walk, we'd need light. No way would we be able to use our phone's flashlights because the battery will be eaten up rapidly. Plus, we need to keep our phones alive for emergencies. And finally, we don't even know our way here properly. It was at least a fifteen minute drive to get here so the walk would be much longer. And with the shadows and dangerous wildlife out here, we can't take any chances. We'd rather be lost than attacked by a bear or something." I finished my reasoning lecture, slightly out of breath. He whistled, appearing to be impressed. "Clearly I haven't given you enough credit. Those Nancy Drew books of yours surely were handy. But you are right, I guess." He mumbled this last part under his breath. I decided to tease him and lighten the mood. "I'm sorry, Mr. Wilcock, but what was that you said? I didn't seem to hear you." He grumbled, seeing that there was no way out of this without admitting that one sentence I would never grow tired of hearing. "I said you're right." He sighed, finally admitting defeat. "I am right," I said, enunciating each word with an over dramatic flair. I grinned at him. "For your information, that sentence of a blessing will never get old." He rolled his eyes, feigning frustration. I'm pretty sure he was frustrated though. We both were. But it definitely wasn't like we were stranded in the lonely area near the beach past midnight with a car whose four tires were slashed and no way of escaping. Definitely not. He broke my thoughts, "So, have you, Miss Expert, come up with a plan to get out of here." I paused, trying to stall myself from revealing the only idea I had. One he probably wouldn't like. One I also wasn't too fond about. I took a deep breath. "I think our only option is to camp out here."

"And you're sure this is the only good plan you can come up with?" Aidan said, for the millionth time. Even though it had only been a minute since I had revealed the plan to him. "Well, I don't see any other option. We have no service, it's dark, and it's cold. Might as well camp out in your car. But you better lock the doors because I don't want the tire slasher to slash me." I said, with sarcasm evidently dripping from my tone. He sighed, knowing that I was right. Again! We made our way back to the car, and despite its now useless tires, I was relieved to see some sort of shelter. "Okay, so, we can push back the two backseats to create the closest thing we can to a bed. Thankfully we have a couple extra blankets since it's really cold out here. And the leftovers should be sufficient for the morning before we find our way out of here. There are plenty of water bottles in your trunk which is great. Oh, and I guess bathroom emergencies will have to be done in the bushes." I cringed, as I said that last part. Aidan nodded. "You clearly have things underway. Aye aye, Captain. You sure you haven't been in this kind of situation before?" I laughed and shook my head. "No, but I guess you could say I have been in some, based on the amount of mystery books and shows I've submerged myself in." He chuckled, revealing a very very attractive smile. Shut up, I said to myself. Was I really starting to become attracted to him again? This can't happen, ever again, I silently chided myself. We quickly set up everything in the safety of his car, leaving the food and water in the middle. After setting up my side, I collapsed on the seat. "Not once did I ever expect to do a last minute camping trip." He laughed, adding, "In a car, might I add." I giggled, feeling happy despite the crazy night we had. "Alright, since both of us aren't tired-", I got cut off by Aidan. "Who said I'm not tired?" He pouted. I rolled my eyes and continued. "So since we aren't sleeping anytime soon, we better try to figure out what the hell happened to your car." He replied, "Okay, yeah I agree we should do that. But before that, what are we going to tell your mom once we get back?" "The truth?" I said, sounding confused. "It's not our fault this happened, and plus, she's the chief of police. She'll look into this. You don't have to worry about that, I've got it covered." I laughed, surprised at his concern about my mom's reaction. He smiled in relief. "Alright, so here's for the million dollar question: why did someone slash, not one, not two, not three, but all four of my tires?" I thought for a moment, but came back with the same conclusion. "Like I said before, I'm sure this person wanted to keep us here for a reason. I don't know what that reason is, unless, what if that person was planning something new? Like targeting someone else or committing some sort of crime?" I said, my pitch rising in fear. Aidan mulled over my hunch for a minute, before speaking. "I think you might be right about the person related to Olivia's incident being the one to do this. But what if you're looking at this the wrong way? Why would the person sabotage us so suddenly? I mean this was obviously a rushed job, likely not planned so far ahead. So there's a chance that the person wanted to just warn us and ward us off the case." I was about to agree, but there was something bugging me. "If it was a warning, why wasn't there any message or note? I mean it would be a lot easier to leave a note on your windshield telling us to back off. And slashing all four tires? Pretty sure one or two tires max come under a warning. But this is much more. The person didn't want us to get out of here for a while. But the question is, why?" He shrugged, "That's going to have to stay unanswered for a while. I'm It's getting late and we're going to need as much brain power possible for the morning." I nodded and started getting ready for bed. Bed in a car seat...Unfortunately while my brain, body and eyes were ready to settle down, my bladder wasn't. Which meant the bushes, ugh. "Aidan, can you stand outside of the car while I use the bush bathroom?" He chuckled, "Of course. I'll walk with you though, it's really dark." I started walking, with him on my heels. But before I could stop at the nearest bush, we heard a noise. Fuck, were those footsteps? Was someone in the woods, following us? Before I could whisper to Aidan, he pushed me against a tree; my back to it, him facing me. "Be as quiet as possible, I think someone's been trailing us." I nodded, suddenly realizing how close he was to me. For the second time tonight. He seemed to realize this too, but didn't move. From the moonlight above, I could see that his pupils were dilated. Was he turned on by me? We just stood like that, staring into each other's eyes. His eyes flickered to my lips, and back to my eyes. He was barely an inch apart when THUD! I jumped at the sound and turned to look. There on the ground in front of us, was a large rock. But attached to it was a piece of paper, something written on it with big and red letters. STOP TRYING TO PLAY DETECTIVE. OR ELSE, I WON'T HESITATE TO HURT EITHER OF YOU. LEAVE THIS CASE ALONE NOW. I gasped. "Well, there's the missing note that failed to show up earlier with the slashed tires." I said nervously.

Chapter 8 is done!!

I tried to make it a bit longer, so do you guys prefer this length or the shorter chapters?

What did you guys think of the slashed tires? What about them camping out in his car?

Like the little cliffhanger at the end?

Stay tuned for the next chapter!!

Keep dreaming, dreamers!

-Ennie