Fading into time

chapter 12

The wind swept under my wings as I guided myself along its currents, basking in the tranquility and vastness of the night sky. Tonight, there were no stars, no moon, only miles and miles of raven-black that stretched as far as the eye could see. Sophie had left a few hours ago with her family, and that left me alone in the hotel room.

Damn, Friday had come far, far sooner than I had anticipated, and even though my body was humming with unused energy, mainly stemming from fear and worry, there was just the faintest spark of excitement which branched out into an unadulterated rush of adrenaline and thrill once I directed my attention to it. I wouldn't have lived these twenty years for naught if it boiled down to tonight.

But now, instead of thinking, I let my mind drift, just like how I drifted on the currents of the wind seeming to be crafted specially for me.

There were many, many sayings about failure and success, I realised, which were mostly about how one had to fail a couple of times before they could succeed. However, failure wasn't on my agenda tonight. I had already struck once and retrieved the list, which I was more than fifty percent sure that he had deliberately left for me, and if I failed tonight when I struck the second time, I knew that a third chance would no longer be available to me.

It had to be tonight or never. Go down with a fight or surrender.

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"Wow."

"Wow?!" My cousin was the epitome of offended as she quirked a brow in my direction. "You saw all those amazing creations and you only have ONE word to say? Wow?!"

I rolled my eyes and leaned my head against the window. "What am I supposed to say then?"

My cousin was on the verge of opening her mouth to toss some snarky comment, and perhaps give me a piece of her (much un-needed) mind in the process of doing so, when her husband cut her off. "Give the kid a break, dear, she's probably conked out and ready to slip into dreamland."

My cousin spluttered, eyes widening comically as her husband turned around from the driver's seat to shoot me a not-so-subtle grin and wink. I smirked right back, watching how my cousin's mouth opened and closed but no words spilled out.

"Can't believe the two of you are ganging up against me," she grumbled, crossing her arms and turning around in her seat.

"Don't forget to add me," Uncle Mark patted the back of the shotgun seat cheerily.

"And me," Aunt Adeline threw a crooked smile in her daughter's direction that looked far too evil.

Damn, I loved my family.

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"Dude, who doesn't lock their door at night when they sleep?"

"Me!" Sophie turned to fix me with an exasperated look as she fiddled with the handle of the door. We were currently in the landing, exchanging heated whispers in the dimly lit corridor whilst trying (but failing) to get into her cousin's room.

"Do you think the balcony door would work?"

I spluttered. "No! If they lock the door, what makes you think they would leave the balcony door open?"

"Okay then...do you have a bobby pin?"

"M...Me?!" I scrunched up my nose in complete befuddlement. "I barely have any hair dude! At least not as much as yours. Why the hell would I have a bobby pin? You should be the one to have it!"