Icecold hands

Chapter 23

I feel a slight tap on my shoulder.
'W-what is it...' I say sleepily as I sit up right.

'We survived another night.' Justin says, smiling.

'That thing isn't dead you know.' I say, rubbing my eyes.

'Well pretty much. How is it gonna find us if we're so far away?'

'It may have some senses that can help it. We don't know anything about this for sure.'

'Well except it can shapeshift apparently.'

'Yeah true. We might need some kind of code to make sure we're really the ones we say we are.'

'Alright. What do you have in mind?'

'I'm not really sure... saying our names would be too obvious. What's something only we know?'

'Well I could tell you something about me.' Justin says. 'Something nobody else knows.'

Now I'm interested.
'Ok go right ahead.' I say.

'Well I.. was scared to tell you because I something got bullied for it but... I write letters to my mom everyday.' Justin says.
He takes a quick glance at me to make sure I'm not laughing at him. I'm not even close.

Justin continues, 'I just talk about my friends and how I'm doing. After I read the letters back I put them in a little box.
I never send them, because I can't really.'

He hands me a wooden box with a leaf pattern cut in it. It has golden sides and lots of decorations.

'Its... beautiful. Can I open it?' I ask.

He nods.

I open the box to see a huge pile of envelopes closed and squished together.
On every single letter, the same name and address is written in a beautiful yet simple handwriting.

It says, "Sarah Tenderman, Raventown 14"

I slowly open one of the envelopes on top and look inside. There's a letter in it.

'Dear mom,
Today I made a new friend! He doesn't want to tell me he's my friend yet but I feel like we'll be good friends soon. His name-'
The rest is all blurred out.

'Oh yeah sorry,' Justin says, laughing awkwardly.
'Ehm, that one is actually pretty old. Maybe you could get a newer one. Like this one.'

He grabs a white envelope with the same name and address on it.
I slowly start reading.

'Dear mom,
How are you? Is everything ok while I'm gone? I hope you and dad are ok, but I feel like you aren't.
Anyways, today was crazy. Remember that friend I told you about? Keith? Well, he's not even my friend.
I already had a feeling something was up, especially with that thing that happened that morning when I saw him next to my bed.
But apparently, he isn't even human.
He's some kind of terrifying creature. And he's huge.
Suddenly out of the blue he turned into his "true form" if that's even his true form.'

I stop reading for a bit.
'You sure to write a lot everyday.' I say, looking through the rest of the letter.

'Yeah, well there's a lot to talk about.'

'Have you ever written something about me?'

'Of course, without you this would've been such a different experience.'

'In a good way?'

'Yeah without you I would've been dead.'

'Ok yeah probably..'