Willowcreek; Within The Roots

Part Ten ─ Please Find Me

If he worked here, then why hadn't she seen him at lunch earlier? Evie was sure she'd have remembered his face. He had the kind of face she wanted to punch.

That might have been pretty aggressive, but she found him so damn annoying, she couldn't help it. Every time he opened his mouth, he made a comment about Ludo being a bear or made a frustrating comment about her height. Just looking like he looked, it filled her with the near uncontrollable need to sucker punch him.

It wouldn't have been an easy feat, because he was maybe a slight bit taller than her. Well, a lot taller than her. The last time she'd been measured, at the hospital, she'd been a couple inches over five feet. He looked like he must have been about the same height as Charlie, which meant he had at least six or seven inches on her. And that also made her want to punch him.

"Look, you can stand there and glare at me, all you want, but I intend to get out of here before I'm struck by lightning," he told her as he tried and failed to fix his hair. It hung over his eyes, dripping rain water into them, and it filled Evie with a twisted kind of enjoyment as he cringed, probably because it stung. "I found what I came for, now come Muttley," instructed the sodden mess in front of her, clicking his fingers at the dog. Ludo stood where he was, beside Evie, and just stared at him.

"You came in here...looking for my dog?" Evie asked, finding it hard to believe. "Did your boss ask you to find him?" she asked, rolling her eyes.

"No, it wasn't my boss," he shook his head, water flying everywhere like it did when Ludo did the same thing. "Seeing as you're here, too, I guess I'll help you find the way out, as well. That might earn me brownie points with the actual boss."

"What's your boss's name?" asked Evie, accusing him of lying without calling him a liar. But she got no answer as the guy took the turn she'd just come around. I'll just go in the opposite direction, she thought to herself, turning on her heels and squinting her eyes, hoping that would make seeing in the dark and rain easier. It didn't. There was no way she'd have been able to see the large green wall in front of her. A deadend.

"You can't go that way." His voice came from the darkened turn, his head popping around the corner and his flashlight concealed on the other side. He looked like he was smirking as she jumped around, obviously startled by his reappearance. Evie glanced down at Ludo and silently the two exchanged a debate, should they or shouldn't they? Follow or don't follow?
Eventually, Ludo started following him which made Evie do the same thing.

Putting blind trust in someone wasn't something she did often, and especially not with strangers. She'd always been pretty good with the whole stranger danger thing. She was just hopeful that he wasn't leading her the wrong way. And that he actually knew how to get to the exit. He'd known the opposite direction she'd planned to take was a deadend. That was a good thing, right? She still wasn't sure she believed he was being truthful, but she had no other options.

Walking behind him, his flashlight shining ahead of them, Evie took note of something that she wished hadn't been familiar-- the back of his head. His dark brown hair may have been flattened out and stuck to the back of his neck, but she was almost certain he'd been the guy she saw the first night she arrived, standing at the foot of the courtyard stairs. Right before she saw that girl.

He promised he knew the way out here like the back of his hand. That would only make one of them, because Evie couldn't remember which turns she'd taken to find the center in the first place. And with the markers being all messed up and out of order, she prayed he wasn't going to depend on those to get them out.

As they rounded a corner into the center, she could hear him mumbling to himself over the thunder, certain words popping out at her as she tried to listen closely. One phrase stuck out perfectly but she froze when she saw the angel again. Resigned to the ache that she'd had before abandoning the marble statue, Evie stopped. He was already at the opposite side, ready to make his way through the other entrance when he realized she wasn't close behind. "Hey, keep up or I'm leaving you--"