Days of Revelations (Night of Secrets #2)

Chapter 20 - Needed Silence

Jax

I drop the guys off at their houses starting with Ty and ending with Aart. Before they leave, they all give Adeline some show of affection. Ty playfully pulls on her hair. Santos wraps his arms around her from behind the passenger seat. Aart smiles at her, kissing her cheek. And they all shoot me looks before they get out of the car.

Once the front door shuts behind Aart, I turn to Adeline. "We have a few more hours before you have to get home. What do you wanna do?"

Adeline lightly runs her nails over her bandage. She stares straight ahead, the street lamp's light glinting off her gray eyes. Her amber hair almost seems like a halo with the glow and braid. I'm reminded all over again about how beautiful she is but also of how much she doesn't feel like she is. The intensity in her eyes says it all.

"Can we go to the old theater?" she finally asks.

I nod, pulling out onto the road again. On our Night of Secrets, I told Adeline I liked coming there to feel the weird eeriness of a place that's so quiet but used to be so loud. She said she understood, but I don't think she ever told me what she thought about it. Maybe she'll tell me tonight. And maybe that'll help me figure out how she's feeling. Violated, obviously. Scared. Rattled. Anything and everything. They're all valid, but I don't know how to help her if I don't know exactly how she feels.

Then again, even if I do know exactly how she feels, I don't know if I can help her.

I park a few blocks down from the old theater, and we walk the rest of the way. I glance around. Not a lot of people are out right now, and that puts me at ease when we turn down an alley. I push a trash can against the wall and lift myself up and through an open window. A moment later, Adeline's bag drops through, and then she slips inside herself. I catch her before she hits the ground. Once she's on her feet, she picks up her bag and we both pull out our phones to turn on our flashlights.

I take her hand and lead the way through the corridors and up flights of stairs. The wood creaks beneath our feet and dust floats all around us. Our flashlights cast weird shadows on the walls every time they sweep across cloth-covered furniture. Adeline squeezes my hand every once in a while like she thinks she might lose me in the dark. Takes me back to the dance when we went to find the guys. That feels like a lifetime ago. But just like then, I squeeze her hand back, telling her I'm here.

We finally reach a set of double doors. I push them open, revealing the auditorium. We sit in the center of a row a few seats back from the orchestra pit. Adeline sets her phone screen-down on one armrest and I do the same to mine on another. We rest our intertwined hands on the armrest between us, and I study Adeline.

She stares straight ahead at the stage, crossing and uncrossing her ankles. Her expression is pretty unreadable. Even more so now that we're in the dark. I wait for her to say something, but when she doesn't, I prompt her.

"Why'd you want to come here?" I ask.

She blinks like she forgot I was here. When she focuses back on the moment, she slowly inhales and looks at me. "You know how you said you liked it here because it's quiet but it used to be loud, and you find that eerie?" I nod. "I like it here because of that, too, but I guess..." She looks at the stage. "I don't know... I guess I like it because it is quiet now. And maybe I want it to be quiet now. Maybe I want my thoughts to be quiet now instead of being so loud. Because then I'd be okay."

"You want to shut down?" Adeline nods. No hesitation at all. It makes my chest tighten. I can't imagine what it's doing to Adeline. "It's okay to feel what you need to feel. But not feeling at all sounds really bad."

"But why would I want to feel anything when it's all bad?"

"Because if you can feel anything at all, that means you can feel the good things, too."