Mutual Anchors || Liam Dunbar [1]

Chapter 65 |Thank you|

Liam's POV:

Corey said he'd try to search Valeria's house again, see if we missed anything.

Mason, meanwhile, is sitting in the police station with me, and for the first time I noticed how nervous he looked and watched some places where there was nothing. "What's the matter, Mason?"

Mason looks at me. "Nothing, really nothing. Don't worry about it," he waves, and lies.

I look at him worried. "Hey, you can tell me anything, all right?"

Mason starts tapping his knee and I get quite concerned. "You remember the body that we found? You know, the one without the face?" he asks, watching me nod slowly.

Yesterday, Corey and Mason and I found a body at the school that looked like a pile of meat. I was going to tell Valeria today because I didn't want to disturb her at the night, but maybe I should have. After all, she told us about the rats we found in the sewer. And about the dead wolves, too.

"I can't get it out of my head," Mason admits, then rubs his forehead.

I nod because it was really gross. "Yeah, me, too."

Mason shakes his head, then closes his eyes. "No, dude, I'm... I mean, I- I literally can't get it out of my head," he whispers, then looks around to see if anyone is listening. "You know what 'after images' are?"

I scratch my hair and frown with alarm. "Uh, you mean, like, when you look at a light bulb, and when you look away, you still kind of see it?"

Mason nods and gasps shakily. "Yeah. Well, there's this more extreme version called palinopsia. It literally means 'seeing again'. I mean, the image just stays with you... And you see it again, and again..."

"So, where are you seeing the body?"

"Everywhere," he whispers, frightened, and looks into the corner of the room.

I want to calm him down or at least admit it, but all of a sudden Scott, Lydia, Malia and Lori - Brett's sister - come here, which surprises me quite a bit.

"Have they found Valeria?" Malia asks, looking around the empty room. "Probably not yet, huh?"

"No," I shake my head and look at Mason, but he just looks away because he apparently doesn't want me to say anything. "What's going on?"

"Something's happened to Brett," Lori says, throwing me a genuinely concerned and worried expression. "Something very wrong because I found his broken lacrosse stick in the parking lot with his blood on it. I need help finding him."

Sheriff comes over and looks at me, and I know right away that this is about Valeria. "We found her car. It was abandoned and there were traces of blood next to it," he scratches his neck and bows his head sadly. "There's an official searching out for her. However, her sister called here," he says, and that surprises me.