𝐃𝐄𝐉𝐀 𝐕𝐔

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟏𝟒

Lyra had reluctantly told Cody the directions to her house - her reluctance being for obvious reasons. We were killers, sent to kill her once, so we might be sent again. Especially if she tried finding us again. We were currently sat in the car - all four of us in silence. Even Avril Lavigne had stopped (admittedly, it because we'd turned the radio off when the next song came on). The silence made me uncomfortable - as it would usually, so I hesitantly spoke up.

"Cody?"

The man sighed, his head and hands still resting against the steering wheel - he was probably contemplating something. "Yes, Toby?"

"Y'know that I went in your storage room earlier?"

"Yes, to get your hoodie." His voice was muffled by the plastic, only exaggerating his exhausted tone.

"I saw your pet, and I think you needed to give it some more food. Just - a tip for your next one."

Cody's head lifted from the steering wheel and instead flopped backwards against the headrest of the driver's seat. He cussed under his breath, mumbling afterwards, "I knew I forgot to do something."

Now I think about it, that was probably one of his lab rats.

He shifted in his seat, taking a pen out of his jeans pocket and stuffing his hand in his hoodie pocket. He pulled out a worn notebook - the burgundy covers shriveled and lightly torn, covered in the occasional drawing or small sticker (one that I could decipher being a Celtic shield knot, that had obviously been drawn by him at a younger age - no offense, Cody). The stickers mostly ranged from "well done" to star shaped rewards that our teachers probably would've handed out. He wasted no time in flicking through the pages, allowing to only capture glimpses of the stained paper - covered in rough, crude sketches and contrastingly neat notes surrounding creatures like the Baba Yaga, ghosts, Big Foot - I even caught a glance as to what could've been Slenderman, but that was probably just my mind projecting. It liked to play with my brain, like that, sometimes. Though, I felt my expression fall seeing the cryptic drawings slowly become diagrams and formals.

When he'd reached a fresh page - he quickly began scribbling something down - the handwriting slightly messy compared to how he usually had, due to the speed he wrote with.

𝓜𝓲 𝓐𝓶𝓸𝓻,
𝓘 𝓶𝓲𝓼𝓼 𝔂𝓸𝓾, 𝓘 𝓭𝓸  - 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓘'𝓶 𝓼𝓸𝓻𝓻𝔂 𝓘 𝓵𝓮𝓯𝓽 𝓼𝓸 𝓪𝓫𝓻𝓾𝓹𝓽𝓵𝔂. 𝓑𝓾𝓽 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓬𝓪𝓷'𝓽 𝓵𝓸𝓸𝓴 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓾𝓼  - 𝓶𝓮 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓣𝓸𝓫𝔂 (𝓱𝓮'𝓼 𝓼𝓪𝓯𝓮, 𝓪 𝓵𝓲𝓽𝓽𝓵𝓮 𝓵𝓸𝓼𝓽 𝓫𝓾𝓽 𝓼𝓪𝓯𝓮), 𝓲𝓽'𝓼 𝓭𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓻𝓸𝓾𝓼. 𝓘𝓽'𝓼 𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓵  - 𝓘 𝓴𝓷𝓸𝔀 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓴𝓷𝓸𝔀  - 𝓫𝓾𝓽 𝔀𝓮'𝓿𝓮 𝓫𝓮𝓮𝓷 𝓭𝓻𝓪𝓰𝓰𝓮𝓭 𝓲𝓷𝓽𝓸 𝓲𝓽. 𝓘 𝓭𝓸𝓷'𝓽 𝔀𝓪𝓷𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓹𝓮𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓽𝓸 𝔂𝓸𝓾.
- 𝓒

He slammed the book shut, his eyes staying on the cover for a few seconds before he twisted around in his seat. "You." Cody began, pointing to Lyra with the book, "Give this to Bronwyn. Tell her what happened, and her alone. Then never look for us again. Understand?" The brunette explained firmly, letting her take the book. "Now get out."

The blonde sighed, rolling her eyes as she took the book. "You don't have a clue how she is, because of you two disappearing." Lyra muttered, beginning to take her seatbelt off.

My eyes left the pair, and instead trailed towards the house. It was nice - a lot of the houses around suburban areas were, though. It was a single story loft - rather neat looking, with the windows a dark, contrasting colour to the white walls. However, what I did take notice of, the most, was the silhouette leaving the window -  to the right side of the porch. The sight of the lilac curtains gently swaying as the figure disappeared to the side.

The sound of the car door slamming (rather angrily) shut could be heard - Lyra eventulally being visible as she walked around the car towards the sidewalk. "Did you hear what she said to you, Toby?" Cody asked - though I didn't reply, only shaking my head. "She said she hopes you'll be safe." Cody mumbled - the words registering but not really sinking in.

"Okay." I mumbled - my eyes locked to the front door of the house, that was beginning to open. A wavy haired brunette began to hurriedly step out onto the porch - not bothering to really stop and greet Lyra, instead her purple eyes locked onto the car. Her face looked softly shaped, though her left eye seemed scarred - like the scars on my arm and neck. Normally, upon seeing a police uniform, I would've had the urge to flee, but I oddly felt safe.

The car's wheels screeched slightly as I jolted forward - though, despite the inertia, my eyes were still fixated on the woman. She seemed familiar. I knew that was Bronwyn, but it wasn't because they'd told me it was her - she felt familiar. All of my memories of her were still blurry, but I could see her in them, in a manner - like something was forcibly blocking the images of her face out. Whenever she appeared in my memories or flashbacks, her features were blurred and missing - like her face was a smooth canvas. Only sometimes had I heard her voice, too.

Even though we had practically sped away, I could see her expression fall as Lyra spoke to her, passing over the notepad - like her features were crystal clear for once, despite the growing distance.

"I though' we were gonna kill 'er." Jeff spat, "And mutt, stop gawkin' at the lady."

I felt my eyes narrow as my brow furrowed at Jeff's words. "I'm not gawking." I grumbled, "She looked familiar. That's all."

"Of course she looked familiar." Cody interjected - still a harsh tone to his voice, though he seemed to immediately soften up afterwards - his grip loosening on the steering wheel. He glanced to me with an apologetic look, "She was important to the both of us. And I don't understand why you haven't had a proper memory of her yet." He mumbled quietly, an almost guilty look to his face - I think he did hate that we left without saying to her. "She hung out with us a lot."

"Well yeah, ya said mutt was datin' her." Jeff interrupted, causing me to glance back with a glare.

"Well - we were both kind of dating her." Cody explained, glancing back to Jeff before looking to me, "We both knew about it - don't worry - it was okay with both of us-" He rambled, allowing his eyes to fall back onto the road. "We almost started dating as well, but we never really got to talking about that." The man continued, though with more hesitance, his eyes glancing towards me, but quickly finished before I could comment, "So, she was important to both of us."

I paused, trying to take the information in.

"So ya friend group was one big relationship?" Jeff commented, to which neither of us entertained. "Jus' sayin'."

"Then stop talking, Jeff. It's been a long day." Cody sighed.