64 Hours

16 H0urs

~the sixteenth hour~

"Better three hours too soon than a minute too late." -William Shakespeare

I was exhausted. 

Exhausted wasn't even the way to put it. I was struggling to keep my eyes open, and I would accidentally lean forward to the wheel when I felt dizzy. I was aimlessly driving in my car - all I knew was that I had to get out of here. The dead, empty place was affecting my mood, and feeling tired didn't help. How many hours of sleep did I get since the clean slate? 

So I decided to go to the public library. 

It was crazy, I knew that. I had only sixty-four hours to commit to several crimes, and I made my way through the easiest. I still had to kill and steal, to put it mildly. 

Bella, Aria, my parents. They were my top priority in life. I knew that they weren't big necessities and they must've not seemed, being my sister and niece, but Aria was there for me my whole life, and Bella was like a daughter to me. 

I rang up Aria's mobile, feeling slightly tense in case she attacked me with accusation. 

As soon as the beeping stopped I began the interrogation. "Are you okay? Is Bella safe? Where are you now? Is she with Katherine?" 

"Slow down," Aria said, her voice monotone. "We are fine. Why are you so hectic about us? Is something going on that I don't know about?" Her voice went low. "Are we being threatened?" 

"No, I'm just being overprotective," I replied, trying not to get tongue-tied. "I want to take both of you out today. We didn't spend much time together for the past week." And because I can keep a better eye on you, I thought inwardly.

"Well, that's new. Where?" Aria sounded surprised. 

"The library." 

"Woah, hold it. Since when was Adam Browning into books?" As I child never liked reading, although my mother would stick a book in my face and I would always shove it off. I once tried to read some Shakespeare stuff and gave up on the first line in my early teens. Books were never my forte, but they were certainly Aria's. My sister would always read everywhere. While eating, on the way to school, on the bus, after university work, everything. And for some reason it bothered me that someone could be this passionate about something that I couldn't be, so I always teased her about it. 

But this time, the reason I wanted to go to the library was because there might be a way for me to understand Unknown through mystery books. It was probably the worst solution, but maybe I can...get something out of him/her. If I knew more about crazy stalkers, murderers, and anonymous traits, then I won't be as clueless as I was.

Why books, might you ask? Because they've been everywhere since day 1, and writers write things through thick and thin. Not Google. 

"Yeah, there was this book Reece wanted me to check out and...whatever, can you just get ready?" I grumbled, making a turn on the road. Suddenly a car flashed in front of me, and I nearly crashed into him. Then the person beeped at me, and I beeped back, wavering on the road. 

"Adam, what happened?" Aria sounded worried. 

I shifted the window down and zoomed beside the car that nearly crashed into me. 

"Coward!" I yelled, fury roaring through my ears. It was a reasonless outburst to do, I knew that. But all this pressure from Unknown and my family's lives really heated me up, making me those stupid things. The car beside me shot forward, it's wheels screeched on the street, speeding until I could no longer see the large Jeep.