64 Hours

18 H0urs

~the eighteenth hour~

"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." -Abraham Lincoln

I need to do something else from that list. 

Ever since getting into that bookstore I didn't achieve anything but additional trepidation that I will never find the anonymous texter and live for the next 64 hours doing sins without discovering who was torturing me. Unknown had the upper-hand. He could ask me do worse for the lives of what little I've got, and after Lucas, I have to admit that I would do it. 

And it was selfish of me. 

But selfish is all that I've got.

Anyhow, I need to do something else. I counted the remaining hours I had left: 46 hours. Exactly two hours less than two days. I have to face the fact that I was going to kill my boss from the military force, push out my niece and sister out of their refuge, tell Bella that I hate her, and for God's sake, set my neighbour's house on fire. 

My neighbour who owned a house was a family of four. I've only seen them a few times when they would get out of their house and get to work. The man of the house was Mr. Wilson, with his blonde perky wife and two toddlers.

Then it appeared to me that Unknown was asking me to destroy the home of two parents and two children. 

I buried my face in my hands and just felt like weeping. I was sitting in Gloria Jeans, leaving Bella and Aria in the library. I wondered how I was ever going to find the wits to do that. I don't have the capability to kill my boss; I don't have the heart to lie to Bella; I don't have the strife to kick my sister out of my house. 

Tomorrow was Wednesday, then Thursday. I moaned inwardly when I remembered Reece's wedding. How could I ever be able to make it with Unknown pressing my buttons? 

I told myself to calm down and slay one dragon at a time. Maybe it will all work out. Maybe Unknown had a heart attack a few minutes ago. 

I wish. 

I texted Aria to let her know where I was, and took a sip out of my coffee, although it was seven pm. It will all come down late on Friday. But then what if I don't make it in time? What if I chicken out? 

What if I somehow compete against time, and Unknown decides to take away Bella? 

I shoved out all my thoughts to the back of my head when someone grabbed the chair next to mine and sat in it. Confused, I stared at the intruder. 

Spencer Alexis, Lucas's ex. 

Spencer was a pretty-ish woman, but it stopped at 'ish'. She had unruly dark hair, square-shaped glasses, freckles and almond shaped eyes. But she was still cute, in her own way. Spencer was one of those people who didn't care what other people thought of her, and was unique in every way. But the main reason I became good friends with her was because she was easy to talk to. She didn't force people to talk about the bad - unless she didn't know if there was a 'bad.' 

"Hey, Adam. Have you seen Lucas lately? Please tell me that you did." She spoke loudly, her words getting slightly knotted. She sounded worried although she broke up with him a week ago. I leaned backwards in my chair and rubbed my forehead, which was beginning to tingle. Whenever I try to forget about my best friend lying dead at the back of his storage room, it always come back to bite me. 

"Sorry, I haven't," I said without making eye contact. I took another long sip from my coffee to avoid her piercing eyes that broke through her glasses, ignoring the liquid that was scorching my throat.

"Oh. He hasn't been answering my calls, and I think his phone's dead. I went to his house to check on him and it turns out that the door was open, which was weird. So I went inside, and up the stairs-" She nattered on, and soon enough my heartbeat was louder than her voice. "-and into his living room. Then I saw the strangest thing. Then I thought, it couldn't be."

"What did you see?" I tried to keep my voice calm, but it went high and pitchy, much to my dignity.

"Oh God, Adam, I think I saw..." She looked around as if someone would be eavesdropping, then dropped her voice to a whisper. "Blood."

Now my heart was banging in my chest, and my hands were trembling. I gripped the mug in my hands to try and stop them, but I was sure that all the blood drained out of my face. I tried to keep my face placid as she went on .

"But it couldn't be blood. So basically, I think that he spilled wine on it or something. Do you want to hear my theory?" This is where the I-don't-care-about-your-opinion mode kicks into Spencer. "It's strange, but maybe Lucas was...I dunno, like, grieving about my absence. Maybe he wished that I was there so that he drank his thoughts away, and it really breaks my heart. I still miss him, really, but he can really be a jerk sometimes. He kept on texting to this one guy on his phone on a date I had with him and-"

"Wait, which guy?" I interrupted, midst the feeling of relief and remorse. Was Lucas talking to Unknown before he got killed? But they broke up a week ago, which meant that their date was far long off. 

"I don't know, he wouldn't tell me. But anyway, it really annoyed me, so that's where I broke up with him."

"When was this?" 

"Like ten days ago. Why?" 

"Just asking." I shrugged, but on the inside I felt something knot in my stomach. There was a slight chance that Lucas wasn't just interrupting his date to talk to a friend in front of Spencer. It must have been important. And I know Lucas - he would never communicate with anyone other than his girlfriend on a date.

"So, as I was saying, I checked everywhere in his house." Spencer continued, and she began one of her habits of twirling her hair in between her fingers. She began to thread them through her hair, talking nervously to me. 

"I checked the kitchen, his bathroom, his bedroom, even his smelly storage room-" 

"His storage room?" I broke in again, and this time I had to check that I was breathing properly. 

"Yeah." 

"Did...Spencer, did you find anyone there?" I asked through slight pants. 

"No..." 

"Did you switch on the lights?" I pressed. 

Spencer let out a shaky laugh. "Yeah, obviously. I can't stand the dark." 

"And you didn't see anyone?" 

"I told you, I saw nothing but his old boxes. Why, does he keep a dead body in there or something?" 

I froze. She couldn't possibly know. But when she saw my face she raised her eyebrows at me and lightly punched my shoulders. "Hey, I'm just kidding." 

And, because she's Spencer, she didn't ask why I was so tensed up. She she nattered on and on, I could only think of how I was either lucky or cursed. 

I was lucky because Spencer didn't see her dead ex and would've called the police. I'm sure that they could trace my fingerprints on his arms, which I didn't think about, and that would lead to maybe twenty years in prison. I'm cursed because someone - anyone - knows about the murder and took his body. 

And I don't know what's worse; Lucas being in the darkness of his storage room, or Lucas not being there at all. 

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