64 Hours

20 H0urs

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~the twentieth hour~

"Fear doesn't shut you down; it wakes you up." -Four, Divergent

I'm speeding.

I didn't notice the way my knuckles went white from the tight grip on the steering wheel, or the fact that about five people already beeped at me, or that I was going over the speed limit. All I knew was that I had to abandon Lucas in that house and get to the mall.

And if I'm lucky, I'll choke Unknown to death.

But I don't know how they look like.

On the way I didn't stop calling Aria. Her phone would ring for a while then go straight to voicemail, which only worried me even more with every call. I must've called her about thirty times before I arrived at the mall. And then there was the usual everyday thing that I couldn't go through at the moment - no parkings.

I double parked in front of some random car without hesitation and lunged outside. Only then did it occur to me that going into a mall holding a gun was the worst idea ever. The library was protected by security guards, and I wouldn't know who Unknown was anyway. What if they kidnapped my sister and niece and took them somewhere else?

"Answer, goddammit," I growled, my phone pressed firmly to my ear. I called Aria again. No answer.

I then widened my eyes. Bella had her iPod, but that didn't have a messenger of any sort. Frustrated, I aimed a fist at my car blindly, catching the attention of the people around me. Agony shot through my knuckles, which only added fuel to my fire.

I decided to take the risk and discreetly shoved the gun down my large pocket. The pocket's design wasn't especially meant to hold guns, obviously, but it had more than enough space to hide my gun there. I felt momentary fear that the shape of the revolver would show, but then I reminded myself that my family was in danger.

Engrossed with my vexation, I ignored everyone's stares and half-walked half-jogged over to the entrance of the mall. When I was in, I imagined my sister lying in the gutter, screaming, her shrill voice pounding through my head. I broke into a sprint.

Once I got to the elevator, I had to wait. I pressed the button to summon it and waited. Ten seconds felt like ten hours. Twenty felt like days.

I couldn't wait any longer.

I dashed away from the crowd waiting for it and sped up the emergency stairs. I took three stairs at a time, not pausing once when I almost tripped to my death.

The library was in clear sight once I got to the right floor. The big entrance opened it's arms, begging me to come in. I darted past people to get in there, shoving some to the ground, mumbling a quick sorry without checking if they were okay.

I got in. The books and colors blinded me. Last time I was here Bella was in the teen fictions section. I was such an idiot to leave them. The picture that Unknown sent me looks like it was taken in the left wing of the teen section, which I took the trouble to find. Finally, after going through what seemed like a thousand shelves, I got to the exact point of where the picture was taken.

"Bella!" I yelled into the emptiness of the area. The place was immaculate, and Bella wasn't there. I focused on where Bella was standing in the picture, then looked at back in front of me. She was picking at a book.

Then I focused on the ground.

The same book was lying drunkenly on the floor, open at the middle, with the pages spread out. But surrounding it was a dark, venomic color.