All That Leads To You

Chapter 14 | Off

"i woke up from a never-ending dream. i shut my eyes at seventeen."

***

Terror. Absolute terror.

     Dylan is the first to move. His eyes gaze all over the place and his hands roaming, frantically searching. The shower curtain on our side stays still, and he pulls it open with every force that he has, the sound of the metal bars at the top clicking together like a pen. But there's nothing and now I'm thinking—what if there is something? What was our plan?

     Quickly, he makes his way downstairs to the kitchen. We follow him, trying to keep up. He's moving too fast, but then again, it is his house. He knows every step and every turn. Once in a while, I stop moving to listen to any sound of footsteps. I want an explanation. We all do. Yet, the house is silent except for our movements. I feel my feet getting weaker by the minute with the thought of someone hiding in one of the rooms, watching us.

     "My parent's bedroom window was open," Dylan says while pacing back and forth along the kitchen island. "That could explain him coming in and out."

     I shudder. An uninvited guest.

     "So, it's the same guy I saw that night," Xander states. "It has to be, right? I mean, that's already pretty fucked up."

     "You were right," I look over at Ocean. "It's not a coincidence. He just needed us all to be in one room."

     "But why the different timings?" she asks. Like Dylan, she's also pacing around the room, opening every drawer, every cabinet.

     "Because read the note. Here," Xander pulls the orange sticky note from his pocket and hands it over to her. "It's a scavenger hunt. Different people, different clues."

     I don't move away from my spot in the entryway. "It's a lot more work for us, too."

     "Exactly! If we all get the clues at the same time, there's nothing left to solve," Xander exclaims, grabbing the paper back from Ocean and staring at it, as if the answer to our questions will automatically appear somehow. "And he doesn't want us to solve this."

     Dylan walks over to where I'm standing and flips the light switch on the wall. The front porch lights up and so does the backyard lights. He lets out a breath, "So, what do we do now?"

     "I—I don't know," I sigh, shrugging. "Do we call the police?"

     "Oh, they'll believe us, for sure!" Xander chuckles sarcastically. I give him a look.

     "There's no harm in trying, though," Ocean suggests. "I know they'll probably think we're just messing with them, or if they do listen, they'll say it's just a bunch of pranksters and that we shouldn't do anything stupid. But...I don't know, at least they'll be alerted, I guess."

     We stay quiet for a moment.

     "Yeah, you're right," Dylan says. "The landline's not working. We can call them from my phone—I left it upstairs." He starts to walk out of the kitchen and I stay close to him.

     "Fine." I hear Xander mumble, followed by a light snicker from Ocean. If there's anyone who can change his mind, it's her.

***

"Here." 

     Dylan throws his phone over to Ocean, who's standing by the doorway of the guest bedroom. 

     By now, it's fully dark outside. The worst part about winter is the day being cut short. More gloominess, and when we're lucky and there is sun, it disappears as quickly as it appears. Everything is grey for the majority of the time. Like right now, as I'm staring out the window to find more answers, or signs, or anything. The trees have no leaves on them, the streets are empty. There's no warm glow of the haze, like there is in the summer. There's only the wind; I know because it's sound is so intense I can memorize it in my sleep.