All That Leads To You

Chapter 18 | Running All Over

Dedicated to Wimbug
Excited to see your thoughts on this book!

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"i thought i would be good by now. i'd have it figured all out."

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Everything is changing by the heartbeat.

     Xander runs, bolting out of his seat as soon as the safety guards against his chest is loose, jolting up and away from him. Soon, he's nowhere in sight.

     Dylan yells for him, but it's useless. He won't turn around. He's made up his mind. This is our chance. He knows it. The clock is ticking.

     "There!" Ocean points at a signpost as soon as we get out of our seats and onto the grounds of the theme park. "The lost and found!"

     "But, Xander ran that way!" I argued while following her. Dylan is behind me. "What the hell is he doing?"

     "Maybe he saw something else," Dylan suggest, catching up. "We have to get that keychain!"

     Right. The keychain. What the hell is it doing here? How did it get here, in the first place? Who brought it? West never gave it away to anyone. It was always on his backpack. Could it be? No, no, no! That's impossible! Maybe someone else has a similar one? Maybe they described it wrong? But he wrote on it with a marker. He wrote on it himself. His handwriting. Him. 

     Him.

     The thoughts run wild in my head and I can't seem to stop it. Every single one of them seems ridiculous, yet they keep coming in; each like a slap on the face. We need to get it. We have to. There's no other option. Even if it turns out to be someone else's, time is still against us.

     The lost and found is inside the gift shop, connecting to the exit of the park. Ocean steps in without hesitation and right as I'm about to follow along, Dylan grabs my arm.

     "I'll wait out here," he says, unsure of himself and not looking at me in the eye. "In case..." he trails off.

     Hopeful. He's hopeful. We all have to be.

     I nod, a sinking feeling in my stomach. Could it be? I keep thinking. Could it be, could it be, could it be? But each time, I can never finish the thought. I can never get myself to say his name. It scares me.

     There are so many people around. I guess it's pretty common to lose things when you're at a theme park. Kids roam around the space, some holding stuffed animals and wearing their newly bought hats from the gift shop. The smiles on their faces are prominent. I want to be angry. I want to tell everyone to quiet down and shush anyone who makes a sound. I want to say so many things because while we're in this huge, huge mess, these people are walking around freely with excitement. Sure, some of them have lost their things, but that's about it. They've lost something. We've lost someone.

     "Hi!" Ocean greets the woman at the cashier. I squint a little to read her name-tag—Amber. She smiles at our sight, genuine, too, which is rare. "We're here about the announcement you've made about...the keychain—the white one with the crack. Are we in the right place?"

     Amber suddenly looks confused. "Oh, someone just picked it up right before you two got here," she pauses and looks behind, probably feeling guilty and assuming she's given the thing to the wrong person. Ocean and I look at each other with wide eyes. "Maybe there's a similar one, hold on—"