One By One (editing)

Chapter Seventeen

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Music drifted from the speakers and I tapped my foot to the intense beat, driving along to the bass. It was a comforting feeling and I couldn't help but smile at my temporary safety bubble.

Gabe drove for hours outside of the edge of town, stopping only once to eat our untouched lunches for dinner. It wasn't until dusk began to settle, and after I'd looked up from my phone when I jerked up, suddenly and instantly alert. I kept my left hand enclosed in Gabe's but gripped the door handle with my right hand.

"Stop," I commanded, then, "slow down."

The car skidded to a halt on the empty back road and I spun my head around, taking in my surroundings. There were simple one-story and two-story homes spaced out along the road shaded by trees spaced out in between. But that wasn't what I recognized. It was the long driveway spitting out of each house's garage to the road that was familiar. I closed my eyes, remembering the car ride roughly ten years when my whole family, in two cars, drove down this road. I don't know how Gabe got here, through a series of random left and rights I guessed.

"Keep going straight. Past the house with the dark blue shutters there's going to be a sharp curve to the....right," I tested out my memory, leaning forward in my seat to see if I was right.

Gabe threw me a funny look but pressed on the accelerator, and sure enough, I was right. After the house with the dark blue shutters, he eased the steering wheel right into the tight curve, momentarily taking his right hand away from mine to assist his left in controlling the wheel. A small smirk settled on his lips.

"What?" It came out like a nervous laugh.

""You were right," he shook his head, his smirk growing wider.

"Why would you even considering doubting me."

He answered with a shrug. After a moment, he added, "But that means you know where we are. Since so many of your siblings left in such a short amount of time, whether they were kidnapped or they drove off like Luke, it's safe to assume that this isn't just a kidnapping, and there's a connection. Which means that you finding this area familiar could lead to finding out where they are."

I swiveled my head around the outside of the car. The winding road dipped so grass walls rose up out of the gravel around us. It was harder to distinguish any recognition I had of the area in the dying light.

"Didn't you also say something about your, uh, your uh..." His eyebrows knitted together in frustration before snapping his fingers at me in jubilance. "Aunt! Yeah, aunt. You were coming out of art and you looked really confused or something when I asked you about your sketch. But you said it was your aunt in the picture."

If what Gabe's saying is right, then Aunt Mary plays a part in this. If my sketch is right, than my aunt-

"Wait," I blurted, lurching forward. My hand slipped from his as I gripped the rounded edge of the car door. Before the car managed to come to a complete stop, I unlocked the door and flew out.

"Carter!" he shouted as he slammed on the brakes. I could hear him put it in park behind me, his footsteps running up to join me.

Something was here. I knew it, it was just a nagging feeling that refused to go away that invaded as soon as I laid eyes on it. As soon as we rounded the corner, past the grassy hill where groups of trees clustered around each other was a long driveway. But it was so long that it acted as a road. The approaching dark made it difficult to see past the trees but I was slightly confident that there was another driveway leading to a house farther back on the road. I don't know how I knew, it was just like I remembered it from some distant memory. I closed my eyes, envisioning myself as a little girl weaving in and out of the trees towards a cozy house filled with a garden in the front and a well in the back. Yeah, I'd definitely been here before. Although, the reason as to why was unclear.