Shadows Peak |✔

Chapter 49: Jasper

"I don't understand," Jasper said, shaking his head as his piercing blue eyes looked at the screen.

He was at his uncle's property, in a small control tower that was only used when he was taking off or landing a plane, but it also had a tracer screen that showed the location of trackers related to his deliveries. His uncle simply typed in the identification number attached to the one he had given Sydney, and now he was looking at her current location, but it made no sense to him.

"Are you sure you put in the right number?" he asked, hoping for a mistake.

"Yes, nephew. That's her tracker," Chip answered, looking at the screen. "Your girl is on the move."

"But, why? And why go there of all places?! To Shadows Peak?!"

His mind kept replaying everything he had learned of the forbidden place. The black mountains had a reputation that kept everyone from entering them, not wanting to risk what Freeman and his pioneers experienced. Everyone except, Syd, apparently. He had been taught that people died, lost their minds, and even vanished; he hated thinking of any of those things happening to Sydney.

"Is there any way this isn't her?" he asked, despite knowing it was a dumb question.

His uncle looked at him for a moment before shrugging. "Well, I guess it's possible some bird ate it and it has yet to leave its system. Or maybe she threw it and it's still going, soaring through the air like-"

"Uncle Chip."

"Alright, alright, no time for jokes," Chip respected, getting serious again. "Honestly, Jasper, I think she's coming back," he said.

Jasper's heart swelled at the posibility that after all this time, he'd be able to see Sydney again. Unfortunately, that feeling dropped when he remembered what she was coming home to.

"But, she can't! We haven't fixed everything yet! I mean, we're close, but there are still things we need to do!"

"Then I suggest you get on it, because that girl is on her way here, and by the look of things, you've got less than a week if she keeps up this pace."

Nodding his head while stressfully gazing at the screen, Jasper let out a built up sigh as his eyes honed in on the slowly blinking red light that showed him where Sydney was.

He assumed she must have been in some kind of trouble in the west to risk coming back, and if that were the case, she really needed him to have cleared her name. He was stripped of time, but was far from giving up.

"Okay," he said, accepting the circumstances and adjusting to them. "Keep me posted on her location if you can, Uncle Chip," he requested as he started to leave. "I've got some work to do."

"You sure do, Nephew."

As Jasper drove back to campus, his mind drifted to a memory he hadn't realized he still held, crystal clear in his mind.

"Keep your shoulders relaxed, Syd. When you raise them up like that, it's a dead giveaway of your next move. It makes you predictable," I told her as she held her fists up by her face, her eyes glued to the punch mitts I had on my hands.

She was angry, for reasons only I and Liz knew. She had just turned sixteen a few days ago, but her birthday was something she never looked forward to. It only reminded her of the man and woman that gave her up, and she hated thinking of them.

As she got ready to throw another punch, I moved out of the way, dodging it completely. She huffed in frustration, but still was not taking my advice.