Lunatics {Book 1 ✔️}

Chapter 20

"So he just left you in the middle of the parking lot?"

Tilly seemed just as shocked as I was at Tucker's behavior the night before. She munched on the questionable cafeteria food and I barely glanced at it.

"Yep."

"And then what?" She asked, "he just went inside? And left with Rose right after?"

"Uh...yeah. Basically."

"Wow. What a head-case."

I nodded my agreement and pursed my lips. At least she didn't find the story amusing like Ben did when I told him. He thought that his brother almost kidnapping me was funny and I had to punch him in the arm. Which, of course, bruised me instead of him.

"Did Gray say anything about it?"

"No. He hasn't talked to me since then. I texted him to apologize but he didn't answer. I don't really blame him. He was gone when I went back in."

She pushed some weird meat around on her plate and then pushed the tray away from her in disgust.

"What about Tucker?"

I groaned. "If I saw him, I'd run him over with my bike."

She laughed and we continued to catch up over what we did that weekend. Both of us waited for Ben to arrive, but he was nowhere to be found. His absence made me anxious and I only imagined the worst. After the lunch bell rang, Harry joined us and walked side by side with Tilly keeping up a steady conversation.

The two of them seemed to really hit it off which I found hilarious. Tilly, in her Dead Kennedy's band t-shirt, and Harry in his Polo made me laugh. Out of the three of us, my mom had changed the most but she was closely followed by Harry.

Both of them, at the core, were still the same but their outward appearance now seemed to reflect the new life in West Acres. The new life that was given to us by a possible sociopathic killer.

But I decided not to dwell on that.

-well, at least not until I had proof.

When I got home that evening, I decided it was time to find proof of Owein's fraternization with the hunters that were after the Joy family. He said he wouldn't be home till dinner tonight when we were having guests over. I figured I had at least an hour or two before he'd be home. Plenty of time to answer some questions.

His office, not unexpectedly, was huge and regal. Dark wood covered the walls and floor with a delicate painting of aspen trees hanging above the back of his desk. The desk itself was an intimidating figure. The legs of the table were ornate and decorative with small leaves carved into them in big looping waves.

I sat in the chair for a moment and laid my hands, palm down, on the face of the desk. My eyes closed and I searched for any residual energy pulses from the room. There was nothing. The ley lines were quiet and the room was just that, a room. No scene played before me.

A deep sigh escaped my lips as I realized I would have to do my investigation the old fashioned way. Pulling open drawers, I began sifting through the random items that were inside. Other than learning that Owein was a huge neat freak, there was nothing out of the ordinary. Most of the contents in the drawer consisted of bills and other things related to his business.

I was sifting through some Manila envelopes when a small blue card dropped to the floor by my foot. It was only a name and a phone number. My eyes scrunched at the last name.

Galloway.

The card slipped from my fingers when I finally remembered why it was so familiar. Before I knew what I was doing, my fingers were dialing the number on the card and pressing the phone to my ear.

There was a click. Then a voice.

"Hello?" Rose answered.

My breath hitched and I hung up. Why did Owein need the Galloway's number? It could've just been for work, but I felt the strangeness of it in the desk. The blue note was the only thing to have piqued my interest. This was what I'd come to find. I just didn't know what it meant.

"Lou!"

I practically jumped from the chair when I heard my mother yelling down the hallway. Scrambling, I made my way to the door before she could catch me in her fiancé's office- that would be a little difficult to explain.

"There you are, sunshine. Owein says he'll be a little earlier than expected and our guests will be arriving soon. Why don't you go clean up?"

I looked down at the outfit I wore to school and saw no visible problem with it. My mom narrowed her eyebrows.

"It's supposed to be a little fancy," she reminded me sternly.

I gaped at her. The woman who used to dribble beer down her Lynard Skynard t-shirt and then suck it up was telling me to get 'fancy.'

Eventually, I figured changing was quicker than arguing. As I changed into the yellow cocktail dress my mom laid out for me, I strongly contemplated an escape out the window. Still concerned about the note I'd seen in Owein's desk, I began millennial snooping.

And by "millennial snooping" I meant stalking all of Rose's social media for anything strange. Before I could find anything good, the doorbell rang and our guests were here.

As I descended the staircase, I could focus on nothing else but Rose's involvement with Owein. She wasn't supernatural, I knew that. I could sense nothing from her. But I couldn't get that card out of my mind.

"Lou," mom called and I followed the sound of her voice.

What I saw when I entered the dining room shocked me to my core.

"Lou, these are the Galloway's."

My heart stopped as I took in two unfamiliar people sitting at the head of the table and Rose's familiar figure sitting at the end of the table. Next to her, with a clean and simple smile, was the red-headed hunter from my visions.