Facade [h.s]

thirty-three

"Have you two gone mad?" Indigo said, sending us a serious look from where she was sitting on the couch. "That has to be the stupidest idea I've ever heard."

"We don't have a better option" I replied. I was all too aware it sounded bad - and it was - but what else could we have done? We were stuck, and that was the only way out I could see.

She raised an eyebrow, not seeming impressed in the slightest. "So the best one is to ask someone who murdered multiple people?"

I glanced at Harry at her words just to discover that he was already looking at me, and I rolled my eyes at the sarcastic glance he sent my way.

"If there was an other option, we'd go for it. But there isn't" I said, moving my gaze to Indigo again, knowing that I had to be the one to convince her. Harry already thought it was a bad idea, he wouldn't have lifted a finger to get her on board. Sometimes I wondered if he had any instinct of survival at all.

"I repeat, you are crazy" Indigo told me, shaking her head.

I felt a little nervousness wash over me. There was no way Harry would've let me go alone, I knew that. "So are you not going to help us?"

"I didn't say that" she replied, "we can work something out."

"Good" I said with a nod, not wasting any time in standing up. "Let's go."

She gave me a weird glance. "Now?"

"We only have a week" I told her in reply. It wasn't a long time, and we had to have time to work something else out if Joel would've said no. We had to be prepared and find a way to pay that money back, because would've been in danger otherwise.

"True" she said, standing up as well. She didn't seem to completely agree with my idea, but she agreed enough to help me out, so I really couldn't have complained.

I frowned in the second Harry stood up. "Uh, no. You stay here" I told him. I had no intention of letting him go close to Joel ever again.

He sent me an unimpressed glance. "Excuse me?"

"He literally wants to kill you. You aren't getting any close to him" I let him know. I didn't know if he'd supposed I'd only been kidding for all that time, but I was indeed very serious. I didn't want him to put himself in harm's way.

Harry sighed. "Let me at least drive you" he said, "you don't know what will happen. You might need someone to drive away quickly."

I bit the inside of my cheek, considering his offer. It would've indeed been a good thing to drive there as we would've been able to leave quicker if something had happened, but I really didn't like the idea of Harry waiting in front of Joel's house alone.

"He has a point" Indigo interjected, giving me a little shrug and making me wonder whose side she was on.

I sighed, giving up. I really didn't like it, but I knew it was a good idea. "Okay" I said, giving him a serious look. "But you stay in the car! Okay?"

It was clear that he found the boundaries I was putting around him annoying, but he went with it anyway, seeming to understand that it wasn't the right time to start having a discussion about it. "Okay."

The car ride wasn't particularly long, but it was way silent than I would've preferred. In the silence, it was impossible not to think of what was about to happen.

I hadn't seen Joel since the day he'd threatened Harry with that broken bottle. Only about a week had gone by since then, but it felt like a century. Way too many things had happened since that night, to the point that it almost felt like it belonged to another life.