Finding Ford

chapter six

"Like a deer in the headlights, I meet my fate." -Bring Me The Horizon, Deathbeds

I DON'T GET A BLINK OF SLEEP THAT night. Even when my mom comes up to my room, offering me some tea to relax me a bit, I decline. I shouldn't be allowed to be warm, relaxed and rested when Ford is somewhere out there, probably hurt, tired, cold... or dead.

Jas is quite the opposite of me. Before we parted ways, she was rubbing her forehead, saying how she needed an Aspirin and twenty hours of sleep. Maybe it's just the thoughts running through my head at thousands of miles per hour, but I can't find it in myself to just sleep. Then again, Jas has always been the type to be able to shut off everything if it meant a good nap.

Flashes of the jewellery box keep flashing in my mind. Every time I blink, it comes back stronger, splashes of dark, dark blood decorating it. The look on the officer's face when we had brought them to it was one of plain horror that they hadn't even bothered to mask. It was obvious that this was bad, very bad.

Why was Ford just carrying around the jewellery box anyway? Last I checked, Mr. Stevens had it in the workshop to mark for his final projects. Could Ford have broken in to get it last minute? Maybe he wanted us to find the box, as a sort of statement?

It's one in the morning when I realize I'm not going to be sleeping. I get up from bed, tossing on a big sweater over my shirt to keep from being cold and flick on my table lamp. I may as well catch up on English homework.

I pull out my copy of Charles Dickson's unfinished book. I remember reading a summary on it earlier- how they found Edwin's stuff on a hill too after he went missing, just like they had found Ford's things in the woods. And, funnily enough, Edwin had just left his fiancée, just like Ford left Victoria. And, in the book, they had broken up because of Jasper, similarly how Luke had broken up Ford and Victoria...

Wait.

x

"Are you insane?" Jas simply asks.

"No!" I counter. "Jas, I know this sounds crazy, but..."

"But, what?" Jas snorts, lazily balancing her pencil between her fingers. "You think that Wilson is pulling an 'Edwin Drood'?"

I almost groan out loud. We're in English class, both of our copies laying in front of us. I pick up one of them and wave it in front of her face. "Can't you see, though? Almost everything is the same!"

"By everything you mean they both go missing?"

I open up the book to point at the page. "Look. The last place Edwin was seen was a watch shop, and the last place Ford was seen was the workshop. That's similar, right?"

"No."

"And Edwin was going to marry this girl named Rosa, but a guy named Jasper breaks them up because he believes Edwin isn't good for her. Ford was dating Victoria, but that went downhill after Luke came into the picture." When Jas doesn't interrupt, I take that as a cue to continue. "Then, a couple of days after he goes missing, they find some of his stuff on the hill. Sound familiar?"

I almost think Jas agrees with me. She's squinting at the book, eyes scanning the pages. But when she looks up, she just sighs. "Ava, I love you. But you always do this."

"Do what?"

"Get too obsessed! Do you even realize how obscured you sound right now? You need to calm down. This isn't some cheesy book where you're going to be able to 'figure out the mystery.' This is real life. And I hate to inform you, Ava, but you need a wake up call. This is harsh, but there's a good chance he's dead."