YOURS

Chapter 36

The fireworks were filling the air and I watched them only for a second at a time making sure to keep one eye always on the people around us.

Cole's theory was that Zac had eyes on us and had been waiting for us to leave the house. He wouldn't dare come in, not with Mark and Cole protecting me.

I wondered if it was only me he wanted, though. I'm sure he wouldn't just let Cole live.

Was his plan really to kill me? Or take me?

"Emily." Cole grabbed my attention away from my thoughts and to his face.

He looked troubled. His eyebrows furrowed and lips pouted.

"What is it?" I asked and squeezed his hand.

I had almost forgotten that I was holding it.

"I don't like being around all of these people. Bad things can happen in crowds." Cole looked to me.

I tilted my head. "Like what?"

Cole sighed. "I would often choose crowds as my victim pools. No one will notice if one person goes missing from 100 people."

It was scary to think Cole was thinking about his past, but also a little bit comforting that he was talking to me about it instead of letting it boil up inside of him until he explodes.

"Why are you thinking about that?"

Cole looked around us. "Zac wasn't like me. He liked to make a big scene. Take someone who would cause chaos. If he ever did it in a big crowd it was always somewhere he could make everyone give him attention. He'd stage things. Wedding crashes, funeral raids, school shootings.." Cole stopped talking.

He looked back to me and rubbed my hand knowing that's how I was taken the first time. Then he continued talking.

"The school..situation that we went through...it wasn't his style. He'd want everyone to still be there and experience the crazy that is him."

I was intrigued to hear this. Did Cole also think it wasn't Zac? Or maybe not just Zac?

"So you think that if he shows up tonight he'll make a big deal out of it?" I asked.

Cole nodded. "Yeah. That would be what he'd do...but based on what's already happened..who knows if we're really dealing with Zac..maybe someone else is pulling the strings and he's just apart of it."

Just then a bunch of gasps were taking over. I turned my eyes to the roof where the fireworks were being lit off.

There was a man who held a flaming bottle in his hand. He threw it down on a crowd of people.

Screams took over the gasps and people ran out of the way.

Cole instantly shot up.

"Something that would cause chaos....like that?" I gulped.

He still held my hand, both of our grips tightened as more bottles fell down from the sky and onto people.

Suddenly over our heads flew more. The was a fence in between us and the people who chunked them over. There were two people, both dressed in all black including a full face mask. They ran when we looked to them.

"We need to jump the fence." Cole told me.

I looked at him like he was insane.

"You mean where those guys are? Yeah, great idea." I was sarcastic.

"There is no way we're getting to my car with everyone panicking and trying to leave. My guess is there is someone waiting for us there anyway. We jump the fence and we run to somewhere else."