INTO

CHAPTER TWO

Gwen stood at the school's parking lot waiting impatiently for Lucy. After the unexpected kiss and unexplainable event that happened earlier, she could only became more curious about Adam. He kept on playing dumb acting like he had no idea what she was talking about but the nervousness in his voice made Gwen positive something was fishy.

They didn't speak to each other for the rest of the periods in class. It wasn't supposed to be unusual- it wasn't like they were talking buddies.

But they weren't buddies who had kissed either...

She had constantly tried to brush that thought away as she kept on staring at him. Imogen noticed, asked her if anything was wrong and of course, she denied anything unusual happening.

Her eyes were partially on her phone, also on him as she watched him secretly as he talked to one of the handful people he talked to. She just needed him to talk longer. At least until Lucy arrived.

There were two virtues she lacked right since she was little. One was patience and the other was being able to stay curious and leave her curiosity as it was. She just couldn't. Lucy had told her several times that curiosity killed the cat but in Gwen's opinion, curiosity killed the cat either because he just wasn't smart or because he was bound to die, curious or not.

And with that mentality, she retained her attitude of always satisfying her curiosity.

Lucy finally showed up and just as she hoped, Adam was till busy talking.

"Finally, Lucy. I thought you were never going to get here," she commented as she got into the car.

"I'm not that late, Gwen," Lucy laughed, adjusting her seat. "It's usually me waiting for you, today's just an exception."

"It sure is," she replied still looking at Adam. "I have something to do today. We're not heading home directly."

"Ah, that explains it," Lucy nodded, taking her hands away from the steering wheel. "So where are we going? A party?"

"No. We're going to be following someone."

"What?"

Gwen temporarily shifted her gaze from Adam to face Lucy. "You heard me, we're going to be following someone."

"Yeah, I heard you but my question's who? And why?"

"It's a long story," Gwen replied, already feeling burdened by the unwanted conversation. "All I can say right now is that you see that guy over there? Once he leaves, follow him. Quietly too."

"Why are we following a boy?" Lucy asked, annoying Gwen. "It's creepy and it's considered stalking."

"Okay, miss Lucy. It might be creepy and considered stalking but it's what I want to do. f**k rules, they're many to be broken. So please don't question me again and just do as I say."

"Gwen, I'm your guardian right now-"

"You get paid for your job," Gwen fired. "And if I remember correctly, your job includes keeping me company and doing just what I want to do. So do your job correctly, will you?"

Lucy bowed her head, pressing her lips together. "I'm sorry, Miss Patterson. I'll do exactly as I'm told."

Gwen rolled her eyes at Lucy's apology and resumed staring at Adam.

After about 10 minutes of staring, Adam turned to leave. Gwen immediately informed Lucy and they began tailing him.

He seemed to prefer walking to taking the bus. His ears had earphones plugged in them as usual and from how subconscious he seemed, Gwen doubted him ever realizing he was been followed.

"I'm sorry."

"What?" Lucy asked, eyes fixed on the boy she was tailing.

"I know you heard me," Gwen rolled her eyes. "I said I'm sorry. About... earlier. The way I spoke to you."

"Oh," Lucy was glad she was driving. "That way she could use having to keep her eyes on the road as an excuse for not looking at Gwen. "It's okay. You were right anyways. It's-"

"Don't even get me angry again by trying to justify anything," Gwen cut her off. "I'm sorry and that's it. Don't say anything else. And yes, I've told you to stop referring to me as 'Miss Patterson'. It's Gwen and if the urge to address me formally is so strong for you, just call me Gwendolyn."

"Okay, Gwen," Lucy laughed. "So, we're good?"

"Depends on what you mean by good."

"Good enough to ask you what the hell we're doing right now," Lucy whined. "C'mon Gwen, we've been following a total stranger for over an hour now. Where the hell does he live? At the end of the world? Why are we even following him?"

"Because he's weird, unusual and mysterious and I have to know why."

"Oh, Gwen," Lucy could have cried. "Your curiosity is really going to get you into trouble one day."

"Well, I'll be anticipating," she replied, grabbing a snack from the back seat. "He kissed me."

"Oh, well. I didn't see that coming."

"Yes," Gwen said, aggressively ripping the chip's bag open. "And he acts like nothing happened. I get that I wanted to kiss him initially but that was just then. He just kissed me out of the blue and now he's acting like nothing happened. The audacity. He's just a nerd. A loser that no one talks to at school and there's me. How could he even ignore me when I tried to start a conversation in the hallway. And you know that most annoying part, he said "Me staying away from him would be better for me". Did I include him saying he loves me? Gosh, he's a total psycho."

"Does Kareem know?"

"What the hell, Lucy!" Gwen exclaimed. "That's all you have to say?"

"Duh. Kareem's your boyfriend," she defended. "Isn't it weird you're kissing some other guy when you have a boyfriend?"

Gwen shook her head. "You're so 90s. Anyways, no, he doesn't know."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Whatever."

"But maybe the Adam of a dude is right. You said it yourself, you're popular and he's him. I don't think it'll be good for your reputation of it goes that you kissed him."

"Oh, you're right," Gwen calmed down. "I'll murder him if he tells a housefly we kissed."

"And you said he loves you. He might just love you so much he cares about your reputation."

"Oh shut it Lucy," Gwen shushed her. "That even gave me goosebumps."

Lucy giggled.

"Ah yes, remember the creepy nightmare i had? I think he's connected to it. He..."

"Hey hey, I think we should follow him by foot now," Lucy cut Gwen shut, pulling over. "He just turned into that street and it seems narrow. We'll be too obvious.

"Oh, okay," Gwen replied, unbuckling her seatbelt. "Let's go then."

Lucy locked the car as they both got down. Gwen adjusted her hair as she looked around. She and Lucy had gotten so lost in their conversation they hadn't realized how far they had gone.

The place looked so unfamiliar. It was meant to be unfamiliar since it wasn't where she lived but it felt even more unfamiliar. The streets were dusty and thanks to the unusual amount of trees around, there were thousands of fallen leaves littering. The weather was getting dark and together with the empty atmosphere, it made the place... creepy.

"He can't live here," Lucy commented. "It looks like a location for a horror movie. He's prolly just here for a reason."

"Creepy. Mysterious and weird," Gwen replied. "Do you finally see what I was talking about?"

"The only thing I can see is myself getting home," Lucy was tired. Her voice said it all. "By the way where did he disappear to? Don't tell me we just lost him."

"I don't see him anywhere so I guess we did," Gwen bit her lip. "But it's okay. He's definitely around. It doesn't look like there's a lot of places to hide around here anyways."

They walked side by side looking for him or where he might have gone to. The houses around were empty and looked abandoned. As they walked further, they realized they were the only ones walking in the area.

"I don't see him," Lucy key out. "I think we should just go back."

"Not after coming this far," Gwen replied as she kept on walking. "I just thought about this but what if I catch him doing something he normally shouldn't be doing. It'll be perfect for me to use to threaten him to keep his mouth shut."

"Look!" Lucy exclaimed, pointing to a house few meters away from them. "It looks different from the other abandoned houses here. You think he went in there?"

"I bet he did," Gwen clapped her hands, looking at the building. It looked like a duplex built years ago. The paint was worn out and it actually looked like the only building anyone would consider going into. "Let's go."

They climbed the stairs of the house, staring at the door as they got to the entrance.

"Knock."

Lucy nodded, knocking the heavy door.

No response.

Gwen stepped forward and knocked the door again.

Still no response.

"Well, we tried to be polite," Gwen said as she pushed the door open. To her surprise, it flew open.

They held hands as they slowly stepped in, revealing a huge room. The house was wider than it seemed from the exterior view. Just as expected, it looked like a house built ages ago. The furnitures were old fashioned, old pictures hanging around and the chandelier was broken.

"Are you sure he came here?"

"I guess," Gwen replied, unsure. "Hello?"

The only response she got was the echo of her voice.

"You know what, let's go back," Gwen finally said to Lucy. "I don't like it here."

"Finally you're being reasonable," Lucy replied, gladly. "Let's go. You'll see him at school tomorrow."

"Yeah."

They walked back towards the door that was still wide open. As they only few inches away from it, it flew shut.

"What was that?"

"Just the wind."

Lucy nervously moved towards the door and tried pushing it open. Gwen watched her try for a whole before also joining her on a useless attempt to open it.

"It's locked, Gwen," Lucy said, her voice beginning to have fear in it. "I don't know how but it's locked."

"No, it's not possible," Gwen was about to say but was cut short by a loud noise.

"Someone's here," Gwen whispered, watching Lucy in fear. Almost immediately, they heard another loud noise from something falling to the floor.

They both turned to see what falled. It was a coffin.

"What's that?" Gwen whispered, walking backwards. "It's not what I think it is, is it?"

Suddenly, they felt a rush of cold air around the room followed by weird sounds and whispers. The voices began to get louder and closer.

"Gosh."

"I've always wanted to be your friend," she continued. "And you've always shoved me away cause you said I was too timid so I decided to follow you here to show I am not timid."

Lucy burst into laughter. "Forgive me, but this is hilarious."

"Listen here Tina, you're timid," Gwen began. "Your stupid idea to stalk me to make me think otherwise didn't work out- I mean you just proved it by screaming out so loudly."

"But Gwen..."

"We are in the middle of nowhere presently! Don't you understand. Why the hell did you have to tag along?!"

"To show I'm not a scared cat!" Tina insisted.

Gwen opened her mouth in an attempt to say something but was cut short by the voice again..

"Is this a sort reunion?"

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa," the girls screamed even louder than before.

Suddenly, a huge dragon flew around the house. It was crazy. It almost felt like a nightmare. A dragon. A actual dragon was flying around the house.

The girls couldn't believe their eyes. With breathes so loud it filled the room, they tiptoed quietly and crouched under the stairs on Gwen's cue. It spotted them immediately and flew towards them.

"Okay. So this is gonna be the end."

"Shut the hell up," Gwen snapped at Tina, obviously irritated.

The dragon flew closer towards them as they tried to move away from it.

"Hop on," the dragon said to them in a human voice.

What?

"Now talking dragons," Lucy was panicking. "Oh, Gwen."

They got up, the trio immediately walking backwards in to run.

"Guys, hop on," the dragon said, Gwen stopping.

"Let's hop on," Gwen said. She had no idea why but she wanted to. It didn't scare her. Instead, she felt a weird type of connection. "My heart tells me to."

"Your heart told you to come here," Lucy reminded her.

"I will hop on," Tina said surprising them. She moved closer, nervously as she walked over to the dragon. She placed her hand on its rough skin as she jumped on it.

"Come on, Lucy," Gwen called out to Lucy who insisted on not hopping. "Just trust me."

"Fine."

The dragon flew around the house ignoring the stairs. Gwen's heartbeat could be heard as it beat nervously. Tina was on the verge of tears but kept it in trying to be brave.

Gwen hopped down. Finally taking horse riding lessons were useful. She held Lucy as she helped her down. She stretched out her hand to help Tina also but she refused.

Gwen looked around her. They were in a small space that looked like an attic room. The room screamed dirty as Gwen walked at around it. It had had a small window, the size of her pocket mirror.

"Um... Thank you?" Gwen said to the dragon. She'd never thought she'd face a dragon in her whole life, not to talk of thanking one. She didn't even believe they existed.

The dragon lowered its wings. "It's me."

What?

"What? You? Who?" Gwen asked, nervously. "Am I really talking to a dragon that claims to know me now."

The dragon moved back, its heavy steps making thunderous sounds. Suddenly a dim of light shimmered over it almost blinding Gwen. The light got enveloped in a blanket of smoke and then she saw Adam standing right there.

"Ad... No... No," Gwen muttered stepping back. "Someone pinch me. I gotta be dreaming."

Tina stared at Adam like her eyes were about to pop out of their socket. "My... ster... ious... Adam.

It was him. Mysterious Adam. Mysterious Adam Caesar.