Chapter 3
1413 Words
Astrea POV
The tremor of my hands.
The everlasting pain slicing my heart... my inside.
Despite the passing of long hours, I couldn't get them to stop. I couldn't. I couldn't. And when I tried to shove the bitter lump from my throat, tears swelled and fogged my eyes.
Fighting to stop them from rolling, I cupped my already covered face.
"You can cry. I won't tell a soul," Alex wrapped her arms around me, and it was enough to get me crying for God's sake a thousand times. "It's okay. It's okay. Everything will be okay."
My lips quivered, "H-How... H-How... W-What..."
I couldn't get any proper words out. I couldn't.
I couldn't,
I... I failed. I failed to protect my only son.
I failed as a mother.
I failed.
...
"The last location on his GPS was here," Alex drove us to a remote area, nudging her head to an abandoned building that looked like an old school surrounded by thick forest on top of a mountain.
The drive was long, and the rays didn't seem to reach the ground.
"Some authorities wiped the place clean two days ago, not long after I got your call," Alex pulled over. "At first, I thought it was the police, but none of my team nor anyone I knew from the force was there. Even the report issued by the teacher was scooped away."
Scooped away?
"Cleansed?" I breathed it out after so many difficulties.
"Yeah."
As I pulled the doorknob, "Girl wait," Alex stopped me and held my arm.
"It's not something a hu... a girl like you should see."
Winching my right eye, I could see right through Alex's concern. We had been friends for ages, and she had been there through my ups and downs, and so do I for her.
And in all those years, I knew that she wasn't like me, nor was I like her.
When I meant us not being alike, it was down to our core. To what gave birth to us into this world, and I never asked her once about what she is, because I am afraid.
I am afraid of losing my best friend.
"Alex," I said softly, dried of tears and sniffled the remaining snoots. "I need to see it for myself."
Alex's glassy brown eyes wavered, and she finally released the breath she held back with an answer. "Fine, after this. Right after this not so good sightseeing, you are doing it my way."
I didn't respond so little with a nod.
The walk-up towards the abandoned building was dark and cold. Straight out of a horror movie where all those freakish ghosts jump out of the shadows and bushes.
The normal me would freak out, avoiding such places, but not today.
Not today.
Screeching came when Alex pulled the run-down gate, and she offered a hand, which I took and held it tight just as much as she did.
"I have come here twice. The first time, when I checked the GPS, and second, it was right after the force sent here left the scene."Alex freed my hand.
"And twice... no, the third time, today."
Alex hugged her body, running her hands up and down, and she was right, this place was cold, extremely cold, but it wasn't enough to stop me from climbing towards the entrance.
Traces of footsteps were everywhere, but the horror Alex warned me about had not surfaced.
Or so I thought.
The instance, a stench hit my nose, my knees gave away and I hit the wall.
"Leah!" Alex called out and tapped my back. "Do you wish to go forward?"
My entire body failed me.
The rotten smell filled my lungs, blurring all sane thoughts, or rather, wiped away all hopes I clung onto to find Kayden as I wept in Alex's arms again.
...
It was two AM on a Saturday night, and I was dead on my back.
The clattering of glass from beyond the closed door sent me sitting, aching from the long grieving and I pushed, forced myself onto my feet, which resulted in me hitting the floor with my entire body.
It had been an entire two days since I blacked out and was unable to move.
And it had been hours since I last saw Alex, which I dreaded after we fought either to send me to the hospital or her home, which the latter won, and I was partially glad.
Glad to be alone and away.
"You looked awful," I said to the silhouette laying her head on the kitchen counter with a hand on an empty bottle of water.
Slowly, the brown eyes with dark circles around them met mine.
"Tell that to the mirror," She chuckled and buried her head again.
Unlike me, Alex always had an abundance of energy. She had always been more fit and beautiful among us, and the bravest, full of courage.
For her to be this way meant something deeper.
I strode towards her, pulled a frozen piece of food from the fridge and placed it into the microwave. "When was the last time you ate?"
Another chuckle escaped, and I could guess what she would spout.
'Tell that to the mirror.'
"Tell that to the mirror," Alex's answer was spot on.
Sitting across from Alex, I brought my knees up to my chest.
"Alex,"
"Leah," we called each other simultaneously.
"You first," I told Alex, and she shook her head in denial, breathing in deeply and raised her head, revealing the haggard face as if she had aged ten years within a single night.
My fingers danced and my toes curled.
"You are not thinking of..." Alex trailed, and I jerked my head up, interrupting whatever thoughts might flash into that head of hers.
"I haven't said a word."
"You said plenty. And those eyes. I don't like it."
The beeping of the microwave saved us from the argument, and I moved my heavy a** from the chair, but Alex was faster as she rounded the counter and blocked my path.
Her eyes turned their shades, and the shuddering sensation rippled through my skin.
A feeling I had not felt for ages.
"You are not going there again. I do not permit you out of this house. Not even when the sun's up and-" "Alex! Kayden's out there. I know it. I can feel it in my bones."
The fact that I was hogging and shaking Alex came unconsciously.
"I needed to. He is my son. I won't stop until Kayden is in my arms again."
...
Many hours later.
The motorbike beneath me vibrated, vrooming a ferocious sound.
Alex's glove fitted me just like her lightweight windbreaker armored my body. Looking all young and youthful, where the old me would drool over this, but not now.
Not when I finally fulfill one of my fantasies.
Alex came out, hugging a helmet that looked like it was unboxed a minute ago. "Here. Something I kept for such... ride." She trailed at the end.
The helmet was rather sporty and expensive like hell.
"Thanks. Thank you for everything."
Alex glared and clenched her jaw, "Na ah. You are not allowed to say something like that. Not in a thousand years, even in the after life."
She worked out something on her spare phone and placed it on the holder.
"Remember what I told you?" Alex asked. Her eyes were fixated on the screen while I nodded. "All the locations of that guy are here. I have saved them all, and all you gotta do is..."
"Don't screw this up, then it already is."
Raising her head to meet mine, Alex nodded and released a hard breath onto my face.
The locks of brown hair of hers were pulled into a tight bun. Looking better than how she was last night and the uniform suited her favorably.
"Don't get yourself killed. I will update you on the intel I gathered from HQ, and please, please, don't do anything reckless." Alex pleaded sternly.
The only answer I was able to say was, "I will. I will not back down until I get my son back. I can promise you that."
Despite my confidence, I was scared.
Too scared of what I will find and what might happen next.
But not finding Kayden... it scared the life out of me, countering the rest of my fears.
"God Speed,"
"God Speed to us, both."
- Writer
