Chapter 8 - GrayShollow
1028 Words
The drive stretched longer than Sierra expected.
The highway ran in long, steady lines beneath her, cutting through open land that slowly replaced everything familiar behind her. Towns grew smaller, then fewer, until even the noise of movement felt distant. She didn’t turn the radio on. The silence inside the car felt easier to sit with than anything that might pull her attention away from the thoughts she wasn’t ready to unpack.
An hour passed without anchoring itself to anything specific.
Her hands stayed on the wheel. Sometimes steady. Sometimes tighter than she noticed. The road held her attention, but her mind kept drifting back into places she wasn’t trying to return to. The motel parking lot. The stillness of Jax standing beside his bike. The conversation that didn’t resolve anything, only confirmed what had already broken.
She didn’t stop the thoughts. She just kept driving through them.
The world around her changed gradually as Grayshollow approached. The roads shifted first, less structured than Dead Mile territory. Buildings followed, scattered differently, shaped more by use than control. Everything felt looser, like the town had grown into itself without needing permission from anything larger.
She slowed as she crossed the boundary without a sign marking it.
Grayshollow didn’t announce itself. It arrived in fragments, one street at a time, until she was already inside it before she fully realized she had crossed over.
Tessa’s directions guided her through unfamiliar turns. Left. Right. Another street that narrowed before opening again. Each turn pulled her further into a place she hadn’t stepped into for a long time, even if part of her recognized it before she admitted it.
Eventually, she found the building.
A modest structure set slightly back from the road. No effort spent on appearance. No attempt to stand out. It looked functional in the most honest way, shaped by use rather than design.
Private Investigation Office.
The sign outside was simple enough to fade into the background if someone wasn’t looking for it.
Tessa would have preferred it that way.
Sierra parked and stayed in the car for a moment longer than necessary. Her hands rested on the steering wheel while she looked at the building. Arrival didn’t land all at once. It came in stages, like her body needed time to accept she had reached a place she chose rather than one she escaped into.
Eventually, she stepped out.
The air outside felt different. Not lighter, not heavier. Separate. Like it didn’t belong to anything she had left behind.
She closed the car door and stood still for a moment, adjusting to the stillness of being somewhere that didn’t move with her memories.
The front door opened before she reached it.
“Don’t stand there looking like you’re about to change your mind,” Tessa called out.
Sierra looked up.
Tessa stood in the doorway, leaning casually against the frame like she had been there for a while already. Long red hair pulled back loosely, strands slipping free around her face as if structure had never fully agreed with her. One hand rested on the doorframe, the other held a coffee.
Her eyes moved over Sierra in a single pass, quick and assessing.
“You look like hell,” Tessa said.
Sierra exhaled slowly.
“Good to see you too.”
Tessa stepped aside.
“Come on. Before you turn the parking lot into your new home.”
Sierra moved forward.
Crossing the threshold felt heavier than she expected, even if nothing about the space demanded it. The office carried a lived-in familiarity that didn’t belong to her anymore, but still sat somewhere close to memory. A desk stood against one wall, worn at the edges from constant use. Files were stacked in uneven piles, not careless, just busy. The air held a permanent trace of coffee that never fully left.
It wasn’t polished. It was real.
Tessa closed the door behind her and leaned against it for a moment, watching Sierra properly now that she was inside.
“You drove straight?” she asked.
“About an hour,” Sierra replied.
“And no stops?”
Sierra shook her head.
Tessa gave a faint nod. “Either improving or shutting down.”
A small smile crossed Sierra’s face before fading.
Tessa pushed off the door and stepped closer, stopping at a distance that kept space between them without disconnecting the moment.
“You eaten?” she asked.
“I don’t think so.”
“That wasn’t a question.”
Sierra let out a quiet breath, tension easing slightly without permission.
Tessa glanced at the suitcase near her feet.
“You’re staying here,” she said.
Sierra didn’t answer immediately.
Tessa waited.
“Si.”
A pause settled between them.
Then Sierra nodded once.
“Yeah,” she said quietly. “I’m staying.”
Tessa’s expression shifted for a second, something subtle passing behind her eyes before she looked away again, as if holding onto anything softer would make everything harder to manage.
“Good,” she said. “I wasn’t in the mood to chase you across another emotional spiral.”
That pulled a small, real laugh from Sierra, brief but enough to break through the weight she had been carrying since she left the motel.
Tessa moved past her already, slipping back into motion like she never stopped working.
“Coffee first,” she said. “Then you tell me everything. Slowly. In order. And if you skip anything, I’ll make you start over.”
Sierra followed her deeper into the office.
The space felt quieter now that she was inside it. Not empty. Just contained. Like the outside world had been left behind at the door.
Tessa set her coffee down on the desk and started shifting papers aside without looking at them too closely.
Sierra stood near the center of the room for a moment, unsure what part of her was supposed to move first.
Tessa glanced back at her.
“Start where?” she asked.
Before Sierra could answer, the phone on the desk rang.
Once.
Then again.
Tessa didn’t reach for it immediately.
She looked at Sierra instead.
The ringing continued.
- Writer
