Spotlight |h.s|

Ninety Seven

A/N: Welcome to the last chapter of Spotlight :(

Reminder: There is a sequel to this book, so don't worry too much. I've posted the introduction chapter of the sequel, Untouchable, so you can add it to your library.

The song above ("Outro" by M83) fits well with the last bit of this chapter, particularly when it starts raining, but if you want to listen to it on repeat for the entirety of it, that's okay as well.

Enjoy how calm it's been recently while you can. They've deserved this break, but it'll all pick back up in Untouchable!

Aubrey Hart

It's now the first day of May, and I'm finally taking Harry on that date I mentioned to him when we first moved to Washington.

Too many things have been happening for us to get around to it sooner, so now we're finally doing it. The dust is beginning to somewhat settle, I guess.

We let Flora out last week per the vet's request, and she now lives in the woods behind our house. She stops by every so often, sitting on the back porch or being visible in the grass through the glass back door. She's fully healed and old enough to live alone, roaming around safely by herself now. As much as it hurt saying goodbye to having her full-time, we still see her around every few days.

Harry was especially sad about having to let her go whether he'd like to admit it or not, having a deep-rooted connection with bunnies in general. He explained to me one day that they represented luck and the promise of freedom to him as a child. The possibility of an escape from his life with Thomas. It helped me understand his liking for the animal a lot more.

He held her one last time with a sad look before we let her go, and was even bummed out for the rest of the day about it. Not genuinely sad, but still in a slightly lower mood than usual. She definitely liked him the most out of all of us, enjoying his company so much that she struggled to even walk away from him when we let her out.

On top of that, we've also been dealing with this entire situation with Gloria sending us one of Harry's baby pictures. Her sending one leads me to believe that others exist, but we'll probably never get ahold of them. What we're really worried about is her.

Her letter seemed a bit too vague and mysterious to mean anything good. She sounded like she knew she was in danger and leaving with something to remember her by. No matter what I do, who in LA I contact, nobody seems to have any clue as to where she is.

I've been told some things, but again, none of those things are good in the slightest. Her store is closed down, and I was the closest thing she had to family besides her cats. She didn't tell anybody about whatever was going on that caused her to close down the store. Nobody had much detailed information to give me, if any at all.

One of Harry and I's guards went to check on her house since we don't trust the police in that area, and he said that her cats hadn't been fed in weeks and the entire area was extremely unkempt. Nothing was packed, but some of her things seemed to be sporadically thrown around.

Like she was trying to get in something's way. Preventing herself from being hurt by someone.

Harry and I both know deep down who that someone has to be, but I'm remaining in denial since he's one of the hardest people to find. Someone Harry tried to keep an eye on for years for his own safety, and only found him when he intended to be found. He's good at going off the grid, which is exactly what he seems to be doing now.

Gloria's cats are now in a shelter, and Harry and I have paid people to be on the lookout for her just like they already are searching for Thomas. My guess is wherever he is, she's bound to be as well. Either that, or she's already gone. Gone at the hands of the one who also ended the life of Harry's mother. One of Gloria's dearest friends.