Love, Spy and Die

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Juliette

“We have all gathered here today due to the loss of 124 loved student, friends, and family members,” the principal spoke up on stage while he looked out on the huge crowd that was in front of the stage. It was a warm day, the sun was shining. Fresh spring air went into my lungs as I breathed in, a useless way of trying to calm myself down. Everyone was gathered in front of a stage outside that had been built up yesterday.

I looked down at Jaxon and our entwined hands, I stroke my thumb over his hand. He brought our hands up to his mouth and kissed my knuckles, a way of showing that he was still there, and that I wasn’t alone.

The principal was today dressed in an all-black suit, and behind him there were flowers in large vases. Each of every flower resembled each of the dead students, 124 students gone in the explosion. Somehow the principal haven’t used the word 'death´ in his speech, he has used words as ´gone´, ´on a better place´ and ´not here´. Maybe he didn’t want to hurt the close ones to the dead, or maybe he was to hurt to say it himself? But it can’t change the reality, the students are actually dead, they won’t come back, some of the students don’t even have a body left behind.

I looked down at my black heels and black dressed. My clothing was way too similar to everyone else’s clothes here. My hair was up in a bun. Earlier during the day, when I was going to get dressed I was not in the mood of going here. There would be so many students, parents and other acquaints to the dead students that I thought my heart would start aching together with theirs. I thought I was going to start crying, I thought that Jaxon would need to drag me out of there before I broke down totally. But here I stood, cold, frozen and empty. Not a single feeling was inside me, I didn’t feel anything, my eyes rested on the principal but I wasn’t present.

“To end this assembly I would like to do a minute of silence for the students and for the still missing Lucy Watson.”

As I heard her name something inside me broke and all my feeling started to flow back. First came sorrow and sadness, then anger and at last love. As a result I started crying, silent tears streamed down my cheeks. I stood there during the whole minute of silent, smothered by my own feelings. I wanted to walk away and sunk deep into my feelings, but I couldn’t it would be so disrespectful to the death students and all their loved. As soon as the principal started talking again I turned around and pushed myself out from the crowd. Worried eyes followed me as I walked away. It didn’t take even a minute before I heard his voice from behind me.

“Juliette wait!” shouted Jaxon after me. I stopped in my tracks and turned around to face a pale and sad looking Jaxon.

“I’m sorry I shouldn’t have run away like that, it’s so disrespectful against other people and the death, and mostly you,” I thought I said clearly but my voice only came out like a whisper.

Jaxon looked at me and then sighed. His hand went frustrated through his already messy brown hair. His eyes flickered from side to side and them he sighed again. When his eyes met mine again he had tears in his eyes. As soon as I saw them streaming down his cheeks I walked up to him and hugged him with all the love that I had left.

“Life is so hard without him, I miss him Julie, I want him back,” he hiccupped into my shoulder.

“I know, I know, I miss him too,” I whispered back and hugged him closer to me.

“If Josh wouldn’t have gone back for the other students he would have been alive, I should have stopped him, always the hero,” Jaxon mumbled to me. Tears were now streaming down my cheeks too and it felt like they never stopped. We both stood there crying until we couldn’t anymore. I don’t care if we stood there for hours or if it was just minutes because for that moment everything felt so real and not like a movie, and most of all I could relax from all the drama around me.

-

Later that night I sat on my bed as I usually do. A cup of tea was in my hand while my computer was on my lap. As always this time at night I was watching the video from the security cameras. For almost a month I have done the same thing for every night, watching and watching until 3 in the morning and then I went to sleep. Now it was almost midnight and my cup of tea was almost empty. I sat and watched the video forward and backwards and took simple of notes to small details I noticed that could help. Outside it was dark, the only light seeking in through my blinds was from the full moon. I slurped the last of the tea in my cup and was about to pause the video when I took notice of the millisecond of change in the video. It was the millisecond that I had been looking for, just a single little sign to work with and now I had seen it. I replayed the part of the video again and again to assure myself that I hadn’t imagined the change. But no, it was there, the little sign I had been looking for that felt like an eternity. But it was there. A large smile spread over my lips and I jumped out of my bed and squealed. I jumped around in the room and made a winner dance.

For the rest of the night I sat and worked on the small detail. I worked through Shawn’s barriers on the computer and after about three hours I was through.

The video was almost what I had expected. It started with a man in a hoodie walking through the long hospital, not trying to show the cameras his face. With quick steps he walked into Lucy’s room, closed the door. After what felt like a few minutes he walked out again with Lucy over his shoulder. As he ran out of the room he what seemed like planned hit Lucy’s head into the door and then he ran out of the hospital with an unconscious Lucy on his shoulder. As a result of him running his hood fell off his head and his face was shown to the cameras.

With a large grin on my face I dialled Scott, he said he would be here in a second. Finally we had traces after the bastard.

***

Hello! As a result of me having a writer’s block and a lot of assessments in school I haven’t been able to write a chapter for a while, and I’m sorry for that. Hope you like this chapter, I feel a little rusty after a month without any writing, hope its good enough though!

If you liked this chapter please vote, it will make me very happy! So please click the little vote button and without you knowing it you will have made my day! Have a wonderful day and thank you!

-                           Veronica