"I swear, if I'm dying tonight because of you, I'm gonna haunt your ass so hard, Harrington!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah! I'm gonna go full Poltergeist and shit!"
"Then bring it, Graveswood."
"Challenge accepted."
***
In which after years of suppressing their...
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Chapter One-Hundred-And-Sixteen: Confessions And Realisations
(The Bite, Pt. 4)
***
Rowan stood in the corridor, her heart palpitating in her chest.
There was no sign of Steve, Robin or Valerie anywhere. The three had vanished.
Or recaptured.
Rowan shook the terrifying thought aside as she looked at Dustin and Erica, the latter asking, "Where did they go?"
"I don't know. I wasn't keeping an eye on them," Dustin snapped back.
"Well I'm sorry I can't babysit your ice cream buddies every second," Erica sassed with a hand propped on her hip.
"You didn't need to, you just needed to check that—"
"Enough!" Rowan snapped, glaring at Dustin and Erica. "We're not gonna find them if you two argue, so shut it and help me fucking find them, okay?"
Erica and Dustin looked at each other, before they mumbled, "Okay."
"Good. Now, we're gonna search this cinema. If they're not here, we're gonna try looking in the rest of the mall. Got it, brats?" Rowan said, deciding on a plan.
"We'd have better luck if we split up," Dustin suggested, but the withering glare Rowan sent had him wilting. "Never mind."
"Okay. Come on. Let's get a move on," Rowan ordered, and the three began their search—looking in the other theatres, checking the lobby and behind the counter, even back out into that delivery corridor. But nothing.
They weren't here.
Turning to the kids, Rowan pulled them in close and said, "Okay. Here's the new plan. We're gonna split up—"
"I thought we weren't splitting up," Erica pointed out.
"Well, you and Dustin are sticking together and checking out the rest of the cinema and everything around it. I'll look for them on my own in the rest of the mall, and neither of you are getting out of that, okay?" Rowan elaborated, glaring at Dustin who was about to argue. "If we find them, we meet back here in the lobby. If we don't, we still meet here. If either of you encounter a Russian, scream and run and get me. I'll handle it. Got it, brats?"
Dustin frowned. "What if you run into a Russian?"
"I'll fry the bastard," Rowan answered with a shrug.
"Okay, but we need to meet here before the movie ends," Dustin informed.
"Is that to do with your Plan B?" Erica asked, skepticism in her voice.
"Yes, it does," Dustin confirmed in a snappish tone.
"We will, Henderson. But right now our priority is finding the three high idiots, you understand? Nod if you understand," Rowan reminded, looking at Dustin, then Erica, pointedly. They nodded.
