𝑊𝐴𝑁𝑇 𝑇𝐻𝐼𝑆 (locke and key gabe)

12 rewritten

An; woah, woah, I'm so shocked at how well this book is doing, it honestly means the world to me. Thank you so much for all the love on it, and thank you to everyone who has voted, shared and commented. I know I'm not exactly the best writer (I'm only 13), but I've had some of the sweetest dms about my writing that have really boosted my confidence. I'm so thankful to everyone who is reading this, I'm loving writing it just as much as you're hopefully enjoying reading it.


sorry that it took me so long to write what is frankly, such a shit chapter, but i promise you, chapter 14 will save this whole god awful book.

Sleep came fitfully.

The little that I managed was plagued by nightmares. Gabe, Dodge, shadows, blood, mannequins, Winterfest; thoughts ran rampant in my head, jumbling and mixing into horrific dreams that woke me sweating and shaking.

Every time I opened my eyes I could hear Kinsey, Bode, Tyler and Uncle Dunc downstairs. They were in the winter study, discussing something to with Gabe. A conversation they'd decided to exclude me from either because they felt I needed to sleep off the alcohol and my shitty day, or because they thought I was too emotional or too attached to Gabe to be included in their plans. I told myself it was the former, but I knew the latter to likely be true as well.

I rolled over, hugging my pillow to my chest as I tried to drown out my thoughts or their words, or just both.

My phone buzzed from my nightstand, and I reached to check it.

Someone was calling.

Gabe.

I let it ring for a moment, debating whether or not I should decline. Part of me wanted to pick up the phone. Part of me wanted to accept the call and talk to him and let myself forget everything and everyone else. To just let him be Gabe again, not Dodge, not a traitor, a liar, a manipulator, just the boy I knew. Or at least thought I knew.

But for some reason, I answered his call.

"Hey," My voice was raw. From sleep or from tears, I didn't know.

"Hey, how're you feeling?" His voice was a little deeper, rougher, as though he'd been sleeping too. He was the last person I wanted to speak to, but somehow his voice was the only one I wanted to hear.

I sat my phone beside me on my pillow and blinked up at my ceiling, hoping I could forget everything if I only wished hard enough.

"Not great," It wasn't exactly a lie. "My family are downstairs fighting, because of me."

"Do you want me to come over?"

I shook my head, despite knowing he couldn't see me. "It's okay," I muttered, rolling back onto my side. "It'll be fine,"

"Did uh... did something happen at the party." My breath hitched in my throat. How could he sound so utterly human? So concerned, so real. I found myself wondering what had been real and what had been fake. The lines between the two were growing blurred.

"No." My voice was hoarse, rough and bitter with the sickening taste of lies. "Not really, no."

"'Not really' doesn't sound too convincing, Ave." he sighed, but an awkward silence soon overcame us. I wanted to forget what I'd seen, what I now know to be true, I wanted to tell myself that Gabe was Gabe and nothing had changed, that he was still the boy I had fallen for. But I couldn't lie to myself, yet for some reason, I couldn't hang up either.

"You can talk to me, you know that right?" He said after a moment.

"I- uhm..." I tried. "Uh, Kinsey. Kinsey lied to me, about something." I told him. "And when I found out the truth, it changed everything about how I see her. And I'm meant to hate her now, I mean a part of me does but... it's Kinsey, you know? I don't think I could ever hate her, no matter what she does."