rhinestone eyes

008

Gansey led the group along a sluggish lake, following it blindly as Coraline blindly followed him. The temperature had dropped almost instantaneously, and the girl tugged her socks up in an attempt to warm her legs.

They slipped right back down after a few steps, and she repeated the action to Blue's annoyance. Insects buzzed all around her, and she theatrically swatted them away every now and then, causing Gansey to smirk to himself as if her displeasure towards bugs was a win for him.

The trees were old and beautiful, a mix of oak and ash littered among the great slabs of cracked stone that carved out the river.

Ferns sprang from rocks and verdant moss grew up the sides of the tree trunks. The air smelt dewy and green. Coraline found herself admiring the way Gansey looked under the scatterings of golden sunlight, and then she found herself mocking him for his obnoxiously attractive face.

      Gansey glanced over his shoulder at her, and it was almost like for a split second he too thought Coraline looked otherworldly with sunlight dancing across her skin, then he too seemed to mock her in his head.

"This is lovely," Blue mumbled, glancing around in awe. Coraline also thought it was lovely, but there was a part of her who felt unsettled by the beauty surrounding her. A feeling deep down inside that she couldn't quite place.

      "What are we even looking for?" Asked Adam.

      Gansey was still using the EMF reader, holding it out in front of him as he let it lead him along the widening stream. The moving water had become too wide to straddle. Coraline stepped right in it, getting her boot all wet.

That displeased her greatly for the tiniest millisecond, then she amused herself by making ripples with each step.

"What we're always looking for." He mumbled cooly. "Helen is going to hate you."

      "She'll text me if she gets too mad," Gansey shrugged his best friend off as he slid his phone out of his pocket. "Oh. There's no signal."

      Coraline wasn't surprised. They were on a mountain in the middle of nowhere after all. Gansey stopped short. The four made an uneven circle as he thumbed through the screens on his phone. In his other hand, he held the EMF reader, which glowed solid red.

"Is anyone else wearing a watch?"

Adam lifted his wrist, showing the cheap-looking watch that he wore.  "I am, but it doesn't seem to be working." Without speaking, Gansey turned the face of his phone to them. It was set to the clock function, but the hands weren't moving.

For a long moment, the four of them simply stared at the three still hands on the phone's clock face in shock. "Woah," Coraline finally murmured.

      "Is it," Adam started, and then stopped as he searched for the right words to convey his thoughts. "Is it because the power is being affected by the energy of the line?" He puzzled.

"My phone's still on. So's the reader. It's only that the time has," He drawled off to himself in a mumble, "I wonder if," Coraline could see the gears in his head physically spinning."I want to go on, just a little farther." He announced.

      He waited to see if they would stop him, but instead Coraline started off ahead of him, causing him to jog ahead of her a foot.
      Coraline liked the idea of a place where time possibly didn't work. It gave her a thousand questions that needed answering.