Golden Hour | Cole Stewart AU

Half Truths & Whole Lies

COLE

The tires of the car barely screech to a stop when I push open the door and slip out. The garage comes into full view, the brown paint of the shutter chipping away slowly. It’s as inviting as my neighbor’s face every time she saw me.

Someone fucked around with this place and it's nothing pretty. The wall above the half open shutter is covered with spray paint, brazen fury radiating from each profanity. The words, ‘Death to Gray’ shine the brightest, in a furious shade of red. Is that about the father or is that about the son? Probably both.

When I circle back to the front, Ruby is waiting.  She silently studies the words from afar. “Maybe this is it.” Her tone sure as hell doesn’t match her words and I raise my eyebrows at her.

I’m not feeling very optimistic either. I’ve been on the road for far too long, circling the damn state and hitting dead end after dead end. The frustration boils inside me, almost hitting the breaking point but I control it. Sometimes I can’t.

I fold my fingers into a fist and stride into the garage, Ruby’s steps not far behind me.

The inside is as pretty as the outside. Cobwebs hang from the ceiling, a spider slowly scurrying across the wall and the most god awful smell clings to the air. Working at the Children’s League really desensitizes you to places like these. I've seen worse, like the bunker in Los Angeles. I'm pretty sure something was rotting down there and I'm glad I never had to find out what it was.

Sunlight streams through the two square windows at the back and casts the floor in a gloomy light. I walk deeper into the garage but there’s nothing here.

I don’t know what I’m looking for. Some writing on the wall? Some secret code? Like that would make any sense to me. Maybe to Ruby. But the wall is bare of symbols or charred surfaces. It’s like any other garage, nothing special about this one. This one is even bare of cars.

“Someone was here.” Ruby’s voice breaks through the eerie silence. She angles her torch towards the ground and I don’t see the petals on the ground until Ruby tilts her torch. The white of the petals looks like it just started to turn black. But it's not just one flower, it's an entire bouquet of flowers. Yeah, bouquets of flowers don’t get blown in by the wind.

I bend down to see if there’s a note or an address or anything. But I find nothing. I shake my head. “That doesn’t mean anything. We need something solid. A proper clue.”

By the time we both step out, I feel worse than I did before going in. I lean against my car and stare at the garage. Where the hell did this kid go? Why would anyone come here? Unless, my hunch was wrong and the redhead girl had nothing to do with any of this shit. But damn, if she wasn't acting suspicious as hell.

Ruby watches me for a moment. “Are we even sure this kid exists? Like, do you know how crazy that sounds? You saw those kids, Cole. You know they can’t just get up and leave. Not without being found. Lucas tried to leave and he couldn't. Maybe we never heard of Orion because he was never in the program.”

I'd caved in. In the dead of the night, I’d ended up calling Ruby through a burner phone. I'd told her about Orion but left out the part about the threats. Not my proudest moment but I didn’t want to tell her everything yet. Not until I absolutely had to. Cruz was not going to be happy but I was in Virginia and this shit was happening too close to Ruby.

“Trust me, he was in it. Nico looked it all up. He’s a smart one, gem. If he’s sure about it, then I believe it too.” I rub my eyes. “Plus, there’s this whole video.” The kid’s movements were too precise. The only people I’d seen use their powers like that were the kids from Jamboree. Like their body didn't belong to them anymore and they'd wordlessly follow all the commands laid out for them.