The Tales of Flesh and Blood

I Follow A Potential Murderer

Jaxon drove us through town in silence, but it wasn't uncomfortable. I was wearing my hoodie (as usual) with my hood up so that it would be harder to see my face through the window. It was nighttime, but in my opinion, that was all the more reason to wear my hoodie. Being pale-skinned with nearly white hair had more disadvantages than not when trying to hide. I forced myself to stare at my lap the entire time instead of looking through the window, even though we mostly took the back roads, where the only lighting around was the occasional street lamp. A part of me knew that I was being extremely paranoid, and the other part just couldn't find the strength to care.

It was just me, Jaxon, and the silence that stood between us as he drove. Somehow, though, I didn't mind the silence. Jaxon didn't bother turning on the radio, and neither did I. It was just us two, driving down the street. Just a couple of teenagers looking for something to do.

But I didn't feel much like a teenager, and as I glanced up at Jaxon, studying his face that was half covered in shadow until we passed the occasional street lamp, I wondered if he felt the same, too. He looked older than he should. He drove with one hand on the steering wheel, the other in his lap, and he looked completely at ease - and he wasn't speeding.

What kind of teenage boy didn't speed on the back roads? I wanted to ask how he got involved in all of this, what he was doing before he saw what he 'wasn't supposed to'. The brief conversation he'd had with Quil bothered me even more. Quil thought that it was my fault Ven got snatched, and he had been all too willing to place the blame on Jaxon as well. Had Jaxon suggested something to Quil, and Quil listened? My mouth suddenly went sour at the thought. I didn't want to know what it was that Jaxon had suggested, but I felt like I already knew. Ven knew who the other victims were, and he'd chosen to reach out to me, of all people, to help him.

You idiot, I wanted to yell at him. What were you hoping to accomplish?

Jaxon must have felt me watching him, because he turned his gaze briefly from the road to glance at me before concentrating back on driving.

Yet he didn't ask me what I was thinking. He didn't ask me anything, which made me want to scream at him even more. Did he know what was going through my head, or did he not want to ask questions because he knew that I would only turn them back on him?

He scared the hell out of me. I wanted to know why he wanted to help me, and why he waited until now out of all these years to admit how he felt about me. After learning that he knew about the flashdrive, I had thought that that had been an act, but after seeing his friends' reactions to me (not to mention his confrontation with Landon), I was beginning to wonder if there had been some truth there, after all. Was he ever going to tell me? Or was he just going to sit back and watch until he felt he had to step in before someone stabbed me in the back? What would he have done if I'd managed to get myself a boyfriend?

Like Jet? a traitorous voice murmured in the back of my mind. Fuck, him and the others must be scared shitless with everything going on around me.

I grinded my teeth together in frustration. I was being targeted by a group of crazies who were taking kids' eyeballs, and here I was stumbling over myself because of a boy. But I was right to question it, wasn't I? There was something unhealthy, here, or at least something that wasn't right. What boy put his life on the line for a girl that didn't return the feeling - a girl that, until recently, would not so much as look in his direction unless it was to tell him to back the hell off?

I forced my eyes back on my lap, hating the burning creeping in at my eyes, and I clenched my fists at my sides when the first of the tears fell. I didn't know if Jaxon noticed, but I didn't pull away when he switched his hands on the steering wheel so that his right hand was free, and he used it to gently rest over mine. You'll be okay, the gesture said.