Love Like Winter ❄️ Xavier Thorpe

Chapter 15: Love Letters and Spaghetti

Soundtrack:

"Home" by Phillip Phillips
"IF NOT FOR YOU" by Maneskin
"The Story" by Sara Ramirez
"Often" by The Weeknd

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Wednesday calls Sheriff Galpin and asks him to meet us at Joseph Crackstone's crypt because there's something she needs to talk to him about. The plan is for the three of us to meet him there and then have Tyler in the background for when we feel like he was ready to see him again.

Before we leave the room, Wednesday slips Tyler her little letter she'd written.

"What's this?"

"Just something."

"I see that," Tyler laughs.

Wednesday's eyes shimmer. "I just didn't want you to get discouraged or anything before we met up with your father."

Tyler tucks the letter in his pocket and the four of us head downstairs towards the campus grounds. I realize it probably seemed suspicious having the sheriff meet up in the woods by the crypt, but we weren't about to bring Tyler into the police station and we didn't want anything to be overheard by the wrong people.

I stay close to Xavier's side and let Wednesday lead the way. The sheriff is already waiting there, pacing a few steps back and forth in front of the crypt. It looks like he's smoking a cigarette, but as we approach him, he quickly flicks it a few feet away.

"Sheriff," Wednesday says, stopping in front of him.

"Addams. What is this about?"

Wednesday pulls out a manila envelope and hands it to him. "I wanted to give this to you. It's research I've been doing that I thought you might want to see."

"About?"

She doesn't break her flat tone even once, staying true to her usual gloom and doom self. "Hydes, and what happens if their master is killed or otherwise incapacitated."

Sheriff Galpin takes the envelope and eyes it oddly. "If this is about Tyler, I haven't seen him since that night when they took him to the hospital."

"That place isn't a hospital, Dad." Tyler comes from around the corner of the crypt and stands beside Wednesday.

"Tyler? I thought you were in the hospital." He rubs his eyes to make sure he's really seeing Tyler in front of him.

Tyler takes a few steps closer to his father who looks like he's seeing a ghost. "It's not a hospital, unless hospitals specialize in torture."

"How are you even here?"

"The people that run that place basically kicked me out after torturing me for months and realizing that I wasn't a Hyde anymore. Once Laurel was killed, the Hyde was basically useless." Tyler says.

Wednesday pulls out the map that Tyler stole from the facility and hands it to his father. "This is a layout of inside."

He takes the map and looks it over, raising and furrowing his eyebrows as he does so. "No, you're right, Tyler, this doesn't look like a hospital. How did you manage to get this?"

Wednesday steps closer to be beside Tyler. "He went back because he wanted to prove that he's really not a danger anymore. He risked his life for this map."

"If it wasn't for Xavier and Ajax, I probably wouldn't be standing here in front of you right now, Dad. They basically saved my life. I mean, really they all did but Xavier and Ajax were the ones who just about carried me to the car and patched me up." Tyler pulls down the neck of his shirt to show his father the bandages on his shoulder.