•| Nefarious |•

9

We all sat around the lunch table picking at our food. "I still think we should go back to Savannah." Tyler pushed his try out in front of him. "...Alright, let's take some time to think on it again and have a group vote later tonight." Ashlyn rubbed her forehead.

"Why not after school?" Tyler asked the group. "Because I have ballet class today." Ashlyn remarked. "So what? Skip it."

"Uh Ty, we have stuff to do after school too. You have baseball practice and I have a mechanics meeting." Taylor turned towards her brother.

"...I um, I have to help with the flower shop today." Logan spoke up. "I also have piano lessons after school." I looked at Tyler.  "See even Logan and Y/n have something." Ashlyn turned towards Tyler.

"Even with what's happening, we can't just neglect school and our future. You need baseball. Let's just wait till-" "We aren't going to have a future if we're all dead!" Tyler interrupted Ashlyn.

"It's not just our future. If we drop everything to focus on fantasy-like events we can't prove, we're going to end up in the psyche ward." She yelled back at him. "Do you think it's going to make it easier or harder for all of us to have meetings during the day?"

"She's got a point, y'know. Generally we're what people would call 'crazy'. Aiden spun his finger in a circular motion beside his head.  "Whatever." Tyler scoffed and grabbed his lunch tray walking away from the table.

"I'll go after him." I said grabbing my own lunch tray and following after Tyler. "Tyler wait!" He turned around to look at me. "What?!"

"Look I understand you're stressed about all of this but you can't just throw your life away. What happens when we get out of this and you have no life ahead of you? What would you do then?" I grabbed his shoulder and looked at him.

"What happens 'if' we get out of this. We don't know if we'll get out or not. If we stay here and do nothing we'll never get answers." He ran his hand through his hair.

I sighed and shook my head. "There's no giving up there has to be a way out. If we got in we can get out of this mess you just have to trust us okay? We're all in this together whether you like it or not."

"But what if Taylor gets hurt-" "Please stop with the what ifs. We're all going to be safe I promise." I cut him off and wrapped my arms around his shoulders pulling him into a hug.

"I promise I'll make sure everyone here stays safe." I squeezed him more. His hands wrapped around me and hugged me back making his tense shoulders relax.

We all went home and decided to discuss this matter later tonight. The whole time I was at piano lessons I couldn't focus. The thought of maybe not getting out of this was eating away at me.

When I got home my dad made me help him with dinner so I started to cut the vegetables. "Hey champ why you so down?" My dad asked pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Oh nothing just a little tired from school." I lied to him so it wouldn't raise suspicion. "Is that the real reason or are you covering something up?" He put the vegetables I cut up in the pot.

I thought about it for a moment, maybe it wasn't a bad idea to tell him the truth. It could help figure this out more but what would the group think? "Uh I can't really tell you but I promise in the future I'll tell you." I put the knife down on the cutting board.

He gave me a small smile and rubbed my head. "Okay just know I'm always here if you need me." We ate dinner and watched some tv afterwards till it was 10 pm. I went up to my room and laid on my bed. The clock ticked by counting down my fate.

It was almost time the shift but I couldn't put a finger on what happened the night before but then I remembers. The phantom was trying to grab us.