❛𝐖𝐑𝐀𝐏 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐒 𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐌𝐄 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐄 𝐈 𝐃𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐎𝐒!❜
⸻ in which Rory Hargrove is obsessed to uncover
the truth behind Barbara Holland's disappearance, while
facing her brother's enemy and buried se...
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RORY FELT LIKE SHE WOULD FAINT AT ANY MOMENT. She placed both hands on her head. This can't be real. She stood up, slowly moving away from the floor of the room where all those macabre manuscripts were scattered, with information that had ruined her life and shattered her brain. Her memories of herself were disturbed.
The sound of a car parking in front of her house was enough to wake her from her reverie. Maybe it was her father coming home from work. So, she had to clean up the mess on the floor quickly. She didn't want to discuss it with him at all.
Someone knocked at the door— so it wasn't any member of her family, because would have the key, unless they'd forgotten it.
Rory, stroking her clothes in an attempt to to pull herself together, went to the front door and opened it.
"Steve?" A distressed expression took over her face. "You came? You should be at home resting."
"You called. And I felt you needed company." The boy gave a subtle, shy smile. There were still small bruises on his face, and tiny cuts that were still healing.
"Yes, but... I told you to rest, not to drive to my house!" She was shocked when he didn't deny that he had done that by himself, opening her mouth in a perfect 'o'. "You're not supposed to do any effort!"
"It's not a lot of effort to do it." He said nonchalantly with his hands in his pockets. "I'm tired of doing nothing anyway."
He stared at the girl, who wore a loose-fitting gray sweater over her slender body that he had the blessing or the curse of holding with his arms at least twice during an apocalypse. His gaze fell from her damp hair to the dark circles under her eyes and the two small translucent bandages covering the cut on her cheek.
"But your parents could have brought you here."
Steve lowered his eyes and sighed— he didn't answer. Rory moved away from the door so the boy could enter the house.
"Um... What about your parents? Have you told them what happened?" She hurried to ask, curious. They had talked about many things, but never about his family. It seemed like a mystery— Steve acted as if they didn't exist.
"Of course not, they'd put me in a mental hospital. They'd never believe I was fighting monsters in an alternate reality. In fact, even I would think that I was crazy too."
