Carvings

Chapter 15 ✪

"We're here." Ms Simpson sighed in slight relief. She parked her car outside a small hotel that Leo booked in advance a few minutes after Elise's call.

"I have to phone Bick and tell him we're here. He'll tell us what to do." Elise explained. She punched in his number and this time he answered on the first ring. "Bick? We're here! Where are you?" Elise asked immediately.

"I'm at- hold on pet I'm getting another call."

"Bick ignore it, we've got more important things to do than-"

"Elise! It's Brayden phoning! I've got to go but I'll phone you once I'm done!" Bick replied in a panic. Elise disconnected the call and sat down on a bench with her phone in her lap, her knee bouncing up and down impatiently. She was peeling her lips with her teeth, ignoring the stinging pain it left.

"What did he say?" Seth asked sitting down next to his sister. He didn't like the way she was worried - and peeling her lips was an old familiar sign of her being upset. 

"He said that he was getting a call from Brayden and he'd call back once he's done."

"How long have you known Brayden?" Seth asked. He stared at his sister in intent, wondering how on earth she was able to hide such a big secret from him. 

"You remember that time I made a mess of the table in our old room? Those weird messages I scratched on the surface? I was talking to him. All these years I put it down to my imagination- but it turns out, it actually happened. And he began talking to me again recently. I don't know what compelled him to communicate now after staying in the background for so long, but I'm glad he did."

"Why are you so worried for him?"

"Weren't you paying attention to anything I said in the car ride?"

"I meant as in, you don't even know him and yet you're treating him like he's... he's so close to you" Seth's eyebrows knotted as he tried to explain his thoughts. Elise blushed - she didn't want to reveal it because she only recently admitted it to herself, but she had developed feelings for that blonde boy. 

"He's just a friend and I want to help him, that's all." Elise answered simply. Before Seth could ask anything else, her mobile rang. She pounced on it and answered it before the first ring could even end.

"Hello?"

"Elise, great news! Brayden called me, he's alright for now."

"Really?!  For now...? Where is he?"

"He told me that he's in some place called Pentre Llyn. Not that far. I told him to stay there and I'm going to pick him up. I decided that we're going to stay there overnight Elise."

"Overnight?"

"Yeah."

"Alright, talk to my mum now, I don't think she still believes me." Bick agreed to talk and waited for his sister. "Mum" Elise called out. Claire walked up to her daughter.

"What is it?"

"Talk to Bick." she said and handed her the phone. Her mother walked away, talking to her brother.

"Well?"

"Brayden's alright, he's all the way in Pentre Llyn, but he's alright" Elise let out a breath she didn't know she was holding in relief.

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Bick sat in the back seat of a cab, nervously drumming his fingers on the seat.

"Can you please step on it?" he asked the driver impatiently, unable to contain the sharpness of his voice. The driver sighed exaggeratedly but pressed on the pedal, gaining more speed. Quick minutes later they came across a shop that was named 'Al's Newsagent'.