Rising From The Ashes

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

“Kaydance, did you hear me? I said we need to go,” Cameron repeated and took a step into the room.

I completely ignored him for the second time, eyes still scanning the papers clutched in my hands. I had been frozen this way for over ten minutes ever since I found the papers and began reading. I couldn’t be seeing what I thought I was seeing. It wasn’t possible.

“Kay?” Cameron asked again and I snapped my head up to look at him this time. I couldn’t tell him what I had found. I needed to read it again. I needed to make sure.

“Sorry, I was just distracted,” I replied with a shrug and a smile. “Did you find the list of names?”

“Yeah. I found the one I was looking for,” he said. If I was less distracted I might have noticed the sympathetic look he gave me right then. I didn’t, though, and so I didn’t question him any further.

“Okay, then let’s go.”

I waited until he turned around to walk out the door before I grabbed two of the papers in front of me, the ones I personally thought were most important, and stuffed them into my pocket. I knew taking these would make it obvious someone had broken in, but there was no way I could leave them behind.

The drawer locked with a click as I slid it closed. Cameron shut the door behind me after I stepped out into the hall behind him and we started walking at a quick pace down the hallway. Neither of us said anything as we walked or when we got to the doors, locking them up behind us, or even when we continued walking outside. I don’t know what Cameron’s reason was, but my reason was that I was still reading over and over in my mind what I saw on those papers. I really didn’t want it to be true. There had to be some other kind of explanation that I would have seen if I had time to read more. There had to be.

“So, I guess I should head back to the house,” Cameron said finally when we got to the point that we would have to head separate ways.

“Yeah, mhmm,” I mumbled, not really paying attention. He didn’t even seem to notice he was so preoccupied with his own thoughts just as I was with mine.

“See you tomorrow?” he asked and this time I did try to pay more attention. I looked at him, really looked at him, and decided then and there that I couldn’t tell him what I found. If I was having trouble dealing with it then it would drive him insane. Unless, of course, he already knew? Although, I think he would have mentioned something as big as this. It’s not the kind of thing you could just forget to tell someone. Maybe I could just tell him part of it and not the whole thing? He deserved to know it all, but I didn’t think I could do it. Because if I told him and he believed it then it made it real. And I didn’t want it to be real.

“Yeah, see you tomorrow,” I replied softly while lowering my eyes to the ground. The innocent concern in his eyes is enough to rip a secret from any girls lips. Well, my lips need to remain sealed for now. At least until I could make some kind of sense of it all.

Cameron turned to walk away and I let him go with a sinking feeling. I wanted more than anything to go back with him. To spend the night at the little abandoned house that had become his own. Because being there with him, knowing he was alright, would make me feel safe and I desperately wanted to feel safe. To maybe pretend for a little longer that everything was alright.

Instead I turned on my heel and started walking back to my house and away from Cameron. Instead of feeling the panicky fear I had felt on the way, now all I felt was numb. Officials with their threats of prison or worse didn’t feel as scary as it once had. There were much scarier things to think about, like the crumpled pieces of paper in my pocket.