Warped, My Vision

Chapter Three

A/N: Your lovable depressed asshat of an author is back with the next installment of WMV. Read, vote, whatever you want, loves. I still haven't actually revised shit in this, but hopefully it's okay. Sorry, it's still a little short.

I can feel the engine hum as the car rolls down a highway I haven't been on before. It feels like it's been an eternity that we've been driving down this road. The scenery hasn't changed at all. It's just large, menacing trees that still haven't regrown their leaves yet on either side of us. The sky is darkening and the sun is somewhere behind us, reflecting in the mirrors of the car. Aaron's mom is holding the steering wheel like a life preserver, like it'll somehow hold her above this mess. Carrie is staring out one of the windows in the backseat, and I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing.

"We'll be there in about three hours. You should try to sleep," Miss Light whispers, sounding like she's barely able to breathe.

"Do you want me to drive at some point?"

"No, no, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I know where I'm going." She said it like it was the end of the conversation. Carrie sighed and leaned back a little bit, noticeably trying to relax. She's starting to have anxiety again, isn't she? Everyone is starting to slip away, and I can't reach out to them for the life of me because somewhere, I know that I'm slipping too. Of course I am. I was dead. I'm still dead, in a way.

How long do I have before Carrie slips away completely? What will happen to us if we don't find Aaron? Why the hell did he leave a note like that? It's not a clue. It can't be. If he left, he would a leave an apology, not a quote.

What happened to you, Aaron?

xXx

I must have fallen asleep. Carrie's shaking my shoulder, gently, silently, and we're getting out of the car. I pull my flashlight out of my backpack and flick it on.

The house looks no one's lived in it for at least four years. There's a weed-ridden for sale sign in the front yard.

"Did you guys sell the house?" Carrie asks.

"Yes. We sold it to a family of four after we moved out. I don't know what happened after that. It doesn't look like someone's been living here." I nod and take a deep breath of the cold night air, feeling goosebumps rising across my arms and neck. Having Aaron's warmth would be really nice right now.

We make our way around the small house to the back, where there's a small brick patio and a frozen pond. There's a small wooden boat in the middle of the pond, stuck in the ice.

"It's still frozen? I would have thought the ice would have melted by now," Carrie says, glancing around and washing her surroundings with the halo of light cast by her phone.

"That ice can't be very thick," I murmur, staring out across the flat surface. "Where are we supposed to be looking? I don't think anyone is out here."

"The boat," Miss Light whispers, dumbfounded.

"What?"

"When we lived here I had a short relationship with someone, and I remember he made Aaron a small paddle boat to take out on the pond. I don't think he ever used it. I broke up with that man, anyway."

"Is that the boat?" Carrie asks.

"I-I think it is, yes."

"I'll walk out there and check inside it."

"No, the ice is way too thin for that, Carrie," I protest. What the fuck is she thinking?

"Don't worry, I'll figure it out." She hands me her phone and takes several steps down to the shore of the pond and looks down, tapping one of her feet against the ice tentatively.