A Chill In The Air (Book 1)

A Chill In The Air - Chapter 29

A Chill In The Air

Chapter Twenty-Nine

In the meantime making her way out of the site campus, Layla strides down the steps eager to seek out and locate Tanner, she was a woman on a mission. The wind whipped up around her causing her hair to fly carefree around her delicate jaw, not faltering her stride and determination. Nothing could quell her swelled feelings she had buried down deep inside her, preventing her from erupting in a way she was planning to when she had her hands on Tanner, a storm was brewing in the works and most certainly a chill in the air.

There was no definite way of knowing where Tanner was but a woman’s intuition more so than not was accurate and following her gut instinct, Layla headed down to where her previous encounter with him occurred down by the diner. She wasn’t one hundred per cent sure that he would be there but a feeling deep within her was drawing her close to this one spot, she had to trust her feelings. It wasn’t long now as the diner came into her view but she wasn’t THERE yet, continuing on past the diner around the corner a firm grasp pinched at her elbow and turning around with a glare in her eye she looked upon who she was looking for, Tanner.

Now that Layla had Tanner right where she wanted him she wasted no time in getting straight to the point, pulling back from his grasp she opened the book to the duplicate portrait of him. “Care to explain this? I’ve been pretty understanding in all the weird crap surrounding you these past few weeks but this takes it to a whole new level, how the hell can you be there and here at the same time? I mean that IS you there’s no mistaking it, there’s being a duplicate of someone but this is taking the mick now, cough up the truth Shay, I want the truth.” Tanner looked at the book she was frantically practically shouting about and his eyes told the story of how he was feeling, they showed how shocked and horrified he was at her having such an item. Taking a moment to process what’d happened there was only one conclusion he could come up with, Tyler was messing with him. He had to get his own back but how? Exhaling he lowered the book from in front of him, “Look, Layla. There’s so much you don’t know, don’t go all crazy on me before I have a chance to explain. I’ve wanted to tell you this for so long but people have got in my way time and time again, alright?” Layla semi-believed what he was saying and she closed the book but kept it tightly in her hand, “Alright then, go on tell me I did say I want to know, what’s going on?”

Taking her hand Tanner leads Layla down and out of the alleyway and into an awaiting car at the other end, he knew she was coming after him and as a test of their connection unaware to Layla, he was waiting for her to come to him. “Where are we going?” piped up Layla more than wanting to break the awkward silence between the two of them, “You wanted to know the truth I don’t want to do it in public where ears might hear what I have to say, it’s not gossip that’ll be forgotten in a couple weeks this is hard core mind-bending stuff you’re about to hear. I hope you’re ready.” He said as he looked at her with a genuinely concerned look on his face, which of course took Layla by surprise considering what a man of mystery he’s been to her up until this point.

In a little under half an hour the two of them roll up at some desolate, dilapidated log-house of some sort, a small building made up of logs used for grand log cabins, miniaturised into a one floor compact home in need of some repair. “We’re here.” Tanner said as he climbed out of the car and in next to no time was at her side opening the door to let Layla out, “Thank you.” She said as she once more took his hand, now being lead inside to be told what she’s been waiting so long to hear. The inside of the home was no more a spectacle than the out, the pattern of dilapidation ran through right to the inside and made Layla shudder at the sight of what she had to sit in for God knows how long, “Sorry about the mess, this isn’t really a home as such more of a halfway meeting house.” Meeting house? Layla was growing more and more confused than curious, why would he need a meeting house? Taking a seat opposite her Tanner clasped both his hands and rested them between his knees, exhaling a gentle breath before looking up at her. “Tyler’s been manipulating you Layla, he’s been leading you to believe that I’m the bad guy in all this ‘crazy’ as you put it, that’s as far from the truth as the sun is to Earth. Tyler and I go way back, and that picture of yours doesn’t lie indeed we go back even further than that.” Blinking Layla kept watching him as she knew that this was only the beginning from what he was saying to her. “Since the dawn of man on this Earth we’ve been milling around and found ourselves in a strange situation as the centuries rolled by, see we didn’t come from Earth and I’m not human. A while ago, a long, long time ago we once belonged in the Kingdom of Heaven itself, we were angels.” Angels? Holy cow angels! “One day we were asked to take sides between God and the Devil and before I had a chance to choose, before many of us had a chance we were cast out of Heaven and down onto the Earth.” Layla started to feel a little light-headed at this sudden bulge of information; this was WAY more than she’d expected. “Since we didn’t know what was happening we thought we only had one life on Earth once we landed, but we were wrong. As a punishment for our fall we were all cursed with two things, one being immortality and the other being loss. See every seventeen years we’ve worked it out to be, someone comes into our lives that captivates us and makes us fall head over heels in love, when this person turns 17 we lose them and the cycle starts all over again.” Layla was now frozen to her seat, she wanted to turn tails and run but her inner self wanted to know more. “This is where that picture and you come in, see Layla it’s you. You’re the one I’ve been in love with since the year dot, the endless cycle of losing the woman I love has fallen to centuries of reincarnations of your soul, this is a lot to take in I know but this is the truth.” Not knowing what to do next, Layla went to stand up to talk to him but her body took over and shut down to protect her mind from any further information assaults, passing out into his arms peace was one more restored to Layla as she mentally recuperated from all that Tanner had said to her.