Hollow

Chapter 29

Chapter 28 was also just updated. Make sure to read both chapters! :)

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I walked through the halls, passing the other students flowing around me. It was lunch time, but I wasn't feeling very hungry. I didn't bother stopping at my locker for my lunch, knowing I wouldn't be able to eat it anyway. I was growing more and more uneasy.

Something just didn't feel right. The air was colder, but not just because of the weather. It was more still, sort of eerily still and I couldn't pinpoint the change. I wondered if it had anything to do with Sebastian.

I shook my head, attempting to push all thoughts of him from my mind. I needed to stop thinking of him. It wasn't doing any good, pretending things would work out in any way with him anyway.

I sat down at the lunch table where a few of Angela's friends already were. My cousin wasn't there yet, but the cafeteria was still fairly empty. Her friends paid no attention to me as I sat, keeping their steady conversation going.

I sat with my hands in my lap, waiting as the minutes ticked by. Footsteps began to echo towards me and my heart rate increased at the familiar sound. I looked up just as Sebastian reached the table, anger and determination in his eyes.

I swallowed hard as his eyes locked on mine. He stopped at the edge of the table and stared down at me. My heart fluttered as I looked at him, warming at his presence, even with the look in his eyes. Suddenly, he dropped something in front of me. I looked down to find a newspaper at least a few years old laying on the table.

I stared down at it, my heart rate increasing as I struggled to keep my face emotionless. On the page was a young girl, five years old with red hair and blue eyes that matched my own. She was smiling, missing a tooth on the bottom row of her mouth. There was a light in her eyes that was missing when I looked at my reflection.

MISSING GIRL, SIX YEARS OLD.

Young Bella Price was reported missing Saturday afternoon at Hillstone Park. Family of the child was hosting a birthday party for her when she disappeared. Witnesses have reported nothing of the disappearance, stating that the girl "just vanished."

Mother of the missing child, Miranda Price, was first to notice her child's absence. She immediately began searching frantically, but was left only with a pair of shoes that her daughter had left behind. Price insists that her daughter was not one to wander off or trust strangers. While being questioned by police Sunday afternoon, Miranda Price sent a teary message to all parents in attendance. She warned them all to "keep careful watch of [their] babies."

If anyone should have information about the location of Bella Price, they are to contact the police immediately.

I tore my gaze away from the article and looked up at Sebastian. As hard as I tried, I couldn't keep my mask up. I couldn't pretend to be unaffected when he was looking at me so intensely. A feeling of dread filled my stomach, weighing down on my body.

His jaw was clenched and his eyes flashed with an emotion I couldn't identify. I squeezed my hands into fists to keep them from shaking and pressed my lips together.

"We need to talk." His said quietly, his voice dangerously calm.

Without waiting for a reply he turned and began walking towards the cafeteria doors. I sucked in a gulp of air, trying to calm my increasingly shallow breaths. This was everything I'd been trying to avoid, everything I'd been afraid of.