Kingdom Come (Intensive Editing)

Chapter Fifteen:

Alice pulled into the driveway of her house, the street quiet when her beige car came to a stop.

School was long, everyone ready to start the new chapter of their lives'. Alice, on the other hand, had both a wedding and college to think about it, which now included a workout and skin routine everyday (under Celia's orders of course.)

She sat there in silence.

Clayton would be in the air by now, hating it every step of the way, no doubt.

Alice chuckled to herself, the image of him sitting in an aeroplane seat, a bit too small for him, his legs stretched out in the aisle - it really made her smirk. She already missed Clayton already, his house had a "For Rent" sign on the lawn as she drove past it earlier this morning. His truck currently parked in her driveway.

Alice hated that she knew everything was empty....no sign that he had ever there.

Ruth had come by yesterday, letting her know that she was leaving to meet Clayton and Samuel.

The silence was becoming comfortable between the two - Alice was grateful that their imaginary conversation was short. They just sat in silence at the kitchen table, both holding a cup of freshly, brewed coffee.

For ten minutes, her mind wondered. Alice would hear the silence creep in - the birds low, and chirping in the trees above her as she remained in the car. The sky was silver and white, heavy with oncoming rain clouds.

Alice pulled the locket out of her bag, holding the delicate item in her hands. The coolness of the gold tracing her fingertips as the pictures of her parents staring up at her.

Alice, for a second, forgot where she was, the gold locket dropping from her hand as it fell on the yugo's floor, under the seat, landing with a soft thud.

"Shit," Alice muttered to herself as she unclipped her seatbelt, reaching with her hands to collect the locket with a struggle.

After five minutes of searching, she found it.

Alice signed with relief as she noticed the locket opened at the back, revealing a little white strip of paper behind her father's photo.

She examined it closer as the scribbled handwriting...

A phone number?

So many questions ran through her head, for a second, she thought about dialling the number - but who would answer?

Alice quickly gathered her bag, climbing out of the yugo. She headed towards the door, the house was quiet and she didn't mind that at all - she actually welcomed it with open arms.

Grabbing the keys, she opened it the door, turning on the hallway lights.

Google! Alice thought to herself, her mother's laptop staring at her from the living room.

She almost ran to it, tripping over the carpet in the process.

Quickly sitting on the couch, Alice turned it on, ignoring that her knees stung and burned from her fall. The screen lit up to a picture of Alice and her mother at the park when she was four.

Not wanting to deal with the memory, she quickly opened the inbox, scrolling through all the messages, looking for anything, any kind of lead.

Nothing seemed surprising, emails from school, junk mail...

She then went through all her documents, nothing but school work and essay samples.
Alice's heart sank, she suddenly saw an email from a Mr Fredrick Booth.....