Discover Me {a Why Don't We fanfiction}

Chapter Twelve

Maria's Point of View

Our gentle footsteps on the pavement made a satisfying sound as we walked down the hill from the boy's house.
"Where are you taking me, Zach?"

"To a place." He says, shivering.

"How the hell are you cold? It's so warm." Zach looks at me, horrified.

"Where in the world do you live? Nothing's colder than LA at night. Except for Dallas."

I raise my eyebrows. "Well you have obviously never been to New Jersey."

"You're right. It's freezing there." He shivers again, but this time dramatically, and I laugh. "The place I'm taking you to is one of my favourite places ever." He says, a smile tugging at his lips.

"Well is it indoors? Because if not, I don't think you're gonna be able to survive." I say and he glares at me, then he laughs too.

"It's just a bit further down." He says, and we turn around a sharp corner of the hill, when suddenly my eyes are blinded by an incredibly bright light.

All I heard was loud skids and sharp turns, and Zach yelling, "Maria! Watch out!"

And suddenly, everything just stopped- I couldn't move, and my eyes didn't want to open themselves.

The last thing I felt were Zach's arms wrapped tight around me. He was all I needed.

X

Tea's Point of View

This movie always made me feel so alive. I just wanted to be doing what the actors were doing- singing and dancing and having the time of their lives.

All I wanted to do right now was to be performing, and it made me admire Daniel even more than I did before. He got to perform in front of all of America, when he was fifteen. It seemed so insane to me.

It was 1:15am, and I was becoming concerned about Maria and Zach. As the credits rolled, Daniel looked over at me and smiled.

"You were right, it is a great movie."

"I know." I jokingly flip my hair. "I always choose the best movies." I say, and we both laugh. Ellie and Jack were laughing too, at their own little thing, and then Ellie got up and walked over to me.

"Do you know where Maria is?" She asks me.

"No idea." I turn to Daniel. "Does Zach usually stay in his room this late at night?"

Jack walks up and joins our conversation. "Who knows what they're doing." He laughs, and Ellie playfully slaps him on the shoulder.

"I'm gonna call her. Maria usually isn't this unsocial." I say, smiling nervously as I pull out my phone and call Maria.

Each ring was like a stab to the heart- but it never usually felt like that. When it finally rung out, my heart sunk.

"No answer." I reply.

"Zach?" Jack yells, in case they were upstairs.

"ZACH?" He yells even louder, and then he rolls his eyes. "I SAID BOOM BOOM BOOM NOW LET HEAR YOU SAY WAYHOO!"

"WAYHOO!" Corbyn yells from the furthest couch, where him, Jonah, and Ashley were playing a card game. Jack just glared at him.

"I'm gonna go upstairs." I say.

"I'll come with." Ellie says.

"Me too." Adds Daniel.

"Well damn, what is this, a search party?" Jack jokes, and we all laugh awkwardly.

When we get upstairs, Jack knocks nervously on the door.

"Zach, bro, you in here? I'm coming in." But there was no reply. He opens the door, only for us to see Maria's bag lying on the floor. I go over to it and open it up. Her phone, her keys, and her wallet were still in there.

"Where would they have gone?" I ask, and Daniel and Jack look at each other.

"Well, Zach loves this one place. It's like a park, right down the bottom of our hill. He might've taken Maria there." Daniel says, and I stand up and walk over to him.

"Maria doesn't go anywhere without telling us. Daniel, please, show me where this place is. I just want to know that they're safe." I say, and he wraps his arms around me.

"Of course." He whispers into my hair. "I'll take you. We will find them, don't worry."

"Ellie and I will come too." Jack says quietly. "Let's all get some jumpers and flashlights." We all nod and walk to Jack and Daniel's room. I go over to Daniel's bed and pick up his hoodie that I had left there the night before, and I turn around to face him.

"Is it okay if I wear this one?" I ask, and he nods.

"Sure." He smiles, and he goes over to the wardrobe and gets out a grey jumper that said 'OBEY' on it. I took off my crop hoodie and replaced it with Daniel's black one, with the orange 'd' on it. We tell Ellie and Jack that we would meet them downstairs.

We find two flashlights in some draws, and we made sure that they worked.

"We're just going for a walk!" Jack calls out to the three that were left in the house, and then we all leave.

The air was chilly for a night in LA, but I stuck close to Daniel, and Ellie stuck close to Jack.

Daniel put one of his hands in mine, and I could feel his pulse beating and his grip tighten as we walked further and further down the road.

Jack began to sing 'A Million Dreams' from The Greatest Showman, and I realised that he could sing really well too. Soon, Daniel began to join him. And when the chorus came, I joined in too.

We stopped singing after the end of the chorus, and Daniel just looked at me. "Woah." He said, and I slapped his arm and rolled my eyes. I looked over at Ellie, who hadn't joined in.

"Didn't want to ruin the moment." Is all she said, and she looked towards the road with a blank expression.

"You're just covering up the fact that you don't know the lyrics." I say quickly, and I smile to myself in the dark for making a quick comeback.

Suddenly, Jack and Ellie's flashlight begins to flicker.

"No, no, no, no!" Ellie rambles as she tries to turn it on and off, but the light refused to show.

I look at Daniel, frightened.

"Should I turn ours off until we need it?"

"Maybe turn it off after this sharp turn." He says, and I nod, holding onto his hand again.

We turn the corner, and I had never wanted to look away from something so bad.

The noises, the flashlight, the hill, the corner, the trees, and even Daniel seemed to disappear when I saw what I saw.

I could feel my heart stop, my breathing short. The feeling of the flashlight falling out of my hand, and Daniel's hand slipping out of the other.

I could feel myself fall to the ground in fear, and the darkness of the night took over my vision.

I knew I should've replied to the text. I knew I should've done something.

But it was too late now.

X

"He had said that we would find them, he never said that they would be okay."