The Forest

The Search

Bishop and I headed for the bar. He had his hand on my thigh again, and I just let it stay this time. I grabbed his hand and held it. I looked at him, and he had this large ass grin on his face. I couldn't help but smile back at him. He was so adorable; the sun shining on his jet black hair and the sun hitting his electric blue eyes made me bite my lip. This boy meant the world to me, and I would literrally die if I lost him again. I know that sounds so stupid, since I'm just a teenager and so is he, but I was so in love with him when we were little, and that love is still there. I know that it hurt us both when he left, and we had not contact.

"What's on your mind, baby?" Bishop asked me while running his hand through my hair.

"I'm terrified by the fact that you could leave again. I can't lose you," I said, fighting tears.

"I'm never leaving you, Clover. I promise. I can't picture my life without you in it," he said, while also fighting tears back.

"I'll never leave you either. I love you, Bishop. Let's do this thing," I said as we pulled up to the bar.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Bishop asked me, while squeezing my hand.

"I don't care what it takes," I took a deep breath, "we're going to find who killed Loren. Even if it kills me."

"As long as I'm here I'm not going to let anything happen to you, Love. You are forever going to be mine; I'm not letting you go, okay?" A tear started to fall from the corner of his eye.

"Let's go into the bar, babe," I said, grasping his hand.

We walked into the bar, heads held high and hand in hand. I kissed his cheek, then untangled my fingers from his. He then wrapped his arm around my waist, and I smiled so much.

"Can I help you two?" the Bartender said as we approached the stand.

"Um, yes. We were wondering if you have any video survelliance cameras around? Our friend was murdered last week and she frequented this establishment," Bishop responded.

The Bartender rolled her eyes, "Um, yeah. HEY JERROD! COME TAKE THIS COUPLE TO THE A/V ROOM!"

We were led to a dark room in the back by Jerrod, I do presume.

"So, what do you two folks need considering our video footage?" Jarrod asked while flipping through tapes.

"Our friend, Loren Kate Foster, was murdered last week. She always came here on like Friday and Saturday nights, and we just want to know if she met anyone here the day before we left for our trip," I explained.

"I am so sorry for your loss, Miss. My daughter loved Loren, but then again they were sisters," Jarrod said.

"Are you Loren's and Delilah's father?" Bishop asked, obviously confused.

"In the flesh," He replied sadly.

I went to him and hugged him. "I am so sorry, Mr.Foster. We're trying to find out who killed her, which is why we need to look at the tapes."

"Anything for Loren's friends," he said as he pulled up the footage from that Thursday night. "So, what hour would you like to look at?"

"I don't know, um. Maybe around eight or nine," I responded.

He pulled up the footage then left the room, after telling us how to fast forward/ pause/ play/ rewind the tapes. We looked at the tapes for what seemed like hours upon end. We both watched in horror as we saw Loren leave the bar with some mysterious man.

"Jarrod?"

We heard running from the bar into the A/V Room. "Wh-what is it? Did you find something?" Jarrod asked, obviously out of breath.

"Who is this?" I said, pointing to the mystery man, in which the video was paused on.

"He's a frequent customer at this establishment. Um, John Dylan is his name I do think," Jarrod responded.

"Do you have any information on John Dylan?" Bishop asked, in turn.

"You'd have to ask the manager about that. She handles everything," Jarrod responded to Bishop's question.

"Where can we find her?" I asked.

"Out front; let me message her and get her to come back here," Jarrod said.

"Okay thank you so much!" I responded to him.

Jarrod on the phone:

"Hey Martha, we have two people here who were friends of my daughter, Loren who was tragically killed last week. They need to ask you a few questions about our regular, John Dylan."

"Oh okay. Where are y'all and I'll come and answer them to the best of my ability?"

"In the Audio and Video room."

"Okay, I'll head there now."

--Click--

"She's on her way, guys. I'll leave y'all to have the conversation," Jarrod said, as he walked out of the room.

"Thank you for your help Jarrod," I said, right as he closed the door.

A new lady walked in the door, and started asking us what we wanted to know about John Dylan. We told her about everything and how we think that this John Dylan could have something to do with her murder. She explained to us that she couldn't tell us much, but that he would be coming in later and we could ask him our questions. With that, she left the room and left us there to figure out what we were going to do.

"So what do we do?" I asked Bishop.

"We'll come back later so we can talk to this John Dylan. I want to find who killed Loren, just as bad as you do," he said as he squeezed my hand.

"Let's go then so we can catch up with the others, and tell them what we've learned. Then maybe tonight, they can come back here with us," I said before kissing Bishop's cheek.

We left the bar that afternoon, looking for our other friends. We all arranged to meet up at the park, at our spot, to tell each other what we had uncovered from that afternoon of searching.

A/N: So I know this one ends on a cliff hanger, however, it seemed right. Are you ready to meet this infamous John Dylan character yet? Tune in to the next chapter to find out! Thank you so much for reading!