Forever His

Chapter Nine

Well, I had every intention of making this chapter more exciting and less of a filler, but I'm sorry guys, it didn't quite work out. Hopefully I can get my motivation back for the next chapter and finally start to pick the action up some more. Anyways, just hang tight and thanks so much for the continued support(: I hope this was at least a little worth the wait.

Enjoy, lovelies.

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            I breathed in deeply and let the salty air fill my lungs. An instant calm washed over me, slowing my erratic heart rate and slowly working to untangle the frayed mess of nerves within me. The foamy gray ocean stretched out before me in an unimaginable expanse, and though the sky was cloudy and the weather was mucky and wet, there was nowhere else I would have rather been. I stuffed my hands in the front pocket of my sweatshirt and walked slowly through the grainy sand, feeling it give way underneath my tennis shoes. A sigh of contentment left my lips as I found a piece of driftwood that wasn’t totally soaked and settled down on it.

            A wet breeze blew by, ruffling my hair and sticking to my skin. I pulled my hood up over my head and glanced over as the sound of an approaching family caught my attention. Up until that point, I had been the only one on that section of the beach, and I had intended to keep it that way. Before they had a chance to reach me, I stood up and began to make my way towards the woods. A hike didn’t sound so bad anyways. If I could still remember how to get there, I’d be able to make my way to a rockier section of the beach, where there were usually a few tide pools.

            The dense foliage quickly welcomed me into its green web as I stepped away from the last bits of sand and felt my feet sink into fresh mud. My knapsack weighed easily on my back as I trekked through the branches and tree roots, slowly making my way in the direction I thought the other end of the beach would be. For a fleeting moment, I hoped nobody was trying to reach me, considering I didn’t really get great cell phone reception as far out as I was, but I quickly brushed the thought away. I was there to relax and get my mind off of everything. If anybody needed me, they could wait. My mental health came first.

            Of course, forgetting everything that had been going on wasn’t easy. It all seemed too convenient, with that stupid text message and then the murder right by my feet. Maybe I was just being paranoid, but there was also a possibility that something strange was going on. After all, I never thought in a million years that somebody would stalk and kidnap me, let alone that it would be my best friend to do it. That’s something that only happens to people on TV, not to me. Or at least, that’s what I was naive enough to believe. But it happened. And who’s to say that it couldn’t happen again?

            I shook my head to clear the thoughts away and focused on the task at hand. I just wanted to find the tide pools. Trying to play Sherlock and figure the entire situation out was only going to drive me crazy.  I would let the police do their jobs, and if I got another threatening text, I would just delete it and move on.

            “That’s easier said than done,” I muttered to myself. Realizing I hadn’t been paying much attention, I pulled my eyes away from the ground and peeked up at my surroundings. My stomach dropped as I spun in a slow circle and slowly realized that I had veered off of the path I was so used to, and had gotten myself mixed up in a sea of green. “Uh oh,” I sighed, pulling a frustrated hand through my knotted hair. Giving up on smoothing out the mess, I wove it into a quick braid as I attempted to work out a plan in my head. I searched for any sign of the trail, sure that I hadn’t gone that far, but I couldn’t see anything familiar.