The Devil In Disguise

CHAPTER 29: A Higher Power

(A/N: don't forget to vote! :)

When I came to school the next day, I rapidly looked for Grace. To my relief, she was still there, sitting on her normal chair in form, looking less sleep-deprived than yesterday; probably because she was still alive. I had texted her at regular intervals, even calling her at some points, checking in to see if she was okay. She'd told me, every time, that she was fine, but I was hesitant to believe her; I knew how manipulative he was. If he told you to pretend to be okay, you'd do it. Or he'd take a chainsaw and slice you into small, fleshy, messy pieces.

"Ugh, it's Karissa," Xander said disgustedly, pulling out a chair for me to sit in. My heart fluttering, I smirked and said, "Hello to you too, Xander," and ungracefully slumped into the chair next to him. He rolled his eyes and bit his lip to stop himself from smiling.

"Grace?" I said, "Are you —"

"Okay? Yes, I'm fine," Grace laughed. I took a deep breath, nodding. She gave me a genuine smile as if sensing that I was hesitant to believe her, and I slowly relaxed, realising that she was telling the truth.

"She was catching the boys up on the message," Corina told me, giving me a brief smile.

"Yeah. I didn't tell my dad about it yesterday because I was too scared — I didn't want to poke the bear. I stayed up and even slept with a knife under my pillow but nothing happened. I fell asleep somewhere between three and four in the morning which is horrible because now I'm about to collapse," Grace sighed, "But anyways. I told Dad this morning and he said that we'll call the police after school. He thought it was a prank; when he was in school, his friends used to climb in through the window and play ghost pranks on him and stuff, so he brushed it off. But I was too, like, paranoid and stuff so he said we'd call the police."

"It's so strange," Xander mused, his green eyes narrowed in contemplative thought, the wheels in his brain almost visibly turning. "First we nearly get abducted and then you get a message on your wall? These have to be related..."

"That's what I was thinking!" Simon exclaimed, clapping Xander on the arm. We chuckled, then quieted to listen to his own thoughts on the situation. "What if, like Corina said, it has something to do with Grey — but he isn't clever enough  — so what if he's working for someone? A bigger dog, a higher power, y'know?"

"You mean like God?" I snorted, making the others chuckle again.

"No, not that kind of higher power," Simon corrected, "I mean like a more... skilled person? A real criminal?"

Fucking hell, they were good at this.

"You mean like the one Grey hired?" I deflected, trying to steer him onto a different path, one that wasn't so destructive.

"But did he hire him?" Xander asked, leaning forward in anticipation. The others leaned forward too; Xander's interest in the conversation meant he had something interesting to say, more interesting than his usual sardonic comments.

I narrowed my eyes. "What do you mean?"

His eyes met mine and glimmered. "I mean," he said, not breaking eye contact, "that you're sticking to the facts too much. The problem is that they're not facts, are they?" he asked rhetorically, still staring into the brown depths of my eyes. I stonily looked back at him, my face unreadable, as he continued, "Did Grey ever say that he hated us? No, he didn't say anything because the police couldn't question him — he ran away before they had the chance. For all we know, Simon could be right and he have been bribed to do someone's dirty work. The police story was just that — a story. We don't know the actual truth."

My eyes were slanted at his and I didn't say anything for a moment. All the while, he'd continued looking at me as if we were the only two in the room, as if he was trying to catch my reaction.

"Sure," I finally said, tilting my head challengingly, "The police specialists and detectives who research into these things are wrong, and the truth is that Grey is working for someone else who apparently wants to kill us," I leaned back in my chair, shrugging. "Any idea who? Or is this just a story, like Grey's — but just less likely?"

We fell into a gravely silence, mulling over the conversation. I'd made a good point, I could tell from their faces.

"So all we have are two far-fetched theories and no conclusion," Corina concluded. "We're back to square one."

"We never left square one," Simon snickered.

I'd tuned out of the conversation after that, feeling a drawing gaze to my right. Turning, my eyes met Xander's, whose stare was trained on me.

"Well played," he murmured, smirking the smirk.

"I wasn't playing," I retorted, raising an eyebrow.

"No, I know," Xander acknowledged, casting a long glance around the room before his eyes snapped to mine again, "You were hiding something."

But whether or not I was hiding something, he couldn't find out, because as if on cue, the bell rang. Commotion ensued as everyone made a beeline for the door, me being one of the people at the front, trying to distance myself as much as I could from Xander's penetrating, inquisitive gaze.

A/N [SERIOUS]

I've noticed most of my readers don't really take time to vote. If you're enjoying the book, it really doesn't take much time to hit that little star — I need to know if you like it or not! Otherwise, looking at my reads and my votes, it looks like people read but don't enjoy, which defers me from putting more chapters out. I know that some of you don't have accounts and some of you just forget, but I remind you at the end of each chapter and I'd hope you'd like to support this book if you enjoy reading. Sorry this is so long and deep, but I just feel like I need more feedback from you all — after all, I'm not a big author nor have my books been discovered by many, so to the few that do read: please support me and this book by voting and leaving comments! Thanks :)

—deainlustris