Every night, when I closed my eyes, his image would be branded to the backs of my eyelids. That same smile, so gorgeous yet so deadly. Those deep blue eyes, like the treacherous oceans you find, the ones which sometimes have those desolate lighthous...
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The sky was dark and stars dotted it like freckles, little luminous balls of light that lit up absolutely nothing on Xander's path.
"My legs hurt," Grace said, her voice sad.
"My head hurts. And so does my body. But we can't give up," Xander replied shortly, trudging through the trees with effort.
"If she was here, we'd have found her by now," Simon argued.
"No, we wouldn't have. He wouldn't make it obvious; the bungalow would be hidden. Well hidden. He's clever, remember what Karissa said?" Corina countered.
Upon hearing Karissa's name, Xander's guts twisted up tightly in a knot, like a rope. He gulped down deep breaths as his head throbbed suddenly, and tried to erase the image of Karissa's possibly dead body from it.
***
The funniest thing was that all their parents thought they went out in the morning to hang out for the day and were now watching a late night film. They had no clue that their children were actually trying to hunt down a murderer and rescue their best friend.
"Why did we decide to do this?" Corina burst out, angry. Xander cast her a glance; all of them had become hysterical at some point after searching for more than twelve hours.
"To find Kar —" Grace began in a tired voice.
"Exactly! But have we found her? No. What was the fucking point, we've searched three woods — terribly, may I add —"
"At least we're trying!" Simon snapped, his usually humorous demeanour gone.
Corina glared at him. "No, we're wasting our time. The police already knew everything Karissa told us — they would have searched all these woods with equipment and shit, and actually covered the entire area! They'd be searching further out now, while we're here in these perfectly innocent trees trying to find a murderer — and we're probably going in circles! I swear I've seen this tree three times now..." Corina trailed off, her anger dissipating into hopelessness as she tried to convince herself not to give up and that they'd find Karissa.
But then Xander heard something.
"Guys. Bloody hell, guys, did you hear that?"
The other three froze, their ears perked, eyes wary, muscles still. The wind whistled and rustled the leaves — but that was all that could be heard.
"I don't hear anything," Grace whispered. The other two agreed, then Simon shot a look at Xander.
"If you're pranking us like you did the first time, I swear on my life, Xander —" Simon warned. Xander cut him off with a look.
"Simon," Xander replied slowly, levelly, "I heard something."
After searching him for a moment, Simon could tell that Xander was telling the truth. Tersely, he nodded, and said, "Where did it come from?"
With an almost shaking hand, Xander pointed to the north west of where the four stood now.
After sharing a look, the four took off. Sprinting through the trees, leaping over logs and barely noticing as they got scratched by winding nettles in their path.
A/N
Sorry for the late update my dudes! And THANKS FOR HELPING ME HIT 15K!! It means so much to me 😭❤️
Yes I will be doing a double update as I've kept you waiting too long to give you such a short chapter. So remember to keep voting!
