Beneath the Surface (On Hold)

Chapter 11

Jacob had tackled me to the ground when the windows shattered. He had fallen on top of me and stayed there until all of the broken glass had settled. Once it had, he got off of me and helped me up. His arms were cut from the glass since he had taken his jacket off when he got here.

He looked at me, "You okay?" He asked.

I nodded, "Yeah, I am. But you're not." I said gesturing to the cuts on his arms that were bleeding slightly. But he pulled his arms away before I could asses how bad the cuts actually were.

"I'm fine." He said as he pulled his jacket on.

Just then, the door burst open and people swarmed the room. Mr. Pierce got to his feet (I had momentarily forgot that he was there.), utter horror etched onto every detail on his face.

He looked at the 13 people standing in the apartment that had not been there moments ago (don't ask me how I  knew how many people were in the room without counting because I have no earthly idea.). They were all wearing regular clothes, except for their jackets. They all had matching green leather jackets. Kind of. They weren't totally leather, at least, they didn't look it. The jackets were glowing. Kind of like the way metal glows when light bounces off of it. It was weird. The jackets were the same shade of green that my eyes were. At the sight of the jackets, Mr. Pierces' face relaxed and he smiled.

"Glad it's just you guys." He said and all of them started engaging in conversation as if they hadn't just blown out the windows in the apartment and broke the door down.

They didn't even give a second glance to Jacob or me. So instead of introducing ourselves and interrupting the reunion like the logical thing to do, we slowly backed towards  the door and out into the hallway.

Once we were a good distance away from the apartment door we turned and ran.

Jacob...

When we reached the stairs we heard the first shouts from the apartment, followed by pounding footsteps indicating their pursuit.

we bolted down the stairs and tore through the main hallway. We exploded onto the street and booked it around the corner. There was a bus about to leave the curb but we jumped onto it just in time.

We were relieved to find out that the bus did actually stop in Boston. We were even more relieved to find out that Boston was the next stop on the bus and we would be getting off in thirty minutes or less.

Once we sat down, Lexi pulled her laptop out of her shoulder bag and began typing on it, "What are you doing?" I asked her, slightly out of breath from the run.

"Hacking into the Lexington Fire Department records." She said casually, as if she was just ordering a  burger.

"What?" I asked her, astounded that she would attempt something that stupid.

"You said you wanted answers. So that's what you are going to get." She said simply, not even looking up from the computer.

"Wait a second," I said as she looked  up at me, "You know how to hack?" I asked and she smiled.

"Didn't peg me as the hacking type huh?" She asked but shrugged, "Yeah I know  how to hack. It's actually pretty easy." She said looking back at her screen as she typed in things.

"Huh." I said simply, trying to picture Lexi sitting on her bed, learning how to hack a computer.I couldn't do it. She just didn't seem like the person to do things like that.

I looked at her as she did her "hacking" thing. Her hair was pulled back into aa ponytail wiith braids on the top of her had. It was confusing and I didn't understand it but it looked cool. Her face was slightly red, from the cold or running I didn't know, and she had forgotten her jacket at Mr. Pierces' apartment but had on a sweatshirt.

Lately, I've been finding myself looking at her more and more often. and I every time I found it harder and harder to look away.

"Got it!" She blurted, making me jump and snap out of my self-induced trance.

She read what was on the screen without letting me see first. As she was reading her face went from excited and interested to sad and scared the further she got into the report.

"Lexi, what is it?" I asked her.

She then looked up at me, tears streaming down her face, smudging her makeup, "I'm so sorry Jacob." Se whispered to me.

I had know idea what she meant by that. Until I read the chief's report of the fire that killed my parents. I skimmed the page until I got to the part where Mr. Pierce filled in the cause of the fire.

There were only six words written down where it said to put the cause of fire: A match dropped in the office.

I read further because it might've been just my parents' trying to start a fire in the fireplace before they did their work for the night. And I thought that was the case until I read he last thing on the page that I knew for a fact was the reason as to why Lexi had started crying.

It was Mr. Pierces' decision as to what they thought the fire was. (Accidental, Scud, or arson/murder). Mr. Pierce circled arson.

Arson. Intentional. Murder. My parents were murdered.