Enter the Shadows: Book One of the RTS Series (First Full Draft)

Chapter Sixteen

Leala

Leala immediately shoved her phone in her pocket and grabbed her shoes from the floor, and jumped from her cluttered desk to the door.

"Hey, I'm going to head out for a bit!" Leala called out to her family while heading to the garage.

Her mom peeked her head out from the kitchen. "Where are you going?"

"Just for a bike ride!"

"Hold on then!" Her mom called, causing Leala to freeze. "Make sure you bring a water bottle, it's almost ninety degrees outside."

"Right..." Leala quickly darted into the kitchen, and managed to fill a water bottle in record time. "Okay, love you guys, bye!"

She sprinted to the garage and got on her bike, locking her water bottle in a carrier on the frame, and rode as quickly as she could pass neighborhoods and other buildings until she came across the road to the elementary school. And the rundown church that no one had touched in what felt like years.

Robin was already there, pacing anxiously in front of the church , staring at the building. She called out his name and he turned to her in a panic. "Hey, you made it!"

Leala set her bike against the fence and looked at the decrepit old building. "Sorry I'm late, has anything happened?"

"That's just it... nothing." Robin looked worried. "I can't see anyone in the windows, and I haven't seen anyone show up. I don't know if Arsene is here or not, or our stalker."

Leala shook the fence a bit; it felt sturdy enough. "Should we go in?"

"We might need to."

She suddenly felt a knot in her stomach. "Would that be considered breaking and entering?"

"Most likely..." Robin made a face. "But we don't have many options..." Then he started walking around the side of the building. "This way."

"Where are we going?" Leala quickly followed Robin, who had seemed to have found a weak part in the fence. With some effort, he lifted up part of the metal netting and left a hole big enough for them to crawl through. She hesitated again. Leala had been usually well-behaved and never tried to explore or break into private property like this. But then the thought of Arsene alone in that church came to mind. "Okay. Let's do this."

"I'll hold it up for you."

Leala got closer to the ground and quickly crawled under the fence. Part of her shirt did get caught for a moment on the netting, but she was able to carefully free her shirt. Once she was on the other side, she looked to Robin. "How are you going to get it?"

Robin, still holding the fence, wedged his way through the hole. Leala quickly tried to reach over the side of the fence to hold the netting up, but before she could get a good grab on it Robin was already on the other side.

She looked surprised. "Have you done this before?"

Robin looked almost ashamed. "A few times. My sister and I have, well, we've snuck in here once before. When we were kids. That's how I knew about the fence." Leala gave him a look and he quickly added, "I-It was several years ago. We were still dumb children who were hoping to get a glance at a ghost."

Before Leala could add anything, there was a loud crashing sound that came from inside. A noise so loud and sudden it made the both of them jump.

"Wh-What was that?" Leala asked.

"It sounded like glass breaking." Robin looked at the building, suspicious. Then he reached for his kubotan. "Stay close, okay?"

Leala nodded, praying that they weren't about to have a run in with a homeless person or a potentially dangerous individual. Well, she knew they were probably going to face their stalker, and that was what was scariest to her.