Redwood Diary: Book One

Chapter Thirty - You Have A New Follower

The sound of the door opening woke her up. The screeching sound was unpleasant, and she had grown tired of hearing it. He stepped in backwards, dragging something along with him. She peeled her eyes open, curious as to what it was. Her worried eyes scoped his every move, until she was able to see what he was carrying. It was a body. She watched as he dragged it toward a corner of the room, resting it against the wall. Her mouth trembled, and her breathing became uneven.

He then turned to her; the white mask covering his face. He stood there for a while, watching her, before finally leaving the room. He closed the door, and she could hear the sound of chains rattling against it, and a loud click of a padlock. The room had a bulb which was on at all times, hanging from the ceiling. Its light was dim, but she was able to see. She was aware that she could only move so far, as her right leg was cuffed to a rusty, iron rod in the room. She crawled toward the body, but only made it to the middle. She realized that he was male. His head hung down from the sitting position he was in, and his dirty blonde hair was a mess. She then realized the blood that was soaked into his shirt. How did she not see that before?

"Hey?" she whispered, her voice rasp. Her eyes darted to the door, but then back to the body. "Hey? Wake up!" She called out in the loudest whisper possible. There was no response. "Please, wake up!" she sniffled. Still no response. She looked around for something to toss at him, and immediately spotted a bone in the plate she ate from a few hours ago. She crawled toward the plate, grabbed the bone, and crawled back to where she was. She tossed the bone and it hit his head. "Hey!" she called out again for extra support, but there was still no response. It then finally struck her; he was dead.

***

"Hey...Joshua," Miley paused. She took a deep breath before continuing. "I'm really worried about you. Please...please call me back as soon as you get this." she then ended the voice message.

Aiden walked toward the table where she was and handed her an iced tea. "Anything?" he asked, taking a seat opposite of her.

She shook her head, unable to say a word. Aiden took her hand into his and gave it a reassuring squeeze. She weakly smiled back at him, but it faded almost instantly. It was another evening after school, and they were at Rose Cafe.

"It's been three days--" she started, but unable to finish.

"I know," he was finding it difficult to say the right words. "I know."

"I'm just worried."

"And it's OK to be worried...but I'm sure you'll hear from him soon."

She shook her head dismissively, "How do you know that?"

"I just do," his brown eyes meeting her blue ones; comforting her in that very moment. "We're going to figure this out together. I promise."

She nodded, "Yeah," her smile lasting longer than the last. She then tossed a loose strand of hair behind her ear, "At least we know that we can't trust Lana anymore."

He took a sip of his drink, "Have you spoken to her since?"

She shook her head, "There's no use confronting her anymore."

"Brian may be right after all. She must be protecting someone. The only question is, who?"

She was about to respond when she heard her notification tone go off on her phone. She placed her drink down and picked it up. Aiden's phone started ringing right after, and he checked the caller ID. Miley looked up at him suspiciously.