Adapted

The Run

The responsible thing to do wasn't taking Niamh's phone to try and track down Ivy, especially after the hell of a day I've had. But lately I've been having a hard time doing the responsible thing. I've become a lot more like Niamh, which of course she's loving. As soon as she found out everything that went down in the hospital and heard my theory that the phone led to Ivy she wanted to go track her down. Usually I'm the reasonable one, the one that tells her no. This time however, It was me coming up with the plan to do exactly as she'd suggested.

"So, we're clear on the plan then?" I laced up my trainers and watched Niamh fill my schoolbag with Oreos and Pringles which we planned to use as bait for Ivy. "Just let me lead okay? She doesn't know you and she's pretty defensive."

"I mean that's kinda understandable when you consider the whole being shot thing, yknow?" I rolled my eyes, typical of Niamh to be so nonchalant about everything. "You said no one knows who shot her?"

"How would they? She wouldn't talk to anyone." Niamh didn't ask the question on both of our minds, if she refused to talk in the hospital a few hours ago why would she talk now? But she did ask another one I'd been afraid of.

"If Ivy's out there now and the guy who shot her is, and she's going back near the place she was shot in, how do we know we're not in any danger here?"

"We don't." I kept it short and sweet, took Niamh's phone and opened up the 'find my device' app. I was uncomfortable with how easy it was to be tracked considering this whole situation and made a mental note to disable most of my device's connections to each other. I looked back at Niamh to see if she was having any second thoughts and found her grinning at me, bag slung over her shoulder.

"Awesome. Ready to go, then?" I wish I had her enthusiasm for danger, instead I was left shaking, which she noticed. "You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Just too much red bull is all." It wasn't a lie, but it didn't matter either way. Niamh ignored whatever problem was lying under the surface probably because she wanted to get moving before I pussy'd out. Which was fair because I'm pretty much on the verge of pussying out.

Niamh flew out the door in front of me, running down the stairs, "Don't worry about it, just imagine we're in Scooby Doo or something."

"More like Buffy the Vampire Slayer," I muttered back. Niamh laughed.

"Even better. You be Buffy." She jumped next to the front door and twisted the keys round in the lock whilst she waited on me catching up.

"You're certainly eager." I stepped through the door and let her lock it behind us. Feelings of dread and exhaustion pounded at me as I looked out over the endless green fields in front of me. I knew that behind those fields there were even more. Cornwood is a small place but when you're looking for a needle in a haystack it can feel as large as London. Knowing that we could track Ivy didn't make things any better. We didn't have a car and we don't know anything about her to predict where she may be going. We're all travelling at the same speed, we may never reach her. Every logical interpretation of what we were doing led me to the conclusion that it was utterly pointless. If Niamh was having any of the same doubts, she was either ignoring them or was trying out for the Oscars. She led us skipping down the country road looking like red riding hood on her way to the woods.

"Of course I'm eager, I'm bored. Cornwood is fucking boring, nothing ever happens here. Now, there's a murder mystery-"

"Attempted murder... mystery." I corrected. "In fact not even, it could be an accidental shooting for all we know." There was a lot of logic in that theory that hit me as soon as the words left my mouth, "It makes sense actually! Ivy was shot but she refuses to tell anyone anything about it, why? She's looking for someone and doesn't know where they live, why? Maybe someone accidentally shot her and she's protecting them from getting in trouble, maybe she was looking for the house of a distant friend or relative to draw attention away from her home life!"