The Chloenicles #1 [COMPLETE]

Chapter 14: In which I obsess about secret layers

We did not say much for the rest of the drive. Paul Herford was in kind of a daydreamy state. He just stared out of the window and appeared to follow his thoughts wherever they took him. Miranda had gotten more and more grumpy with every passing hour and did not say much either. I guess that is what driving for most of the day while being on high alert in case somebody follows you does to a human.

Their respective moods resulted in a silence, which turned out not to be too good for me, because it gave my thoughts the room to spin and spin and spin.
I mostly thought about all the things that could potentially happen later tonight. All of the scenarios somehow ended with me saving the day („Oh Mr. Super Important Vampire Person, of course I have a tissue for you! You are welcome! And no, you don't owe me anything, stop insisting on making it up to me somehow!") or with me being eaten by a bunch of mental patients.
Normally, thinking about the different outcomes of a situation calmed me down, because I usually realized that I would be capable of surviving even the worst case scenario.
But this time was different.
I did not have enough information to go on, and my mind just filled the missing bits and pieces with the weirdest stuff.
I felt nervous.
I just could not figure out wether it was the good kind of nervous or the bad kind of nervous. I was excited to see everything, learn more and get deeper into this whole world that has been hidden from me for all my life, but I was also scared of meeting vampires / delusional people en masse.
I also had to think about the fact, that I had started to treat this whole kidnapping of mine as my spider bite, my Hogwarts letter.
What if everything turned out to be super lame?

I did not know how I would handle my high expectations of an epic adventure being let down.
I decided to focus on something different.

What would this hot spot look like?
It had to be secret and safe.
Before my inner eye a picture of a secret layer type scenario started to form.
A little, unsuspicious house that could easily be overlooked but if you entered it and found the secret entrance to the basement you would find multiple stories of windowless rooms, all filled with the newest tech and gadgets.
The good kind of excitement stated to get the upper hand in the battle of my confused feelings.
Secret layers were the best thing about every spy, gangster, super hero or heist movie.
I had always wanted to visit one.

Touch one of those see through screens that did not seem to be attached to anything in the room.
All of a sudden I could not wait to us to finally arrive there.

The sun was already setting when we reached a small town in the middle of a big forest. On the rest of our way after the supermarket incident we had driven through a couple of other towns like this one but this time Paul Herford all of the sudden sat up straight in his seat and asked Miranda: „This is it, isn't it?"
She nodded. „It won't be long now!"

He clapped his hands and pressed is face against the window.
„I recognize this house! And this tree! Ah it's so good to be back!"
Then he turned around and said to me: „Chloe, you'll love it, they have the best food there!"
I made a vague face, but fortunately, Paul Herford was too excited to pay close attention to me, or my face. He continued to look out the window and commented on everything he saw.
Even though I was excited about the layer and everything, I could not shake off the rest of the bad kind of nervous.
We finally stopped in front of a building in the middle of the main street of this town. It was big, made of bricks and looked a little run down. Some of the windows on the higher floors were nailed shut with planks. On the street level, the building was home to a McStarking.
I felt a grin creep onto my face.
This is what I had imagined.
A secret layer in a sleazy building.
And having a branch of a big fast food franchise in the house was a smart way of explaining to people why anyone would ever chose to go in there. In my head I heard a tired agent say to his wife ‚No, I am not visiting a secret layer Brenda, I just have a fast food addiction!'