Facsimile

Chapter Sixteen

Authors Note: Added some dialogue, so going rogue from the original a little bit, but I think it adds more to the story. Enjoy. 

Forehead pressed gently onto the cold window pane, which did little to alleviate his pounding head, Grizz gazed solemnly at the passing landscape, his mind zoning in and out of the conversations around him. His eyes gazed to the front seat, watching Luke's lips move inaudibly.

"Notice what?" Harry questioned, his head shifting to look at the passenger side, pushing his sunglasses down from his fringe to cover his eyes from the glaring sunlight, releasing a groan.

"The smell," Luke replied, turning around in his seat, raising his hand obviously, motioning to the outside, "it's gone," he elaborated further, when he noticed the perplexed faces of everyone within the car. He threw his hand down in exasperation, eyes rolling at the stupidity around him. Silence ensued, apart from the loud inhales of Clark, who had rolled down his window to investigate whether Luke's claim was true. Grizz watched him, realising that Luke was right. The putrid smell, which had haunted the town for weeks and months, had suddenly just disappeared, and no one had noticed. But, then again the teenage populous had done nothing but party since they acquired there new found freedom and isolation. Only, seeing now as a good time to investigate their predicament.

"The more bizarre a thing seems, the less mysterious it is," Grizz narrated. Turning in his seat, Luke furrowed his eyebrows together.

"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?" he questioned, Grizz, didn't reply, only nodded his head.

"You know this shit?" Harry asked, surprised, as if it were not normal for someone to quote from literature.

Luke shook his head, "No,".

Clark pushed himself forward in the seat, his arms resting on the headrests in front.

"I don't know this shit!" he bellowed, laughing. He turned towards Grizz, who was now sat upright, more engaged in the conversation around him. "How about Sherlock Holmes?"

Shaking his head vigorously, stumped by the question, Grizz looked towards his friend, dumbfounded, before he addressed the rest of the car.

"The point is, there's an explanation for everything," he reasoned simply, throwing his arm in frustration onto his lap.

"What the fuck has that got to do with Sir Arthur Conan Boyle dude?"

Placing his forehead back against the glass, Grizz sighed, "It's Doyle, and you're hopeless,"

Luke chuckled from the front seat, "I thought Tess was tutoring you man?" at the mention of her name, Grizz's whole form became rigid, unbreathing. His heart for a moment clenched painfully, until he remembered who he was surrounded by and attempted to appear as normal as possible.

Groaning, Clark slumped back into the back seat. "I don't know man, I can't understand half what she says half the time."

"That's because you're a dumbass," Jason retorted, the car filled with boisterous and taunting chuckles.

"Fuck you," Clark replied, tilting his head to the side to look towards Jason, his features scrunching mockingly.

"You alright Grizz?"

Grizz's eyes fixated on the rear view mirror, his eyes locking with Luke's. His friend, noticing his silence and lack of contribution to the conversation around him, was worried about his friend, questioning whether he was suffering from the hangover from hell, or was contemplating their bizarre situation.

"I've got a bad case of the 10:00 am guilts - you know, when you lie in bed awake and replay all those things you didn't do right?" Luke nodded his head in the front seat, non-verbally agreeing, whilst Jason and Clark turned to each other and shrugged, "because, as we all know, nothing solves insomnia like a nice warm glass of regret, depression and self-loathing."

"What has got you feeling all negative this morning man?" Harry asked tiresomely, slightly angered that Luke had turned down the music from the stereo and that he now had to be involved of the feelings and welfare of a fellow human being. All heads turned towards Grizz within the car, their eyebrows raised questioningly, awaiting his response. In the rear view mirror, he could feel Luke's piercing, unblinking eyes, watching him, as if he knew what was troubling him. It involving a beautiful blonde, which would not escape his mind.

"Have you ever done something really bad?" he asked.

Next to him, Clark and Jason laughed.

"Um...." Clark went on, "you do know who you're talking to, right? I don't think I've ever done a thing that wasn't really bad." Clark and Jason high fived each other, laughing.

"No," Grizz sighed, "I mean really bad. Something you can't forgive yourself for," the car began to become silent, the chuckling dying down. Grizz pushed his head back into the head rest behind him, his eyes locked on the ceiling, "you want to forgive yourself for it....but you can't".

"Like what?" Jason asked seriously, all laughter gone from his face. Again, a pair of eyes watched him from the mirror. Interrogating him for the truth, to confess. But, should he just confess what he had done? Especially, since her brother was sat right next to him. How would he react knowing that one of his best friends had hurt, no damaged, his sister. He couldn't. He was a coward.

"Nothing man," Grizz smiled.

"Oh shit," Harry mumbled from the front, the car slowing and then braking to a halt. The boys in the back seat, leaned forward in disbelief to stare out the front window. A few feet in front of them, stood a thick expanse of forest, the trees cutting straight through the tarmac on the road. Their eyes followed the length of the trees, towards a towering canopy overhead, their eyes unable to penetrate through the darkness beyond. Shifting in their seats, they simultaneously, turned their heads to the right, and then the left, staring at the lineage of forest that moved onward into the horizon.

"What the fuck?" Clark spoke aloud.

Luke rolled down his window, peering, shocked, at the forest that had suddenly appeared.

"What the fuck is going on?"

Putting the car into gear, Harry reversed, the tyres screeching against the asphalt. Before, he surged forward towards the other side of town. Once again, the brakes squalled, when they reached the bridge overlooking the town, one of the main access roads in and out. Again, they were met with nothing, but a forest, which completely surrounded them, blocking the path.

"What the hell?"

"Someone should call Cassandra," Harry mumbled, turning his head to look at everyone in the car.