They found Officer Hickory's charred corpse lying on the lawn, reduced to nothing more than scorched bones, half-melted skin, and several scraps of ashen fabric. He'd stepped on some form of landmine hidden in the grass. I shuddered to think of what might have happened if my mother or I had stepped foot outside the house before he had. 'Death' was obviously an excellent planner.
We'd been hauled in to the police station, had questions fired at us, and been asked whether we could stay with anyone in the mean time---perhaps Canterbury's dead grandmother could take you in for a while? Apparently, that had become a rather irksome tale for Officer Hickory to frequently tell.
Ultimately, my mother decided to book a cheap hotel room until we could find somewhere else to live temporarily, considering how half of our house had gone up in flames. I thanked my lucky stars that it hadn't been the half where my bedroom was---all my precious books and study guides were still intact.
In the end, they finally released us, although grudgingly so. Neither of us said a word about the burner. If they knew about it, there was no doubt that I would be snatched from my life and placed into police custody until further notice.
When I walked out, Ezra was standing in front of the police station.
"Are you stalking me now?" I blurted, my heartbeat speeding up until it was a hammer and my ribs were a gong. "How did you even---where did you know to---" I was stuttering in an extremely idiotic manner, too shocked to talk like the educated genius I was.
His blinding grin wasn't an answer, but it was almost as good as one. "Hey Canterbury," he greeted softly. He turned to my mother and whispered something I couldn't quite hear. Her eyebrows shot up to her forehead, but she nodded. Ezra yanked out his phone and typed something in, then grabbed my wrist and all but dragged me away from the police station.
"Where are we going?" I squawked.
"If it's okay with you, I'd like to take you out on a date," he replied. "Well, a second one, anyway. Your mother agreed, as long as you called her after." He grinned. "I think she trusts me." My heart pounded along to the sound of our footsteps against the pavement. Once we were in his car and cruising along to wherever he wanted to drive me to, he asked, "So, why were you at the station?"
"My house got blown up," I responded in the most matter-of-fact tone I could muster.
Ezra immediately slammed on the brakes with a tinny screech, eliciting an angry honk from a nearby car and a middle finger flipped at us as it skidded by. "Your house got WHAT?"
"A police officer died. Exploded, actually."
He instantly made a sharp turn and pulled over by the side of the road. "If I continue driving while you tell me what happened, I'm going to end up crashing the car."
I narrated to him the events of the day. After I'd finished, Ezra slammed his head down on the steering wheel so hard it made me wince. "So...you're telling me that 'Death' texted you and placed a bomb in your mailbox, then blew up the officer interrogating you when you figured out their message?"
"Pretty much."
"And you're acting so nonchalant about it?" Ezra shrieked. "You could have died, Canterbury!"
"Do you think I don't know that?" There was a fire inside me, burning brighter with each biting word that tumbled from my lips. "I've been nearly murdered at least three times already! Nat's one crazy psycho!"
Ezra leaned back in his seat, massaging his forehead with two weary fingers. "It's not Nat, I've told you that before. It's not him."
"If not, who else could it be? He's had it out for me since the drug bust, and he knows things only 'Death' would know. It's him. It has to be," I insisted.
"It's not, I swear. Listen to me, Canterbury."
"I---" Before I could finish my sentence, Ezra grabbed my face and yanked me to him, crushing his lips to mine. My eyes widened, taken off-guard at his sudden boldness. Just for a moment, our mouths danced together in an unrequited tango, until I finally gave in to the kiss.
When he finally pulled away, he continued holding my face close to his, his hands warm on my cheeks. His clear eyes seemed to pierce into the very depths of my soul. "Don't you dare die on me, Canterbury," Ezra ordered. "I don't know what I'd do without you."
I wrenched my head from his grip, turning to stare at the cars driving by outside. "You've only known me for what, a little over two weeks?"
His soft smile lit up his strangely beautiful features and painted his cheeks a rosy pink. "Yes, but it feels like you're what I've needed my whole life."
I stared at him in rapt disbelief before shaking my head with a sigh. "You're an absolute moron."
"Can I be your moron, then?" he asked, grinning as he swerved from the pavement, back to the road. Without waiting for a reply, he continued, "You're not wearing a bowtie today."
My hand automatically jerked up to my bare throat, the familiar weight of my bowtie no longer holding it captive. "Ah---yes, I suppose so." I did it because you said I looked better without it. Do you like it? My face flushed at the thought of requiring his validation. What are you doing to me?
"You look good." My cheeks burned as we cruised along the road. I reached for the seatbelt, snapping it across my chest and locking it in place. If we so happened to be involved in an accident, there was no reason for the world to lose my spark of genius. All I could do was practice safe passenger tactics and wonder where we were going.
Ezra took me to get ice cream.
I didn't like ice cream, but his presence made it taste better than anything I'd ever eaten before.
Some of you might have noticed that the writing quality of this book has gone down a lot lately. I would really like to apologise for that, and for the fact that the writing quality is going to go down EVEN MORE after this. There'll probably be plot holes, and loose ends, and other stuff that seems a little too fast-paced. Normally, I pay a lot of attention to detail but as I'm working on a tight deadline, I don't have the time to go over each paragraph and smooth out any plot holes like I usually do.
I'm really sorry for the absolutely shitty quality that you have been and will be receiving, as I'm trying to finish before the deadline, as well as push out something for another contest I'm taking part in. Also, I don't have as much time to write as I should, since there's a lot of family problems and...well, my depression hasn't exactly been kind to me lately (especially since my music is going downhill, so it's not doing me any favours)
Four more chapters until the end, I hope you guys continue to stick around with me. I'm really sorry for the terrible writing. Thank you for all your amazhang support. I purple you guys 💜
~your best boi, Alex
Anyway to make up for the quality and length here's a few spoilers for the next few chapters, hope this helps with all your theories of what's going to happen next ⬇️⬇️⬇️
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