Where is Louise Bauman? + Original, Book 1 ✔

10

"i need more time, but time is borrowed"

The two boys glanced at each other before Ren stood up and walked over to the girl. He pressed the back of his hand to her forehead, feeling the warmth radiating from it. "Are you sure you're feeling okay? You must've taken a big fall." He spoke, brushing her messy hair behind her ear. "You should get some rest."

"I agree," Tyler said. "You're not looking too well."

"No!" Charlie exclaimed as she stood up, causing Ren to step back. "Guys, listen to me. I'm not crazy. I know that I sound absolutely insane right now, but I'm not crazy."

"You're right, you do sound insane," Tyler said, causing Ren to nod.

"Ren, you told me you were in this with me and you're just calling me crazy all over again." She looked at the boy with tears in her eyes as her voice grew shaky. She then looked at Tyler, "And you- I didn't ask you to do this with me just to call me insane. If you're both going to sit here and make me feel like shit for seeing her, then you can both leave."

"Come on, Charlie. You've been questioning people about her disappearance. You've figured stuff out about her. You're losing sleep over it," Ren said. "You definitely shouldn't be alone. Look, I can stay with you so you're not alone at least until your mom gets home and we can get your mind off of this. You were basically passed out in your yard when I got here. You were probably hallucinating."

"But you don't even know the half of it!" Charlie exclaimed, crossing her arms, "I didn't put myself in my yard! Just listen to me, please! I saw her face!"

"Okay, I'll listen." Tyler decided after a few moments of silence, ignoring the look he got from Ren.

Ren thought about it and the things he'd heard from Charlie before. "Okay, we'll listen to you." He nodded, the two sitting next to each other at the edge of Charlie's bed.

"I can either start with what I heard from Nadia or I can start with what I'm talking about now." Charlie looked between the two boys. They glanced at each other, the both of them shrugging at the other as they didn't care because they'd both hear all of it anyway.

"Fine. I'll decide." She finally spoke after a moment of silence, pulling her desk chair to the end of her bed and sitting on it so she was facing the two boys. "Okay, so to start off - Ren is here to help us, Tyler. I'd wanted him to help before but he was being an asshat. But he finally came around. And I've already told him you're here so he knew you'd be here."

"Okay, cool." Tyler nodded at Ren, who just nodded back. It hadn't even been brought up, but it was nice to have the confirmation as to why Ren was the one to answer the door.

"Moving on from that, now that we all know why we're all here - which is to find out why Louise is missing, or whatever - the talk Nadia and I had after school. She spent forever stalling on what she knew about Louise. Saying she basically knows everything about everyone as if I don't already know that. Then she sent me this." She pulled her phone from her back pocket, pulling up the video. "Are you sure you're going to want to see this, Ren?"

"What does it have to do with me?" Ren asked with a confused expression.

"It's got to do with Jade." Charlie softly spoke, looking at him with soft eyes.

"Just show the video," Ren responded, and Charlie nodded as she hit the play button and showed the two boys the video.

They both looked just as shocked as Charlie did when she first saw the video, as she expected them to. It was silent, and Ren and Charlie shared a look. He finally shook his head, pursing his lips.