Killer One ✓

Chapter 21

Lacey.

Finn had driven us to the last place I would have ever expected to end up. I felt like I needed to click my heels together a few times because I was looking at an old farm house that looked like it might have been quite cozy back when the original owners were around.

The images I had of the Caseys did not fit with this farmland at all. Of course, there weren't any crops or animals around, but instead just empty space and the outlines of what used to go where with fences. There was a dilapidated barn to the left of us, the fading white of the panels matched the sun stained white of the house. The only common thing between this place and Melkin was that they both were falling apart.

There was a porch along the front of the house and it looked like it wrapped around the sides of the houses. I wondered if it went all the way around the house. The edges of the porch were lined with a small picket fence and matching handrail down the three steps leading to the house, which Ben had scaled in a second. I was surprised it didn't fall under his weight when he stomped under it because the wood of the steps looked broken in places or warped by wear and tear and weather.

It was obvious that the lawn hadn't been maintained in some time. Vines and weeds were the real residents of this place. But it didn't look as bad as it should have, if this place was purchased by Cameron's mom. If she bought it around the time Alex was born, that would've been around twenty, twenty-one years ago so I suspected at least some of the yardwork had gotten taken care of over the years. If I looked out to where the barn was, the grass was even worse so someone had just maintained this area...sort of.

I wondered if it was whoever Finn and Annabeth had to get the key from.

But also, had anyone here ever even mowed the lawn before? Cameron and Annabeth seemed to be raised learning how to knock someone out instead of doing household chores. Finn didn't ever really have a home until he met Cameron. Travis had said he avoided his dad's house and Ben would have been with Cameron once he was old enough to do things like lawn care and repairing things.

"I'm going to go inside," I told Travis. "Do you want to come with me?"

His eyes had been stuck on the house and he was wearing a similar facial expression as how I felt, like he also needed to click his heels together. But I could see the adoration there. While he did look like he couldn't believe his eyes, he also looked like he was seeing the greatest thing in the world. And I suppose, given everything he'd been through, that maybe he was.

"No," he said, his voice coming out a little gruff. Travis gestured vaguely with his hand in the direction of where Cameron, also looking at the house, stood.

I nodded even though I doubted Travis saw. "Let me know if you need anything."

I figured Travis wanted to talk to Cameron. Or maybe he just needed a moment. Either way, I didn't think Cameron would leave Travis out here on his own to hobble inside and I wasn't going to drag Travis in if he didn't want to come.

So, I walked down the dirt path until I got to the stairs which creaked under my feet. Now that I was on the porch, I could see that it looked like it had been recently cleaned or swept off because there were traces of dirt on the windows but nothing on the floor. Neither Ben, Annabeth, or Finn closed the front door when they entered, so I walked right in and passed the faded brown door.

The inside was barren, which I shouldn't have been surprised about. There were stairs. Doors. A hallway. White wood floors and empty gray walls which I wasn't sure if they were also white once upon a time or not. The living room was directly in front of me which I only gathered from the couch and television sitting on the floor. To the side, there was a kitchen with a cereal box out on the counter.