𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒎 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒖𝒅𝒔 • 𝑩𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒆 [2]

24•

"Woah, woah, woah. Excuse me. Where do you think you're going?"

I let out an agitated sigh at the woman's voice as we all stopped in our tracks in front of her desk.

We all looked to Nancy as she stumbled over her words to come up with an excuse. "Oh um...I was just going to visit my grandma again. And...and this is my family."

The woman glanced at each of us before pausing at Lucas. "Extended." He smiled.

"I don't care who they are. You know the rules. Two visitors at a time." She said with her hand on her hip.

"Yeah-"

"Two."

"Please." I intergected. "I haven't seen my grandma in so long and uh," think, Evie, think. " I'm- I'm moving away tomorrow and this could be the last chance that I get to see her before..." I brought my hand up to my face and wiped my eye in an attempt to look convincing, "before she-"

"Fine." The woman cut me off before sighing. "You three," she said as she motioned to me, Nancy and Jonathan, "but just this once."

"Thank you." I sniffed before turning to the kids. "Sit over there and be good. We'll tell grandma that you send your love."

After I received a few nods, Nancy, Jonathan and I made our way down a few corridors in search of the elevator.

Nancy sighed as we walked towards it, and I stopped just as the two of them went inside. "You guys go ahead, I'm going to take the stairs." I said with a tight smile.

"Evie-" Jonathan frowned.

"Nope," I said, cutting him off. "You guys need to talk. Fourth floor, right?"

"Yeah, room 402." Nancy nodded.

"Great, I'll see you guys there." I smiled at their gawping faces and gave them both a mock salut before turning on my heels and heading towards the stairs. They might as well talk it out sooner rather than later.

I started to jog up the flights of stairs as fast as I could, although I couldn't shift the uneasy feeling that had overcome me as soon as we entered the building. Something just felt wrong, and on top of that I couldn't help but feel really fucking bad that we lied about Mrs. Driscol, I mean, she had to have family somewhere so, why weren't they here? Why didn't she have anyone to comfort her, instead of us just using her?

I reached the fourth floor and leant against the opposite wall to the elevator so I could wait on Nancy and Jonathan, my mind racing as I thought about how fucked up this whole situation actually was. I started to fiddle with a strand of my hair as I subconsciously placed a hand against my stomach. This was not how things were supposed to go.
A few seconds later, the door pinged open, dragging me away from my thoughts, and I smiled. "You two alright now?"

"How the hell did you beat us?" Jonathan stared.

"It was four flights of stairs Jonathan, even I could do that."

"In answer to your question, yes, we're good." Nancy chuckled, "Now come on."

The three of us turned a corner that lead to a long hallway and I noticed a stack of papers strewn across the floor. Nancy and Jonathan glanced at me as we passed by a room which had a red flashing light above the door. This wasn't looking good. We finally came to a stop and Nancy stepped forward. She gently opened the door, as not to disturb Mrs. Driscol, but swung it open the rest of the way once she realised the room was empty.

"Where is she?" Jonathan questioned as we looked around the room.

"I don't know."

I let out a loud groan and ran my hands through my hair as the panic finally set in. "We're so fucked."