BEHIND THE CAMERA || KTH

Chapter 15

I didn't tell anyone that I was really suspicious of Clyde. I just don't know what I felt when I saw him. He looked so secretive and the moment I laid my eyes my on him I wanted him to spit out everything he knows about Serena.

I was keeping a regular watch on him so that I could be sure it was him who abducted Serena. My gut feeling was always forcing me to chase him. It had been a week since I've been watching him.

I sometimes made detours to wherever Clyde happened to be, but had not yet detected anything out of ordinary. It felt like I was doing his job: stalking. He comes to school 30 mins early, sits in the library for exactly 20 mins and spends the rest 10 mins in the school ground with his camera everyday.

After school, he goes to a café and orders a lattè with a cake pop and does his school work there. He was a loner. Friendless. Nobody talked to him in school and ignored him as if he doesn't exist.

I pitied him. But that's what psychotic killers are. Loners. It was yet another day, I was following him after he left the café. I proceeded to sleuth around wherever Clyde went, to collect evidences and tell everyone that he has Serena.

I never knew where he lived. I just knew that he lived in some distant part of the town. In the half-light of evening the street was eerie. The weather was cold, just like it used to be. But today it was an unpleasant cold. Not a normal one. Even the sunlight felt cold.

It wasn't that it was a still day; the air simply didn't move. The leafy avenue was bereft of noise, as if every murmur and rustle was stolen away. The sky was empty, not just of any birds, but of clouds also.

I couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right. It was the kind of silence that falls right before you get stabbed in the back. It sent a shiver down my spine and I felt my blood chill in my veins.

Whenever I followed him in this street I never allowed myself to go further. I felt scared. My feet didn't allow me to reach to Clyde's home. I always went back home after reaching here because I felt that this place was unsafe for me and also because I was alone.

This feeling was evoking in me again along with the desire of saving Serena. It felt like this place was haunted. As if nobody lived here but I could still see 4-5 houses although, barely any people.

Whenever I saw some, they always gave me horrified looks and just went on with their work. Clyde was a few steps ahead of me. Walking very slowly and silently, without any hurry.

He was gripping the straps of his bag and was traipsing slowly in the street. It felt like passing through an icy shower, like touching arctic air, bathing in a tub of ice cubes, suddenly chilling, like having every warm feeling and thoughts sucked out of me. I was feeling as if a Dementor from Azkaban performed his kiss on me, sucking all the happiness from the inside. [A/N: lmao, Harry Potter reference]

Clyde was still walking and then stopped in front of a black gate which looked similar as the one in a cemetery. He opened it and I followed him trying to keep my mental and physical health stable. I was, for the the first time, finally following to where Clyde actually lived.

The gate leaded to a misty mountainous forest area. I didn't know how to describe that spooky place. The mountain path grew wide where the soil was soft and then narrow in the rocky passes. There were times, where it was barely there at all, no more than a mild disturbance in the dirt.

But always it lead upwards to a peak, the only destination I could keep in my mind. His footsteps were all I could hear. I tried my best for not making a sound. I thought, what if he suddenly turns around and I freak out and fall on my butt?!

I tried to shake my head and remove all the negative thoughts. Mosses and lichens covered boulders sprawled on the rockery of Mother Nature. There was no sign of civilisation in this wilderness apart from a worn out path that shook through the blanket of grass.

My spirits were up, high-like the mountain I was keen to concur, I cared a little about the mud that stuck up on my boots and the backpack that dug into my shoulders.

As I tilted my head up, I saw the path fade into a void of mist and bare twigs. Due to the surreal ambience, it was hard to believe that I wouldn't encounter a pack of trolls or fairies on the go.

I felt a sudden feeling of unsafeness again and I stopped. Clyde was still climbing without a sign of tiredness. I turned around and was walking down back to the gate and reach for my house as soon as possible.

I was again dominated by my feet and followed them to where they took me. But at least I made a progress today. I entered the gate which looked as the one in a cemetery.....

ᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠᵠ

A/N: ☠️