The Forgotten Ones

Chapter 27: Title

Tiny white crystals floated through the air--twisting and swirling in a light haze as they silently littered the ground. The air was nippy, the cold temperature at a nose burning degree. Fluffy clouds covered the sky, appearing as a hollow ocean above, littering, ever so gently, little white flakes of thin ice.

First snowfall.

It was so beautiful to witness on the other side of the large, fogging glass. Elias was fascinated by it's soft yet wild nature.

"What are you looking at?" Cush asked, snapping Elias out of his trance. "Are they here?"

"Oh, no." Elias pointed awkwardly at the window before looking out into the gust again. "It's just...snow."

"Snow?" Cush rose a brow, giving an indifferent glance out the window. "What about it?"

"Never seen it before." Elias continued to admire it. "At least not in person. It doesn't snow where I'm from. It's nice."

"It's cold as hell." Cush replied trying to repress his shivers as he continued sketching along the pale colored table. "I hate when it comes out of no where. It doesn't stick all the time. Don't get your hopes up."

Though it was getting closer to freezing as time progressed, the inside of the Wendy's was warm enough for comfort. They had been sitting there for only twenty minutes, waiting for the other group members to arrive so they could give them the news they'd received earlier that day.

Bausy was alive, and had been the entire time. Somewhere tucked away in a hospital room deep within a coma. Her funeral had been faked by the FBI and only a selected few knew of it. The FBI and their trusted medics, the sherrif, Cush, Elias, and soon to be the other group members.

Sheriff Decan stressed the fact that the information he'd given them was highly classified and that they were not to tell anyone apart from Porter, Beverly, and Harley. Initially, even the sheriff had thought his daughter to be dead along with the rest of the town--as the FBI had no desire to tell him, until he started to lose his mind. Only when he'd been detained did they relay the news to settle him, afraid he'd do something more reckless than what he already had. His only reasoning behind telling them was to prevent them from trying to dig any deeper. He couldn't handle the thought of losing another child to that monster, and he knew very well that they wouldn't have stopped unless they knew they could.

All they had to do was wait until she woke up for her to finally tell them who was responsible, and she was already showing signs of healing. Of course, there were no guarantees that she would be the answer to all their problems, but there was a chance she could be at the same time. Bausy was alive, and therefore still was hope.

"I took my history final." Cush said, not looking up from his sketch.

"I thought it was next week--"

"Special needs take longer tests in advance." Cush cut him off, and Elias couldn't help but ask wearily,

"How'd you do?"

"I failed it." He said blankly. "Sixty four percent. Which, granted, is higher than my usual."

Eli's eyes averted as he knew he had a part to play in his failure. He hadn't been tutoring him as they agreed.

"I'm sorry."

"We've both had a lot on our plates as of late. I don't blame you, not solely at least. I wouldn't have been focused either way." He sighed. "He's allowing me a retake next week with the rest of the class."

"How about we study together until then--and I'll pay you everything back for the tutoring sessions. It's the least I can do for bailing."

Cush gave an amused scoff. "Can't believe I'm actually saying this, but yes. I could use the money."