Attachment (Unedited Rough Draft)

Chapter 26

I never heard Anne say anything to actually direct Richard to her shop. I wasn't really paying much attention to the drives. I was thinking about Abigail and what had happened to her. I felt bad for thinking she had done something to herself. I wanted to go and talk to her and see what she had seen, ask her how it had happened. It would be awhile before she was able to talk again though. I hadn't heard any updates on her, but it seemed like a safe assumption.

I didn't know how I felt about my neighbor. I should feel bad but I didn't even know his name and I had no idea what had happened to him or how he was. I hadn't seen him since he was hurt.

Rowan grabbed my hand and squeezed it. I looked at his hand and then looked into his aqua blue eyes.

"You're over thinking, there isn't anything you can do about things that have already happened." He told me, "Just focus on what we're doing now, we'll get this figured out."

"That's easy for you to say." I responded, "People didn't get hurt because of you."

"You're not wrong." He agreed.

We fell back to silence as we pulled up to Anne's shop. Nobody moved until Anne opened her door and slid out of the Explorer. Then we all slid out and followed her inside. It had been awhile since I had been in the shop, granted then I didn't know the owner but I always liked looking at all the crystals and everything. Richard and Eve followed Anne into the back rooms of the shop. Rowan and I just wandered around looking at the things on the selves. I figured if we were needed, they would call us to join them.

"How are you holding up?" Rowan asked coming up behind me and making me jump.

"I just want to be done with it." I told him as I tried to will my heartbeat back to a normal beat.

"Sorry didn't mean to scare you, thought you heard me step up." He said, when I looked at him it was obvious, he was trying not to laugh.

"I don't think you are very sorry." I told him.

"Why not?" He asked.

"If you were, you wouldn't be holding back laughing." I told him.

"Okay, well, in my defense you are really cute when you jump like that." He responded.

I shook my head at him and walked over to where they had little dragons set up. Rowan was laughing as he walked to where they had runes and tarot cards. I could hear Eve and Anne's voices; I wasn't close enough to hear what they were saying. I caught my name a couple of times, but it just sounded like they were explaining more to Richard.

"Hey check these out." Rowan said calling me over to look at the display of Blue Goldstone.

"They're pretty." I told him, "One of my favorites."

"Check this one out." He said handing me the one he was holding and smirking.

"Okay, why are you smirking?" I asked as I took the stone from him and looked at it.

"I just handed you the universe." He told me.

"Really?" I asked him, "That was one of the dorkiest things I've heard you say."

"Yes, really. They look like the night sky." He said.

"Yeah, they do." I agreed.

I handed him the stone back and walked over to the back room where everyone else was. Richard was sitting at a little table playing with a bracelet he didn't have before. Anne and Eve were at a work bench putting a few things together.

"How's it going?" I asked as I leaned against the door frame.

"We're almost done." Eve said.

"Just making sure we have a few things we might need." Anne said as she turned and looked at me, "Since we don't know what we will find, I want to take a few things that should help us to break the connection Stephen formed to you."