Angel

Chapter 13

A week later, Vix and I found ourselves in a neighboring town mall, doing some shopping. Vix called it 'retail therapy' and in a way she was right. In the aftermath of what happened with Joey, and the sad farewell of Evan's last day in Hadleigh, Vix and I decided that we would finally take that trip and go shopping. It was much needed. The entire time we walked through the mall, the only things on my mind was quality time with my friend, and the books I was excited to buy.

"With the way you're acting, I would think you've never gone shopping like this before." Vix remarked as I took in all the different stores.

"Well not exactly. Mel, Ollie, and I only went to the mall for the ice rink they had. Otherwise my mom got everything for us because she had her own store preferences."

"Your mom sounds like a nut case."

"She kind of is." We laughed.

Vix pulled me to the escalators that led to the food court on the level above us. It was like she read my mind, or heard my stomach growl. It was one of the two. We ordered from a little bistro place that sold toasted sandwiches and bottled coke. I sat down at a table, keeping a watch on all the bags we had. It happened to be a lot of bags, and were mainly Vix's. I watched Vix skip over with a tray. On it were both of our sandwiches, our drinks, and some napkins.

"I didn't think today would get any better, but I was mistaken." I said through a mouth full of food. Vix opened her mouth to reply but her phone rang/

"Cooper? Woah slow down and repeat what you just said." Vix turned to look at me as I ate another bite of the sandwich. Her eyes widened and the call ended.

"Vix, what is it."

"We gotta go now." She said, gathering up all her stuff, including putting the sandwich in one of her shopping bags. "Come on!"

"You still haven't told me what's going on!" I said, following her with my own bags.

"It's Will. Cooper saw Will run into the forest like he was running away from something."

"Did anyone follow him?"

"Yeah, my stupid brother." I cursed under my breath as we ran down escalator after escalator and through the doors the parking lot. In record timing, we had all our stuff piled into the trunk, and the car up and running.

Bless the highways, we drove as fast as we could back to Hadleigh. Cooper had told us to meet him at the old well in the clearing to search for Will and Joey.

"Did he say how long they've been gone?" Vix shook her head.

"No, but they have to have been gone long enough to make Cooper panic."

"Why did he call us, and not the police."

"I'm not sure. Will used to run away often, but Joey didn't. It's possible they just got lost in the forest while fighting. Or they wandered into one of the abandoned buildings in there."

"Exactly how many abandoned buildings are there in Hadleigh?" I asked.

"No one really knows."

"Wonderful. They could be anywhere!"

The second we made it into Hadleigh, Vix parked the car at my house and we sprinted to the old well clearing. Cooper was there with his phone to his ear. He cursed and pulled it down when there was no answer. He saw us running towards him and he stuffed it into his pocket.

"Which direction." I said in between breaths.

"They ran that way." Cooper pointed to my right, and I nodded in thanks.