Page 3 of Fighting Shadows

He hasn’t, not since Ellie walked out the door, and he shut down.

We’re all lost and coping in our own ways, but if we’re going to find her, we need to have a plan.

“Do you have your bike here?” I ask him, knowing I need to give him a purpose before he stabs one of us.

He nods.

“I need you to go to my loft and pick up something. I’ll text you the instructions, but I need it quickly,” I say to him, my head already bent to look at my phone. His footsteps echo as he storms out to the garage.

“What are you making him get?” Sebastian asks.

“A laptop and some clothes for me, but I don’t actually need them; I just needed him out of the house.”

“Smart, but do you think having him on the road is the wisest decision?” he asks me, his brow furrowed as he concentrates on his laptop.

“It's better than him stabbing one of us for breathing wrong. He’ll be fine as long as he stays on his bike the whole time,” I say, trying to reassure both him and myself.

“Any word from Tobias?”

Checking my phone, I see I have a message from him.

Tobias

I found a lead, so I’m going

to follow it. Will be dark for a bit.8:30 AM

“He’s found a lead but is going dark for a bit,” I tell him as Atlas walks back into the room, escorted by his mother.

“Who’s found what?” Atlas asks, hope in his tone.

Telling him what Tobias messaged, I watch the hope drain from him as he falls back onto the sofa.

“We’ll find her. We have to.” He mumbles heartbrokenly.

Mrs. Moore sits next to her son, stroking his back soothingly as he breaks down once more in her arms.

It’s torture. Watching my friends fall apart as we try to find her desperately, I can’t even begin to fathom the destruction if we never find her and what it will do to all of us.

Chapter 3

Dominic

’Lifetime – Three Days Grace’

Iknow he’s making me leave because I’m on edge. I’m on the precipice of a breakdown, ready to burn down everything around me if it means she’ll be brought back to me.

I feel like I’m slowly losing myself, that I’m lost with no way out of the darkness that suffocated me before.

Zander

Find the laptop under the bed

and my spare duffel bag with my

change of clothes.9:02 AM

Sending him a thumbs up in response, I swing the door open to the garage, letting it bounce off the wall. Uncaring if I leave a mark or a hole in the plaster.

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