Page 15 of Web of Lies
His jaw ticks, daring to take a step closer to me. His lumberjack body towers over mine, casting a shadow over my short stature. I suddenly feel like a child getting disciplined by her parents. All that’s missing is the hands-on the hip, the finger shake, and the solemn look of disappointment.
“You should walk away now. Leave this school and pack your bags and get the fuck out while you can.” He grinds his teeth with every word.
I knew Cruel Carter was an angry person, but this? This is strange. Why would I want to leave?
“Why?” I ask as innocently as possible. His eyes flutter shut, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose, and he takes a deep, steadying breath. “To me, you sound like every cliche asshole in those bully books. You know, those I hate you for no reason, I’ll push you in the lake kind of books.” I say, pursing my lips.
He grunts about to attack like a wild bull and freezes mid-grab. Every muscle in his body twitches. “Because,” he grinds out again, “because you fucking need to.” Taking a step closer, he leans down, resting his nose an inch apart from mine. From here, I can count every adorable freckle painted on his cheeks and count the warm breaths tickling my flesh.
“Any specifics?” I taunt, tilting my head to the side.
His eyes vibrate with such a fierce rage; they’re going to pop out and bounce away. Ha! Do eyeballs bounce? If I held out a red cape, he’d stomp his feet and charge at full speed.
The truth of the matter is, Cruel Carter doesn’t frighten me as much as he should. Every inch of him is muscly and heavily tattooed, sending a warning to strangers and friends alike,don’t fuck with me.Carter might send other people running with their tails tucked, but there’s something about him. Something inside of him that connects with me, pulling me in to understand. His soul begs to tell me something that his mouth can’t. So maybe his warning, although harsh, has an ounce of genuine warning to it.
“For fuck’s—” he says, narrowing his eyes into tiny slits. Slow-paced footsteps crunch along the pathway, halting behind me. Liquid heat penetrates through my t-shirt as whoever it stops behind me.
“Problem?” a deep voice asks from behind me, sending shivers down my spine.
Carter shakes his head, waving a hand in the air, dismissing the whole situation. Stalking off deep into the woods, the tall trees engulf his massive form, making him disappear. Silence surrounds me again, but the presence is still standing like a statue behind me. I don’t have to turn around to know it’s Zeppelin West. One of my five suspects. What a way to go through the day, meeting two murder suspects in the depths of the woods.
So ominous. Maybe I should start carrying a knife or pepper spray or something. Who knows, one of these days, they’ll have a chainsaw and chase me—just like the movies.
“Thank you,” I say, keeping my eyes on the foliage, wondering where Carter went off to.
“You shouldn’t walk out here alone.” His breath acts as a slight wind to my hair, blowing it forward with his words.
I snort and finally turn around to face my knight in shining armor I didn’t ask for. His deep green eyes meet mine, and I shrug. “He doesn’t scare me.”
Zeppelin scoffs at my confidence. And, yeah, I get it. I’d scoff at myself too. But he doesn’t understand why I’m here at this school, no one does. A murderer is running around, and no one knows.
“He should scare you. He’s a loose cannon. Watch yourself, New Girl. You don’t know who is capable of what around here.” I meet his hard eyes again, digesting his serious threat. The forest swallows him whole as he casually walks away without turning back.
“Tell me something I don’t know,” I mutter to myself, taking another look around.
A deep sense of peace settles heavily in my bones as I walk back towards my apartment. There’s a reason I’m here, a reason I stepped onto this campus. In my soul, this is my ultimate destiny calling me to do a job the authorities couldn’t do. I intend to prove to them and everyone else, they were wrong.
In the blink of an eye, I’m standing in front of my plain white apartment door. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, uneasiness pouring through me. I tilt my head, inspecting the crack, leaving my space vulnerable to anyone. There’s no damage to it or the frame and no evident tampering with the lock, but this isn’t how I left it. Is it? I didn’t accidentally leave my door standing open, did I?
Sometimes my mind gets distracted and so caught up inside my head, I leave things half-finished or ignored. But this? Could I have walked out without locking it? That doesn’t sound like me, especially with my mission here. Does it?
I push my door slowly open with my fingertips, scanning every single inch of my apartment. Hmm—nothing out of place so far. Brown boxes hide in the corner of my living room piled high as I left them. My computers sit, still dark from non-use. My dresser drawers rest shut in my bedroom, and my bed is still made. Nothing seems out of the ordinary. So why do I get the odd tingling sensation? Is something wrong? Why would someone enter my room and not take or look at anything? Or did they put it all back before I noticed?
I try putting my paranoia away in the back of my mind and spend the next few hours unloading boxes. I put my clothes into my closet on hangers and the rest in the dressers provided. After an hour, I take a break, picking up another delicious sushi dinner.
I park my ass down in front of my computers, sighing with content. Uneasiness descends on me again, prickling like tiny bugs crawling beneath my flesh. Who enters a room and does nothing? Was there a maintenance problem, and they failed to shut my door and inform me? No, it can’t be. At a school like this, I would have gotten an email or a text message. My fingers brush through my wild strands of hair, and I sigh. Dinner’s done, and there’s no homework yet since classes start tomorrow. I promised Tristan we’d play our favorite video game, Angel Warrior.
Getting up, I pause in the center of my darkened room, letting the darkness engulf me. It needs to take me over and stain my soul if I’m going to survive here. I will find what I’ve come for, that much I know.
My eyes peer around the shadowed room. What a strange feeling to stand in the middle of an apartment that’s barely mine. My favorite paintings may hang from the walls, and my clothes and other personal items reside here, but it’s hardly mine. It definitely doesn’t feel like mine.
It was barely Magnolia’s, too, only spending the last four months of her life here. Where did she lay her head? How did she feel each night she went to sleep? Did my best friend cry or feel worried about the next day? With everything that happened, I suspect tears stained her pillows every night. And I don’t even know half of what she went through. She told me in the emails, but they weren’t complete, never divulging the entire story. Maybe to protect me? I need to find her stolen journal, but I have no idea where to look. She used to hide her things well: in window sills, under the floorboards, behind her headboard, or anywhere she could hide things. But I’ve looked in every nook and cranny of this apartment and haven’t found a damn thing.
I sigh as I look around, fighting off the temptation to lose myself to memories. Yes, I should put every last effort into finding out who did this to her, but for now, I’m exhausted. A three-hour car ride with my mother’s “wise” words and Callie’s constant texting to Dex puts a damper on the excitement. Even a day later, I still can’t shake it. The love I have for my family is strong, they get me, but I can only handle so much of them.
I shake my head again, ridding my distraction. The more tired I am, the worse my mind is. Nothing can bring me to focus. I lick my lips and move my body for the first time in five minutes. A nice hot shower sounds like the perfect way to end the day. So much has happened since I arrived; it’s hard to tell what day it is. But I know in the morning, I must put my big girl game face on, and get to business. Tonight, I am Kaycee Cole, Angel Warrior level sixty-five, but tomorrow I mustSherlock Holmes this bitchas Bodhi so graciously put my detective skills.
My fingertips graze against the smooth wall as I make my way towards my remaining packed boxes for bathroom essentials. The darkness of the room soothes me, grounding me to this place, sending pleasant vibes to my soul. I don’t know what it is about the shadows, but I could do this for hours. I could close my eyes and lose myself in the serenity of the darkness.
