Grey

Chapter 38

Nobody else approached me throughout the rest of the funeral, and I sat in the back row, alone. As each of her family members spoke about her, I fought the urge to stand up and speak as well, to tell stories of the best friend I had lived with. They all described her as witty and charming, as having the sort of charisma people go to classes for. No one described her as how I had known her- sensitive, empathetic, and ambitious. When Allison wanted something, she went out and got it. When she noticed someone needed something, she was the first to volunteer to do that for them. The voice echoing in my head telling me I had stolen her future from her, stolen her life from her, continued to get louder as the ceremony continued. I might not have been the one to murder her, but I knew that however the forensic trail lead, it would meet back with me.

My head pounded as the voice kept getting louder, more and more accusatory. It's your fault she's dead. Your fault her parents will never see her again. It's your fault Jack won't have a happy ending. Your fault your fault your fault-

"Jordan," I heard a murmur of a voice next to me. When I came to, I realized I was alone in the seats. Her family and friends were all gone. I must've missed the ending of the ceremony. When I turned to my right, where Jack had previously been, I was surprised to see Riel in his place. His expression was solemn, as if he too were mourning the loss of Allison. Did he even know her?

"What're you doing here?" I asked monotonously, turning back to face forward. How had everyone left without me even noticing?

"I knew I could find you here. Her funeral was advertised on the news," Riel explained gently, bowing his head a little. He wore a white long sleeve shirt, and I didn't know why that bugged me, but it did. It was a funeral. Couldn't he show a little respect?

"Did you find a way to Mature my soul?" I breathed out, staring blankly at Allison's headstone, at the cursive date below her name that read: December 24, 2019.

"No. But I think I found Grey," he replied. My head shot up and I turned to him, my broken heart thrumming in my chest like it had somehow found a reason to keep beating.

"How? Where?" I stammered in surprise, meeting his brilliant green gaze. His lips pulled into a thin line and he pulled a folded map out of his back pocket. His fingers pulled it open on his lap and I quickly realized it was a map of Olympic National Park. Why would Grey's kidnappers take him into the national park? It was the middle of winter, that didn't seem entirely... smart.

Riel pointed to a spot on the map. "I did some analysis of the gravel composition that we had found in the living room and tested it against the gravel outside of Grey's house. They didn't match. What it did match was a sample in the university database from 2015 when they did soil composition analysis around the national park to determine toxicity levels. More specifically, it matched gravel found in this area, around Granite Mountain," he explained.

"So, when do we go?" I questioned, quickly standing up and straightening my leather jacket, flipping my hair over my shoulders. Riel shook his head slowly with a clench of his jaw.

"Jordan, you can't go. If they took him to get to you, then you'll be playing right into their hands. It has to be me," he refuted calmly.

Suddenly, I felt my heart begin to race with rage. How dare he tell me not to go? This was my fault to begin with, and I needed to be the one to save Grey. I couldn't trust Riel to save Grey, it had to be me, it just had to.

"Absolutely not. I'm going," I hissed, my temper once again flaring.

"They could kill you. I'm not willing to risk that," Riel retorted with a stern glare.