"Pretty girls like you get lost in these woods all the time, Alexa."
On the night of Sebastián's annual Beginning of Summer Bash, amiable and adventurous Melody Tryniski went missing. What might have appeared as a juvenile escapade - a casual incide...
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CHRISTOPHER IS AVOIDING ME.
He's been doing it for quite some time now. Ever since we left the riverbank on Thursday, he has been distant. It's like whatever happened between us during those early hours of the morning broke everything that we've built this far, leaving us back to where we started - shy, unable to speak to one another without it being awkward. It wouldn't matter as much if he were any other guy, but he's Christopher.
And Christopher is complicated.
Just when it seems like he's letting me in, allowing me to untangle the things that make him so hard to figure out, he pushes me out. His silence is enough to let me know I'm not the one he wants to share secrets with. With a heavy heart, I look at my phone for what must be the hundredth time and find no new notifications. Not a message from him to excuse why he's not here, not a call to let me know that he's on his way.
I shift my weight from one leg to the other, my sandals' soles scraping against the asphalt. My back is resting on a metallic pole that's scorching hot against my moist skin, bearing on its top a green sign that reads 'Lehi Drive' in bold, white letters. My phone's clock reads 3:37 p.m., twenty-seven minutes past the time we agreed upon to meet. It's more than evident that he's not going to come. He's not even willing to put whatever is bothering him aside to search for answers to Melody's death.
How am I supposed to face Becky Rivers alone?
What bothers me even more is that I don't know if he's avoiding me because of his confession, my own, or if he saw the man who was hiding in the dark, too. A shiver runs down my spine as I picture the figure in my mind, my skin becoming sensitive to the soft brushing of the hot wind. Goosebumps dot around my whole body, making me tremble in discomfort.
The shadow looked like Darkness personified during the gentle obscurity provided by the woods, but in the daylight, I can remember everything more clearly. It was a man who was probably hiding there for God knows how many hours, saw us sitting by the edge of the riverbank, heard our whole interaction. He was there, silent and inconspicuous, waiting. But for what? If we didn't notice his presence during our conversation, if he hid so well just to observe us, then it means he revealed himself on purpose.
But why? Why did he risk his identity? It doesn't make sense. Unless... unless he wanted to scare us, show us he's above us somehow.
I'm always watching. I'm everywhere. I'm omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. Be careful. You wouldn't want to end up like Melody, would you?
I wince as if the sharpness of the words had just struck my aching chest.
