Chapter 29: Chapter 29

After completely making a fool out of myself when things were finally looking up between Emrys and I, I found myself in my bed with Brielle staring at me like I owed her the explanation of a lifetime. I looked away from her and turned to the other side of the bed hoping that she would get the memo and let me be.

Either she did or she didn’t an was waiting for me to speak first. I heard my phone’s notification go off and picked it up to see that I’d gotten a text from Emrys. We began talking about everything immediately and I forgot that Brielle was actually with me.

Emrys:

Paris, are you awake?

I’m sorry if I overwhelmed you. Can we talk some other time?

Me: Okay, no problem. I’m also sorry for fainting. I guess it was due after the rollercoaster

fiasco.

Emrys:

I understand. Maybe we’ll talk more tomorrow?

Emrys:

Goodnight, beautiful.

Me: Sure thing!

Me: Goodnight, Emrys.

“I’m going to assume from the way you’re acting all giddy that you are talking to my brother,” Brielle said and turned to see her crossing her arms. “Then there’s that blush which proves my assumption. Spill girl!”

She got into the bed beside me and I rolled my eyes. “There’s nothing to spill.”

“At least tell me why Emrys carried you in and looked so embarrassed,” she said, crossing her arms.

I sighed and decided it was best to tell her everything because she wouldn’t stop pestering me and the last thing I wanted, was her annoying self on me. She interrupted my story every minute either to laugh or to complain about something I did or to praise herself, making a story I could have told in less than ten minutes drag on even longer than that.

When I was finally done with our beloved tales by moonlight, she stared at me wordlessly for almost three minutes then said, “Really? You couldn’t have done anything other than faint?”

I crossed my arms. “What was I supposed to do?’

“You idiot! He was going to kiss you and you totally ruined the moment. Do you not have any idea how these things work? After the love declaration…”

“He wasn’t declaring his love for me.”

“…the kiss is expected. It’s almost like you need me to walk you through every important part of your life. How foolish can you be?”

“I’m going to pretend like you’re not insulting me,” I said with a curt smile.

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be a drama queen. Do you expect me to pat your back for stalling my ship? Maybe Hiro was right. You might be in love with Leon.”

“Make up your damn mind, sister!”

“I should be telling you that. It would make me know if it’s time to switch sides on our bet or not.”

I raised a brow. “What bet?”

“Well, since you’re wondering, Hiro, Amara, and I bet on who you’d end up with between Leon and Emrys. Amara and I are with Emrys, and Hiro is with Leon. I’m all for you and Emrys but you know how competitive I am and I’d hate to lose to Hiro. Tell me now what side I should be on since it seems the Pamrys ship will never sail.”

I raised a brow. “Pamrys?”

“Is that really the only thing you got from all that? And yes, Pamrys. I told Amara what a horrible ship name it is but she said that since I didn’t have a better one, I shouldn’t complain.”

“I don’t know which I find more unbelievable. The fact that my best friend bet on my love life or that Amara is in on all this and even made a ship name,” I said with a hollow chuckle.

“It’s definitely Amara. I mean, it doesn’t seem like her kind of scene but she gets pretty competitive when it comes to things like this.”

“How do you guys even talk about all this? I wasn’t aware you guys hung out a lot.”

“Not really. We actually made a group chat,” Brielle said like it was the most unimportant news she had ever delivered and I raised a brow. “What? It’s what’s the kids are doing these days.”

“Unbelievable.”

She knelt on the bed and planted a kiss on my forehead. “I would have given you award- winning advice if I knew exactly what goes on in your head. I’ve got to go. I have an interview with the Robin.”

“Which Robin?”

“Robin Van Durham who likes to call himself Robin Hood. You know, the most important guy in the history of importance.”

I nodded. She was right. Robin was the most important man in the world. He carried so much authority and power that it was a surprise he was actually a down-to-earth person. I think what made him stay relevant was the fact that no on had ever seen his face. He decided to keep his identity hidden for some strange reason and it was almost like there was no Robin Van Durham on the face of the earth.

It was both creepy and exciting. “This late?”

“He has a Christmas show tomorrow and next, and his schedule is only free at this time. There’s nothing else I can do,” she said with a shrug as she rolled off the bed. “Don’t worry. I don’t think I’ll be too long.”

I waved my hand to show her it didn’t matter. “It’s fine. I’m sure I’ll find something to do later.”

She gave me a small smile and left the room, leaving me to my thoughts as I sighed knowing that I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep considering I’d just woken up from a deep one. I checked the time and I saw that it was nearly midnight. I felt a pang of worry hit my heart and I prayed that nothing would happen to Brielle. Just because Avyanna hadn’t attacked us, doesn’t mean she wouldn’t.

I sent her a text to know if she’d arrived safely and she replied almost immediately just about the same time a text from an unknown number came in.

Unknown:

Please can you meet me outside. It’s really urgent.

Now, I know that the most logical thing to do would be not to go outside like I was expected to for the mere reason that it could be a serial killer or an assassin. I knew all that but for some reason, I couldn’t stop the wave of curiosity that hit me. I kept thinking of the reasons why I should go out and the reasons why I shouldn’t.

Obviously, the reasons why I shouldn’t go out won but as curious as the cat, I stood up from my bed, walked downstairs making sure to pick up the bat at the top, and walked down to see who wanted to meet me. I wondered if I should meet Emrys and inform him but I knew he was sleeping and decided against it.

I took deep breaths and opened the door looking around but no one was there. I smiled to myself and walked out making sure to leave the door open so that if there was a need to run in, I wouldn’t struggle with finding my way in.

The cold air hit my skin and I felt myself regretting my decision to satisfy my curious desires especially when the door behind me shut immediately and made me jump. I tried to open it but for some reason, it refused to budge.

Curiosity killed the cat!

I tightened my hands around the baseball bat as I stepped outside even more. “Hello, is anyone here?”

No one replied but I didn’t bother calling again so that if it was actually a serial killer, they’d assume I was back in the house and go away. I looked around again and was sure that there was no on out there. I took another deep breath and closed my eyes trying to picture sunny things that would make me smile.

It was working perfectly until, suddenly, icy fingers grabbed my arm as I inched through the dimly lit road. I would have screamed if a cold hand didn’t wrap around my mouth muffling every possible scream. I turned slowly to see who it was and I was met with the cold eyes of Avyanna.

She stared at me and made a shushing sound. “Promise you won’t scream.” I nodded since I couldn’t talk. “Okay, I’m going to take my hand from your mouth now.”

The moment her hand was off, I began to scream bloody murder and she tightened her hand around my mouth again. Maybe even tighter. My heart was beating fast and she moved backwards, her hand still on my mouth though she tried to steady me. When we were far away from the lights and hidden in darkness, she said words I didn’t think she had come to say.

“Paris, I just want to talk to you.”