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It's officially been hours as I stare at the ceiling of my room with no doubt a goofy smile set on my face. I was officially Dante's girlfriend...
And it all started with me scratching his car. I chuckle.
"Okay... that is creepy." My head snaps in the direction of the door. Diana stands there with Noah peeking from behind her. I groan.
"What do you want?" I ask annoyingly. She coughs and clears her throat. Sidestepping she gestures towards a sheepishly smiling Noah. I raise a brow at the adorable tiny creature known to be my brother.
"Yes, Noah?" His blue eyes sparkle at his name and I barely hold myself up from turning into mush. He looks at Diana who nods. Finally he steps forward using his tiny legs and makes his way towards me. Lifting both his hands up he looks up at me pouting.
"C-can I get a hug?.." He stutters unsure. I bit my tongue from awing out loud.
"Of course honey" I move forward and wrap my arms around his tiny petite body while he does the same. Suddenly something cold slithers down my back. I pull away and squeal while dancing around to get the thing out. Finally it falls to the ground.
Ice?..
I turn and glare at Noah and Diana who gave each other a high fives. She pulls an arm around Noah's shoulder.
"Good job kiddo." She states towards Noah. I glare at Noah next. He whimpers under my gaze. Breaking, he points towards Diana.
"S-she threatened Trevor.." He lip wobbles and it all makes sense. Trevor was Noah's stuffed monkey which was his treasure. Hell, I'm sure he loves that damn monkey more than us.
"Oh yeah...?" I raise an eyebrow towards Diana inquisitively. She smirks and nods.
"How else was I going to make him do that?" I smile towards Noah and stretch my arms forward.
"Come here." Seeing what I was doing she glares towards Noah.
"Don't you dare." He looks at Diana horrified. I chuckle.
"I'll keep Trevor safe, I promise." In no time he runs past Diana and into my arms. I smirk at her evilly. Without her noticing I grab the almost melted ice from the ground and jump towards her. She screams and turns around. I grab her and drop the melting ice in her tight jeans. She squeals and jumps around. Unfortunately for her the jeans wouldn't allow the ice to fall to the bottom. I burst out laughing as she swears and wobbles out of my room.
I look down at Noah and ruffle his hair.
"If she threatens Trevor again tell me and I'll protect him, okay?" He nods and gestures for me to bend over. I do and he pecks my cheek.
"Thanks Laura" I smile and ruffle his hair once more.
"No problem kiddo." He smiles and skips out of my room. I chuckle and walk to my bed. Laying down I close my eyes and snuggle deeper into the duvets. Sighing in content my eyes begin to slowly drift close. Suddenly my phone rings from somewhere underneath me. I groan and fish for my phone. When I feel it I pull it out. I see Dante's name popping up. I smile and accept. I try to turn around but my foot gets stuck in the duvets and I go crashing to the ground.
"Shit" I mumble, my face on the floor. I hear Dante chuckling on the other side of the phone. Groaning I pick the phone back up from the floor.
"What do you want Dante?" I grumble.
"Well aren't you just a ball of sunshine." He remarks and I roll my eyes in response.
"What-do-you-want?" I ask once more annoyed.
"Well... I was thinking we could solve the riddle in the office together." I raise an eyebrow.
"Today?"
"Yes, today" He chuckles. "We have one week off from school not work" I grumble.
"Like we do work in the first place." I whisper underneath my breath.
"What was that?" I throw myself on the bed.
"Nothing."
"I thought so." I could hear the smile in his voice as he spoke. I am so not in the mood...
"See in an hour." I was about to protest my side when he cut the call. I stare at my phone in awe. I have got to get him to stop doing that.
I look at the time. 3 pm.... I nod finding to have enough time to take a nap. I jump back onto my bed and close my eyes.
I'll freshen up after a little nap....
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Now I decide to get a nice nap?! I widen my eyes and look at the time. 4:15... Shit. I jump off the bed and scramble to the bathroom. Putting on a nice pair of hoodies and jeans I stumble down the stairs.
I march towards the door before yelling towards the kitchen. "Hey mom! I'm going to work." I fish through the drawer for my keys. Finally pulling it out I hear mom yelling back.
"Okay honey be safe." I nod even though she can't see me. After a few moments she adds on. "Love you!" I smile.
"Love you too." With that I rush out the door and into my car, praying to be out of reach from Dante's wrath.
I stumble out of the elevator my hands on my knees. I take huge amounts of air to stabilize my rapid beating heart. Finally I look up and find Dante standing there. He was tapping his foot on the ground while his hands were crossed against his chest. Scowling he stared towards me with intensity in gaze. I visibly gulp.
"There's a perfectly good explanation for this." He raises a brow and motions for me to go on. Shit...
"I overslept?.." I defend weakly. If not before his face looked even more annoyed. Shit, shit, shit.
"You're fired." My eyes almost pop out my socket at his statement.
"Excuse me?" I squeak out. No no. That's not fair... He must have noticed my panic stricken face as he bursts out laughing. I scrunch my brows in confusion.
"I was teasing Laura." He wheezes out. Realization dawns upon me and anger bubbles inside.
"Jerk" I huff. He keeps on chuckling.
"I'm not going to fire my girlfriend. What kind of a boyfriend would I be?" My heart flutter at that. Him calling me his girlfriend sounded so nice. I smile.
"By the way your hair looks like it just blew through a tornado." And just like that the spell was broken. My face heats up and I run towards the nearest wall mirror. Sure enough my hair was chaotic. I smooth down my hair as my cheeks heat up more.
"What kind of a boyfriend tells his girlfriend she looks bad?" I mumble. Suddenly arms wrap my waist, pulling me in.
"You look beautiful." Dante whispers in my ear huskily. I chuckle and look up while pecking his lips.
"Now now let's not too ahead of ourselves. We all know how bad I look right now. I did run here." He chuckles and nods. Sitting down on the couch he ushers me with his hands.
Don't mind if I do
I jump into his arms and nuzzle my face into his chest. Finally I set me head onto his shoulders. He wraps his hands around me and leans in.
"As much as I would love to do this all day we have to solve the riddle you called me here for." I remark pulling away slightly. He pouts at my actions and I chuckle.
"Fine." He mutters dejectedly. I pull out a piece of paper and scribble out what I remember from the riddle.
The Hallister lies at our home, in the palm of the ocean....
I furrow my brows and look towards Dante.
"Let's figure it our piece by piece. The Hallister lies at our home....?" I look at him."Does it mean here?"
Dante shakes his head. "I would have sensed something." I huff and lean back on the couch. Blowing out a breathe an idea pops into my brain.
"What if it's your home?" He raises a brow.
"I have had tones of home over the few centuries. I really don't think that'll help." I shake my head.
"No, I mean as in your original home. You fathers...? The first place you all settled in as a family..." I run my hands through my hair. There were a ton of options.
"Ephraim..." I heard Dante mumble. My head snaps towards his. Why does that sound so familiar?...
"What did you say?" I ask. His eyes turn towards me in confusion.
"I don't know if it's right but... the town of Ephraim was where my mom and dad bought and settled into their very first house as well as the place where my brother was killed." I smile. That might just be it!
"Yeah that makes sense. He might have hid it there in you brothers memory." Dante scoffs.
"Yeah right. He probably did it to disguise it better. I mean he hated us afterwards and that would be the last place I would think he would hide it." I nod understanding.
I pull out my phone and type the town of Ephraim. I scrunch my brows at the reports of the town.
Half town massacred. Brutal days to be remembered.483Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSrilPBHUjF
Man going insane, slaughters half of town and family.483Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNMoP2Ochbk
Stranded, deserted town now only lives in the memory of the dead.
That why it sounded so familiar. Amber was researching about haunted places we should visit one day and this came up. Why she did that I have no idea but I didn't dare to complain. I look towards Dante.
"Was it a rouge?.." I ask and pray hoping to be right. Dante smiles a bitter smile.
"I wish. No it was my old man." I almost vomit at the sight of dead bodies scattered across the road in one of the search results. I quickly exit and turn my phone over. Composing myself I turn my phone back up and look through articles about the town before the massacre. After finding a reasonable site I read it out to Dante.
"The town of Ephraim. The once said to be fruitful town, indicated by the accordance of it's name, now however, a deserted one after a brutal massacre by a crazy man." Dante chuckles bitterly.
"Damn straight." My heart clenches at his pain and I peck his cheek. He relaxes a bit and smiles towards me ushering me to go on.
"You sure?.." He nods. Clearing my throat I continue. "Many beautiful sites were once found in this town. Town folks would wander about on the streets everyday. The once most common tourism was 'The Devil Hand'. A beautiful lake which was secluded to be the heart of the town. There wouldn't be a day where the kids wouldn't be bouncing about in it. Now it's a empty lake that's slowly drying away." I stop and look at Dante.
"The Devil's hand." We both whisper. I pick up the piece of paper where I wrote the riddle in.
"In the palm of the ocean..." I look at Dante.
"But there was no ocean in Ephraim. Only the lake" Dante nods.
"Yeah but at the time of the liveliness of the town that's what the town's people called it." I raise an eyebrow.
"They called it the ocean of the world." I press my lips in a thin line.
"Why?.." He shrugs.
"How should I know?" I roll my eyes at him.
"Oh I don't know maybe because you know more about it then me and have lived way longer than me might I add." He raises a hand to stop me with a smile.
"Point taken." I chuckle and smile victoriously.
"Maybe because it was the biggest source of clean water near at the time?...." I nod.
"So it's in The Devil's Hand?" I look up at him. He nods unsure.
"The palm of the ocean ..." I stare at the riddle intently before smiling. I turn and look at Dante.
"The lakes called the Devil's Hand right?" I smile.
"What the riddle is referring to the lake in literal terms." Realization dawn upon him and he nods.
"Like the bottom of the ocean..." I nod and bounce up and down on the couch
"Yeah, the Devil Hand refers to the lake. The palm would be the bottom like the palm of The Devils Hand would be at the-"
"Bottom of the lake." Dante finishes off smiling. I nod. He laughs and pulls me into a side hug.
"Damn I am so glad you're here." My heart flutters at his honesty. He should act like this often, I could definitely get used to it. I nod while looking back at him.
"I know, I'm just that amazing." He chuckles and shakes his head while suddenly reaching out and ruffling my hair.
"Yeah, my little Nancy Drew." I swat his hand away.
"You messed my hair worse than it was before." I whine. He smiles sheepishly.
"Great I'm picking you up tomorrow and we'll visit The Devil's Hand" I shake my head adamantly at his requests.
"My mom would never let you take me somewhere far alone, or anyone for that matter." He nods understandingly.
"How about a cover then?" I look at him curiously.
"What do you have in mind?" He smiles.
" I have a cabin near that place which you can invite friends over for...." I smile.
"It could be like our mini vacation" He chuckles at my cheerfulness and nods.
"Something like that." I stare at him as he looks at me curiously.
"What?"
"How many people are you inviting." I think it over about who might be able to tag along and groan.
"Well, Aubrey is a must which also means I have to invite Ryder. over" He looks at me questionably.
"What's the harm?" I throw my hands up in the air. Lifting one finger up I say;
"First of all he's a douche bag." I lift another finger. "If I invite Ryder means he'll invite at least a couple of his friends which might mostly compose of girls." I look at Dante who looking at me confusingly.
I breathe out a breath of frustration while running my hand through my hair. "Whenever Ryder's around those girls Aubrey gets jealous and let me tell you, it's not pretty."
"I mean she had a right to be. He's usually all over the other girls I've seen him with." I nod tiredly. Dante leans in and wraps his hands around me.
"We'll figure it out when we get there." I smile against his chest.
"That is if my mom agrees." He pulls apart and takes my face in his hands.
"Oh she will." He finishes off with a wink.
Even though a mini vacation with Dante sounded amazing, I couldn't shake the dreaded feeling that was slowly consuming me.
Fear
Something bad was going to happen, I could feel it.
Hya readers,
Here's chapter 21. I'm on a roll... :) See you next update! Like if you like this chapter :)
Lot's of Love, Lillith Smith
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