The Forum by Marie Reyes (short books for teens .txt) 📕

response, so she sat in front of her computer screen, staring blankly. Thoughts raced through her head. Trent's voice swirled around in her skull in a whirlwind of negative thoughts. She imagined his reaction to what she was doing in her spare time. What are you doing? You seriously think you're going to help? Someone as useless as you? You couldn't even be a mom to your kids. Something that should come as naturally as breathing.

She dreaded seeing Trent again. She could feel his searing stare burning across her skin like a laser, or an X-ray, looking straight through her. He was the only person who could make her feel so exposed.

A pinging notification on her phone brought her back to the safety of her apartment. No one was here to shame her except her own thoughts. What good was it doing her dwelling? The amount of time she spent chastising herself for gaining a pound or two, or living in 'squalor,' she could have actually used that energy to give the place a little clean, or to go on a little jog around the block.

She could show him. Put herself together again. Maybe make him miss her a little, even make him think he had a chance, but then, she could tell him to go fuck himself. He wouldn't have her, or Lucille. He would probably find someone else in the blink of an eye though. Someone younger, and hotter, and then he would rub it in her face. Make her feel inadequate all over again.

Chapter Nine

LONDON

 

It was chaos already. London seemed to get busier year after year. Hordes of Christmas shoppers and tourists rammed the streets. Aadesh swerved to avoid a large group and looked around to see where Nadia had disappeared. He caught a glimpse of her being carried down the road with the crowd, as if it were whisking her away like the torrent of a swollen river. He picked up his pace and almost ran past her.

"Addy. I want to go in here. Need a nice dress for my work party."

His heart sunk a little. There was nothing he enjoyed less than sitting around while Nadia tried on clothes. She took forever, sometimes trying on the same outfit more than once. And of course, every single thing she tried on made her look 'fat,' despite the fact that he had put turkeys in the oven that were bigger than her. He wondered what she thought when she looked at him. His doughy body that had been honed from years of watching television and sitting on the sofa. She called him ‘cuddly’ as half compliment, half insult.

He didn't speak but followed her through the doors. The transition from the gray drizzle outside, to the bright florescent lighting inside, was migraine inducing. He followed her from one rack to another. Every now and then, she would ask him for his input, but he wasn't sure why. He knew nothing about fashion. All he wore was jeans, hoodies, and band T-shirts, day in, day out. Being a woman looked exhausting.

Once Nadia had half the shop slung over her arm, she made her way to the changing rooms. Aadesh sat on a chair the shape of a cube outside and waited, wondering what people did before they had mobile phones to distract themselves. He toyed with playing Medieval Village, online poker, or checking the forum. Before he could even get there, he noticed he had a response on the urbex group.

 

Jon_doe1981: Hello. I recognize that place. Went there once. Not much to see, just an old factory. There are much better urbexing spots. If you're looking for somewhere cool in the area, I would check out the old school. They closed the place because it had a serious asbestos problem. Left loads of cool creepy shit in there. Makes a great photo. But if you want to go to the other place, I've PM'd you the address.

Aadesh clicked on the private message and typed the address into his search engine. It was impossible to tell if this was the outside of the place in the video, but he found a search result from another urban explorer showing the inside. Hell yeah. This was the place. The guy had taken a selfie of himself pretty much in the exact same spot where the video was shot. Fuck.

He sent a link to the forum and tried to find an email address for the police department that covered the area. He almost couldn't believe he'd actually pinned down the location and couldn't help but smile.

She'd been five minutes. He probably had another fifteen minutes or so to research. Having seen the messages from K-Meister, he wasn't convinced that the killer knew his victims, at least not intimately. Where did he find them? How did he target them? There was nothing else on the internet to suggest a body had been found. For all he knew, she could still be there, or somewhere else.

Part of him wished he could go to the location to find out for himself. Steve would surely come along for the ride. He lived for this shit. No, it was a stupid idea. To fly halfway across the world for something that probably wasn't even true. Now he had a location, it was time to try to find the victim, but where to start?

Shortstacks: Thanks Jon. I'm not actually looking to go there, or anywhere to be honest. The screenshot was from a video posted online. A video of someone being murdered. I had a look at the place you suggested. It's definitely the same location.

Jon_doe1981: No way?

Shortstacks: Seriously.

Jon_doe1981: Do you want me to check it out for you?

Shortstacks: You'd do that?

Jon_doe1981: For sure. This is unreal.

Shortstacks: I'd be careful if I were you.

~~~

 

"Keep the camera up will you Damon?