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

So, at this point, I trust Connor enough to tell him what I did, and he loves it. Then, he admits to me, that he liked to use the client information to stalk the lady customers. He would hang outside their homes. The ones that lived close anyway. He told me he loved to play games with them. Follow them for ages, walk behind them, speed up, and watch them pick up their pace to avoid him. He never did anything at that point. He just liked the thrill of it, the power of it.

So, we both know each other's secrets. We got each other's backs. Things just escalated from there.

Piper and Kristen were horrified by what they were hearing but tried not to show it.

"Do you know what Connor is going to do with our friends?" The fear had evaporated from Piper's voice, and now, she sounded exhausted and resigned, like she didn't even care what happened to her anymore.

"Can't you make an educated guess?"

Chapter

Thirty Nine

Martin couldn't hear anything but a muffled ringing. It reminded him of the Motorhead show he went to where he was right in front of the speaker and his ears buzzed for days. Except, this felt a million times worse. He stayed huddled in the same position, unable to move. He knew he was injured. His insides felt like they had been obliterated into jelly and he was too frightened to check what damage had been done.

His back burned and sharp pains stabbed at him when he moved even a fraction. No doubt there was shrapnel embedded in his flesh. He couldn't hear the others move, even if they were, he probably wouldn't be able to hear them anyway. Finally, a sound penetrated the hum of tinnitus and knowing he wasn't deaf, made him feel a sliver of hope, even if that sound was screaming.

He moved his stiff arms down to see Isabella leaning over Aadesh. She looked scared and disorientated, but the smears of blood on her clothing didn't look to be hers. He crawled across the concrete towards her and Aadesh, trying to ignore the metal fragments that stuck out of him. Aadesh was laid on his stomach, with his head resting on the floor facing Martin.

"You're going to be okay," he said, ignoring the fact that he wasn't moving, and didn't seem to be breathing. He was too scared to take a pulse, as if there wasn't one, he didn't want to know. He didn't know whether to remove the twisted metal pieces protruding from his back and assumed he was less likely to bleed out if they stayed in place. There were too many injuries to try to stem the bleeding, so he watched over him. The largest fragment appeared to protrude from the back of Aadesh's skull. He convinced himself help was coming. He had called the cops when everything went down, and they must have traced his call by now. They would be there any minute.

"He's dead," Isabella cried, her face screwed up in a pained expression.

"No. It's okay. The cops are coming. They'll be here, and then they can get him the help he needs."

"He's gone." Her tears just kept coming, and he desperately tried not to let them get to him. He needed to keep it together, at least until the police arrived. She got up off the floor and barreled towards the door, shoving it at full force with her side, and almost fell forward as the door burst right open. "Come on. We have to get out of here!"

There was no way he was going to leave Aadesh all alone in this god-forsaken room. Isabella backed into the room with her mouth open, and her eyes wide. Connor was there waiting for them.

"You just won't die will you," he said calmly, holding an object in his hand, what looked like another pipe bomb. Martin leaped up and pulled her back as Connor stood in the doorway about to hurl the explosive device at them. When his arm was raised, that familiar fizzing sound of the fuse made Martin recoil, and he and Isabella clung together like a single organism.

Chapter Forty

It felt like an eternity sat in stony silence in the car. They were trapped there for hours, afraid to move. One wrong word and it could have been the end for them. It was agonizing being so tired, but not being able to close their eyes in fear that they may never open them again. And even though this felt like agony, they knew, once the office opened, and John made his move, that things would get so much worse.

He clearly had something big in store, and they would have done anything, not to bear witness to it. It felt surreal watching the sunrise, wondering if this would be the last sunrise for some, including them. Usually, the dawn chorus was a beautiful sound, but not today. They listened to the birds as they watched the clock, the ticking time bomb on the dashboard.

The early risers finally started making their way into the office, and John deemed it time to make his move. "Now, I want you to act completely normal, okay? No crying, no screaming. If you tip anyone off, I will shoot you on site, and whoever else happens to be in the vicinity, I will kill them too. Got it?"

They nodded. It felt so strange as they got out of the car into the morning air. It was quiet, peaceful almost, with the sound of the running fountain and officer workers chatting about mundane things, like what they were going to have for breakfast, and who they were meeting for lunch, if they even made it that far.

Piper looked at the office workers smart dress, and in comparison, they