Zane’s POV
The old site looks exactly how I rember it.....Abandoned.
The large warehouse building stands in darkness beneath the dim evening sky, surrounded by rusting gates and overgrown grass that’s nearly swallowing parts of the pavent already.
Nobody’s been here in years, not since everything went to hell.
Lucas steps out beside , quietly scanning the property while the headlights from the cars behind us cut across the cracked concrete.
"This place gives serial killer vibes," he mutters.
"Comforting."
"I’m serious."
"I know."
Honestly? The place unsettles too.
Always has, especially after that night my sister died.
I shove the thought away imdiately before it can fully surface.
"We’re heading to the security room," I tell him while moving toward the side entrance. The heavy tal door groans loudly when I shove it open, dust imdiately hits my nose.
The inside slls old and almost rotten, like stale air and forgotten mories. Our footsteps echo as we move deeper inside the building, everywhere I look feels frozen in ti. Cobwebs stretch across corners thick enough to catch the light.
Lucas shines his phone flashlight around quietly.
"You seriously never ca back here?"
"No."
"Not even once?"
I shake my head.
"Couldn’t."
Because for a long ti even hearing Aria’s na felt like sobody shoving a knife into my chest. Coming back here willingly? After catching my best friend with her? And her dyin shortly after?. Impossible.
We finally reach the security room at the far end of the hallway or what used to be the security room anyway.
Now it just looks like another dead forgotten space. Dust coats every surface thickly, the monitors are ancient and half smashed.
The wiring hanging from the ceiling looks like it’s been rotting for years.
"Well," Lucas mutters while looking around. "This looks promising."
I ignore the sarcasm and move toward the main system anyway. Maybe by so miracle....Nothing.
I press buttons, try switches even attempt reconnecting so cables.
Dead, completely dead.
"Fuck."
Lucas leans against the doorway watching .
"Anything?"
"No."
I slam the side of one monitor harder than necessary.
Still nothing...just more dust falling from the ceiling.
Perfect.
"It’s a dead end," I mutter finally.
The frustration hits hard, beecause for the first ti since this whole thing started, it genuinely felt like we were close to sothing. And now?Nothing. Just dust and broken machines.
Lucas stays quiet for a second before speaking suddenly.
"How did you know and Aria were here years back?"
The question catches off guard enough that I pause and glance toward him.
"What?"
"That night," he says carefully. "How did you know we were here?"
I stare at the dead monitors briefly before answering.
"Thomas told ....well he didn’t exactly tell directly."
Lucas frowns slightly.
"What exactly did he say?"
I rub a hand over my jaw slowly trying to rember clearly.
"He called saying he forgot so important docunts here."
Lucas’s expression sharpens imdiately.
"And?"
"And he’d already left for the night," I continue slowly. "So I ca back to get them cause I needed them the next day."
The mory suddenly feels strange now that I’m saying it aloud, I hadn’t thought deeply about it before... Not really.
Lucas pushes off the doorway.
"The docunts were actually here?"
I go still. Then slowly shake my head.
"No."
Lucas narrows his eyes.
"They were still in the car."
Silence fills the room instantly, a heavy uncomfortable silence. Because now that I’m replaying it in my head...Yeah. That was weird as hell.
Lucas studies carefully.
"So you don’t find that odd?"
"At the ti?" I shrug slightly. "Yeah maybe. But I didn’t think much of it."
Why would I have?Thomas had been around forever and I trusted him completely. Still do.
Sothing cold slowly settles in my stomach.
I turn sharply toward Lucas.
"Show the picture."
He blinks once.
"What picture?"
"The person you said was a suspect?."
Lucas hesitates briefly before pulling his phone from his pocket. The bright screen lights the dusty room faintly while he unlocks it.
"I started drom the poisoning, I checked and dug into it. Soone was trying really hard to fra you for everything, so hard that it looked suspicious as hell, so I took Elaine’s advice and looked in to it, very detailedly. I gt in direct contact with the dealer, he said the person buying never ca to him directly to buy it... he paid for it, then gave him a location to drop it at. So I traced the accounts involved in purchasing the poison," he explains while scrolling. "The trail eventually led to this na."
I move closer imdiately.
"I tracked the na for weeks," Lucas continues. "But nobody around us recognized it. Nobody connected to you recognized it either."
He shakes his head slightly.
"So I figured maybe I hit another dead end."
Then finally he stops scrolling and turns the screen toward .
The second I see the picture and My entire body goes cold.
"No fucking way."
Lucas’s expression changes instantly.
"You know her?"
I stare at the woman on the screen.
Older and Smiling faintly in the picture. I know that face, I know it very well.
My pulse starts pounding hard.
"It..." My voice catches briefly. "It doesn’t make sense."
Lucas steps closer imdiately.
"What?"
I look back at him slowly.
"She’s dead."
Silence.
"What?"
"The woman in that picture," I say carefully. "She died years ago."
Lucas stares at now.
"You’re sure?"
"Yes."
Because I rember the funeral and I rember him barely speaking for months afterward. I rember helping pay for hospital bills before she died.
There’s no fucking way I’m mistaken.
"Who is she?" Lucas asks quietly.
I look back at the picture again and suddenly sothing deep in my gut twists violently.
Because if this woman sohow connects to everything...Then this gets way worse, way too fucking close.
I swallow once before answering.
"That’s Thomas’s mother."
User Comments
0 comments from readers