Free Minds

Chapter 66.

"How?" My fingers gripped the edges of my blue sweater as I tried to focus on making my breathing slower and less shallow.

"You asked me that already, Beth." The person before me rolled their eyes. "Twice."

   And yet I still hadn't gotten a plausible explanation as to why my former classmate at Ridgeton High and a member of Talise's hacker school club, Landon Charles, was currently standing in Rav's motel room. He couldn't possibly have been following us all this while... right? This just didn't make sense.

   With his eyebrows furrowed and taut lips to give him the harshest expression I'd ever seen, Dorian stepped forward to face Landon. Our surprise guest, however, didn't seem moved by Dorian's actions, staring right back at Dorian with no shift in his stance.

"And you still haven't given a realistic explanation as to how in the hell you're here," Dorian eventually spoke out, in response to what Landon told me earlier. "You're one of them, aren't you?"

   Now, I would have rubbished any claims that Landon Charles was a mind-controlled pawn of the Yunies if they had been made on any other day. But now? With Talise gone and him suddenly showing up out of thin air the very next day? This was just too much of a coincidence.

"Whoa, whoa, hold up," Landon flailed his light skinned arms as his baby blue-coloured eyes flashed with confusion. "What are you talking about? Who are they?"

"If you want us to believe you're not one of them, then start explaining yourself," Camila said, folding her arms.

   The look she carried was far from friendly. Even Rav wasn't wearing his signature cordial expression.

"I've already told you." Landon sighed. "Yesterday afternoon, while I was in school, my phone started going off like crazy. It turned out to be because of the texts I received from Talise. One text contained this place's address and I was able to figure out that the other text was of a room number when I followed up on the address today."

   A flinch escaped me as Landon held out his phone to give us all a good view of the screen.

   He wasn't lying. The name at the top of his phone screen said 'Talise' and right below was the address of the Sunshine Haven, the motel and Rav's room number.

"She used a red font." I observed out loud.

   Landon sighed and bit his lip before eventually saying, "I'm sure Tali told you about our school club?"

   I realised his question was referred to me alone when his gaze centred on my frame. "Yes."

"Well," he paused to cross his arms. "We have certain coded messages that are exclusive to the club's members. I can't go over them all, but we take them very seriously. Her message kind of falls under one of the codes."

"And, what does this mean?" I resisted the urge to gulp as I asked.

   The sombre features that overtook his face gave me the needed confirmation that I already knew the response that would come from him.

"It..." He sighed before carrying on, "It means something really bad just went down. But this particular code was a sort of joke, okay? Like to signify if one of us was too wasted or high to get home by ourselves...but I got the text yesterday afternoon during class hours. As much as I'd like to believe it, not even Talise is that wild."

   His locked gaze still on mine was starting to take a toll on me as I grappled with the tendency to squirm.

"After the countless unresponded texts I sent her and the fact that Tali wasn't home yesterday or today when I visited her place, I wasn't sure what to make of her message," he continued. "So... I just decided to follow up on the address today, hoping I would find and get her to explain herself. On that note, I'd like to speak to her now, please. Where is she?"

   Almost impulsively, I resorted to the lie Talise told her mother as Landon began to survey the room. "My house. Tali had to pick up something of hers from there. She's actually on her way."

"Yeah, that's what her mother told me too," Landon nodded, still maintaining eye contact while he shifted from one foot to another. "But, you see Beth, the thing is, your house was the last place I visited before coming here. And you'll never guess who I ran into. Want to give it a try, Beth?"

   I found myself retorting, "Just spit it out, Landon."

"Your mother. And she told me..."

   My mind, already knowing that he was going to mention the educational trip lie I'd told Mum, drifted away to a state of paranoia and overthinking.

   Landon clearly knew that something had happened to Talise. And after dragging it out for a little while longer, he was going to get to the interrogation part. We needed to come up with something that could—

"Where is Talise, Beth?"

   Too late.

"You don't have to worry about that," Dorian shot him a cold grin.

"I asked Beth, not you," Landon simply replied, not sparing a glance at Dorian as he brushed past to get closer to where I was.

   Now would be a good time to disappear. Come on, brain concentrate. At least get the ground beneath to open up and swallow me whole.

   Come on!

"Beth?" I realised he'd assumed a softer tone when he called my name. "Has something happened to Talise? You can tell me."

   I pretended not to notice the wary glance Landon cast toward my bandaged arm, which was still healing from the cut I received from the door of the van we rented for Visitation Day.

   It's crazy to think that only happened yesterday.

"Beth doesn't have to tell you anything," Camila moved from her spot to stand in front of me with a menacing glare in Landon's way. "And neither do we."

"You see," Landon wasn't even a least bit intimidated as he spoke with a raised eyebrow. "That's where you're wrong. Because I find it overly interesting that Tali would send an address and room number, in a code that is far from good news, only for me to trace it and find that she's not here. But you guys are. And d'you know who else will find it interesting? Her mother. Who will definitely inform Tali's father. And the police?" He accompanied his humourless laughter with a hand wave. "I'm pretty sure I don't have to tell you how interested they'll be."

   Shit.

   This could not be happening right now.

Scanning the room, I couldn't say I liked what I saw. Camila's glare had weakened into a desperate gawk in a flash. Rav's face seemed to bare the fear that seized all of us. And with Dorian? I had never seen a jawline so sharp due to his gritted teeth.

   All this, however, only appeared to fuel Landon's unhealthy display of amusement. I choked on my next breath of air as he unlocked his phone and held it out for all of us to see.

"So what's it going to be?"

A/N: I realise it's been too long since my last update and I am SO sorry guys! Expect more frequent updates from now on, I promise! 

Sooo, Landon huh? What do you guys think of his reappearance?

Please don't forget to vote and comment your thoughts!

Thanks for reading!