Deadly Hallows [Complete]

Chapter 6: Wrong Place, Wrong Time

My mom was heading to town to meet with the other unofficial gossip club members while my dad wanted to run some errands in town so we could finally fix a few things around the house. I couldn't remember the last time we had all gone in to town together, and was just happy to tag along. Normally dad was always busy with work, either on his phone in his home office with the door shut, or even a forty-five minute drive away in his actual office. There were somedays I wished he would just take a day off, but even his days off were filled with work. He often would travel to job sites to look over foreclosed homes, or construction sites. His phone was never off, yet he chastised me every time I even so much as glanced at my phone while we were at the dinner table.

My family wasn't the closest, but when it came to hard times we were there for each other. With all of the police officers in town after the body had been found, my parents had set a curfew for the house, and by house, I meant me. My mom was really affected by the murder, and my dad was worried that the murdered might have a preference for young blondes which meant that I needed to stay in public places until the sicko was behind bars. John even promised to keep an eye on me despite the fact that we never walked home from school together and didn't even hang out in the same circles.

Dad had even taken the weekend off for the first time in months, and surprisingly enough he had even left his phone at home. Mom, while she was only coming to gossip about the news reports and try to pry something out of the police chief's wife, was here with us and encouraged us to spend time together since "we never knew when it would be the last time". It wasn't the cheeriest topic, and not the best outlook on life either, but it was true. We had learned from having Sophie turn up dead at the prime age of 15 that life was just too short. We never knew when our last day would be, so we just had to surround ourselves with the people we loved while we could.

I wiped a bead of sweat from my head and pulled my shirt away from my sticky body. It was nearly Autumn, entering October in a matter of weeks, and yet the weather today was unbearably hot. The sun was unobstructed while in the main area of town, everywhere else you would find shrouded with shadows due to the large trees, and mostly unaltered forest we had set up our town in. Unfortunately, Main Street cut down a lot of trees and left it wide open to the unforgiving sun, and provided little relief from the heat. I mean, I was sweating in places that I had never sweated before, and it was disgusting. Thankfully I had pulled my hair up into a high ponytail or I would have had it stuck to the sides of my face. I fanned myself with my hand and walked next to my parents until Mom came to an abrupt stop.

"Oh, there's Ms. Dawson," she cried before she waved goodbye and raced across the street after a hurried glance each way to check for cars. Last night she had spent about an hour berating me on looking both ways before I crossed the street while my dad had sat watching. Like always, news had spread fast through our small town. In a matter of minutes it seemed everyone knew about the car almost turning me into road kill. I wasn't even surprised when Mom had gotten a phone call after dinner last night about what had happened. I was just surprised it didn't happen sooner.

My dad placed a hand on my shoulder and steered me down the street. "Guess it's just us then, kiddo."

I nodded. "Yeah, I knew she was going to see someone to talk with and ditch us eventually."

He chuckled, seeming to agree with me. "It was only a matter of time. Maybe we can get more done without her though. You know she likes to stop in every store and have a conversation with anyone she can. At least we can get in and out quickly and only have to pull her away from Mrs. Dawson at the end."

I nodded in agreement, thankful that we only had one conversation to break up instead of twenty. My mom always found someone to talk to. No matter where we went, even if it was out of town, or on a trip, she'd find someone to strike up a conversation with and it would take an hour for her to finish it. Every single time.