Drawn to the Sea

Chapter 13: Truth Comes Out

Douglass

I could tell Nate was nervous by just his body language. He was sitting stiffly in the chair opposite of the officer, who was sitting behind his desk. He'd lead them to his office, closing the door after them. Hell, even I was nervously playing with my mother's ring.

Nate was still gripping his hand. He was sure that if he didn't have supernatural strength it would've hurt, but he was fine.

Officer Cal clasped his hands together on his desk. "So, you want to know about your parents, eh?"

"Yes."

He nodded. "I guessed you'd come to ask sooner or later. No kid is just going to accept their parents' disappearance as soon as they're told."

Nate glanced at me. "Disappearance?"

"Sad thing, innit? A young married couple who just had their first baby disappearing out of nowhere. Just awful."

Nate sucked in a breath, seeming unable to speak. I rubbed my thumb over the back of his hand. "His uncle told him that they fell off a cliff, into the ocean in the middle of the night and that their bodies were never found."

Cal scrunched his face up in confusion. "I'm certain I told your uncle that we found their car on the side of the road. I thought he would've told you the truth about that."

Nate rubbed his face. "I don't know he didn't, but he didn't. What else can you tell me about it?"

"Well, I found their car pulled over on one of the jungle roads in the more dense areas. It was still running, and the doors were flung open. I found footprints leading into the foliage, so I followed them to a small clearing. There was blood splattered around, but we weren't able to identify whose it was. We assumed it was your parents, but we never actually found them so they were declared missing. After the case went cold they were assumed dead."

"Anything else?"

He shifted in his seat. "Well, there was another thing. Uh... You were found laying on the ground in the clearing, covered in blood. It was like your back had been burned or skinned. I rushed you to the hospital and the doctors patched you up. It was a miracle that you even survived, and you had only a patch of skin that was darker than the rest of you to show for it."

Nate had stopped breathing, squeezing my hand so tightly his knuckles were white. I leaned forward, glancing at him. "Do you have a copy of the case file he could take home to look at?"

"Oh, sure." He opened a drawer in the filing cabinet behind him, rustling through it. "Let me just find the file... Here it is."

He held it out over the desk, and Nate grabbed it and stared at it. "Um, thanks. I think... we should go."

Cal nodded. "'Course. Come back anytime if you have any questions."

We got up, and I waved shortly to the officer before we walked out of the office. When they were finally back in the car, Nate sat in the driver's seat, just staring at the file in his hands.

I pursed my lips. "Why don't we wait until we get back home to read it?"

Nate nodded, placing it on the center counsel. "My place or yours?"

"Let's go to yours. We can read the file, then decide what we want to do without having to come back to town for a second time today."

He started up the jeep, then pulled out of the parking space and onto the road. He drove quickly, not saying a word the whole way. I noticed he kept glancing at the file, tapping his thumb on the steering wheel and toying at the piercing on his lip. I knew he was riddled with nerves, but I didn't know how to comfort him. Usually, I was the one that needed comforting.