Life With the Butlers

Chapter 26 | Finding a Killer

Chapter 26

 Finding a Killer

Logan

       Three weeks Olivia had been gone now. Three weeks I had felt hollow inside, unable to sleep. I was offered to sleep in her old bedroom and, with Joey snoring beside me, I would usually just stare up at her ceiling for hours instead of sleeping.

       It was a weird ceiling. It was painted black, not white. But it was because someone must have painted glow in the dark stars across the entire roof. I would find myself transfixed with it.

       There were pictures in Olivia’s average sized purple bedroom. There were so many of them. She was such an adorable little girl. There were some of Lucas, who had thrown himself into the search without hesitation, some of a girl with raven hair the same age as Olivia. A little boy with brown hair with my Olivia. Olivia at the beach, school, dance class.

       She had awards covering her walls. She had always been an amazing dancer, right from the start. She had always been an amazing, beautiful person from the start.

       What if I couldn’t find her? What would I do if I went  x amount of years without her? Would I turn her room in my house into a shrine? Box it up and ship it far away? Would I act like she was going to walk through the door at any given moment and everything would go back to normal? Of course it wouldn’t.

       It wouldn’t if she came back home either though. What was normal with us? It was overrated, that’s what it was. Who gave a shit about normal anyway? Olivia wasn’t normal, that’s what made me love her. Although she looked like Rosie, she was the exact opposite.

       Olivia was kind, and cared about what I wanted. She knew the hardships of life, and that bad things are going to happen, and she took them in stride. She didn’t run away when things got difficult, or didn’t turn out the way she thought they would.

       Olivia knew that life was hard, and she knew that was the way it was always going to be, but she was still happy.

       And that’s why I loved her. Why I needed her. Sure she was pretty, but that was nothing compared to how smart and loving she was, under all those layers of hers.

        But what would I do if she didn’t come back? How could I go through this twice and still be able to function? Would I be able to? The not knowing was so hard, so unbearable, opening up the deep, gaping hole that filled into the dark abyss.

       What would the world do without the sun? Would he be able to survive, in some artificial and completely fake way? Or would he just crumble, giving way into the fact that maybe, just maybe he was supposed to exist any longer? Could something survive without such a pivotal fact of its survival?

       It didn’t seem possible, it didn’t seem likely.

       I kept staring at the stars, like maybe they could help me in some odd way. I knew they couldn’t. She’d been gone for three weeks now, and I still had no clue where she was. But I needed her like I needed to breath.

       Joey was right. I loved Olivia more than I ever loved anyone. So quickly I had fallen for her, and now she was gone. Gone and possibly not coming back.

       I sat up in bed, pushing my legs over the side, running my hands through my hair. It was longer than it usually was, and I hadn’t shaved in two days. What was the point? Every second I wasted was another second Olivia was being held captive. I wasn’t wasting my time. I wasn’t wasting her time. If she even had any left.