AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You guys are awesome,” I reply, feeling all the feels for them again and getting genuinely excited now that I know that I’m minutes away from being able to explore. Of course, this thought process prompts me to ask, “How far away are we?”
Rip looks back at me from the front seat, his smile widening as he sees me bouncing with excitement, and replies, “About ten more minutes. The Hawthorne estate is the furthest away from the main town, but you’re going to love the view from the gates. We never ventured past them, it wasn’t worth the beatings we’d get, but we were curious enough that we went up to the gates. You’re going to fall in love with it.”
“I’m so excited, but we need to clear the house first to ensure that there are no people there and that there haven’t been any other people there recently, which might be difficult to tell since the house gets cleaned once a week, so there’s going to be no obvious signs of people disturbing it.” I point out.
“I suppose we’ll know if the doors have been damaged or, hopefully, the security room won’t have been included in their schedule, and we’ll know if someone has been in there at least,” Mason suggests before continuing, “That is a long shot though.”
While they’ve been talking I’ve gotten thoroughly distracted by the glimpses of pristine blue water that keeps teasing me through the trees as we drive higher up a narrowing road. Rome slows down as we turn a corner and get the full effect of the stunning view of the ocean. At first, I think this is why he’s slowed down, but as I tear my eyes away from the view, I realise that we’ve slowed down because the road is in really bad shape, and there’s actually no way that we’re going to be able to get any further. Rome comes to the same conclusion that I have and stops the car.
“We can’t go any further in the car,” he states, “I just don’t know whether to leave the car here where it’s in the way or park it further down. We’re running out of light though so parking it further down is going to mean we’re getting to the house in the dark.”
Rip shrugs, “Leave it here. No one should be coming up here, and if anyone is up there and tries to escape, having our car parked here will at least slow them down.”
“That’s true, however if they want to escape badly enough then our car is going over the cliff so I highly suggest that you take anything of importance out and we can hide it in the long grass on this side so that we don’t have to take it all the way up to the house,” Mason suggests.
“Sounds good to me,” I say, opening the door and stepping out.
Once we’re all out of the car, Rome makes us stick as closely to the inner edge as we can, even though there’s plenty of room for us now that we’re not in a car. It is even more obvious from this angle that the road is incredibly unsafe, so much so that you can actually see where it's fallen away, leaving a semi-circle in its wake and a rough edge further up. Any sign of a safety barrier has long gone.
“Ace, did you remember to bring your lock-picking set?” Mal asks.
Before Ace can answer, I interrupt, “He doesn’t need it. I have the key, remember?”
Rome looks at me curiously, “Do you have it with you?”
I nod as I pull the long necklace out of my shirt, “Yeah, it’s a connection to my dad. I’ve never had anything like that before, so I decided to thread it on here so that it’s always with me. Plus, I lose shit all the time, and I would have definitely lost the key if it wasn’t on me at all times.”
Mase grins, “You know, when you first started that explanation, I was like, aw, that’s kind of sweet, and then by the end, it made a whole lot more sense.”
“Fuck off,” I shoot back with a smirk. “So the primary reason was that I didn’t want to lose it, but the sentimental reason was there too.”
“Guy’s,” Rip interrupts, “is it me, or do those look like motorbike tire tracks?”
Looking at where Rip is pointing at then back the way that we’ve come, I can’t believe that I missed it in the first place, there are very definitely tracks visible in the slightly wet mud and they could only come from a motorbike.
“Looks like it to me,” Mason replies and then adds, “Could it be the staff coming in to clean it? I mean, usually, I’d expect them to have a van or something, but there’s no way that they’d get one up here, and they wouldn’t want to walk it, so it would make sense to take a motorbike.”
“Yeah, that sounds entirely plausible, or it’s one of the alive parents driving up to the house,” Mal adds, somewhat pessimistically.
“Either way, we need to be alert, this could go wrong incredibly quickly,” Rip orders as we carry on up the steep track.
Rome’s face is serious as he says, “We’ve only got to go around the corner, and then we’re at the gates, weapons drawn everyone and stick together.”
Despite the seriousness of the situation, excitement thrums through me, as it always does when faced with danger, but this time, it’s twofold because we’re also going to see the house.
When we round the corner, I come to a screeching halt; the view is absolutely stunning. You can see for miles over the ocean and hear the crashing of the waves below. The road widens out to where you could comfortably fit two cars next to each other; the safety barrier is still intact as the road continues on ahead, and to the left of me, set far back from the road and the edge of the cliff, are some giant imposing and gothic looking black and gold gates, they’re looking worse for wear and could do with a fresh coat of paint, but they are clear of plants thanks to being opened weekly for the cleaning staff. The edges of the gates though, that don’t get used have vines and thistles growing all around them, lending to the air of abandonment.
“The road is in a lot better condition up here,” Ace points out.
“I was just thinking that,” I reply, and while scanning the surrounding area to make sure we’re not being watched or are about to be attacked, I add, “The gates are shut, unlike your places. Is that a good sign?”
“I’m not sure,” Rome replies, frowning as he looks at the gates. He then adds, “We’re going to have to go over, we don’t have the code, and there’s no other way I can see; there might be further along, but it’s almost dark now, and I don’t want to risk it. It feels very exposed up here.”
“I agree,” Mason adds.
“Let’s get over then,” I grin, enjoying this far more than I probably should as I get a run up to the gate and start hoisting myself up and over it.
“Your ass looks fucking fantastic from this angle, Blue,” Ace calls after me, keeping his voice low enough that I can hear it, but it doesn’t carry. The sound of a smack soon follows his words, and Ace asks, “What was that for? You were fucking looking too.”
