Night Shifts Pt. 2

Night Shifts Pt. 2
Tracy woke up to Alex shaking her gently. It was time to switch shifts apparently. She sat up begrudgingly. She could have used a couple more hours of sleep but she understood why they'd decided to set up night watches. She just couldn't wait for this nightmare to be over. She watched Sam brush his hand through his curly sand-bleached hair as he laid down in his own bed across the room from her. She looked over at Courtney and Luke who were just getting up too.

Courtney took up her own perch at the window looking out at the stars. Luke walked over to the couch and sat down facing the door. It didn't really seem like either of them were in the mood to talk. This was going to get boring fast.

She sighed and grabbed one of the notebooks. She curled up in one of the armchairs and flipped the switch on the table lamp. It flickered momentarily before light flooded her little corner of the room. If they weren't going to talk then she was at least gonna work on Vivian's murder, not that she had much incentive to after what Vivian did to them the day before.

Luke walked over picking up one of the other notebooks. Tracy ignored his presence as he sat in the armchair next to her. Sure he'd been nice and cooperative the past couple of days but the first few days he'd been a douche and she didn't entirely trust him. That didn't mean he wasn't useful though. Tracy looked over at him momentarily. He'd been the one to actually get the key. He was the reason Courtney wasn't going to remain stuck in this old house.

“Thanks for helping me with the key earlier,” she turned back to her own notebook.

Luke looked over at her for a second, eyebrows raised. They hadn't really talked much. Tracy’d actually stuck more with Courtney and occasionally she'd hung out with Alex. Luke had interacted more with Courtney out of all of them. He didn't know why he just didn't think that he'd have anything other than the ghost to talk to them about.

“I'm sorry I was rude to you when we got here… I was just aggravated and confused. It wasn't anything against you,” Luke looked at her apologetically.

“We all were in one way or another, even Alex, but we didn't take it out on each other,” she said earnestly, “Besides that doesn't excuse you from being a slacker when it comes to this.” She gestured to the notebooks, the dagger, and the evidence the others had gathered while he'd sat around pissed off at the ghost.

“I know. But I have bothered helping the past two days,” he muttered. He actually loved murder mysteries and detective novels and the like. He just kept it hidden because he didn't want to seem like a dork.

“So I've noticed,” she shrugged nonchalantly, her focus more on the notebook in her hands. Luke fell silent, turning back to the notebook he'd grabbed off of the end table and went back to reading.

Timeskip and Pov Change

Courtney headed off to the kitchen as 7 am approached. She was going to make breakfast for everyone. None of them had slept well the night before. She had a feeling that the next twelve days would be torturous for them all. For now though he just needed something to keep herself busy.

She could cook basic stuff. Anything too complicated and she'd most likely burn it. She'd learned how because her mom was often away on business. She'd learned to be independent just like her mother. She always carried herself with her chin held high no matter what happened. If you showed any signs of weakness then that meant people could exploit it and use it to destroy you.

Right now she was terrified that she wouldn't make it back to her mom and her friends but she didn't let it show. She'd left the other two to wake Sam and Alex so she could have some time by herself to just think. She turned the stove on and poured pancake batter into a pan she'd placed on the eye. It sizzled as it slowly heated up.

They still had twelve days in which they'd be confined in this spacious manor. They still had to solve Vivian's case and she felt as if they were farther away from figuring it all out than they had been when they started. She felt as if Alex was closer to discovering the truth than they were. That was probably why Vivian split them up yesterday. She pulled herself out of her thoughts and focused on cooking breakfast as the others walked in.