Chapter 116: 2

“But don’t you feel better after telling him at least?” Chase shrugged. “To be honest, not particularly.” Laughing, Krislynn cupped his cheeks with her hands and brought her lips up to his for a kiss. “Well I think you were super brave for telling him, and regardless of how you feel, it was the proper thing to do.” Chase shrugged and seeing that her words didn’t give him much comfort, Krislynn decided to make him an offer. “How about this? Since you feel like crap, if there’s anything I can do to take your mind off of Jace and make you feel better, let me know and I’ll do it!” Although there was nothing in Chase’s thoughts that she could accomplish, the gesture brought a grin to his face. Playfully, he slipped his arms around her and rocked her side to side as he touched and traced the tip of his nose along the nape of her neck. “Nah, not right now,” he murmured. “But I’ll think of something for you to do so hold that thought and keep that promise.” “Okay,” she laughed, and just like he prophesied, he thought of something she could do only an hour after while he was lounging in front of the T.V watching the news. The moment the idea struck, it hit him so hard that it shoved him off the couch and he scrambled to his feet. The idea was perfect and he could kill two birds with one stone for a lack of a gentler saying. Immediately he raced off to search for her, first the kitchen and then the laundry room, before he finally found her changing the bedding in his room. “Krislynn, we gotta go. We need to go right now!” “What do you mean? Where?” She retorted, her eyebrows furrowed in frustration having been disturbed from doing her chores. “Where are you taking me?” His reply was an overconfident smirk. “A secret place,” he said. “Just trust me on this. But we have to go if we’re going to make it and accomplish anything. You said you wanted to do something to make me feel better right? Well I thought of something so you have to come.” Krislynn was less than enthusiastic about this enigmatic outburst of his, but since she gave him her word and since he appeared so animated to her, like a child wanting to show something off, she laughed along and let herself be swept by his current. What Krislynn didn’t know was that this tiny adventure of theirs was going to be a horrific one, and indeed, she didn’t get an inkling of danger until it was too late for her to turn back. After getting into the car, Chase drove on and on, vying through the highway as if he had just robbed a bank and the cops were close on his trail. While he was preoccupied with driving, and the music played softly in the background, Krislynn stared out her side of the window and watched the beachside run by as if it was a world of its own turning. The water, tinted orange and yellow by the sun, stretched to the end of the horizon and Krislynn half amused herself by wondering what it would look like if the world was indeed flat and the water rolled off the edge like a waterfall as long as the Great Wall. As the car kept driving towards their destination however, Krislynn didn’t fail to notice the change in the sky’s color. At first, she thought it was just the night sneaking up behind the orange and the red, but something inside her stomach trembled with something almost akin to fear. It wasn’t until a while later, when the clouds started to come alive and roll across the horizon viciously that she realized the bruised clouds above her head weren’t signs of the night, but the signs of an incoming storm. By the time the realization hit, there wasn’t a single place to hide within the vicinity. They had driven out of the city, and now all that seem to surround them were wildlife and nature without even a house in sight Krislynn could run into. The car would not be safe, that was her immediate thought, and so the only thing she could do was pray that it was going to end up as a regular storm and that thunder and lightning wouldn’t show up to the party as well. “Chase?” Her voice came in a soft murmur just above the sound of the music, and her tug on Chase’s arm as she called out to her was just as feeble as her voice. “Where are we going? It looks… it looks like it might rain soon.” “Mmm…” was the only thing Chase managed to utter to her. He couldn’t meet her eyes knowing that this was hardly the nicest thing he should be doing to her, but somehow, as much as he himself wanted to turn the car around, a part of him wanted, needed for this to happen. He was going to cure her, he decided. That idea, in an overwhelming force, was what pushed itself into his head the moment he saw the weather forecast at home a couple hours earlier. However, the thunderstorm was never going to reach L.A and at most, all it would receive was a bit of rain, which was why Chase had to go through all the trouble of taking her out of town, and toward the highest peak he could possibly take her at a reasonable distance. He knew the way to their destination by heart. It was one of those places he drove to and spent the weekend when his life in L.A got to be too much, or one of those occasions when some girl he had fooled around with came looking for him for trouble. It was a nice drive from L.A and the fact that it was up a mountainside and was secluded from everything besides nature allowed him a peace of mind, which was why this place was one he frequented when he needed a surge for creativity. He had always come alone however, and this was the first time he had shown it to anyone. Not that Krislynn was in the mind to scrutinize his favourite hiding place. He shifted his gaze to her and watched her eyes dart from tree to tree, rock to rock, cloud to cloud as she clung onto his arm. She had been throwing him a lot of questions for the last half an hour, all of which he answered as vaguely as possible, but now that he had parked his car at the bottom and started leading her the way up, she was as silent as a doll. He couldn’t feel it, or see it, but he could smell it – the rain – and Chase was sure Krislynn could to. Despite the small amount of daylight still roaming around, the blue sky had vanished behind a thick veil of gray smoke, and he pulled at Krislynn’s hand harder so that they could make their way faster up the cliff. She resisted however, and tugged back occasionally, before her hand squeezed his and commanded him to stop walking and look at her. “Where are we going? Seriously?!” She snapped. “We’re almost there. Don’t worry.” He turned and continued, and again, Krislynn resisted, this time pulling her hand out of his. “Come on. Don’t be like that. We’re almost there.”