Chapter 29: Lights Out

Alexandria shivered as the cold wins bit into her sweater. Her coat was open around her, but she didn't bother to button it up. It gave her clarity of thought and clarity of vision, and she needed to think.

When she had gone to Theresa's she was so sure of what the conversation would be like. Theresa would captured, more or less, by Adrian and the brews, and it would be her job to get Theresa out of it.

But that wasn't what happened at all. The brews hadn't seemed to effect Theresa overly much, and the lack of them wasn't causing excessive pain either. And she and Adrian were no longer together, a decision that had apparently been mutual.

So what the hell was Adrian doing? He can't have just been interested in Theresa, because then he wouldn't have broken it off as easily as he did. But if he was... manipulating her, he wouldn't have let her go this easily either.

She was extremely confused. Part of her mind, perhaps, was still in shock from everything at the lighthouse. There were still things at the back of her mind about the whole event that she didn't quite get, but things she couldn't quite remember, either. Initially, she had just chalked her reaction to the fact that she worked in a morgue. She ran in graveyards for goodness sake. Death wasn't something to be afraid of, it was a natural part of life.

But ever since the lighthouse, she had been feeling increasingly more rattled. And it was abundantly clear that Theresa was right. She didn't have all the answers, and it felt more and more that she didn't have any.

She wished there had been a moon. She wished there had been more lights. But the sky did not oblige, and since most students were still out for winter break, the lights in the houses and apartment buildings were diminished or dark.

Alexandria walked up to her apartment, and thumbed the door to get in.

The person she really wanted to talk to was her brother. And as she stepped in the door, she was painfully aware that this was what she had wanted for a very long time, almost since the beginning of the semester. Theresa's criticism had finally drove home the point: Alexandria didn't understand what was going on in people's minds, and her brother was the first person of which that was most true.

She entered the door, and called her brother's name. She had done this many times this semester, and nearly every time, she had heard nothing but silence.

This time was no different. The lights were on, and the door to Alexander's bedroom was open, but when she peered inside, there was nobody there. His travel bag was open, but nothing was unpacked. His bed was messed up-- but then, he probably hadn't made it before he left for their trip.

And on his bedside table was a small black flask.

Her heart dropped in her chest. She walked over to it, and smelled it. It wasn't alcoholic. It sure as hell wasn't juice, or water. It was a brew.

She stood there, the flask loosely held in her hand, trying to calm herself down.

Alexander was on the brews. And perhaps he had been for some time. But he was still okay. He was still functioning. In that sense, the worst had happened already, and it hadn't been that bad.

On the other hand, that meant that he had been lying to her. Or had he? She tried to remember a specific time when she had directly asked him whether he was on the brews, and he lied. She couldn't remember an instance.

So he hadn't been open with her. Well, she had known that for a while.

Miranda, though, had lied to her. She had told her that Alexander wasn't on the brews-- that was what there whole argument was about, to see whether he should get on them at all. Unless Alexander had lied to Miranda as well.

Alexandria sat down on her brother's bed, heavily. It was time for this to end. She thumbed her phone, and called her brother.

She jumped as a loud buzzing sound came from the bookshelf next to her. His phone was sitting on top of it, forgotten. She picked it up, and thumbed it open.

It would not open. It wasn't Alexander's thumb print. Stupid, stupid, stupid security stuff.

She did the only thing she could think of. She called Miranda.

“Hello?” Miranda's voice on the other end was hesitant, cautious. She probably thought Alexandria was going to yell at her or something. Not tonight, though.

“Hi, Miranda,” Alexandria said. Her voice almost failed her, as she hoped against hope. “Is Alexander with you?”

There was a long pause on the other end. “No.”

“Please don't lie to me,” Alexandria said. She closed her eyes and put her hand against her forehead. “He's not at home; he left his phone in his room, and I found an empty flask of brews in his room. He's been drinking them, Miranda, and I don't know if you planned that or whatever, I don't care right now, but he's been drinking them. And he's gone.”

Again, the silence. Alexandria trembled as she waited. Clearly Miranda was thinking about something, thinking very, very hard. Finally, Miranda spoke. “The Observation Walk. I'm getting my shoes on and heading there as fast as I can. And Alexandria?”

“Yes?”

“If I were you, I would run.”

She didn't need to be told twice.

She shrugged off her walking coat and sweater, and pulled on her athletic K3. After a second's thought, she ripped through her travel bag, and pulled out an emergency blanket, and stuffed it in her breast pocket alongside her phone. As she was doing this, she kicked off her boots, and pulled on her running shoes. Then she stepped out onto Lindon St and ran as fast as she had ever ran in her life.

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