“Save yourself the trouble, Amelia. You can’t fly. You can’t do anything she tells you. You’re both useless. What a fucking waste.”
The second he turned to leave, I dove at the notebook.
It was fully engulfed.
The heat hitting my face as tears filled my eyes.
I reached for Steven and slammed him down on the notebook.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered to the stuffed turtle.
The feeling of fire must have hurt, but I had no choice. It was either burn Steven or burn down the house.
“I’m so, so, so, sorry,” I said as tears fell from my eyes and hit Steven’s plush shell.
That’s when I heard a loud scream.
I thought it was Steven.
But I knew better.
It was coming from downstairs.
Chapter 1
Words Not Yours
IN A LITTLE BIT
(Amelia)
I shouldn’t have been there.
I shouldn’t have put myself into this position.
I wasn’t chasing down some hardened criminal.
I wasn’t chasing down the biggest story of the decade.
Hell, it wasn’t even the biggest story of the night. I was sure of that.
All the words I felt like writing about him could have been posted online, but the opinion would have been biased, and I was sure that wouldn’t have gone over well.
And the truth…
I didn’t even want to be here.
That’s why I went around back after leaving. To slip away into the night and be forgotten. Take everything I had with me and go home to write up something so cliché it would only serve to prove why I stopped writing a long time ago.
The only thing I had was a note I found on the ground.
This folded up piece of paper that was none of my business but had been just sitting there. The one corner slowly trying to unfold with the softest of a breeze.
I picked it up and kept walking.
I unfolded it to see if it was something important. Money. Credit Cards. Something with someone’s name, so I could return it. Or maybe I was hoping for a story. Something to save the night for me.
As I turned the corner, I opened the piece of paper all the way.
I saw handwriting.
And it was very clear that this was an actual letter.
To Delilah,
No matter how hard I try to forget, each time I close my eyes, I see you. I see you standing in a blue dress at the top of a hill on a spring afternoon, surrounded by daisies. The way you reached down and gently touched them, not wanting to touch too hard. Your heart floated around you faster than the clouds that made the wind grab your hair.
I looked up.
This was… a love letter.
Right?
A love letter to someone named Delilah.
I then had two choices.
Put the letter back where I found it in case someone retraced their steps to find it.
Or keep reading the letter.
And find out what happened to Delilah.
Chapter 2
A Bridge to the Secrets
NOW
(Josh)
I watched the sun climb from the horizon while the rest of the town seemed to be sleeping. From my apartment window, I watched as lights came on one by one. Those waking for work or for school, families coming back to life for another day of being a family. If I shut my eyes and imagined it, I could smell the coffee, bagels warming up, the smooth cream cheese, even a hint of peanut butter in the air.
To my right was a blown-up photograph of a back alley. Dirty brick walls with a crooked ladder that was supposed to be a fire escape. A dumpster with one side of the lid propped open thanks to an old TV resting on top, filling it over the brim. My job was to take that photo and add my touch to it. Meaning just above the dumpster there was a window. Through that window was a clear blue sky. And at the top of the photo I added a pull chain light. The kind with a big, old bulb dangling from a twisted wire.
It was part of my sleepless night.
Getting that picture ready, along with several others.
At the same time, there was another reason for my sleeplessness.
I looked over my shoulder and grinned at the sight of the figure in my bed, curled up in my sheets.
The sun had finally flooded through the entire apartment and I shuffled to the bathroom to grab a quick shower.
By the time I was done and dressed, my bed was empty.
She stood at the same window I had been standing at, wearing a black button-down shirt of mine and nothing else.