Into The Woods | Kian & Colette
Kian knew it had been a bad idea to go to the school. The last time the town had been gathered in one place like that, someone had died. He couldn’t believe they’d been so quick to forget. He knew it, and he’d gone anyway. He would always go wherever Cole was. There had been a few minutes of trying not to panic when he thought he'd lost her in there. Pretty bad things happened when Kian panicked, especially in enclosed spaces like that. But he'd found her shortly after, and nothing catastrophic had happened. Just a power outage, some damage, and a creepy voice that he could almost convince himself he hadn't heard. Almost.
All in all, it hadn't been much worse than he expected from a storm, and for Bentley, it had been downright tame. He couldn't help feeling like the whole thing had been rather... anticlimactic. Which meant that it probably wasn't over. His dread hadn't dissipated with the dawn. It still settled heavily on his shoulders, and he found himself glancing around frequently like he was being watched, but it wasn't that-- not really. It was more like there was something there that shouldn't be. Maybe he had just read too many ghost stories. He was on an Edgar Allan Poe kick to set the mood for October, but it had worked a little too well. He'd gone right ahead and spooked himself.
The woods were familiar and comfortable though, his footsteps crunching as he made his way past the Elliot house. He could only just see it through the trees. He'd spent a lot of time there when he first woke up in Bentley, and a lot thereafter with Colette. He remembered going on a search party with her after the last storm and picking up debris in these same woods, and that was more or less the plan for today. He carried a box of garbage bags under his arm. Kian liked to be helpful. He felt he had a lot to make up for.
Even though the rain had stopped around dawn, the afternoon was still overcast, and he preferred it that way. Light was exposing. Like most guilt-ridden things, he figured, he preferred shadows. He was approaching the place where Colette had shown him the treehouse she'd built with Craig. They were going to meet there. He couldn't see the treehouse yet, though he knew it was nearby, but there was no sign of her. "Colette?" He called, as much to announce his presence as anything. If she was around, he didn’t want to startle her.