#vi. we’re going to bring her back home / beforether. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

smokedfires · 6 years ago

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𝐁𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑: chapter two–––– laura’s journal.

as the group talked about the journal and the drawings that had been ripped out brought him back to the last few nights he snuck into her room. she sat on her bed scribbling fiercely in that same book tessa brought down for the group to see. of course he never saw what was inside. he never asked about it other than the simple, "what are you doing?" as he hauled his body into her room.

tessa.

as they got settled onto the couches in tessa's basement, tessa couldn't help but be nervous. she cleared her throat. "i know i should've brought it up earlier, but i didn't want to use it unless we had to." she glanced at dylan, for support. "but dylan and i were looking through laura's journal and there were some entries that were... kind of disturbing. we think it might be another lead."

dylan.

dylan flashes tessa a reassuring look, noticing how nervous she was about telling the rest of the group about what they found. he picks up after her, pushing himself off the wall, "there were pictures of... well we don't know what it is but laura wrote that she had been seeing it in her dreams. i've never read any book or article that describes anything like this, so we're really just flying blind right now." dylan pauses, clearing his throat and letting the information sit with miles, jess and gabe before continuing, "and some pages were torn out. we have no idea where they are and i know it's a shot in the dark but finding them will be our best bet to finding her."

jess.

jess let dylan finish before speaking. "couldn't it just be something in laura's dreams? if there's no book or article or anything that talks about anything like this, how are you guys so sure it even really exists?" pausing for a moment, jess realized she was being a little harsh. "i'm up for looking into it, of course. any information we can get is better than not having it, but what about this makes you guys actually think it's a lead?"

dylan.

"anything we get is a lead." dylan states, letting everyone know that no rock could be left unturned. "i'm still looking into it. checking every book out in the library that i can so i can find answers— i called the university of washington this morning to see if any of the professors there know of anything like this. i'm hoping to get a call back soon."

tessa.

tessa knew where jess was coming from, and she knew that she was right. "i don't know, jess, it sounds stupid, but something just feels wrong, i don't know how to explain it. she wouldn't have just left without a reason, and those drawings are the closest things we've got to find that reason. if anything, i just wanna find the pages that were torn out, maybe at least it'll give us an explanation even if we don't find her."

jess.

"okay, i trust you." tessa knew more about laura than anyone, except maybe miles, so if she felt that it was something worth looking into, jess believed it. "what about all the people that went missing? it might be a little insensitive, but what if we reached out to their families to see any of the others said anything about dreams, or this thing that laura wrote about?"

gabe.

he sat there, emotionless, across from tessa and dylan. there were many thoughts running through his head when he heard the news. first one being: why the hell didn't they give it to the police? gabe didn't want to show his frustration so for a couple of moments, he let jess go back and forth with the two of them until he couldn't he couldn't help but speak out. "where is it?" he paused, running a hand through his hair as he did his best to keep a calm demeanor. "can we see it?"

miles.

his knee bounced as he listened to the small group converse about the mysterious drawings they’d found in laura’s journal. he’d known about the findings from dylan a few days back and he was still passed that the two had kept this information to themselves for so long as if time wasn’t of the essence. “yeah, id love to see them— i mean, if it’s okay with you.” his heated gaze bounced back and forth from tessa to dylan and back again, trying to keep his feelings in check. an impossible task if you asked him.

tessa.

"of course," tessa finally answered, only the slightest hesitation in her voice. she was protective of it still— it contained laura's innermost thoughts— and part of her still hated that she looked through it in the first place. she goes back up to laura's room to retrieve the journal and returns to the basement, clutching it to her chest. "i folded the corners of the pages where she talks about... that thing." she flips open to a dog-eared page, and places it on the table for the rest of them to see laura's scribble of a drawing.

gabe.

the time the past between tessa walking up the stairs and eventually coming back down them was filled with silence. none of them knew what to say, especially gabriel who was biting his tongue in order to avoid a fight. if he started an argument now, it could potentially keep the other two from telling him anything else in the future, so that was not an option. when the journal came into his field of view, gabe leaned forward to get a better look. he didn't know what he expected. the pictures were very detailed, so much so that you could quite literally see the fear she felt as she drew them in there. he didn't stare for too long, not wanting that to be the image he saw whenever he closed his eyes after this. directing his attention to the group again, he sighed. "alright, i know you guys have an opinion on this..." the words were focused more towards dylan and tessa; there was no way they couldn't have seen this without coming up with a theory. "you don't know what it means but if you could guess, what do you think?"

jess.

although jess trusted tessa and dylan enough to follow along and help them as needed, part of her was still curious about what it was they were looking for, so as gabe leaned back, jess leaned forward to glance at the drawings. she didn't think there was any chance a drawing could have that much of an impact on anyone, but the moment she saw what it was, jess stood up and moved away from the table, as if whatever was drawn was going to come out of the book. suddenly feeling slightly unsettled, jess crossed her arms over her chest and waited in silence for dylan to explain what his theory was; she knew he had one.

dylan.

dylan notices the way they react to the drawings, it's surprising considering gabe and jess didn't believe in things like that. getting the hint that they wanted to hear his theory, he wastes no time into rolling out the chalkboard that he had in tessa's basement out into the center of the room. he turns it over so that they could see all the writing on it along with some book pages and drawings that were mask tape'd on. "i don't have anything solid. yet." he takes the piece of chalk that's been sitting in his back pocket out, using it as a pointer so he could further™ explain what he had so far. "it's not a ghost, i know that for sure. ghosts don't harm people. poltergeists, ghouls and demons on the other hand ..." he knows he's treading in dangerous waters with his words since one, he doesn't want tessa to think of the worse and two, the rest of the group were die hard skeptics and are more likely than not not believing a word he's saying. " ... and it's not a creature like mothman, bigfoot or the goatman. i don't know what it is but i do know that it was communicating with laura through her dreams. like freddy krueger... " he whispers the last part to himself, for a quick second dwelling on the thought of his friend being terrorized by a guy with knives for fingers. "whatever the case, these drawings are the closest and only thing we have to figuring out what the lore is. i'm one hundred percent sure the torn out pages have all if not most of the information we need."

jess.

jess bit down on her bottom lip in a lame attempt to stop herself from smiling as dylan explained. while she didn't totally buy anything he was saying, somewhere along the way his theories had gone from annoyingly idiotic to surprisingly endearing. "alright. so how are we gonna find them?" she turned her attention to tessa, "have you looked through the rest of her things? does she have any bags, like a backpack or purse, that she would put them in? or anywhere else they'd be?"

tessa.

besides the fact that tess couldn't fathom how or when dylan brought that chalkboard down, everything he said made sense. "i've looked everywhere— her bags, pockets of her coats, even old hiding places she used to have around the house. to be honest, with how i tore her room apart when i first came back, those torn out pages should've been the first thing i found. but they're certainly not anywhere here." she wanted to make sure she reassured jess, considering what she was going to ask of them. "the only other place they could be, i think, is in her car. but she took that with her. so i think we have to go find her car. i just have a feeling it's there, it's the only thing that makes sense to me."

gabe.

"speaking of making sense..." his gaze went from tessa and back to dylan. gabe was still amused by the fact that the kid had a loaded up chalk board randomly lying around, ready to pull out at any given moment, and there was a hint of a smirk on his lips because of it but he had to stay as serious as possible. "poltergeists, ghouls? demons?" he wasn't about to be that person who experienced supernatural activity first hand, as he did during their camping trip, and pretend like it wasn't a possibly. however, before they went there, they needed to take a more realistic approach. there was a much better chance that the thing in laura's dreams weren't freddy krueger. "did you ever think that this was her way of coping? y'know... making the monsters into just that... monsters. it's easier to accept what they do when they're less human."

miles.

as he sat on the arm of the sofa, sulking in his own misery, miles suddenly remembered a few moments that looking back at now would have been warning signs. miles could count the number of times he used laura and tessa's front door on one hand. their parents never really taking a liking to him and he couldn't really blame them seeing how his family looked. he was just glad they had no clue how much worse it was on the other side of their door. climbing up the lattice and into her bedroom window was his means of entry in the nazari home. as the group talked about the journal and the drawings that had been ripped out brought him back to the last few nights he snuck into her room. she sat on her bed scribbling fiercely in that same book tessa brought down for the group to see. of course he never saw what was inside. he never asked about it other than the simple, "what are you doing?" as he hauled his body into her room. "so we find her car, we find the ripped out pages, and we find laura? that the plan?" he asked, more than a little irritation in his voice.

dylan.

"that could very much be a reasonable explanation," dylan says to gabe but not before adding, "but it doesn't feel right. the energy those drawings are giving off is enough to let us know that something's off." he really hopes that by some miracle, laura's car is found. the only downside about it is that they don't know what they're going to run into once it is. it could very much give them the answers they're looking for but it could also change the entire situation for the worst. catching the irritation in miles' voice, dylan makes sure to soften his demeanor "yeah. that's the plan." he makes a mental note to talk to his best friend later. alone. if they really want to find laura, miles is going to have to lighten up a little.

tessa.

the irritation in miles's voice stings, but part of her understands. that, despite things ending years ago, wouldn't she feel the same sense of entitlement if gabe had disappeared without a trace? she speaks up, "we know for sure she was at the goatman's bridge at some point, so we figured that our best bet for finding her car would be just checking the towns closest to the bridge."

gabe.

if there was something gabe could agree on here, it was that the first order of business is to find laura's car. the clues that it held inside of it would lead them straight to her... at least, that's what he's hoping for. "okay, so let's look at the map and mark all of the towns so we can figure out what we're working with." gabe stood up to get a better reach as he ruffled through all the papers on the coffee table, eventually pulling out a map of washington state at the bottom. "it's going to take a while for us to do it since there are only five—" the sound of frequency coming from his walkie talkie cut him off mid-sentence. it had been going off every so often since he got to the house, yet had gone unnoticed. by the urgency in the person's voice, gabe knew that it was different this time. this was an emergency. he started a path towards his backpack by jess, but wasn't fast enough. and the next words were spoken over the radio loud and clear for the other four to hear: we have a 11-24 on oak street. all units needed. over.

jess.

jess stood back as gabe got the map out, knowing they didn't need all five of them to mark up a map. she heard the tone shift from the walkie talkie before she realized gabe had stopped talking. the entire time they had been there, she had been half-listening to what was coming from it, on the off chance that something about laura came up. the second she saw gabe move, jess grabbed the walkie talkie out of his bag. "what's an 11-24, gabe?"

dylan.

"an 11-24 is code for abandoned vehicle," dylan doesn't give gabe the chance to answer, spitting the words out as soon as he hears jessica's question. "on oak street. that's in the next town, near the goatman's bridge. you guys this can't be a coincidence. an abandoned car found near where we found laura's walkman. we have to go check it out."

miles.

miles had stayed quiet through out all the commotion of gabes walkie going off until dylan clarified what a 11-24 actually was. standing up from the arm of the couch, miles turned to gabe, the only one who could actually confirm that was actually true. dyaln was a smart guy, but he wasn't a cop. he'd tuned out the sound of dylan's words as he waited to hear from the male who actually sported a badge until he heard laura's name. "wait gabe, is that true? we have to get there first or we'll never get a chance to see what's in her car and i'm not waiting to hear back from the sheriffs department." grabbing his jacket off the back of the couch, miles shrugged it on, he was going with or without them. though he did need a ride. there was no way he could skateboard all the way to oak street before the rest of the department got there.

jess.

the absolute last person that should be anywhere near laura's car was miles, one of the few suspects in her disappearance. it would only incriminate him if he was caught digging through her car right after the police found it. "wait, that's not a good idea. there's no way in hell we're going to beat the police there. they're already there, or else no one would've called it in. we're not getting her stuff before them, we're just not. also, we would have to break into her car, which would just make it look like someone was trying to clear out her car before the police got to it, which makes them look like a suspect. " she shot a glance at gabe, "luckily we have an in at the station."

miles.

rolling his eyes at jess' words which were one hundred percent correct, miles was clearly impatient and tired of waiting for gabe to do everything for them. "is that what we're calling it? an in?" he knew he was being a prick, but it wasn't too far off from how he usually carried himself. the only person that really got to see the more vulnerable side of miles was laura. dylan was another exception, but he had no problem being a dick to his best friend. he was already a suspect for laura's disappearance and he didn't need them to have anything else to stack against him, no matter how badly he wanted to find her and bring her home safe. letting out a breath that held his reservations for leaving this up to gabe again, miles pulled a hand through his hair, resting back against the couch. "so where do we go from here?"

dylan.

"we go to oak street." none of them could risk losing time by waiting for the police to get there and then not get the answers they needed. they were looking for more evidence on the shadow monster while the bellmount police department was looking for evidence to link miles to the disappearance. things weren't going to look good for them or miles if the police got there first. "i'm sorry jess, but this might be the only chance we get to look through laura's car before it's been tampered with."

tessa.

“jess is right,” tessa finally said. as eager as she had been to find laura’s car, they had to be sensible about this. “that walke talkie’s been murmuring in the background this whole time. we’d just be wasting our time trying to make a trip there.” tess glanced at gabe. “it’s all you, gabe.”

gabe.

he'd been avoiding miles' questions and the looks from everyone else in the room but once tessa put him on the spot, he couldn't escape it anymore. at first, gabe wanted to mention that the newfound car might not even be laura's and that it could be another case he was being called in for. although, he knew it would only do harm. the truth was too obvious and they were smart, it would only cause a disagreement. and besides, pretending like they weren't about to be faced with one of the biggest problems wasn't fair to them. instead, he did what he usually does and turned a bad idea down for good reason. "you can't go... they'll know i told you and take me off the case." throwing his bag over his shoulder, he tried an idea with a different approach. "i have to go, i have to see what they found in her car. and maybe i can snatch any loose papers i find. can you guys give me a head start and meet me there? then i'll hand them over to you without them noticing. if i wait until they're handed over for evidence, we'll be waiting months to see them. you can say you were driving through town and stopped to see what was going on. a coincidence never hurt anyone, right?"

miles.

dylan's want to beat the cops to laura's car hadn't come as a surprise to miles. the guy was a go getter and was all about putting clues together and solving the many mysteries the world had to offer him. for that, miles was grateful. tessa's resistance was however, a surprise. he'd thought she wanted to find her sister almost as much as he had and playing the sit and wait game clearly wasn't working, but for whatever reason, she would rather wait. probably has more to do with gabe than laura, he thought bitterly in the back of his mind as he sat silently, waiting while the group conversed in front of him. it wasn't that miles didn't trust gabe per say, he just wasn't going to hold his breath that the guy was going to get the job done. he didn't think it was a lack of trying, but more so a fear of getting caught. this was about laura and since she disappeared and he was labeled a suspect, miles has had to rely on others, something he was not the best at. "i guess i can live with that compromise."

dylan.

dylan wasn't even upset that they hadn't sided with him, he knew he probably wasn't thinking things through properly and if tessa out of all people wanted to wait it out, then he had no problem with that. nodding, dylan returns the piece of chalk back into his pocket. "okay, we'll meet you there." he tells gabe firmly, ready for him to get the head start.

tessa.

the four of them roll up in dylan’s car. there’s a horde of cop cars surrounding a street, but tessa’s only looking for laura’s car. “where’s gabe?” she was able to be patient when it counted, but now that they’re here, she wants to jump out of the car. “he’ll never be able to get this far to give anything he finds to us. some of us have to go and meet him halfway.” tess places a hand on the handle, ready to volunteer as soon as someone agrees with her.

dylan.

dylan parks on the side of the street, looking in the direction of were all the cop cars were and he almost begins to worry that gabe didn't make it in time. "he's over there." he sees him talking to his dad and dylan points to where they are. "i'll go with you," he volunteers, unlatching the seatbelt and getting out of his truck. "we'll be back." flashing jess a small smile, he walks around to meet with tessa before walking over to where gabe was; his dad now gone. "was it her car? did you find the missing pages?" he asks once they're close enough.

gabe.

it wasn’t too difficult to worm his way through the scene when he first got there. he avoided his father completely and reached a few other officers who updated him with the following information: the car matched the description of laura’s, it had the same license plate, and a wallet with an id that confirmed that this car really was hers. gabe explained that he was assigned to the missing person’s case in bellmount and that he knew the owner well enough that if he looked through the car he might find something of importance. luckily, they let him into it immediately. there was another cop looking inside the trunk, gloves and all, searching for blood or any sign of a struggle. he was going to let them search for a cause and until they found it, he was on a mission to find ripped out pages from a journal. starting with the passenger’s side, gabe checked the glove compartment. only to be met with a bunch of cassettes, that must have gone with the walkman from goatman’s bridge, and a few polaroids of laura and her family. he moved below the seat, seeing if the pages could have slipped underneath. much to his dismay, all he saw was a jacket of laura’s that he recognized and some loose change. nothing. it shouldn’t be this hard, but it was as if he was trying to put together a bunch of pieces that were from two separate puzzles. as he moved around the car to get to the back, he heard the whispers of other officers. i’ve seen this before, one of guys from bellmount said. which sent the others into a very quiet frenzy. what do you mean? where have you seen it? they questioned the man and he didn’t answer. instead, he ran to his cruiser. gabe bent down into laura’s backseat and watched with suspicion as he came jogging back with pictures in his hand. whatever, it was probably pointless and if they needed gabe, they would call for him so he continued on.

after tossing a few of laura’s possessions around, there was something on the floor that caught his eye. crumpled up papers. he lunged forward, refraining from reading the words on the page and slipping them into the long sleeves of his shirt. once he had what he wanted, gabe jumped out of the car and steadily approached his dad and the rest of bellmount’s team. “what’s that?” he asked the sheriff, pointing to the hat inside an evidence bag he was holding.

“oh, come on, son. wasn’t a hat the first thing your mother and i taught you? i swear when you were two we taught you hat, cat, mom, dad—”

but, gabe cut him off, “dad.”

“it’s the boyfriend’s hat, gabriel. it’s evidence.”

“how is this evidence? he was her boyfriend. his hat is going to be in her car, no?” he wasn’t freaking out yet and he wasn’t going to until his dad made sense of this.

“this is the same hat we have pictured in his room… two weeks after she was reported missing. so tell me, how did your friend’s hat magically get into her car after a month of being missing?” he was speechless. for so long, gabe tried to defend miles against the department. this, however, wasn’t sounding so good. “speak of the devils,” sheriff cortez raised his eyebrows, motioning towards dylan and tessa who were on their way over to him, and then turned to walk away.

unlike before, gabe was now excruciatingly nervous. there was evidence stuffed in his clothing that could get him fired and new incriminating evidence that could frame miles for laura’s disappearance. he had to tell the group and he was going to as soon as they were alone. good, that was just another reason to fire him. “yeah, it’s her car,” he replied to dylan and watched as the cops were beginning to close the road. “and we found a lot more than missing pages.”

tessa.

the sight of laura’s car makes tessa sick. if they’d never found anything, tess could believe laura had gotten herself a new life somewhere; now the only thing she knew was laura was out there, cold and wandering all by herself. she nods meekly towards gabe’s father, and before she can even think about what he must think of her now, she’s too overwhelmed by what gabe says. “what else did you find?”

gabe.

there were too many people surrounding him for gabe to answer that question. the scene was swarming with cops and bystanders who wanted to know what all the commotion was about, someone was bound to hear them. "it's about miles," he leans in closer to them and whispers. "they found evidence in her car. if he wasn't in trouble before, he sure is now."

miles.

miles was getting impatient. he could see tessa and dylan talking with gabe, but it was not knowing what they were saying that was forcing his knee to bounce as he sat in the back seat. "fuck it, i'm going too." he didn't give jess a chance to stop him which he was sure she would try to. jumping out of the truck, miles stuffed his hands in his warn denim jacket and crossed the street to where his friends stood huddled close. he saw her car before he was in ear shot of the group. something about seeing her car sent a wave of hope followed by one of devastation through him. laura didn't have her car. she was somewhere without her car and that small fact drastically lessened their chances of finding her alive. upon hearing his name, miles closed the gap between them, staring pointedly at gabe. "what'd i do now?"

dylan.

the news completely blindsides dylan and the plans for the group. they've been wanting to pin it on miles for so long and now that they have actual, physical evidence to tie him to the crime— it was going to be hard to get him out of it. and as if on cue, miles joins them and dylan let's out a concerned sigh. "they found evidence in her car, miles they're going to pin this on you." he tells him, very concerned for what's going to happen to his best friend. "where are the missing pages?"

tessa.

"what evidence could they possibly have that actually incriminates miles?" tessa can't believe this is actually happening, that the cops are just going to pin it on miles. it angers her that they're cutting corners with their job. she's lucky she has people in her life who are willing to help her find the truth but she can't help but think about other cases like hers, where people can only accept what the cops tell them; how the family of that little girl they found near the bridge didn't even have a body to bury because no one was looking hard enough.

gabe.

as soon as miles joined the circle, gabe began to panic. he was doing his best to use his body as a shield from the other officers yet he was aware that because of all the people, he would ultimately be spotted. dylan and tessa’s voices were drowned out as he scanned the surrounding, hoping to find where ever it was his dad walked off to. if anyone would have the pleasure of putting handcuffs on miles, it'd be the sheriff. “you guys have to get him out of here,” he instructed, turning to face the three of them again. “what they found isn’t that strong of evidence but it’s enough to arrest him right now and keep him in the interrogation room for seventy two hours until they can twist his words and get a false confession.”

dylan.

dylan is quick to jump into action, wanting to get miles out of here as soon as possible before any of the cops found out he was here. laura and the missing pages were a subject to be talked about later; right now it was important for them to leave. nodding, he motions for miles to follow, "act normal. don't make eye contact." he tells him, but the advice is short lived as they're stopped by one of the officers as soon as they begin to walk away from gabe and tessa. "miles baker?" fuck, dylan thinks to himself, already knowing what's going to happen next and not being able to do anything about it. "you're under arrest for the disappearance of laura nazari."

miles.

the way the day was playing out hadn't surprised miles even the slightest. he was used to being the one to blame and now wasn't an exception. his dad was a piece of shit and everyone assumed miles was the same, a piece of trash that would never make anything of himself. he was easy to blame and now that they found evidence linked to him in laura's car, they didn't need much else to label him an actual suspect. of course dylan would try to sneak him away, but he'd known it was already too late. he barely even blinked when the officer approached them and announced that they were taking him into the station. the cop wasted no time rounding him and cuffing his wrists behind his back. miles looked around at his friends before he was shoved in the direction of the patrol car.

tessa.

she saw the officer moving towards miles and dylan, but it was too late, and suddenly everything was happening too fast. "wait," she made a move to go closer, but the sight of miles in handcuffs made her feel sick. tessa turned to gabe. "gabe, they can't just arrest him. you said yourself the evidence is flimsy at best. they haven't even told him his rights!" she wanted him to do something, but she didn't know what there was to do. things were happening too fast and they needed time to think. she walked quickly to where miles was being shoved in the car. "miles, don't tell them anything, just don't say anything at all. the rest of us will figure something out, we just need you to give us time."

jess.

growing impatient, how long does it take to get a couple pieces of paper from gabe?, jess hopped out of the truck and headed over to see what was going on. she caught the tail end of the conversation and watched in silence as miles was handcuffed and led away. as the rest of the cops left them for miles, jess turned to focus on gabe. "did you at least get the journal pages?" she asked. there was nothing they could do about miles now, but laura was still missing. if nothing else, finding her would clear miles' name.

gabe.

he shook his head and opened his mouth to speak, but gabe didn't have the right answer for tessa. being stuck between his job and the people he cared about was a terrible place to be. and yet, it still beat being where miles was going to be— in the back of a cop car— which he was about to do everything in his power to stop from happening. tessa had already run off to where miles was, so he didn't get the chance to devise a plan. luckily, jess joined him, giving him enough time to stall and try to think of his next move. "i got them. here," gabe took jess' hand in his own in order to discreetly slip the pages into her sleeve. "now, come on," he then lead her to where the police were waiting to take their prime suspect away. "you can't arrest him for this! who are you taking orders from? who told you to do this?" questioning one of his colleagues in an angry state of mind was never going to end the way he wanted it to. however, it's what resulted from the heat of the moment. "the same guy who gave you the job you're not qualified for," the officer calmly responded and added a quick see you at the station before proceeding to get into the driver's seat.

#vi. we’re going to bring her back home / beforether.#v. gabriel cortez / threads.#and that's how you do that ladies!#this is so... good #one of my favorite things we've written #time to gif it :p

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