My Undercover Life

Episode 40

Chapter 39 recap: Ian, Avery, Megan, Asher, Hunter, and Bradlee decided to go to the pet shop during lunch and visit Velvet, the bunny Ian liked. While they were talking about getting Ian Velvet for Christmas, Ian received a call. It was then revealed that Ashleigh, Ian’s sister was ‘gone’. PS: if anyone forgot any of the characters please visit chapter 37 for a recap. Thanks.

Chapter dedicated to all my fans out there. Thank you so much for enjoying
“What do you mean, she’s gone?”
“Exactly what I meant!” he shouted, clutching onto Velvet’s tiny body. “She’s gone—oh God, she’s gone!” he yelled frantically, drawing hush whispers from lingering customers. “W-what am I going to do?” My head spun back to him. “What if he got her? What if I’m too late? What if she’s dead—”
“Ian. You need to calm down.”

“Calm down?” Ian barked a laugh. “I can’t f—–g calm down. My sister is missing! Don’t you dare tell me to—”

“Listen, Ian.” I slowly approached him, eyeing Velvet warily. “You’re scaring Velvet.” He paused, staring down at her wide eyes filled with panic. He visibly flinched, as she furiously dug her claws into his bare arms.

“I-I didn’t mean to,” he spoke slowly, running his hands through her fur. She squirmed in his grasp, thrashing her hind legs. “Shh, it’s okay Velvet,” Ian said quietly, setting her back down. “You’re safe.” He watched her for a second, making sure she was okay, before turning his attention back to me. “We need to call the police.”

“Ian. What exactly happened?”
He closed his eyes, sighing. “Her friend just called.” He swallowed, taking a deep breath. “She told me Ashleigh went to the bathroom, and never came back.”
“Maybe she’s still there—”

“—they checked and there was no signs of her.”

“She probably went to talk to a teacher or something,” I suggested. “It could be anything, Ian. Don’t jump to conclusions just yet—”

“Yeah, Ian,” Megan agreed with me, nodding her head. “She’s right, you know. Your sister—”

“—shut up!” Megan flinched at his tone. “I’m not jumping to conclusions! Her friends already called her cellphone, and she didn’t picked up! Ashleigh never does that! She always has her cellphone on. Even if she misses a call, she’ll call back within minutes. And she didn’t.”

“Maybe her cellphone ran out of batteries—”
“—no!” Ian yelled, cutting the rest of my sentence off. “Something’s wrong, Avery. I know it. Call it siblings’ intuitions or whatever you want to, but I know my sister’s in trouble. Now, if you’ll excuse me, Ashleigh needs me. I really can’t afford to waste anymore time here.” He lightly brushed past me, hitting my shoulder in the process.

“Wait!” I grabbed his wrist, halting him in his steps.

He slowly turned around, and glanced at the hand placed on his wrist. His brows furrowed together. “Avery, let go.”
“No. I’m going with you.”

“If Avery’s going, I’m coming with,” Megan said, running over to us. “I can’t let you have all the fun.” She laughed, winking at me.
“I don’t think that’s a very good idea—” Ian started muttering before Hunter cut in.
“—Ian’s right. I don’t know about you guys, but lunch ends in twenty minutes, and I’m definitely not skipping sixth period.”
“Don’t you have Music Theory during sixth period?” Megan questioned.

He nodded. “Exactly why I can’t skip it.”
Megan softly giggled. “Don’t worry. Like I said earlier, with my help you’ll ace that class like a breeze.”

I raised my brows at them. “Help?”
“Yeah, Hunter needed help with his music class, so he came to me—”

“—I really don’t f—–g care about this right now,” Ian snapped. “Did you guys f—–g forget my sister is missing?”

“Of course we didn’t—” Hunter said, before Ian put his hand up.

“Look.” He sighed. “I’m heading to my sister’s school right now if anyone wants to come. If you guys decide to go back to Woodway, that’s great. I honestly don’t f—–g care what you guys do,” he said before he snatched his arm away from me, and ran out the door, leaving us completely stunned.

“Someone’s bipolar.” Hunter rolled his eyes.
“He’s not bipolar!” Asher defended; his fists balled up. Four pairs of eyes turned towards Asher, our expressions matching each others’. My mouth dropped open, as I stared at him openly.

“Asher, you—”
“—you need to be considerate of him,” he spoke to Hunter, ignoring me completely. “His sister just disappeared, of course he’s going to be like that. No one can be that happy all the time.”

Hunter pointed at him. “I-I—you actually spoke normally!”

“That’s not the point here.” Asher placed his hands on his hips. “I’m going back with Ian. Someone has to help him, right?” He didn’t wait for an answer before walking out of the pet store.

Both Hunter and Megan turned towards me.
“Are you going?” Megan asked me.
“I have to.” It’s not like I have a choice—Demitri will probably order me to go anyways.
“Do you um . . . think you could find your own ride?” Hunter asked. “Like I said, I can’t miss sixth period, plus Ian’s probably just overreacting. If anything really did happen to his sister, my sister would be calling me non stop by now.”

“You think so?”
“I hope so anyways,” he said. “Even though I’m not close with the guy, I don’t want his sister to end up like the Bryant’s twins. We don’t need another murder in this town.” You and me both.
“I hope—” I started to say before the ringtone I’d set for my cousins started ringing. I held up one finger, and snatched the phone from my back pocket. “Hello?” I asked, as Hunter and Megan watched me, curiously.

“Wrap up your conversation with your friends quickly. We need to go to Monroe High, now,” Demitri ordered. “I already notified Skylar about the situation and he’s sending a squad down there right now.”

“Should I bring any presents with me?” I asked, looking directly at Bradlee. He stood undetected in the back, watching everyone carefully—including the few people still tiptoeing around Ian’s discarded phone. When his eyes met mine, his brows creased down, almost like he was in deep thought about something. He mouthed something quickly to me, before he pointed at Ian’s phone, and then down at his phone.

“What?” I directed my question at Bradlee, before another voice shouted my name.

“Avery! Stop staring at Bradlee, and listen to me! Do not bring anyone with you. Wait until everyone is gone before you leave the pet store. When you do, I’ll be in the back waiting for you. Just hurry before Ian does anything rash.”
“Okay,” I said, before hanging up.
“Who was that?” Hunter asked.

“That was my sister,” I fibbed easily. “She wanted to invite me over for Christmas.”
“Ah. So—” he asked as my eyes made their way back to Bradlee. He was pointing at his phone, before directing his finger at me.

Glancing down at the phone in my hand, a new message popped up.

Ailee texted.

My eyes enlarged. S–t. “—Um, Hunter I think you better go back to Woodway with Megan and Bradlee, like now. Your brother has something he needs to tell you.”
“Bradlee?”
“Yeah.” I nodded, pushing both of them towards the door. “By the way, you have ten minutes before sixth period starts.”
“F–k, we need to go,” Hunter said urgently. “Bradlee, hurry up! You have one minute before I leave your a-s behind!” he called while signing something to Bradlee.
“Be safe Avery,” Megan told me, giving me a quick hug, before following Hunter out.

As I turned around, Bradlee was already making his way towards me. “Here,” he whispered, giving me Ian’s phone. “He’ll probably need this.”

“Thanks.” I took the offered item, and tucked it in my side pocket. “What did Ailee say anyways?”

Bradlee glanced around the store—making sure no one was close by before leaning down to my level. I gulped when his hot breath fanned my ears; the smell of his cologne intoxicating. “It’s not looking so good, Av. I don’t think you should go to Monroe High, alone. I can tell Hunter—”

“Don’t worry about me.” I put a hand on his shoulder, pushing him away slightly. “Demitri is taking me there. He’s right out back waiting for me, actually.”

“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. Now, hurry up before Hunter drives off without you.” I chuckled.

He frowned. “I rather go with you.”
I pressed my lips together. “Bradlee.”
“Okay, okay.” He laughed, sending shivers down my spine. “Text me if anything happens alright?”
“I will.”

He lingered in front of me of a second, his eyes moving back and forth between the door and me. It took him another second, before his lips suddenly made contact with the side of my cheek. I stood there, staring at the transparent glass door—just watching him. His lips were stretched into a full blown smile, as he waved goodbye, promising me to see me soon.
When Hunter’s car left the parking lot a few minutes later, I rushed towards the back of the shop, looking for the familiar black van. Seeing the back door already opened, I hopped in, before the van speeded forward.
“Is Ian’s sister really missing?”
“We don’t know,” Demitri answered, as we left the parking lot. “But so far, her records matches the past victims’ profiles. There’s a high chance she was taken.”
“During school?”

His hands tightened on the wheel. “The b—–d’s getting quite daring, I’ll give him that.”
Scooting forward, I grabbed ahold of the passenger’s side headrest. “Do you still think the killer’s a guy? I mean . . . everyone was with me when he got the called, including the remaining suspect.”

“The victims were raped, Lil.” He glanced at me for a split second, before looking back at the road. “I’m one hundred percent sure he’s working with someone. How else could this person be this good at escaping without being caught? Someone has to be his eyes and ears.”
“You’re right . . .” I whispered to myself. “And speaking about being caught, did Skylar ever get a good look on those security cameras? The killer had to been captured on tape.”

“Unfortunately, no. None of the cameras showed anything remotely suspicious. It’s like any evidence we did have were erased.”
“Erased?” I asked. “That’s impossible, right?”

“Of course it’s impossible. But somehow, they were able to get past the cameras.”
“Were they able to get past the cameras at Monroe High?”

“Not sure.” Demitri shrugged his shoulders. “Skylar hasn’t said anything yet. But when we get there, we’re going in from the back. The principal already informed us he doesn’t want to make a huge scene. He’s trying to keep everything on the down low as long as possible.”

I leaned on the headrest. “Is that working?”
“Hopefully.” He tried to crack a smile. “The last thing I want is the whole school freaking out.”

“Um . . . I think that’s a little bit hard with Ian there . . .” I could already imagine it—if Ashleigh really did go missing, no one in that school would be safe from Ian’s wrath. If he was angry at Ashleigh’s ex boyfriend supposedly punching her, he’ll go psychotic if he knows the only immediate family member he has left is gone.

“Don’t worry about it,” Demitri said, signaling right. “We already told the principal he’s coming. Hopefully Ian will cooperate when he gets there.”

“For his sake—” I closed my mouth when Skylar’s face popped up on the video monitor screen Demitri had above the radio.

“What’s the situation right now, Skylar?” Demitri asked, turning some dial on the device.
“You guys should see this,” Skylar said, his voice shaky. Moving the camera angle, bright blue paint with multiple short messages and random doodles focused onto the screen. Squinting my eyes, I clearly made out a door handle, seeing some scrap tissues on the floor.

“What are exactly looking at?” I asked, clearly not getting it. Did he want us to read the messages teenage girls left on a door or something?

“Look at the message above the door handle.”
Looking closely at the spot, five words stared back me; sending my heart into frenzy.
Four days, and she’s dead.