The Lost Children (A Chesapeake Valley Mystery Book 2) by Elle Gray

Author:Elle Gray [Gray, Elle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Elle Gray
Published: 2024-10-18T00:00:00+00:00

Tom Lacy

Tom was woken up by the smell of smoke again. He shot up. For a brief moment, he was back in the house; Easton was sneaking in and trying to get him out. But that wasn’t real. That had happened already. This wasn’t the burning of drywall and paint that Tom was smelling. It was a cigarette. A pungent, foul cigarette.

They had lived with a woman once, about four years ago, who chain smoked and the house had always smelled like damp tobacco. All the walls were stained with yellow and Tom had been so disgusted by it that he swore to Easton he would never touch a cigarette ever. His brother said that it wasn’t cigarettes that were hard to resist nowadays but the vapes. Those were so easy and everybody did it. But if it was the same stuff that was in cigarettes, Tom had no interest.

“What if they’re playing us?” one voice whispered.

“Why would they? That would mean that they’d get nothing out of this…” the other replied.

“It’s taking too long…”

“We knew it was going to be a couple days.”

“I’m tired of being down here. I’m going crazy. These kids are driving me crazy.”

Both of their lips were lit up by red embers in the darkness.

“They ain’t done nothing… relax. All they need to do is move and listen. They’re good at that.”

The smell was getting worse. It didn’t stink like that house with Mrs. Killarney. There was something else, like the cigarette was laced with tar.

“You ever smoke something like this, baby? We’re gonna have nothing but Taras where we’re going.”

“Is that what people are calling it?”

“It’s the new hit thing. Those guys you’ve been talking to… they got it everywhere now. Just wait though. It’s gonna be huge.”

“I’m sure it is…”

Tom looked up at the stone ceiling. He tried his best to understand. It wasn’t just these two. There were other people involved in this and that scared him. He didn’t want to meet anyone new. He didn’t want to move anywhere else aside from back home. But that wasn’t going to happen. Mrs. Redding’s house was gone.

Easton snored next to Tom.

Charlie turned over. In the dim light, Tom could see that her eyes were open and she was staring right at him. He held her gaze. He wanted to talk to her and see what she thought about what they were saying. Charlie was smart. Probably smarter than Easton. Maybe she knew what was happening. But if they talked, their captors would come over and hit them. They threatened to leave them behind in the caves too. Tom wanted them to try that. He would find a way out. Charlie’s watery eyes eventually looked away, greasy bits of hair stuck to her forehead.

Tom couldn’t be sure if it was a few seconds, minutes or even an hour before the stinky-cigarette-smokers collapsed on the stone. They at least had jackets and sweaters to lay on.

“Are they out?” Easton whispered.

Tom jumped, not realizing his brother was awake.

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