After Luke introduced himself, the ride in the van passed in uncomfortable silence, at least for Simon, Kate, Josh, and Violet, who kept turning her head to glance at Tuesday before quickly looking forward again.
Luke stared out the window silently, his left leg lightly tapping the car floor. The four normies thought he was impatient to reach the school, which somehow made them even more nervous for reasons they couldn’t quite understand.
Actually, Luke wasn’t acting or trying to amuse himself with the normies’ reactions as if it were a theatrical performance. He was seriously thinking about where on earth the evidence his parents had hidden could be.
There were three search zones he, Wednesday, and Natasha had identified: Shadyside, Sunnyvale, and the forest between the two towns.
Ideally, the evidence would be hidden in one of the two towns, as searching there would be much easier compared to combing through a vast forest.
Natasha chose Shadyside as the first search location because of the town’s strange
atmosphere, though this might not have anything to do with his parents and could simply be a sad, boring town with fewer than 4,000 residents.
‘Where do I even start looking?’ Luke thought, frowning slightly. He wasn’t some kind of Sherlock Holmes; he didn’t even like mysteries or puzzles.
Wednesday was far better than him in this regard. Although she believed he was also good at solving mysteries, since he’d uncovered the truth about Crackstone before she did, that had only happened because he already knew the plot from watching the Netflix series in his past life.
If the Spellmans hadn’t found the evidence, how would he? It was likely that the Spellmans had been careless and, after killing Sophie and John, didn’t continue looking for more evidence. They were satisfied with killing them and eliminating the evidence they had on hand without ensuring it was 100% of the total.
Even so, this was possible because his parents had been meticulous in hiding the rest of the most important evidence, so it had to be extremely well-concealed.
‘I can’t be pessimistic when I’m just starting… I have my methods,’ Luke thought, shaking his head.
His methods were his blue aura and his white aura.
With his blue aura, he can navigate people’s minds, searching through memories or reading their current thoughts.
With his white aura, he can extend his domain to cover an area of 20 kilometers, allowing him to encompass a vast search zone. However, it’s important to note that the effective radius- the distance from the center (his current position) to the edge of the covered area-is 10 kilometers in every direction.
This is still a large area, but there is too much information to process: thousands of people, houses, objects, constant movements, animals, etc. It is mentally exhausting for Luke.
For this reason, Luke rarely expands his domain to its full range and usually uses it at much shorter distances, focusing on combat: anticipating surprise attacks, using Shambles, or quickly and efficiently identifying nearby threats.
Expanding his domain entirely would be useless since there are maps of Shadyside for that. As for his blue aura, he needs someone whose memories he can read to obtain relevant information.
Someone with relevant information-and Luke doubted these normie teenagers would have anything useful.
He and Wednesday had already investigated the towns’ histories, at least the publicly available information online, and they probably knew more than the locals themselves. “Tuesday, we’re here,” Violet said.
Luke snapped back to reality, noticing the van was already parked, the engine off. The four normies were staring at him.
‘Why are they waiting for me…? Get out, for crying out loud,’ Luke thought, starting to get irritated.
“Oh, yeah…” Luke said, opening the door and stepping out. At that moment, the others followed, as if they had been waiting for him to get out first.
“Dammit, we’re already late,” Simon muttered.
“Because of you, idiot. You drove so slowly my grandma could’ve done better,” Kate snapped irritably.
“Shut up,” Simon replied quickly, giving her a warning look. He didn’t want Tuesday to hear their conversation, though she clearly seemed lost in her own world, uninterested in whatever the normies were discussing.
Simon had slowed the van since they picked up Tuesday. Watching the new girl, who looked like a supermodel, through the rearview mirror had been distracting, and he couldn’t help it. He had to slow down, or they’d have crashed and killed everyone.
The group of five entered the building through a side entrance, taking a shortcut from the parking lot.
Since they were late, they barely encountered any students on their way in. However, the few who did see Tuesday couldn’t help but turn their heads, some even stopping in their tracks with their mouths agape.
“Who’s that? New girl?” murmurs were heard behind the group.
It was obvious she was a new student. Someone with her appearance couldn’t have gone unnoticed after a week of classes.
Tuesday showed no reaction, maintaining an expression that radiated arrogance.
“Do you know which class you’re supposed to go to? I can show you the way if you want,” Violet said, stepping beside Tuesday. So far, she was the only one brave enough to speak to the new girl.
“I think my sister mentioned something… Yeah, social studies. That’s probably it,” Tuesday replied after a brief pause.
“Oh, old Memphis’ class! I mean, Mr. Memphis… We’re in the same class,” Violet said,
smiling at the response.
“So are we,” Kate added, with Simon nodding in agreement. Neither wanted to be left out. Josh, however, felt out of place, being a year younger than the other four.
“Fine, but first, tell me where the restroom is,” Luke said casually, but with an underlying tone of authority.
He said it so naturally and confidently that no one in the group took it as rude.
“Oh, sure, it’s nearby. I’ll take you there,” Violet replied quickly. Then, she turned to the others. “You guys go ahead to class. We don’t want Mr. Memphis giving us a collective tardy.” Kate, who was about to protest, remembered she wasn’t into girls, but her best friend was- and wanted to get over a breakup. With that in mind, she dragged Simon off to class.
As for Josh, he had no choice but to head to his own class without daring to say goodbye to
Tuesday.
“Ugh… not a word. If she looks like that, how must her sister look?” Josh muttered as he walked to class, curious if both sisters shared the same striking beauty.
Luke and Violet entered the girls’ restroom.
‘The girls’ restroom… A realm I never thought I’d visit,’ Luke thought as he stepped into one
of the stalls, closing the door with a soft click.
Meanwhile, Violet quickly washed her hands and glanced at her watch. Minutes passed, and for some reason, Tuesday hadn’t come out.
‘Is she doing number two?’ Violet wondered but shook her head. On one hand, she refused to believe someone with a face like that could be doing number two, and besides, she hadn’t heard any sounds that would give her away.
Violet glanced toward the stall and noticed grayish smoke rising into the air.
‘What the hell?’ she thought, frowning.
“Hey, what are you doing? We need to get to class. Mr. Memphis won’t like it if we’re late,”
Violet said.
Luke opened the door and stepped out, holding a lit cigarette in his right hand.
Before Luke could say anything, Violet spoke up. “Are you… smoking?” she asked, surprised,
with a hint of fascination in her voice.
“Why does that surprise you? That van reeked of weed,” Luke said with a faint smile.
Fortunately, he had learned to smoke cigars before, so smoking cigarettes was easy, and he wouldn’t cough like a novice.
“You’re right. Simon always smokes in the car, and the smell lingers for days,” Violet said
with a nervous laugh.
Luke looked at her, still maintaining his nonchalant demeanor. “What about you? You talk about your friend like you’re not a smoker too.”
Violet stared at her, surprised and momentarily at a loss for words. After a long second, she finally responded, “Okay, fine… Yeah, I smoke too, but not as much as Simon and Kate.
They’re the real pros at it.”
“This is just a regular cigarette,” Luke said, handing her the one he was smoking.
Violet looked at the cigarette that had just touched Tuesday’s lips. Without hesitation, she
took it and took a drag.
‘Sam didn’t like me smoking…’ Violet thought but quickly pushed away memories of her ex- girlfriend. Now wasn’t the time.
“Shouldn’t we get to class? We’re already really late, and I’m telling you, old Memphis doesn’t tolerate tardiness. He’s a grumpy old man with zero patience,” Violet said as she smoked, watching Luke pull another cigarette from the pack and light it.
“It’s fine. What’s he going to do, yell at us for being a few minutes late?” Luke replied dismissively, waving a hand.
“I don’t know… The guy’s a grouch. He might punish us, even if you’re new,” Violet said,
sounding unsure.
“Relax, we won’t get punished,” Luke said casually, as if it were nothing.
Violet dropped the subject and stayed in the girls’ restroom, smoking with Tuesday.
She never imagined the day would unfold like this: the new girl-easily the most beautiful
person she had ever seen-turning out to be a rebellious smoker who couldn’t care less about
school class.
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Link: [email protected]/Nathe07