Forest City Book 5 Chapter 10 -Chills-

-Content warning- lil' swear

    We took a different route back from the mall to the art studio. As we stood at the front door of the building, I felt a cold winter wind rush down my spine. Cobalt had opened the door after picking the lock.

    "This looks suspicious, Cobalt, are you sure we should be doing this?" I questioned.

    "Don't worry, people in Forest City don't care about what other people are doing, as long as you are minding your own business, they'll mind theirs," Cobalt answered, "Look I got it!"

    Cobalt and Monty stepped over the threshold of the door, I hesitated as I stood on the sidewalk.

    "What if this is a bad idea and we get caught?" I asked nervously.

    "Trust us, it will all be okay in the end," Monty replied suspiciously.

    If I'm dreaming, this is a weird dream. I glanced down at my red sneakers.

    "Come on Mac, it will be fun," Cobalt coaxed, he put a beanie on his head.

    Shit. Fine I'll do it. I stepped in the familiar looking art studio and shut the door behind me.

    "Does this place remind you of Hazel's apartment?" Cobalt directed his question towards me.

    "I don't like this," I replied.

    "Looks more like my dad's dingy apartment, except for the fact that it doesn't smell like smoke and doesn't make me as depressed, "Cobalt joked.

    "Guys up here!" Monty shouted from upstairs.

    All of this for a painting! I followed Cobalt up the slim flight of stairs. The walls had the banana leaf pattern that Hazel had in her living room. Who lived here? Why was it so familiar? Similar to Hazel's apartment, there was also an upstairs, but there was no loft, the loft was the second floor. The whole room was filled with art supplies and many canvases on easels, some of them had paintings of landscapes and one of them had a painting of...ME!

    I picked up the painting of myself and shook my head in disbelief, I said out loud, "Is someone stalking me?"

    Cobalt's eyes darted towards Monty, who also had a painting in his arms.

     "We found what we were looking for," Monty said quickly, "it's of my mom, right?"

    "Yeah, that's the one..." My voice trailed off, I was still thinking about the painting of myself.

    "Safiya, where's my phone?" a voice called from downstairs.

    "I don' know, where did you put it last?" another voice replied.

    "Shit! Shit! Shit!" Cobalt whispered to himself, "uh...the window," he pointed.

    "You want us to jump out of a window?" I practically yelled.

    "Yeah, the window," Cobalt started to push Monty and I to the window on the back wall.

    "Who's in there?" The first voice spoke from behind the door. The large wooden door slammed open and bright, warm-toned lights bathed us in the wide open. Our faces stared in horror at the sights we had seen.