Here's my edited version. I re-read the other one and was like, 'Ick!' so I redid it. Hope you guys like it!
Disclaimer: In case you haven't already figured it out, I do not own Gallagher Girl or all that implies. I do, however, own this pillow! XD
I sat in the cold, damp room, the sound of water dripping from the ceiling filling the silence. Not the type of home a person would dream for, but plenty for a spy on the run. The house was an old, abandoned place on top of a hill, something like a haunted house that would only be visited on a dare. Not exactly my best hiding place, but it was enough for now. At least until I could get a hold of some proper money.
Sighing, I lay back on the old, creaking bed, putting my hands behind my head. A rat scurried across the floor, running into its little hole and disappearing, leaving little crumbs from some trash it carried in its wake. My stomach churned. This was definitely not what I had hoped for when I ran away, but honestly, what was I expecting? Some big hot-shot hotel with butlers and people bending at my every will?
Taking a deep breath, I held it before slowly letting it out. I honestly don't know what I was expecting. All I was hoping for was some way to find answers, some way to be sure that I was keeping everyone safe. If that meant I had to sit in some crappish house with no water source or functioning utilities, so be it. As long as it kept my loved ones safe. My mom safe.
I choked as I thought about her. After a week, I still couldn't believe that I had left her to wonder if I was even alive. So many times, I had been tempted to call her up, tell her I was okay, that I was alive. But that would mean that she would find some way to track me, convincing me to come back, put them in danger again. So I held back, risking my life instead of all of theirs. Absentmindedly, I wondered if she was looking for me. If she was pushing everyone to find me, calling all of her contacts to form a look-out, seeing if they could find me. I bet she was. It made me feel all the worse.
But Zach was right. It was the only way to keep them all safe.
Zach. I shook my head, shaking the image of him away. I couldn't think about him right now. He was the one that really put this thought into my head in the first place. I wonder if he regrets it? Is he looking for me right now? I hadn't seen him, has he found away to bi-pass even my trained eyes? I quickly dismissed the thought. I had been careful. I had counted surveillance, ran whenever they got too close. I had blended in. There was no way Zach could find me now.
No one could ever find me now.
Rolling over, I looked at the grimy clock on the wall, covered with dust and soot from years of neglect. It was eternally stuck at six o' two, never ticking, never growing. Not for the first time, I wondered how it got left there, broken like that all these years. How all of this was left behind, as if someone had just up and left, not bothering to take anything with them. Were they spies, too? Or were there actually ghosts, haunting this place every night, chasing away visitors and eating away their flesh?
I had to get out of here before I called the Ghostbusters or something.
Standing from the creaky bed, I grabbed my backpack, going through my small amount of belongings. Buried beneath my clothes and my make-up-kit-with-a-kick (Liz made it a while back. Let's just say you don't want to apply this stuff directly to skin) was my father's notebook, its torn cover staring up at me. I had read it everyday since my disappearance, learning more about my father and Mr. Solomon's friendship. According to this, dad had actually really trusted Mr. S, trying to help him take down the Blackthorne Institute for boys. They had been together through it all, especially when he met mom. Little did I know it had actually been Mr. Solomon who had introduced them, when he was calling her up on a lead. Apparently, from the first time dad laid eyes on her, he was hooked. So cute. And when they got married, Joe was his best man, standing there and watching as they became man and wife. They were like best friends.
So what had happened?
Shutting the journal, I sat back on the bed, feeling as tired and confused as I always did after reading the journal. I had been away from the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women for a week now, and I still wasn't any closer to finding any answers. All I wanted to do was fall asleep and dream, hoping that through my subconsciousness I would find some answers.
Closing my eyes, I fell asleep, hoping for some helpful information as my brain sorted out all the details.
What I found instead surprised the bejebors out of me.
"Gallagher Girl," was the first two words my dreams met me with. "Come back."
That's all for now! I hope you guys like it!