Grace's POV
As soon as Grace said that Lola might be coming to take baby Evil away, the more sense it made and it was probably true. But she really hoped not because when Johnny gave her Evil, he said Evil would have a better life with her and Lorcan bringing him up, instead of Lola and Sidorio. But Sidorio is dead, and Lola might be coming back to the Nocturne to get Evil back...but that can't be possible because Johnny said he and Stukeley wanted Lola to have a child missing. They were going to give Grace and Lorcan both, but they couldn't get the other one away. Grace knew Stukeley wanted Johnny to kill them off, but she wasn't exactly sure why. So if Lola was coming to the Nocturne for some reason...
Listen to yourself, Grace silently scolded herself, getting ahead of yourself as usual. She must have been thinking hard for a while because Lorcan lightly shook her arm, and she realized she was starring off into the distance, completely oblivious to what was happening.
"Did you hear what we said?" Lorcan asked. Grace shook her head.
"We're going back to the beach to make sure that everything is okay and that there wasn't really anybody there, because especially now, right after the war, things are really unpredictable," Connor said, and Jasmine nodded in agreement.
"Okay, let's head back then," Grace said, looking around one more time to make sure nobody happened to be in the water apart from them. Lorcan brought his arm around her waist and lifted her up on to his back. Grace fought hard to keep a big grin off her face as she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist from behind to keep from falling off. Not far from them, she could see Connor and Jasmine playing around in the distance too.
When they reached the beach they started walking in the direction where they had left their belongings. Except it wasn't there.
Jasmine's POV
Jasmine really hoped Grace wasn't right about Lola wanting to come and take Evil back, because he was quite adorable and he would have a much better life with Grace and Lorcan taking care of him than Lola. But if she was coming back to get Evil, it would make sense, but Grace had told her that Johnny and Stukeley didn't want Lola to get Evil back, so Jasmine was positive they'd find a way to somehow prevent her from looking.
Grace suddenly stopped which caused Connor to bump into her.
"Was that really necessary?" Connor asked Grace, but she wasn't listening.
"Where's our stuff?" Grace asked slowly and calmly.
They all looked around but couldn't see it anywhere. Suddenly Lorcan gasped.
"I think I see it!" Lorcan said running towards a little pile on the sand in the distance. When they reached the pile, they realized Lorcan was right-it was their stuff. Except it wasn't how they'd remember seeing it; towels were scattered everywhere, the water bottles were thrown all over the sand and the beach bag was ripped apart.
"Someone was here," Grace said in a shaky voice.
"No kidding," Connor said sarcastically, but a trace of fear in his voice too.
Grace ignored him. "You were right Jasmine. There probably were people, in the forest."
Jasmine slowly turned around and looked everywhere for traces of footprints in the sand that wasn't theirs, but she couldn't spot any. Lorcan was probably looking for footprints too because he was looking around the beach frowning.
"Perhaps it was animal?" Lorcan said, though he sounded a little unconvinced.
Jasmine shook her head. "I doubt it. There would be some sort of animal smell...but I can't seem to smell anything."
Connor looked over at Lorcan. "Can you tell if there was someone here? Their blood scent or something?"
Lorcan nodded. "I could, yes, but they'd have to be around-" He got cut off by Grace who was frantically looking for something.
"Grace, what's wrong? Is everything OK?" Lorcan asked, concerned.
"No it's not! I can't find Evil's pacifier...it had his name on it and-"
"Looking for something?" A voice said from behind them.
