Disclaimer: I don't own House of Wax
1
this is not a pipe
I was supposed to stay at home.
I never considered myself a homebody, not even during my darkest days, but in between my final year at college and investing part time work at my city's local convenience store, I didn't feel like making much plans now that I had time off. Well, I did... they just included sleeping in place of school and hanging with friends when they weren't tied up in their weekly grind themselves, but then my old childhood neighbor Carly asked- no, more like begged me to go with her to see a football game, and somehow I couldn't find it in me to say no. She was having a hard time since her brother started getting locked up and she probably wanted all the support she needed if he was going too.
It was always hard trying to find a reason to reject her but I understood her familial issues and that was why I usually caved. My own parents had been separated for over ten years now and only six months ago did they decide to start the dreaded divorce - once that big door of tension opened, a floodgate of other unfortunate events generally followed and for my parents it was nothing short of taxing having to bounce between two different households every couple months. I guess I didn't have to, though. I was an adult... but they were still Mom and Dad, and trying to stay on both their sides was a lot harder than picking just one. It frustrated me how they couldn't just be civil anymore and sometimes I imagined myself having that all-american, tight-knit, blood bonded family. Being someone else's child.
And that was wrong of me to think but those thoughts couldn't help but creep in now and then, sometimes more when the months kept dragging on and on.
That was another reason I decided to tag along to the game. I wanted to separate myself from reality for a bit and maybe once I got back, I'd have a better perspective of things. Hopefully. Sports weren't really my thing, but I thought I'd make the sacrifice anyway for Carly. If the game turned out to be a bore, at least I'd have fun spending time with friends, then sleep all day every day as soon as I got back. I felt bad about leaving my parents on such short notice since they both lived alone... but maybe it'd do them some good too.
Maybe things would be different when I'd come back.
That is, if we even made it to Baton Rouge. The small off-the-road diner was the second stop in four hours and it was already late in the night - I hadn't slept since we got on the road and my weariness killed most of my appetite, but I did grab a soda in hopes that it'd keep me alive through the rest of the drive.
I yawned into my hands, shouldering the diner door open and the crisp night air brought some feeling back to my cheeks.
"Get a job," Carly's brother spat at the homeless man clutching a cup for change by the trash bin, kicking it with the side of his shoe as he passed. That was the same old Nick I remembered from high school, still just as gruff as he was when he was seventeen and driving his sister crazy.
"You know that's probably gonna be you one day," I said, hearing Dalton chuckle behind me.
"Shut up." Nick knocked his arm into mine as he went to sit across from Carly and Wade, and the latter didn't appear comfortable at all with Nick being there.
"So what do you think, guys?" Wade began awkwardly. "Gonna be a sweet game tomorrow, huh?"
Nick rolled his eyes and sipped his beer then, adding to the straining mood and I made myself busy with drawing patterns in Paige's leftover ketchup with a crusty old french fry.
"Dalton, please don't film me," Carly groaned.
"What? l'm not filming now."
"The red light's on."
"Hey, come on, put the camera down." Nick pushed the video camera away then. "She doesn't like having people up in her face. She folds under pressure."
"Nick, you got something to say to me?"
"No. l think you've already spoken enough for the both of us, don't you?"
The way Carly glared at her sibling made me a little uncomfortable so I thought it'd be better to scurry off before they got into another one of their famous and vicious arguments. Zipping up my jacket, I made the snap decision to take the forgotten basket of now ice cold fries with me in case I got hungry later on the road, before slowly easing off the bench. Better safe than sorry. And starving.
"I'm gonna go to the car before things get weirder. Bye, guys."
"Yeah, I'm with Morgan," Dalton chimed in. "You guys are lame. l'm out of here. See ya!"
We walked across the parking lot to Blake's truck and Dalton wasted no time in whipping out the camcorder when he saw Paige and Blake lovingly sucking face, zooming in close to their lips. I really regretted giving it to him that morning but it was either the recorder or my film roll camera and I couldn't part with my camera for anything in the world. It was the last birthday present from both Mom and Dad before they split.
Paige normally liked it when I took her picture but when she saw the invading recorder, she frowned. "Dalton, put down that damn camera, god!"
Dalton's laughter was wild but he eventually relented and switched the power button off.
I tip toed around to the passenger side window. "Hey, is it okay if I ride with you guys this time?"
"Yeah, of course. Did something happen with Carly and Nick again?" Paige replied.
I hesitated at that, not really wanting to air Carly's dirty laundry but feeling like I kind of had no choice. We were all there together anyway. "Sort of. It's a long drive and I wanted to stretch out and sleep."
"You still got that old camera with you?" Blake asked.
I nodded. "Yeah, why? Do you like photography too?"
"I can respect it," he answered and grinned as he slid a hand up Paige's leg. "Shows what's under the skin, huh?"
Paige swatted him away but giggled. "Blake, not in front of Morgan!"
I smiled and opened the backseat door to hop inside, seeing the others rise from their spot on the bench and start for Wade's car. I felt bad for leaving Carly in there alone but there was barely any room to breathe with three people inside so it kind of felt like a coffin with five packed in like sardines. Plus, being stuck between a grumpy Nick and mischievous Dalton didn't sound like the best way to start our final stretch to Baton Rouge. It just sounded like a headache.
The next couple of hours of driving were smooth sailing and I managed to eat all of the left over fries from the basket I carried over and finished my soda until I felt full enough to curl up on the wide backseats and try to sleep.
It didn't last long.
The sharp peal of a car horn jolted me awake and I sat up to see Wade's car on the other lane, windows rolled all the way as they jeered something unintelligible at Paige.
"Aw, come on, guys, you do that with Morgan back there!?" Dalton hollered and I rubbed at my eyes in confusion. What were they blabbering about?
"Lip balm," Paige said over the phone. "I dropped my stupid lip balm."
I was too bleary eyed to try to make sense of it all so I laid back down, using my camera bag as a makeshift pillow and tried to get comfortable again but it wasn't as easy that time.
"I don't know, it's getting late," Paige continued on the phone then looked to Blake. "What do you wanna do?"
"Keep going. We don't even have tickets."
"Babe, there's gonna be a million scalpers there. Besides, if we keep driving there's no way I'll stay up for this game." There was a brief pause. "Yeah, let's just pull over here. Come on, we'll wake up early."
"Yeah, all right," Blake huffed and I felt the truck start to veer off toward the right.
"All right, we're pulling over. Morgan, we're pulling over," Paige called softly over her shoulder.
"Mkay," my muffled voice answered back buried halfway against the camera bag and the truck dipped and swayed like it was cruising over unstable terrain so I forced myself to sit up again, turning to the window but all I saw was blackness on the other side. And thin wisps of tree branches.
"Where are we going, Blake?" Paige sounded creeped out by the surroundings.
"I'm just looking for some privacy."
"I don't think anyone will find us here," I murmured, peering a little closer to see better outside but it was like someone had taped my eyelids shut. The darkest night sky I ever saw in my life which was strange considering we were miles and miles away from city lights. Shouldn't there had been at least one visible star?
The truck came to a quiet halt in the middle of an empty, vast field and we all piled out to start unloading our supplies from the trunk. And there was definitely a lot given how many of us were there. I strapped my camera bag across my chest for safe keeping before lugging out my overnight backpack and all the tools we needed to pitch our tents. Hopefully I'd have my very own. Knowing Dalton, he'd be sticking that camcorder in our faces even as we slept and Nick usually smelled like an ashtray... not the most pleasant company.
It must've been close to midnight when our belongings were finally laid out and I took the extra time to make sure my roll films were tucked securely in it's bag in my tent before joining everyone outside. Blake and Dalton started up a game of football while Nick isolated himself off by the treeline, a beer in his hand and glaring at everybody like usual so I sat with the girls and our plethora of snacks. It probably wouldn't last us the night.
Carly and Paige posed for a couple pictures for my polaroid camera and I had to stretch my arm painfully out when they pulled me in for one with the three of us but Dalton ended up knocking into my hand when he practically crashed into us with his recorder, grinning from ear to ear behind the blinking light. He always smiled like that around Carly...
I ducked inside my tent again for an extra film pack for my polaroid but when I came back out, I nearly dropped it by the sudden sour stench of spoiled meat and rotten eggs.
"Whoa, what's that smell?" Blake said.
"That's bad."
Paige looked like she was about to be sick. "Oh my God."
"Dalton, did you crap your pants again?"
"Huh? No... l don't know. Maybe. l mean, l'm wearing my work clothes, so..."
"It's coming from the woods," I realized, the low beams on Blake's truck highlighting the threshold leading into the trees and it hit me then just how unsettling it was to be surrounded by something you couldn't see clearly - living or not.
"lt's horrible."
Wade leaned in closer at the forest border, swinging his flashlight at it. "Something's dead out there."
"No, something's dead right here," Blake remarked. "We need to drink it back to life. Bless me, dog."
Nick passed him a beer bottle then and the second the cap popped off, the rancid forest odor was long forgotten. Everyone rejoined the makeshift camp, drinks in hand and a warm fire building in the middle to keep the edge off... and it worked. Nobody pointed out the smell, much less looked in the woods' direction again and I was happy to settle myself beside the calming gold embers, snapping a few candids of Paige cuddled on Blake's lap, Wade and Carly kissing and Nick flashing me the middle finger.
But everyone seemed to like having their picture taken... until Dalton came along with the camcorder, inching uncomfortably close to our faces like the paparazzi.
Carly apparently had enough though when she jumped up and chased him around the fire, clawing at his chest and reaching high for the recorder.
"Give me that-" She ripped it from his grasp them and zoomed in on him. "Oh, and the tables turn!"
I smiled, watching as her and Paige cornered him into their tent and he struggled the entire way. "Hey, please be careful with the camera, I gave it to him!" I told them when they disappeared behind the blue flaps. And technically it wasn't mine anymore but cameras were still expensive... I had to save up three weeks worth of paychecks to buy that.
I tore open a mini bag of chips as I waited for the polaroids to develop, lining them up in a horizontal stripe on the blanket and they were slowly fading in just enough to make out our figures.
"Look how good you look!" Carly exclaimed, emerging from the tent with Dalton in tow, dressed in a loud yellow sweater like a very tacky halloween costume.
"He looks like Elton John, but more gay."
"Elton John is gay?"
I quickly snapped Dalton's photo before he could protest. "Wow, that's..." The color of his sweater was so vivid that it momentarily made me lose my train of thought.
"That great, huh?" Dalton smirked, mistaking my loss for words as a compliment and adjusted his sunglasses before striking a pose with his hands on his hips but it looked more like something a superhero would do than a model. I threw a potato chip at him and he ducked, laughing as he stole back his camera from Carly.
By that time, the polaroids had fully developed and I admired the happy, blissfully unaware faces of my friends on those milky white square cards, beautiful moments captured and living forever now. I scribbled the date in the bottom right corner for memory and was about to write on the blurry shot of Carly, Paige, and myself when a sudden burst of light blinded me. The pen fell out of my hand and rolled to the grass, past the campfire... and in the direction of the huge brown truck parked in front of us.
The beams of light were so bright we couldn't see who was in the driver's seat.
Wade was the first to speak, squinting through the brightness. "Yeah?"
"Hey, yo, man, you need something?" Blake hollered next, but they were both met with nothing but the rumbling of a motor.
"What does he want?"
"Hey, can you turn off your lights, please!?"
"Okay, this is getting kind of creepy," Paige murmured on Blake's lap.
It felt like a practical joke somehow, like someone we knew from school or a very friendly and trickster landowner was going to pop out and introduce himself... but no. That wasn't what happened at all. There was no telling who was inside that car or what they wanted... at least, it wasn't clear to us.
"Hey, come on, man, get out of here. Nothing to see here. Let's go!"
Both Wade and Blake stood up from their seats then, carefully approaching the truck in the distance. "Can we help you?"
"Maybe we're on his property," Carly said.
"No, we didn't pass a gate."
My stomach was heavy and churning with knots. "What if he wants us to leave?"
"Why doesn't he just tell us?" Wade answered back.
"Hey, man, turn your lights off."
"Hello!?"
"Turn your lights off! I'm serious, man, turn them off or l'm whupping someone's ass-"
"It's cool, man." Wade kept Blake from outright charging at the truck then, but it didn't ease the impending sense of danger and unease forming in our minds. The truck was still there... waiting and watching.
I winced when a beer bottle hurled over my shoulder and smashed right into the truck's light. Shards of glass exploded everywhere and half of the campsite was pitched in darkness again.
"Nick!" Carly shrieked as her brother shouldered his way past Wade and Blake, standing right at the forefront and he stared brazenly at the truck's driver. Whoever it was.
The engine sputtered as the wheels turned and headed back into the road then, growing fainter and fainter until we couldn't hear or even see the peek of headlights anymore beyond the treeline.
"Yeah!" Dalton cheered, slapping Nick on the back. "That was great! That was great, dude!"
"My man Nick here's hardcore."
"What the hell was that about, huh?" Carly hissed at her brother when he walked by, ignoring the fact that he practically assaulted a stranger. And maybe a dangerous one at that.
"You the man, dude! That was awesome!"
"Don't encourage him!" She snapped at Dalton as everybody went back to their positions... all except Wade who stood there still watching the road like the truck was gonna come speeding back to run our campsite over. "Come on, he's gone."
"But what if he comes back?" I whispered, clutching my polaroid camera to my chest for comfort like it would ward off any other potential dangers but no one heard me. They went back to the fire, the crackling of wood and alcohol buzzing through our veins providing a good enough distraction until we were too sleepy eyed to stay up anymore.
And contrary to what I initially thought, I was nervous about going to bed alone.
I didn't always enjoy photography, not until after Mom moved out of the house and none of my hobbies held the same effect over me like squinting through the lens of a camera did. That was really when I began to appreciate every little detail you could discover in single spool when they're developing in a darkroom, all the stories captured in a single still frame... beauty enhanced at it's upmost, at a time where no one really noticed it. Things that I lost sight of in my own life and now looked elsewhere for.
That was partly why I never went anywhere without my cameras and even then as I locked myself up in my tent, having them enclosed in my bag eased some of the edge from my chest so I could sleep.
It took me hours.
My tent was narrow enough to fit a simple sleeping bag, some extra clothes and my various knapsacks that I stored my belongings and other supplies in, but what was supposed to be a cozy and restful night of much needed rest for the final push to Baton Rouge tomorrow at dawn turned into an endless bout of tossing and turning. I kept my cameras close to my makeshift bed near the pillow, as the sight of them brought me comfort and gave me a sense that I was back at home but between the dead silence and my own heart beating energetically in my chest, I didn't feel relaxed at all.
I just stared at the mesh wall of the tent, the endless lull of crickets chirping outside making my eyelids grow smaller and smaller until the jolt of an obscure object hitting the zipper made me sit up, and all of a sudden the sun had rose again. I guessed I'd fallen asleep after all.
"Let's go, guys, get up! Get up!" Blake's panicked voice yelled at us from his tent door. "Wade, Dalton, let's go! We're gonna miss the damn game! Nick, get up!"
Another thunk hit the tent behind me then and I yawned into my hands, bleary eyed from the meager hours of sleep I probably caught before Blake's aggressive wakeup call. When I checked the time stamped on my phone screen though, we'd all slept most of the morning and some of the afternoon away and when I hurried to put on a fresh change of clothes, I heard the others scrambling out of their tents too.
I made sure I had everything I brought along packed and sealed in tight before carrying them out to the car, keeping my camera bag on me the whole time. I didn't want to take any chances.
"Dude, you see my camera anywhere?" Dalton asked, pawing through his own stuff by the truck.
Blake shrugged. "No, man."
"You guys seen my camera?"
"Like l give a shit about it," Nick replied roughly on his way past, making Dalton frown.
"You lost it?" I asked him, half surprised that he actually managed to hang onto it for that long. He was the most reckless one out of all of us aside from Nick.
"No... I mean, I don't know. I had it in my backpack, but it's not there-"
"Did you check around the camp? Maybe you left it by the fire."
Dalton scratched at his mop of brown waves like he'd already done it that morning but wandered off toward the now barren camp grounds for his prized camcorder. Our belongings were strapped in and ready for the long haul so all we had to do now was wait for Carly and Paige - they were really taking their time out there in the woods but that was probably the best thing since we wouldn't have time for any pit stops until we reached Baton Rouge. And maybe not even that... Blake would definitely want to go straight to the stadium.
I sat on the bed of Blake's truck and finished my half eaten bag of potato chips, hearing Nick pop the cap off a beer bottle and watch disdainfully as Wade warmed up his car for the hours long road trip.
The engine cranked to life, knocking around under the hood before suddenly dying out with muted clunk and a thin wisp of smoke. "What the hell was that?" Wade grumbled from the driver's seat and strode over to check the motor. Nick didn't try at all to hide the impish smirk on his face when Wade help up a torn strip of rubber, frayed and split beyond repair. "No way, are you serious? lt was brand-new."
Nick chuckled behind the rim of his beer and I didn't miss the way Wade threw him a very pointed glare.
"Someone's fucking with me," Wade cursed, anger marring his features as he ducked back inside his car.
I never really understood Nick's distaste for his sister's boyfriend. Wade had always been sweet to Carly, never yelled at her or talked to other girls behind her back - sure, they argued sometimes but every kind of relationship had their quarrels, but the difference was it didn't come from a place where Wade was being a cheating jerk. And given the way Nick acted, it didn't seem like his behavior rooted from a protective instinct. More like someone who just hated everything.
My stomach couldn't help but do a nervous roll at the idea of potentially being one vehicle down now, especially given that Blake's car could only fit five people and there was about half a day's journey left to Baton Rouge. Unless Wade could fix it... or we stopped over at the next town over. But how far would that be?
A sharp, ear splitting scream burst from the woods then, making all our heads snap in that direction.
"We're down here! Guys, help us!"
A tense but brief hush fell over us and my heart pounded at the two horrifically familiar voices calling out for help.
"Carly," Wade breathed, his jaw dropping open. "Shit, it's Carly!" He broke off for the woods first, Nick racing after hot on his heels while the rest of us pushed through the thickets of bush, leaves, and spindly tree branches, some bent and torn completely off from Wade and Nick barreling past them.
My camera bag bounced heavily against my hip the whole way through, slowing me down, and it was my legs eventually giving out from exhaustion that prevented me from falling into the abrupt but deep ditch piled with rotting animal carcasses. Some dried... others still ripe with blood.
Carly had been up to her elbows in it all but Wade managed to pull her up on her feet again, and as I climbed down the embankment, I realized that was what we'd been smelling last night.
"There's a roadkill pit down here," Dalton groaned, horrified at the sight.
"Yeah, that smells about right," Nick said.
Everyone caught their breaths while Wade tended to a shaken and bloodied Carly but even their attention was pinned on the mound of deer, rabbits, and other wildlife staring deadeyed back at us. Flies pecked at the tears in their fur, at the gaping wounds that didn't appear like getting hit by a car would give them. Some looked like it'd been inflicted by hand...
My stomach bubbled now but not by the overwhelming smell.
"Hey, is that the truck from last night?" Blake said right when a small red and grey pickup truck chugged around the bend, parking backwards so the back of the car faced the animal pit.
"Not unless he fixed his headlight," Wade replied, watching the truck closely.
The driver stepped out then, small in stature and wearing dirt smeared clothes that seemed one size two big for him. He strode to the bed of the truck and flipped it open, revealing more shrunken and half rotted animal carcasses, flies buzzing all around him.
"Hey!" The strange trucker looked up at the sound of Wade's voice.
Carly gestured to a single hand sticking out of the mangle of blood soaked animal fur and entrails, dirty and pale but clearly belonging to a person. "Don't you see that? What is that?"
The trucker peered at the hand for a moment, brows furrowed before hurling the last body out into the pit and hopping off the truck. My breath hitched in my throat as the man slowly sloshed through the roadkill grave, boots squishing and crunching over bones and skin.
"No way," Wade murmured in disbelief when the trucker grabbed onto the hand. "What are you doing, man?"
I shrunk back behind the others, my heart heavy and nearly collapsing into my gut as he pulled and twisted hard on the hand. Was somebody really under there? Was he really going to pull a dead person out of the-
The strange man reeled back then, the hand snapping clean off a plastic stump and he held it up for us to see. "Anyone need a hand?" He smiled crookedly. "l'm just foolin'. lt's not real, see?" He rapped his knuckles against the fake hand. "l found it on the side of the road a few weeks ago. What are you guys doing around here?"
"We were camping up through those trees."
Carly hiked up farther up the embankment while Wade spoke to the trucker and the smell wafting off of her was just as strong as the pit itself. "Do you want my jacket?" I told her, moving the strap off my camera bag from my chest as she scrubbed at the blood and grime caked on her hands.
"No, I'm okay." Carly took a deep breath. "I'll be better when we get out of here."
Paige rummaged through her purse. "I have water in here somewhere."
"Hey." Dalton crept us on us then. "You guys seen my camera by any chance?"
"Are you kidding?" Paige hissed at him.
"No," Carly also shut him down and he turned away crestfallen.
He probably left it at camp, I thought to myself. Or just stashed it in one of his bags and just forgot which one it was.
"Hey, you don't know if there's a gas station around here, do you?" I heard Wade ask the strange man.
"Well, I got some gas in the truck if-"
"I need a fan belt."
That caught Carly's attention. "What?"
"Just busted."
"Of course," she scoffed. "Perfect."
"Bo might have one," the trucker man piped in then. "Runs a station in Ambrose."
"Where's that?"
"Fifteen miles up the road."
"Let's just get one in Baton Rouge. We'll put on when we get back," Blake interjected.
"But then we'd have to come all the way back here," I pointed out, thinking of all the drive time that would add up to and time wasn't something we had an abundance of anyways.
Wade nodded along at that. "Man, there's no way I'm leaving my car. What if that guy from last night comes and strips it or something?"
"Well, whatever, man. You're gonna miss the game then."
"Yeah, well, that's not why I came."
Both guys seemed to take a second to consider their options, the few there were. "All right, look, I'll run you up the station," Blake planned out. "Let's go now, kick off's in a couple hours."
"Dude, you're already late. You still gotta find a scalper and snag tickets. Y'all should just go now, I'll stay with my car. It's fine, just go and get me a fan belt on the way back. Make sure it's a fifteen inch."
"Gotcha."
I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that Wade was going to be left by himself out in a deserted field for over eight hours, maybe more. By the time we'd hit the highway, traffic would be thick and who knows how late it'd be when the game would end... maybe not until late at night. Wade was a big guy... but even he'd be at risk here alone. Especially with people roaming around like that suspicious truck the other night.
"I'll give you a ride," the trucker offered then. I almost forgot he'd been standing there.
"You serious?"
"If you like."
Wade contemplated it for a moment before nodding. "Well, yeah. Yeah."
"That's cool?" Blake asked.
"Yeah, if it's cool-"
"l'm going with you," Carly cut in.
"Carly, no-" Paige protested and I couldn't blame her considering what just happened to her... I just hoped there weren't other rural animal gravesites hiding in other corners of the woods.
"Yes, it'll be fine," Carly insisted.
Blake was quick to accept the idea then, shrugging like it meant no difference to him and it probably didn't. The only thing that was on his mind was getting to that game. "Alright, lets go! Come on, Paige." He ushered her up the slope first but I was hesitant on following. Splitting up didn't feel like the best option but at least Wade wouldn't be left alone now. "Hey, I'll get you guys tickets and leave it at will call."
"Alright, all good, man," Wade told him, lingering behind as Carly turned around and changed out of her soiled long sleeve into Nick's oversized tank top.
The strange man was leering now, craning his head to the side trying to see around Wade who stood protectively in front of Carly and he only grinned when the rest of us closed in around her. His chuckle made my skin crawl. It was so different from the filthy yet oddly kind blue collar man that was going to lend us a hand in getting to Baton Rouge on time, like someone else entirely was wearing his skin. Even if he didn't scrape animal remains off the side of the road for a living, there was something a little bit off about him... and him ogling Carly really didn't help that image.
Once Carly was in a clean shirt, she tip toed down with Wade to the trucker's car and it almost felt like we were abandoning each other. We were supposed to see this trip to the end together and even though that was still the plan, it was never easy seeing someone you cared about basically drive off into the unknown.
"Man, you're just gonna let them leave like that with a guy who throws roadkill in a pit for a living?" Dalton voiced his concerns.
"You clean shit for a living, Mr. Septic Tank Man. What's the difference?" Nick shot back.
"Well, I don't walk through it. That's one. That's a difference, right?"
I turned to head back up to the woods when the man's truck disappeared completely around the corner. Not much to do now except wait. "Come on, lets go find your camera before Blake ditches us."
"You know I'm starting to think one of you guys stole it," Dalton huffed, scrambling to catch up behind Nick.
"No one gives a shit about your camera," Nick barked.
"I gave it to you, Dalton, why would I take it back now?" I added, glancing over my shoulder at him in confusion once we climbed all the way up. "I bet you'll find it after the game."
Dalton mumbled something unintelligible under his breath then, like he was certain one of us was hiding it in our backpacks or thought it was lost forever, but if I knew one thing about misplaced items was that it was always in the closest places where you'd never think to look twice.
Things never stayed hidden forever.
A/N: Thank you for reading!
Title reference: From the 1928–1929 painting The Treachery of Images by René Magritte, which has the caption "Ceci n'est pas une pipe", French for "This is not a pipe."