Can't Get You Out of My Head (please get out of my head I'm begging) (bxb)

24 | vampy's evil-o-meter is rising oops

My feet feel like blocks of cement as I drag myself home. The street is quiet and empty. Standing outside Sebastian's house, I still can't hear Ethan. His thoughts are usually loud enough to spill onto the street. Where is he? I can't hear him and it scares me.

I try not to panic as I enter the record store, but I can't keep my thoughts under control. My mind plays an endless loop of what happened. Everything I said that I didn't mean. And then Ethan, getting on his bike and leaving.

Isabella is there with Sebastian and they both look up when they see me, worry etched on their faces. I don't have to say anything. In an instant, they know all that happened.

"Oh, Lukas." Oma's brows draw together. Her thoughts are gentle, and they calm me down. "It's not your fault."

"But he's," I push my palms against my face, "stuck here, and...I should've tried to help him leave earlier. I just wanted to hang out with him for longer, and it was selfish of me, and...I don't know."

"Lukas, he wants to stay here. You're not keeping him." It's going to be okay. Things have a way of working out in the end.

Her eyes shift to Sebastian and soften. There's a loving air between them, and I can tell she's finally let her guard down about how she feels.

"She's right." Sebastian smiles. "It's going to be fine once you explain everything. I'm sure Ethan will understand, he's a sweet boy." I never had kids, but he's like a grandson to me.

"I need to, um, talk to him," I choke out. Where is he?

Sebastian's brow furrows. "He hasn't come this way. I'm sure we would've heard him."

Panic palpitates my heartbeat. I didn't see which direction Ethan went in. I assumed he would go back to Sebastian's and make plans to leave town later.

"Don't...don't worry, Lukas," Oma says, her voice still calm. But she's worrying too.

"I'm sure he'll turn up here soon," Sebastian says. But he isn't sure. The things that they both aren't saying are far worse than their calming words.

"He must've—" I can't say it aloud. He must've gone to the forest to find his way out of Brambleburg. He must be lost somewhere in the dead of night.

It was late when Ethan and I left the lakeside. I run out of the store, grabbing my bike. As I pass the town square, the clock tower strikes three. The bells ring in my ears and reverberate ominously through my head. Before I know it, I've ridden to the edge of town. The woods are dense and dark, the light of the full moon barely making it through the thick branches.

A heavy drop of water rolls off a leaf and lands on my shoulder. Soon it's pouring. The trail gets muddy and my bike slips off the path. I jump off before I can fall with it. The wheels whir in place, kicking up wet sand.

Discarding it where it falls, I stagger back on the path. Rainwater gathers on leaves and unloads on me all at once. It doesn't take long for my clothes to soak through.

I stumble through the woods for what feels like hours. Through some hazy part of my mind, I think that it hasn't rained once since Ethan came to town.

The downpour beats against my skin like a million freezing needles. Ethan must be freezing if he's out here. The worst possible scenarios and what-if's run in a doomsday loop round and round my mind.

His bike could have slipped in the rain like mine did. He could've gone off trail and ended up in the middle of nowhere. There are foxes and wild boar dwelling in the Black Forest.

I bury my face in the crook of my elbow, trying to keep the thoughts at bay. Maybe Ethan did manage to leave Brambleburg after all. Maybe he's already reached the city. Maybe he's planning the rest of his travels now.

The forest is shrouded in blackness and I don't know where I'm going. Every tree I pass looks exactly the same. But I've been walking so long, I think I must have passed the town border by now. I have to have.

Then I see it. My bicycle, laying under the tree half covered with mud. I haven't left town. I can't ever leave town.

I've been walking around in circles.