Page 72 of Our Darkest Summer
“Yeah.”
He waited for me, and we made our way up to the second floor.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be right by your side.” He mimicked Braxton, elbowing me on the side.
Thomas was waiting for us at the top of the staircase. Braxton was right; the dark shield did hide his face… and so did the shadows. He looked intimidating in a way that made my chest tighten. The three of us caught up to the others, and Samantha led us into another dark hallway before she suddenly stopped.
“This is it.” She motioned at a plain wooden door, and we all stepped aside, giving Aaliyah space. She struggled with the set of keys Cora gave her, trying them one by one, but none of them worked.
“Great,” Connor sighed, “now what?”
Samantha stepped forward, pulling a pin from her hair. “Let me try something.” A few seconds later, the door released with a click.
“What the hell?” Kevin whispered, the same time Braxton’s mouth formed an impressed O.
Samantha shrugged. “My brother used to lock me out all the time.” She stepped into the room, putting the pin back into her auburn hair.
Aaliyah and Braxton followed her first, then Connor and Kevin, leaving me and Thomas as the last ones to cross the threshold. Inside, Thomas scanned the shelves, his presence impossible to ignore even in the dim light.
“Stop staring,” he said, his face hidden by the shield of his cap. “I lack self-control lately.”
My stomach tightened. I turned away looking around the small room we ended up in. There were multiple cassettes on the shelves, along with big boxes, all labeled with the same word—tapes. Each and every one of them had a date written on them.
“Does anyone know how these things work?” Kevin asked, lifting a cassette out of a box.
“We need a VCR player.” Braxton looked around the room.
“A what?” Kevin frowned.
“A videocassette recorder,” Aaliyah explained.
“Right,” he said, but it was written on his face that he had no idea what they were talking about.
“Here.” Thomas pulled off a big dusty box from an upper shelf, with a picture of a VCR on it.
“Does it work?” Braxton asked, and Thomas flashed him a bored look.
Putting the box down next to an old computer, he replied, “I have the exact amount of information about it as you do.”
Braxton closed his mouth. “Right.” He flicked the shield of his cap, then opened the lid of the box, pulling the VCR out. “Now letBigBwork his magic,” he muttered to himself, and I snorted, earning a wink from him.
Thomas shook his head.
Braxton pulled out a bunch of old cables from the box and started to plug them into both the computer and the VCR.
“Has anyone found the tape yet?” Aaliyah asked, and Kevin raised his tattooed arm.
“Here,” he handed it to Thomas.
“Got it.” Braxton straightened after a few more seconds. “These hands,” he stepped between me and Samantha, flashing a proud grin and dropping his arms around our necks, “are?—”
Thomas cut him off with a glare. “Will be broken if you leave them where they are now.”
Braxton whistled, taking a step back, and Thomas placed the tape into its rightful place. We all leaned in, watching the grainy black-and-white footage flicker onto the screen.The library’s hall.Thomas clicked something, and the film sped up.
“There.” Connor pointed, and Thomas slowed the video.
Lizzie.
