Mason gestured for the phone, and I handed it to him. He had memorized the photo, it had been seared into his mind, and I knew no matter how hard he tried, like me, he’d never be able to unsee the image that had been sliced into Sophie’s skin. After a long moment, Mason sighed and handed the phone back to me.
“I don’t think it’s anything, Casey,” he replied, letting the doleful tone in his voice show his true emotions. He wanted there to be a reason for Sophie’s death as much as I did, but it was getting hard to think there was with the lack of evidence and the police stopping their investigation. “Nick has that same tattoo on his upper arm.” He pointed to a tall guy with brown hair who I knew, but not personally. I saw the tattoo flash from under his t-shirt when he moved to stop a pass. “I think it’s just a coincidence, like our parents’ relationship. The tattoo doesn’t mean anything except to the person who did it.”
“Oh yeah? Well, you should see her face. She looks like Sophie.”
Mason looked skeptical, but he still asked, “How so?”
“She has blonde hair, and colored eyes. Maybe he targeted her because of the similarities between her and his wife?”
Mason frowned. “A lot of people have blonde hair and everyone has colored eyes. What color are they?”
“Blue,” I answered, realizing that I was probably searching for connections between them.
He shook his head and sighed. Then he held up a lock of my hair for a second before letting it fall. “In that case, why didn’t he go after you instead of Sophie? You are more similar to his wife than she was, from what you’re telling me.”
I shrugged, not knowing how to answer his question.
Mason stared me directly in the eyes as he said, “Let’s face it, Mr. Miller has no reason to kill Sophie. You’re just fishing.”
“You don’t always have to have a motive,” I retorted. I was confused by his sudden dispute of not only one of our suspects, but he seemed to be disbanding the entire investigation. Something told me that Mason had something else on his mind, and that he had given up. I just hoped I was wrong because I was still getting notes and messages about staying back, but maybe if he no longer thought about them then maybe he thought it was someone playing a cruel joke as well.
“You’re right, you don’t always need one to commit an act, but you need one to show probable cause and have them be a suspect. An arrow could mean a million other things than Mr. Miller being a killer. It just has to mean something to whoever did it, or it could be a set-up, for all we know.”
I was about to speak when one of Mason’s friends called to him, “You coming back?”
Mason nodded and then turned back to me. “Let me finish here, and I’ll see you tonight. I promise.” He offered a sweet smile before quickly leaning in and kissing my cheek. His friends gave him a smile, and I laughed it off, my cheeks burning from his action and not from being in public. Just a part of our charade, and it seemed to be never ending, just like the darkness that seemed to follow me around since the day Sophie was found dead. It was only a matter of time before it got worse; it always got worse before it got better.
Chapter 25
Search Dogs
The night passed slowly. I’d been waiting for Mason to show up only to realize that he didn’t mean he’d come over at a normal hour, instead he’d meet up with me for one of our midnight walks. So I excused myself from the family early, mostly due to the awkwardness between everyone since the fight between my parents, and decided to read on my phone while I waited for Mason. Anything was better than dealing with the silence downstairs. I had never heard silence so loud, and I didn’t want to ever again.
My dad had stayed out of town the last few nights as to not cause more rumors. They had come up with a lie that he had taken off for a work trip, and that he was gone indefinitely. My mom told everyone some lie that he may be moving to start a new office, no one was sure yet, but that was because my father had yet to make a decision on what to do after he heard the news. It had been three days, but I knew it would take him a while to figure out what to do. According to Mason, his dad hadn’t spoken to his mom yet. Maybe he didn’t feel the need to because technically he hadn’t lied.
Mason’s mom knew that Sophie wasn’t hers, she just didn’t know her husband had cheated on her. If my mom had the courage to tell my dad the truth when she knew how he would react, I saw Mason’s father taking the cowardly way out. His secret would come out eventually, and then he’d have to own up to it.
I laid in bed flipping through the virtual pages of a book I had downloaded over a year ago. I had a reading list a mile long, and most of the time they just sat on my phone never opened. Thanks to all the recent events I had been diving into books more and more as an escape from the aftermath of Sophie’s death, though it was becoming harder and harder to distance myself from it. Mason had been right, this would eat away at us and soon we’d end up as dead on the inside as Sophie was when she first arrived here.
I just hope we finished this before it took over our lives and prevented us from moving forward.
My phone buzzed in my hands, and a text from Mason lit up my screen. I typed a quick reply as I peeled back my covers, already dressed for our late night walk. I had been covered so when my mom came to check on me I would look as if I was asleep, but I didn’t want to waste time getting ready this time. I grabbed my coat and raced down the path I had taken before, making sure not to wake up my mother. The last few nights she hadn’t been sleeping well, so every sound woke her up. If I wasn’t careful this night would have an unfortunate outcome.
I was praying Mason had reconsidered, or at least thought of a different lead to take with Sophie’s case. Otherwise I pushed my mom to ruin her marriage for nothing. Guilt washed over me once again, but I shook it off as I stepped into the cold autumn air. This time, Mason wasn’t easy to find. He usually stood under the streetlight, but when I shut the door he was nowhere in sight. I started to panic slightly as I stepped off my front porch and slowly walked down the stairs. He told me he was here, yet he was nowhere in sight. What could have happened to him?
“Casey,” a voice stated from behind me. I turned to see Mason, smiling like a mischievous kid. “Did I scare you?”
I playfully hit him on the chest before saying, “That wasn’t funny, Mason.”
Mason let out a laugh before taking my hand. “Come on, Casey. It was just a joke. Have you lost your sense of humor?”
“No, I just don’t like having you scare me.” I was trying to keep my anger hot so I could tell him off, but Mason’s smile just had a natural way of relaxing me. My anger melted away as he took my hand, apologizing and leading us toward the open front gate to begin our walk.
We walked in silence for a while until we got to the bridge we had sat on last time, and something about the location told me how serious this conversation was going to be. I shuffled my feet as I waited for him to start speaking. I could see the inner debate he was having, it was written all over his face that he didn’t want to say anything. Suddenly my heart fell to my stomach. I had a bad feeling he was going to tell me he couldn’t be around me anymore. Even though he said Sophie and I didn’t look alike, it must be hard digging around in her past and sharing it with someone who was basically a stranger.
We sat in silence, just listening to the sounds of nature around us and both deep in thought for a while, before I decided to break the silence. “What are you thinking about, Mason?” I asked, prompting the conversation. I hoped my nerves were wrong.
“We aren’t any closer to finding out what happened to Sophie that night, are we?” It was a rhetorical question, so I decided not to answer and waited for him to continue. “Maybe we misinterpreted something. Maybe there was more to the journal.” Mason sighed and held his head in his hands for a moment. I placed a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him, and this time he leaned closer. “Maybe we did, but there’s also a chance that there’s nothing else to see. That this is i
t, and there’s nothing more.” Mason hesitated again before looking to me for comfort. “But I don’t want to think about it anymore.”
“What are you talking about, Mason?” I asked, completely lost about where this was coming from and what he was talking about. It was clear that it wasn’t just about Sophie.
“If this has taught me anything it’s that you have to make the time you have worth living.” He turned slightly, looking me directly in the eyes. “Instead of being afraid, we have to take a chance.”
I furrowed my eyebrows deeper, not understanding what he was saying at all.
Next to me, Mason took a deep breath and then did something that made my head swim. He leaned in to me, getting closer than we usually were even with others around for our charade, and turned my stomach into knots with anticipation. I could feel the unsteadiness of his breath on my face, I thought we were going to kiss, but instead he slipped his hand into mine and pulled me up to a standing position. I didn’t understand what had just happened, but I didn’t care. I knew he was doing it because he wanted to and not to maintain our couple charade. Otherwise there would have been other people around to see this.
“Let’s head home,” he said, still holding my hand in his as we began walking back in the direction of our neighborhoods.
We walked in a comfortable silence. I was thinking about his words from the bridge about how we should make the time we have worth living, and not be afraid to take a chance. Maybe he had been referring to me; to us. He wanted us to take a chance on each other and stop mulling over Sophie’s death. We couldn’t stay stuck in the past, we needed to stay in the present and possibly even think about our future. We could seize our chance together to be more than friends.
As we neared Mason’s street, I came to a slow stop, pulling him to a stop as well.
“Why are we stopping?” he asked.
I squeezed his hand tightly in mine, feeling a surge of confidence. He was right. We had found nothing to prove that Sophie was murdered, and I hadn’t had anything weird happen to me in a while. Maybe we had been fishing for connections when certain things were just coincidences. I didn’t want him to have to walk past his street to take me home when he could just go straight there now.
“I think I’ll be okay to walk home alone tonight. I’m not far.”
Mason frowned, then shook his head no. “I don’t mind walking with you. I want to walk with you.” Then, as if his body wanted to offer evidence that he was just being nice, a yawn tore from his throat. Afterwards he smiled sheepishly at me.
“See, you’re tired,” I pointed out. “Seriously, it’s fine if we split up here.”
Mason looked hesitant. “Do you promise to text me when you get home?”
I nodded my head. “Of course.”
“Good,” he said with a sigh. “All right, I guess that’s fine. Don’t forget to text me, or I’ll have to walk back to your house to check on you.”
“I won’t forget, I promise,” I said, raising one hand in scout’s honor.
“Okay, then,” he replied, loosening his grip on my hand but not letting go. He searched my face with his gaze, making my heart beat faster.
“Okay, then,” I repeated. “Good night,” I said, turning away and letting go of his hand.
In an instant, Mason grabbed my wrist and pulled me back around to face him. The unexpected force from his pull sent my body toward him until our chests were together. My heart was in my throat as he looked down into my eyes, our noses nearly touching. My hands gripped his shoulders tightly as he stared at me, then he lowered his head another inch and pressed his lips to mine.
The kiss started out gentle, our lips molding together in perfect sync. His lips were soft and warm against mine as he kissed me so gently that it seemed like he was afraid to push me any further. Pleasant shivers went down my spine. I pressed myself to him tightly, going up on my toes to press our lips together further. I had been waiting for him to kiss me for a while, and finally it was happening and it was better than I had ever imagined.
I reached one hand up into his soft hair and pulled him impossibly closer. He let out a light breath of laughter, realizing what I was doing. In seconds his arms were around my waist, holding my body to his as he deepened the kiss. His tongue slipped into my mouth, kissing me with everything he had in him. The kiss went from gentle, to hungry and passionate as I gripped his hair in my hand. His hands traveled down to rest on my lower back. To my disappointment, instead of continuing to kiss me for the rest of the night, he broke the kiss.
Mason stayed close, keeping his nose against mine as he said, “Now, have a good night.”
I smiled up at him, not wanting to let him go. “I will. You too.”
He smirked and let me go. “How can I not after that?”
My cheeks flared and I laughed lightly, glancing away to hide the blush.
Then, in a sudden change of topic, he said, “Don’t forget to text me when you get home.”
I nodded as I pulled out the walkie-talkie I kept in my coat pocket. “I’ll even radio in my location if you’d like,” I teased, unable to keep the smile from my lips as I turned away to head home. When I glanced back at where Mason had been standing, he was still there watching me. Turning back, I continued walking home. Once I made it to the end of the street, I glanced back again to see Mason wave at me, and then disappear down his street.
The rest of the way home I couldn’t take my mind off of Mason and what had just happened. My lips still tingled from where his lips had touched them. Yet my thoughts strayed to the questions that couldn’t be ignored. Like how would a relationship between us even play out? We were so accustomed to talking about Sophie, and our relationship had been based around that. How would we move on from that piece of our lives and have a normal relationship? What else did we have in common? I bit my lip, forcing those thoughts away from me. If we wanted to be together then we would find a way to make it work.
I slipped my hands into my jacket pocket, feeling around the items that were in each of them until my fingers curled around my cell phone. I was only a few houses away from home now, so in preparation for my text to Mason, I unlocked the phone and brought up my messages. Mason was the last person I had texted, so I found our message strand easily and began typing in my message.
Me: I made it home safely! See? Nothing to worry about. No need to send out the search dogs.
I smiled to myself as I stared down at the screen. I was actually excited and anticipating his response even before I hit send. What was this guy doing to me?
I didn’t have time to ponder that question because suddenly I was grabbed from behind. My phone slipped from my hands, hitting the ground with a thud. The thick hands held a cloth to my nose and with every breath I became dizzier. My breathing slowed as an arm snaked around my waist and lifted me into the air. I tried hard to kick my feet, but my legs just flailed as I was carried backwards. I tried to scream, but my yells were muffled under the rag. As my vision fuzzed around the edges, I zoned in on my house that was only two yards away, and then everything went black.
Chapter 26
Knife Point
When I woke up my head was spinning. My vision was black as I felt the area around me. My hands roamed around the tight space I was in, and as I moved around the sound of an engine blared as I was jerked forward. I realized then I was in the trunk of a car. As the car moved I tried hard not to panic and instead tried to find something to get me out of here. I felt around the top of the hood to the trunk, searching for one of the levers that would open it from inside. My hands shook as they roamed over the cold metal.
The road suddenly went from smooth to bumpy. I could hear gravel beneath the wheels, which meant that we had to be out of town now. My heart thumped loudly in my chest, and my breathing quickened as the car came to a sudden stop. Trembling, I pressed my back up against the far back of the trunk, trying to move as far away from the opening as possible. I listened hard to hear what was going o
n outside, and nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard the car door open. The car rocked as the driver got out, and then again when the door was slammed shut.
I heard footsteps in the gravel progressively grow louder as my kidnapper got closer. I was so terrified that my palms were sweating. My eyes were wide, and tears prickled them, but I willed myself to be strong. It was hard to do when imagined images of Sophie’s lifeless body lying in the woods came to mind. It was a very realistic thought that I could be next. There would probably be a search for me as soon as my mom woke up and saw that I wasn’t in bed. That’s if she even checked on me considering that it was a Saturday and the only day I got to sleep in late.
The footsteps came to a stop outside and I cringed as the trunk popped open. If I thought my heart was beating out of control before, now it had completely stopped as I stared up into the eyes of my kidnapper. Mr. Miller stared down at me, a heavy glare on his face.
“Get out,” he growled, reaching down and wrapping his cold fingers around my upper arm in a vise-like grip. He didn’t even give me time to react to his order, not that I would have anyway, before he yanked my body up and out of the trunk. I stumbled as I landed on my feet and then was pulled, and practically dragged, toward a small cabin. I looked around us in all directions, trying to get a good sense of where we were. All around us were trees, and in the early morning light it was hard to see past them.
“What are you going to do to me, Mr. Miller?” I questioned, my voice shaking.
Mr. Miller shook his head and dragged me as I stumbled over my feet. When we reached the door he pushed it open and shoved me inside. My legs wobbled and I hit the wooden floor hard, slamming my hands down to catch myself before I hit my head.
“You know what,” he answered, pulling the cabin door shut behind him.
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