Alissa730: Thanks. She’s driving me crazy.
SarahF123: lol I hear you. That was freshman year, now I’m a senior and she’s psyched about my girl and me going to homecoming.
Alissa730: Wow, you told back then? I’m a senior now and I just told.
SarahF123: Some people are better at holding it in. I can’t keep my mouth shut.
I smiled, surprised how good it felt to talk to someone I didn’t even know about this stuff. It was nice to hear that other people had the same issues. I’d always scoffed at the idea of this sort of support group, but maybe there was something to it. Another conversation appeared and I clicked on it.
WiseOne6783: Sorry to hear you’re having problems. I remember being your age, it isn’t easy.
Alissa730: Thanks, I just wish my parents were on board. My dad’s okay, but my mom would do anything to change me.
I leaned back in my chair. I put my hand to my mouth, playing nervously with my bottom lip. Would this guy take the bait? Should I have played more helpless? It was easier to stick to the story that was pretty much true. When his answer popped up, it turned my blood cold. I leaned forward, fingers shaking as I responded.
WiseOne678: Why don’t we cut the crap, Alissa.
Alissa730: Do I know you?
WiseOne678: Maybe. Maybe not. I know everything about you though. I know that you are a bad person who doesn’t care about other people. You let them fall in love with you and then throw them away. I’m saving them from you.
Alissa730: You call what you did to Lana saving her?
WiseOne678: She’s no longer in pain.
Alissa730: I’m going to tell the police all of this.
WiseOne678: They won’t believe you. And if you go to them, I promise you will never see Hannah again.
Seeing Hannah’s name on the screen brought all of my fears to true clear focus. He had her and he was going to put her through everything he’d put Lana through. All to save them from me? I hadn’t even done anything to Hannah. I wanted to reach for the phone to call Jake right away, but I couldn’t risk it.
WiseOne678: Don’t believe me?
Alissa730: I didn’t do anything to Hannah. I never threw her away. I love her.
WiseOne678: It’s only a matter of time. You’ve never let anyone really love you.
Alissa730: Why are you doing this? Why do you care what I do?
WiseOne678: All bad people need to be taught lessons. I’m in charge of your lesson.
Alissa730: You don’t have anything to do with me! Let Hannah go.
WiseOne678: Would you like to see her? www.WhereIsHannah.com
A dropping sensation filled my chest as I stared at the website address. I really didn’t want to click on it, but I had to. I squeezed one hand in a fist under the desk, while my other hand shook its way toward the mouse and clicked on the link. At first the page was black. Then a video appeared. It was a well lit room with the jerky stop and go video of a bad webcam or connection. I had to believe what I was seeing was real and live. Hannah paced the small room. A chain, attached to a loop at the center of the room, followed her. I could hear the sound of it scraping and clanking across the floor.
Hannah wore a dirty gray sweatshirt too large for her and sweatpants. Vaguely, I thought about the clothes at the gully. They had been hers. I squinted at the screen. She didn’t look injured, so maybe the blood hadn’t been hers. As I watched, she ran her hands through her shoulder length hair, pulling the lank strands back in a ponytail. Her skin was sallow in the light of the single bulb above her. When she circled closer to the camera, a large bruise was visible at her temple, a cut at the center still crusted with dried blood.
She went to the wall and began pounding on it. “Let me out!” she screamed. Fear was etched into every syllable of the words. “What do you want with me?”
The video paused and I switched back to the other screen.
Alissa730: You’ll never get away with this.
WiseOne678: I already have once. But Hannah isn’t dead yet. Lana’s parents didn’t care enough to save her. This time, you’re the one who can save the girl.
Alissa730: What do I have to do to save her?
WiseOne678: Play along. Prove your love by doing exactly what I say. Go back to the video.
I did as he said. The video started up again, but Hannah was silent as she moved around the room. She froze, eyes toward the camera. A door creaked open and a black-clad, hooded figure stepped into view. Hannah backed away to the wall, shaking her head.
“Please, don’t hurt me.” She cowered against the wall. The figure stepped close to her and raised a gun, pressing the barrel to the side of her head. Hannah cried, pushing the gun away. I gripped the screen of my laptop, pulling it closer.
“No, no, no,” I muttered, shaking my head. I clicked over to the other screen.
Alissa730: Don’t hurt her. I won’t go to the cops and I’ll do everything you say. Tell me how to get her back.
Gunfire rang out. Tears stung my eyes as I clicked back, expecting to see Hannah bloodied and dead. Instead, she squatted at the base of the wall, sobbing. A count down from ten started beside the video. I clicked back to the other site.
WiseOne678: Go to the cops, and the next bullet won’t be a blank.
Alissa730: I won’t go to the cops!
My screen flickered, the speakers buzzed. I pulled my hands from the keyboard as if I’d been shocked. The screen flickered again and then went blue and shut off. A moment later, my computer started up, but halfway through the screen went blue again and everything shut off. It happened twice more before shutting off and not turning on again.
I watched the whole process, numb. Any doubt that Hannah’s disappearance was related to Lana’s was gone. He had her and it was all because of me. I couldn’t go to the police and risk him killing Hannah, but the idea of playing along with his game terrified me.
Hannah had been so scared.
Still biting back tears, I gathered up my pajamas and left the room. I crossed the hallway to the bathroom and stepped inside. I turned the shower on as hot as I could stand before stripping down and climbing in. I sat in the spray, hugging my knees. At first, the tears didn’t come, but slowly they started and soon I was shaking with sobs, crying as hard as Hannah had in the video.
Chapter Thirty
I tossed and turned all night. When morning came, I must have looked pretty bad because Mom didn’t argue when I told her I didn’t feel good. At first I was relieved when she left, but then I realized how alone I was in the house. I hurried around the downstairs, making sure every door and window was locked. Just to be safe, I made sure the upstairs windows were locked as well.
I still didn’t feel safe.
I climbed back into bed and pulled my covers tight around me, feeling like a little kid. Maybe if I tucked myself in tight like Mom used to, it would keep the monsters away. When my phone rang, I jumped. My heart just about jittered out of me. I pulled it from my bedside table. Nick’s name flashed on the screen.
“Hey,” I said, happy to have someone to talk to.
“Hey, you’re not coming to school today?” I couldn’t hear anything in the background, so I figured he had found a quiet spot to talk.
“No, I’m staying home.” I huddled under the blanket, clinging to the safety of his voice.
“Is it because of what I did yesterday?” His voice was hesitant, as if he was scared to hear the answer.
“No.” I sighed. I pulled the covers over my head to make a cave. The dark warmth was like a safe cocoon. “Some other stuff happened last night.”
There was a moment of silence and I imagined Nick shifting from foot to foot. “Your mom?”
“Yes, but more than that.” I pushed the covers away, half-expecting someone dressed in black to be standing over me. Nothing greeted me but my sunlight filled room. “I went on a couple of those websites.”
“Did you find something?” Excitement was clear in Nick’s voice.
I bit my lip, wondering if I should tell him. Finally, I decided it would be okay. If this guy was keeping such close tabs on me, he already knew that Nick knew. “Yeah. Yeah, I found something.”
“That’s great. Is it going to help you find her?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Well, tell me about it.”
I sighed again, glancing toward the clock. This wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have on the phone, but it wasn’t even nine yet, school had barely started. I should have just gone, but the idea of sitting in class after class with all this in my head was unbearable. I rubbed my eyes, fighting back a headache. “Nick, can you come over?”
“Now?” He sounded surprised.
“Yeah, I’d rather have this talk in person.”
“Okay, yeah. Um, I need to take a test this period, but then I’ll cut out. Sound good?”
“Yeah.” I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks.”
“No problem.”
With one hour to kill before Nick arrived, I decided to take the longest shower ever. I stood in the rush of warm water, letting the heat soak into my bones. After crying my eyes out and barely sleeping, my whole body was sore and the warmth was a welcome relief. Every time my mind drifted toward the memory of Hannah locked in that room, I shoved it aside. If I thought about that before Nick got there, I would just freak myself out.
I finally dragged myself out of the shower when the idea of coffee became too tempting. I slipped into jeans and my old cheerleading hoodie, which was warm and comfy from years of use. After running a brush through my still wet hair, I headed downstairs.
I poured myself a cup of coffee and glanced at the clock on the stove. Only a few more minutes to kill. I loaded the few breakfast dishes into the dishwasher and then wandered over to the whiteboard calendar on the side of the fridge. Mom wouldn’t be home until after three. That was good. I didn’t want to have to explain what Nick was doing at the house when I was supposed to be sick.
When the house phone rang, I jumped, spilling coffee over my hand. “Crap.” I moved to wash off my hand and wipe the floor. “Chill out, Alissa.” Yeah, right. As if I could.
The answering machine cut in and I heard the school’s recorded message that I wasn’t in school. I deleted it. Before I could get back to my coffee, there was a knock at the kitchen door. I looked up to see Nick, baseball cap perched on his head. He gave me a small smile and waved.
“Thank God you’re here. I was going crazy,” I said as I opened the door.
“What the heck is going on?” Nick asked. He kicked off his sneakers and pulled off his jacket to reveal a lightweight black and gray striped shirt. He hung his jacket on the back of a chair and dropped his hat to the table.
I grabbed my coffee, sighing. “Do you want some coffee?”
“Nah.” He wrinkled his nose. “Your dad have any soda hidden around here?”
I jutted my chin toward the fridge. “Coke in the bottom drawer.”
Nick half-walked, half-slid across the kitchen in his socked feet. When he had his soda in hand, I started for the living room. Without a word he followed me and we both settled in on the couch, facing each other. In a surreal way, it mimicked how we used to sit when we were younger.
“Okay, so you went on those websites, and?” Nick asked.
I told him everything, surprised I was able to keep calm for most of it. For the most part, saying it out loud seemed to relieve some of the tension. But when I got to the part about the gun, my words started to tremble and I was leaking tears when I told him that I’d thought she’d been shot only to find out the gun was loaded with blanks.
“What a sicko.” Nick’s eyes were wide. He rubbed a hand over his head. “I mean, wow. Are you going to go to the police? I mean this is huge. They can trace the website.”
“They can’t. It gave my computer some crazy virus and now it won’t even turn on.” I set my coffee on the table and leaned back into the couch. I felt like beating my head against it. “Besides, if I go to the police, he kills Hannah.”
Nick nodded slowly. “I guess you’re right, but this isn’t someone just playing around. He has Hannah. The cops should know.”
“No,” I said, harsher than I meant to. “I’m not risking it. I’ll get her back on my own.”
“Okay.” Nick held out his hands. “That’s fine. But what do we do?”
“I don’t know.” I groaned and dropped my head back against the couch. “All I know is that going against what this guy says is a bad idea. He killed Lana because he has some strange issue with me.”
“Any idea who it could be?” Nick picked at a loose thread on the couch as he asked.
I shook my head. “If I knew that this would all be a lot easier.” The doorbell rang and I shot off the couch like I’d been electrocuted.
Nick blinked in surprise. “Are you expecting someone?”
I shook my head. “Should I answer it?”
“Yes.” Nick stood. “It’s probably not him. I’ll go with you.”
We rounded the corner into the entry and walked toward the door. Through the oval glass window I could see someone standing there, holding an arrangement of flowers. I frowned at Nick, but reached for the doorknob. Leaving the chain on, I opened the door a few inches.
“Can I help you?”
The guy looked at me peering out from the door and cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah. I have flowers for Alissa Reeves?”
“That’s me. You can just leave them there.”
“Um, I need a signature.”
I glanced at Nick, raising an eyebrow in question. He shook his head.
“Okay, slide me whatever I need to sign and leave the flowers.”
“Okay.” He drew out the word to let me know he thought I was crazy. I didn’t care. I wasn’t taking any chances.
I signed for the flowers and he set them on the doormat. I watched him walk back to his car and drive away before I closed the door to undo the chain. I opened the door for the flowers.
“Guess we could have just opened the door,” Nick said.
“I’m not letting anyone I don’t know into this house.” I grabbed the heavy vase and brought it inside, kicking the door shut behind me. “Can you lock that?”
Nick slid the lock and attached the chain again. I carried the flowers to the kitchen table, then stepped back. Lilies, oriental and calla. My favorite flowers.
“Were you expecting flowers?” Nick padded into the room. He leaned on the back of a chair, gripping it tightly.
“No.” I stared at the lilies. Maybe they were for Mom, but no, the guy said they were for me. I reached toward the small card tucked at their center. Grabbing it, I sank into a chair. Nick leaned over me as I opened the card.
I linger where the living meet the dead.
“The cemetery?” Nick stood straight, letting go of the chair and tugging at the bottom of his shirt. “That’s where it means, right?”
“Yes.” I dropped the card on the table and rubbed my eyes. “Probably that little pagoda thing.”
With that thought, I was back there with Lana. Sitting close together far from the eyes of anyone who would judge us. She’d told me I was the most beautiful girl in the world. Looking back, her words had been cheesy, but it was the first time for both of us. We’d both said plenty of cliché things. At the time, her telling me I was beautiful had sent a rush of excitement through me.
“So do we head up there?” Nick asked.
I glanced at the clock. It wasn’t even noon. We could be up to the cemetery and back long before Mom got home. “Sure.” I nodded. “Let’s get this over with. I’ll drive.”
Chapter Thirty-one
I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel, burning nervous energy by the gallon. The sun had a hint of heat to it and the inside of my car was toasty warm as we drove. Nick sat with his jacket on his lap, but I hadn’t bothered with one.
As we waited at the light to go up the hill, a police cruiser p
ulled up behind us. Adrenaline burst inside me, worried that they would catch us for skipping school, but when we pulled forward, they turned left instead of following us. I let out a heavy sigh and shook my head.
“You okay?” Nick asked, his dark eyebrow raised.
“No. I feel like I’m balancing on a razor edge. I can’t talk to anyone but you about this and everyone expects me to keep going through the motions of normal life.” I shook my head. “I’m losing my mind.”
Nick reached over and took my hand, surprising me. He squeezed reassuringly and then held it a moment too long before letting go. He wiped his sweaty palm on his jeans. “It will be okay. I’ll help get you through this.”
“Thanks.” I offered a small smile as we turned into the cemetery.
The graves went back into the eighteen hundreds and spread out over three levels up the hill. If you knew how to get to them, you could follow walking paths up above the graveyard to remnants of a hotel that used to stand at the top of the hill. I navigated the narrow road leading up through the gravestones, hoping I wouldn’t run into another car coming down the hill at the wrong moment.
Driving through the warm autumn sunshine, I could almost pretend everything was okay. We were just two seniors skipping school to enjoy one of the final nice days. I wished that were true. I pulled the car to a stop at the end of the road.
“We have to walk from here.” I opened the door, climbing out and squinting in the sun. I shaded my eyes with a hand, scanning the graveyard and surrounding woods. We appeared to be alone.
“You looking for him?” Nick closed his door and leaned on the roof of the car.
“I can’t help but feel like he must be watching me every step of the way.” I frowned. “Does that make me epically paranoid?”
Nick turned and stared off down the hill. “After everything going on the last few days? I wouldn’t call you paranoid if you hired a body guard.”
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