“What’s up?” He wanted to know. “Are you having fun?”
I didn’t like the idea of telling him I wasn’t.
The smile fell from his face when I said nothing, and it was no longer necessary.
“Let’s go home.” He led the way to the door, speaking before setting his hand on the handle. “What happened?”
“It just…” What could I say? “It just got a little uncomfortable.” And suddenly, his blue eyes were as despondent as I must have looked.
“Promise me you’ll try.” It hurt to see him so heartbroken. I swallowed, instantly feeling guilty.
“I’ll be back in a minute.” I turned away from him and hurried back into the den, trying and failing in my attempt to dodge a brunette in yellow. “I’m sorry.” I apologized, breathless. “I guess I didn’t see you.”
“Don’t worry about it.” She shook her head in dismissal and grinned; and I slowed my pace, careful not to run into anybody else. My steps ended abruptly when I wrinkled my forehead in confusion.
I didn’t remember seeing her before. But then, there were a few people I didn’t recognize here.
I hurried through the den and to the door open to the terrace.
“Adrienne.” I panted as I dashed out into the darkness, but I was met with Kris’ face instead.
“I guess she went back inside.” I sighed as he excused himself and retreated back into the warmth of the house; and I returned to the front door, where Connor was waiting.
“Did you do what you wanted?” I nodded without a word; and he pulled the door open, exposing us to a rush of cold wind as it passed by. He checked his watch as we descended the steps. “So it’s 9:27 right now.” He said when he reached the car. “Do you mind staying out a little longer?” I eyed him suspiciously from the other side.
“It depends on where we’re going…” He chuckled at my words.
“Don’t worry. It’s not another party.” He reassured me. “Who knows? You might actually have some fun.” I shook my head, still a little skeptical; but his sarcasm made me smile.
“Fine.” I opened the door and slid into my seat; and for a second, I swore I heard him whoop in victory. I fastened my seatbelt and turned to him again, not entirely satisfied with his answer. “Do I get to know where we’re going?”
“No.” The engine revved as the headlights flickered on. “It’s a surprise.”
Surprises. I hadn’t had the best experience with those lately.
I awoke with a start, with a sudden gasp for air that burned when it filled my lungs. It was only when I came to that I realized it was cold air that I was breathing, and I exhaled again to see a puff of mist escape my lips. It was small and so faint, I could have imagined it; but like a ghost, it was gone.
“Connor—” I turned my head toward the driver’s seat to face him, but it was empty. I sat up in alarm, and the Letterman jacket draped over me slid down onto the floor.
Why had he left his jacket behind?
“Connor?” I called his name again, but only silence answered. Groggily, I pushed the car door open and stepped outside, into the few beams of moonlight that found their way through the tree branches; and I looked up at the sky. Clouds were beginning to drift across it, obscuring the stars from view. I circled the car and stole a wary glance over my shoulder when I crushed a twig underneath my foot. A wall of trees lined both sides of the dirt road, the shadows they cast falling over my face. It was quiet—in an unnerving sort of way; and then, I heard the rustle of a handful of leaves scrape over the ground. I whirled around to face whoever it might have been, but there was no one. Footsteps echoed in my ears, and I turned to find myself inches from a figure standing over me. “Very funny, Connor.” I rolled my eyes as he frowned.
“You just kill all the fun, don’t you?” He reached into the Oldsmobile for his jacket and slipped it on.
“Just yours.” I walked past him and toward the sound of water gurgling beyond the trees. “Where are we?” A devilish grin crept its way onto his face.
“Come on. Let me show you.” Eagerly, he led me down the road and toward the clearing in the distance. “Do you remember what was on your list?” It took me a second to realize what he was talking about.
“Sure,” I finally replied, “Amityville House, Eastern State Penitentiary, Edinburgh Castle, Gettysburg, Myrtles Plantation, the Queen Mary, the Tower of London, Whaley House, the White House, and Winchester House.” I had read their names in a list last year, and I hadn’t forgotten them. They were places I wanted to visit—or rather, places the three of us wanted to visit.
“You forgot one.” He stopped, falling silent when we reached the end of the woods; and I stole a step forward to see why.
There before us stood the rusted skeleton of the Crybaby Bridge, its looming abutments the only remnants of its existence. It seemed almost eerie in the moonlight, the way it hovered over us—in a silence that only death could accomplish. I imagined the woman’s screams as her car plunged into the water below, and I shuddered.
“So this is it?” I never thought I’d get the chance to see it.
“Yep.” Connor said as he joined me. “You can scratch this one off your list.” I started to move towards it, but his hand held me back. “Careful.” He warned me. “It’s just the frame now.”
Right. I almost forgot. Adding myself to the legend wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.
“You know we won’t see anything.” I remarked, running my hand along the metal railing.
“Because ghosts don’t exist?” He quipped, and I found myself shaking my head.
There’d be a plate of cookies in my future if I let him continue.
“No.” I responded matter-of-factly. “It’s not midnight.”
“Speaking of midnight,” Connor spoke as he glanced at his watch, “we should be taking off soon if we want to be home by curfew.” I sighed.
So soon?
“Just a minute.” I whispered, as if it had been to myself; and my fingers began to trace the scratches in the rusted steel.
It was unsettling in a strange way. I couldn’t help but wonder where they came from. Some of them looked like broken letters—as if the one who had left them had been trying to send a message. A series of grooves caught my eye, and I peered at them in curiosity. Three letters—spelling a single word.
“Lyn.” I said it aloud.
“What?” I didn’t know that he had heard me.
“There’s a word—or a name carved into the railing.” I stuttered, unable to describe it to him.
“Really?” I turned, nearly startled out of my wits when I found him standing behind me. “What does it say?”
I wish I knew.
“L…y…n.” I looked up at him, unsure of what it meant.
A strange sensation suddenly gripped my hand, and I stared down at it in alarm. Water. But the way it sparkled in the moonlight seemed strange—unnatural even—and for a moment, it merely sat there, as if that was where it belonged. Another drop of rain splashed onto the railing beside my fingers, and I pulled my hand back as more kept falling. I gazed up at the clouds as the sky was torn open; and lightning electrified the darkened world that we were standing in, thunder shattering the silence.
“We should go.” He breathed, and I stole one last glance over my shoulder at the abandoned bridge as he grasped my hand and pulled me away. And for a second, I saw a blue light burning in the distance.
Quietly, I unlocked my front door and stepped inside. I sighed in relief as warm air instantly surrounded me and turned to wave goodbye as Connor drove away and out of sight. The clock mounted on the wall ticked behind me, and I looked up at it in apprehension.
11:52.
Maybe they were asleep. It wasn’t likely, but I could hope.
“Melissa?” And suddenly, that hope was dashed to pieces. My mother hurried to me; and before I could breathe, I was bombarded with a million questions. “Where have you been?” She laid her hands on my shoulders, drawin
g them back when she saw that my clothes were soaked through. “How did you get so wet? I didn’t hear anything about it raining.”
“It did in Kellyville.” I trudged past her, my soggy shoes squishing across the carpet; and she followed me, wrinkling her forehead in confusion.
“Kellyville’s an hour away. What were you doing there?” It was a pretty good question.
I stopped beside the couch to shed my coat and dropped it on one of the cushions.
“We went to Crybaby Bridge.” I told her; and I saw her eyes widen, even if it only lasted a millisecond. “Connor thought it would be fun.”
If that made it better.
“Did you—have fun?” She asked me, and what I had seen in her eyes had found its way into her voice. Worry? Or fear?
“Yeah.” I nodded, still watching her; and she smiled. That didn’t happen very often.
“I’m glad you made it home okay.” She wrapped her arms around me in an embrace and whispered. “Now, get some sleep. You’ve got a long day tomorrow.” She let go, and I lifted my jacket up from the couch on my way to the stairs. “Melissa.”
“Yeah, Mom?” I paused on the landing; and in the darkness, the moonlight bled through the windows and onto her face.
“Don’t go there again.” I blinked at her request, but I could tell that she was serious.
“Okay.” I swallowed and stood there for a moment, questions of my own running through my head. But I buried them—and stepped out of the light and into the shadows.
Chapter Three
Orion
“You should have seen the look on her face.” I started as we walked through the cafeteria and to our table in the corner. There, we could see the rest of the student body in its entirety—watch them as if they were on the other side of a TV screen. It was always the same: Kris would be sitting with Thomas and Gregory, reliving the final moments of their victory in the previous night’s game; and Adrienne and her friends would be late to lunch after going over their cheer routines in the gym.
But today was different. I couldn’t describe it, but there was something—something very wrong.
“It’s like I told her I killed you and buried you in the backyard.” I said, prying open the carton of apple juice with my fingernails. I looked up at Connor and then to the tray of food he hadn’t touched. “What? You’re not hungry?”
“Not anymore.” He remarked as he dropped a tater tot from his fingers, and it rolled back and forth in the Styrofoam plate. I shrugged and stole it from him, popping it into my mouth. The soft filling burst behind my lips when my teeth crushed the crunchy coating, and the taste of salt and pepper drove me towards my apple juice. “Did she ground you?” He wanted to know.
“No.” I shook my head. “She wants me to get out more. If she were going to punish me, that’s the last thing she would do.” He chuckled a little.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” His head perked up as a thought occurred to him, and I eyed him suspiciously.
What was he thinking?
“Hey, can I practice my moves on you?” I paused, confused; and he held up a tater tot to clarify.
Oh—for basketball.
“Shoot.” I told him, and he tossed the first. I opened my mouth to catch it, but it hit my forehead instead and tumbled onto the table. “That was terrible!” I exclaimed, wiping the grease from my face with the back of my hand.
“Let me do it again.” He insisted, and I gave in. Another flew up into the air; and this time, I caught it. “Yes!” He held up his hand for a high five, our palms meeting in a smack when I obliged.
“Hey.” I lowered my hand at the sound of his voice. Kris was suddenly sitting at our table.
“Hi, Kris. What’s up?” I asked him, but something told me I already knew. The veins in his eyes were as red as fire, revealing how little sleep he had gotten the night before. He ran his fingers through his dark hair and sighed, trying to take a deep breath and failing. I knew what he was going to ask, and my heart beat out of my chest and into my throat as I waited.
I wanted to close my eyes and count to ten, in the blind hope that all of this was just a nightmare—and wake up to the sound of Connor talking to my father about fishing in the spring—and Heather sharing Mrs. Harrison’s croissants with my mother. But January was gone, and so was any thought that it could ever be the way that it was before.
“Have you seen Adrienne?” Connor silently shook his head across from me in response.
“Not since last night.” I told him and watched him fall apart in front of me.
I knew that look. He thought she was dead.
“Have you asked Chloe or Hannah? They were at the party, right? They probably saw her after we left.” I tried to reason with myself, but what wasn’t being said was just enough to say it all.
“I did. They—they didn’t see her.” He stuttered. “When you talked to her, did she say anything about leaving the party?”
“No. She just wanted a little time to herself.” Kris sighed at my answer, and I tried my best to reassure him. “Maybe she stayed home or had a late doctor’s appointment.”
It was worth a try.
He nodded in his attempt to believe it and somberly rose to his feet.
“Thanks, you guys.” And he was gone. I stared down at my plate and took a deep breath of my own.
“It’s not fair.” I looked up at Connor as he stole a glance over his shoulder and at Kris sitting with the rest of the basketball team. “People are going missing, and we can’t do anything about it.”
“Connor.” I could feel my stomach twisting inside me as the puzzle in my mind came together, and the thought of it made my lungs as heavy as a heap of stones. He turned his head when I called his name, and I could tell by his reaction that he recognized the horror in my eyes. “If no one saw Adrienne after we left,” the words felt cold and terrifying on my tongue, “then whoever took her was at the party last night.”
The shrill tone of the school bell rang in my ears long after it had stopped, and a hundred bodies brushed past me as I fought my way through the hall and to the doors leading out into the open air. My skin prickled as a sharp breeze gathered up my hair and sent it flying all around me, and I struggled to keep it close to my reddening ears.
“It’s the ranch today, right?” Connor laid his hand on my shoulder to announce himself.
“Yeah.” I answered. “I have to take an extra shift for breaking curfew.”
It didn’t really bother me that much. I liked working with the horses at my parents’ ranch. But if I told them that, they wouldn’t have chosen it for my punishment.
“Okay.” He stopped when we reached the edge of the parking lot. “Stay here. I’ll get the car.” He breathed before crossing the sea of asphalt without me. I stood at the edge of the sidewalk and waited as students passed me by, and I held my arms tightly to keep myself warm. I gazed down at my shadow in the sunlight, blinking when I found myself looking at two instead of one. I took my eyes off of them, only to realize that someone was standing beside me.
Light brown wavy locks fell past her shoulders and onto the orchid jacket she wore over a white flowery blouse. I squinted at her, silently running through the faces that passed me every day at school; but she wasn’t in them. And then I remembered.
“You were at the party last night.” I didn’t realize that I had spoken until she turned in my direction.
“Oh.” She must have recognized me. “Hi. I’m Dorothy.” She introduced herself. “Nice to meet you.”
“My name’s Melissa—I don’t think I’ve seen you around before.” I gestured to the school building behind us.
“Just moved here from Massachusetts.” She explained, shrugging her shoulders and taking in the unfamiliar world around her. “It’s…kind of a big change.” She chuckled. “But I think I can handle it.”
I went back and forth in my head debating whether or not I should tell her—tell her that the girl she met the night before, the girl with
the long blonde hair and bright blue eyes, was gone.
A silver truck suddenly pulled up in front of us, prompting Dorothy into motion.
“That’s my brother.” She turned to face me before throwing open the door and climbing inside.
“Wait.” I called out to her and she kept the door open to listen. “How old are you?” I’m sure it seemed like a strange question, but she smiled in response.
“Seventeen.” The word sent a wave of relief flooding over me. “And you?”
“Almost sixteen.” I grinned as I told her, hiding the apprehension that came with the number.
I’d be sixteen in three weeks, and then what would happen?
“Cool. I’ll see you around.” She closed the car door, and I watched the curly-haired driver as he turned the wheel and sped away. The loud burst of a horn startled me, and I looked down to see Connor waving to me from the driver’s seat of his Oldsmobile.
“Who was that?” He waited for me to buckle my seatbelt before he asked.
“New girl at school.” I leaned my head against the window as I held my knuckles to my lips. “I bumped into her at the party last night.”
“She doesn’t know?” It was silent for a moment, the quietness only broken when he turned the key in the ignition.
“No.”
“What’s on your mind?” Connor glanced at me from the driver’s seat. The town of Salina and Hudson Lake were far behind us; and in the distance, I could see the city of Pryor on the horizon.
“How do twelve girls just disappear in a place where there hasn’t been a murder for years?” Thinking about it now, it seemed so strange. “And why hasn’t anyone found their bodies yet?”
“Maybe there aren’t any bodies to be found.” I looked up at him as he shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe he’s not killing them.” I shuddered at the thought of what whoever ‘he’ was could have been doing.
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