Where the Darkness Goes

Chapter 31

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

TESSA — AGE 17

I cross the hall and knock on Will’s door, putting lip gloss on as I go. When he doesn’t answer right away, I knock again. “Will? Are you in there? I need to borrow your extra charger. Mine’s at Britney’s.”

Again, there’s no answer.

“I’m coming in. Hope you’re not doing anything weird.” I turn the knob and step inside his bedroom only to find it empty. “Cool. Talking to myself over here.” I make my way to the nightstand and tug it open, digging through a wad of tangled cords until I find the right one. Once I do, I move to shut the drawer, but something stops me. “What the…” I stick my hand into the drawer and freeze when I realize what I’m looking at.

“What are you doing?” My brother’s angry voice makes me jump. He’s in the doorway, drying his hands on his shirt. His eyes lock on the drawer, and we both know he knows what I’ve found. “Get out of there!” he shouts, rushing toward me to slam it shut. I barely pull my hand out in time to avoid it being smashed.

“Why do you have pictures of random girls from school in your nightstand?”

They aren’t naked pictures, either. Those would be equally disgusting, but a little less weird, maybe? I don’t know. These are just photos of them being normal. Random, even. They look like the selfies you could easily find on someone’s MySpace, Tumblr, and Facebook profiles.

I jerk the drawer open again and retrieve the stack before he can stop me. An unsettling feeling takes root in the pit of my stomach as I flip through them. There are only three photos here, and as I realize that, it steals my breath.

Cassidy Cole. Emily Gray. Amber Allen. In that order. If you reverse it, it’s the order in which they died.

I wave the stack of pictures at him, trying to understand. “What are these?” I need him to explain it to me in a way that makes sense. A way that would make me certain he’s not a creep or a weirdo. Or worse.

“None of your business.” He snatches them back. “I just have them, okay?”

“Do I want to know why?”

“You aren’t gonna, no matter what you want,” he grunts. “I don’t go through your stuff.”

“I needed to borrow your charger.”

He waves it away. “You got it, now go.”

“Will, what’s going on? What is that about?” I don’t budge. “You’re freaking me out. Is it some sort of weird porn thing?”

He scowls. “Don’t be disgusting.”

“Why else would you have them? Give them here.” I try to take them back, but he raises them above his head. I grab hold of his arm and tug down, but he’s stronger than me and his arm hardly budges.

“Forget it. Get out of here!”

“No! I’m not going to have the weirdo stalker brother. Give those to me.” Without looking at me, he keeps the photos high above my reach. I jab a finger at him. “Seriously, the girls who died? Do you have any idea how bad that makes you look? What will people say if they find out?—”

“You’re not going to say a word,” he warns, his voice cutting. It’s his turn to jab his finger at me, nearly touching my nose. “Do you understand? Not a word to anyone!”

“What’s going on?” Momma asks, appearing in the doorway with her jacket still on. I didn’t hear her get home from her monthly Christian women’s meeting at church.

“ Nothing, ” Will says, with what my mom would call ‘a tone.’ When she raises a brow, he backtracks quickly. “Sorry. Nothing. We were just goofing off.”

Mom’s eyes fall to me, but I don’t know what to say. I don’t want Will to get into trouble when I have no idea what’s going on. Besides, we’ve never been ones to rat each other out, and I won’t start now.

“We’re fine.”

She nods. “Good. Now wash up. I brought home sandwiches from Domenico’s.” Looking around the room, she asks, “Is Garrett not here?”

“No,” we answer at once.

She clicks her tongue. “Oh, well, I brought him something just in case. We’ll put it in the fridge.”

Once she’s gone, I turn back to Will. “Promise me you aren’t doing anything wrong with those.”

“Like what?” he asks, his upper lip curled.

I can’t bear to ask the question that’s on my mind. “Like I said, those girls are dead, Will. It doesn’t look good.”

“What are you saying? Are you asking if I hurt them?” He steps away, clutching the pictures and shoving them back in his nightstand. “You really think I’d be capable of killing someone?”

“No. I just… I’m scared, you know? Cory was arrested, but they let him go because his prints weren’t on the weapon. I know they’re saying they found other stuff at his house now, but until he’s arrested again, we don’t know the truth. Someone else at that party might have killed Cassidy. You were with her. If it was an accident or something?—”

“How long have you been waiting to ask me that, Tessa?” he cries.

“I just…”

“Get out. If you think I’m capable of any of this, I guess that says a lot about us, doesn’t it?”

“Stop. I want to help?—”

“Out!” he whisper-shouts, pointing toward the door.

With my head down, I leave with the charger and a sick feeling bubbling in my gut.