The Darkness Within (11 page)

Gone

Mrs. Rodriguez looked like she was trying not to cry, but the worry lines were heavy on her face. She sat across from me, on the phone with Mr. Rodriguez about Adrianna’s disappearance.

“It’s not like her to not come home or to lie about her whereabouts,” her mom said, clutching her phone so tightly it looked like she might break it in two at any moment.

Apparently last night Mrs. Rodriguez had gotten a text from Adrianna asking if she could spend the night at my house. With it being a school night, she had been ready to say no, when Mr. Rodriguez had convinced her that one night wouldn’t kill her. I shivered at her words. Adrianna was missing, and with what I knew about David, I was worried. Yet I couldn’t be a hundred percent sure he was behind this. My mind kept flashing back to Ben’s expression from the cafeteria today, and all of the warning signs Adrianna used as reasons to stay away from him.
What if one night really had killed her?

Obviously, I had denied that Adrianna had spent the night at my house, and afterwards Mrs. Rodriguez had grabbed her phone to call her husband at work. She’d been on the phone for nearly half an hour now, while I sat across from her awkwardly listening to the one side of the conversation. What I wanted to do was go and search for Adrianna or go home and burrow beneath my covers praying that she was somewhere safe. Even though I didn’t believe that was true, I could still pray for it, right?

I thought to mention what Adrianna and I had found the night before, thinking that was a motive for David to go after her, but I still didn’t have any proof. While I was sitting on the couch, I went to my pictures, hoping the photos of the six girls were still there. At this point, I was going to hope that that was enough to get the police banging on David’s door, but they were gone. David must have deleted them before he gave the phone back, which was a smart move on his part, but without them and without the photograph from last night, I had nothing to prove that David might be responsible for Adrianna’s disappearance. His cycle was beginning again, but I didn’t think Adrianna would be on his list at all. She looked nothing like the other girls he’d taken. Neither of us did. Not me with my mixed features or Adrianna with her Hispanic background. I had read online that most serial killers stuck to one type, and all of the other girls David had targeted before were Caucasian. Maybe he was changing his modus operandi? That idea seemed unlikely though.

My thoughts wandered to Ben. Did he have a reason to target Adrianna? I was just speculating, but maybe he was hurt by her reaction to him giving her a sliced up pig heart? She’d gone from being friendly and entertaining his crush, to avoiding him at all costs. I didn’t know if he was responsible for her disappearance, but he certainly seemed capable.

Honestly, I didn’t know what to think anymore. This was all too much for me. I couldn’t wrap my mind around any of this, and I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to harm Adrianna, but then again I couldn’t understand why anyone would ever want to hurt someone. I was in shock, not knowing whether to scream in frustration or cry until my tears stopped coming. All I wanted was to be a normal teenager who dealt with boy problems and acne breakouts. Not one who had to worry about living next to a serial killer, and protecting her friend from a possible stalker. Most of all, I wanted my friend back.

My worry for her overwhelmed me, and I knew that nothing would be the same until she returned.

If she ever did…

Out of the Shadows

It’d been a week now since Adrianna went missing. A week filled with me walking the hallways trying not to cry in front of my classmates, trying to be strong in front of everyone, and trying to hold myself together, but crying myself to sleep every night. Without my best friend, I felt empty.

After the news was announced around school, everyone began walking on eggshells around me. Many of my teachers—those who knew about Adrianna’s and my close friendship—asked me how I was feeling, and offered me their condolences. Whenever Adrianna’s name was mentioned I had to excuse myself to the bathroom to keep myself from breaking down. Her name floated through the hallway constantly, but what hurt the most was that everyone was referring to her as a victim—like she was already dead.

I thought I was taking her disappearance badly, until I saw Ben in the hallway one day. His eyes were red-rimmed and blood shot. He looked like he hadn’t gotten any sleep since the news was announced. Despite his tear-stained face, I couldn’t scratch him off of the list of possible suspects. He had motive and maybe he was just a good actor. I couldn’t be sure. I just wanted my friend back.

I spent every day after school helping put up missing fliers all around town in hopes someone would recognize her picture and call the listed phone number with a tip or possible sighting. Her picture on the flier was one of the only one’s I had of her with the purple streak in her hair. I’d snapped it of her after lunch that day in the cafeteria, forcing her to smile so I could show her how good the new color looked. For some reason I thought someone would easily recognize her purple streak, because it wasn’t often that people had a single streak of purple dye in their hair.

I was wrong though, because the phone line that was set up to receive tips about Adrianna’s disappearance was dead. There had only been one call and it had been from a prank caller. I don’t know whose idea that was, but it was extremely insensitive. Adrianna’s parents were doing anything and everything in their ability to find Adrianna and bring her home safely. Lorenzo had even returned home from school to assist his family in finding his little sister. They were out every day and night scouring the streets for her, passing out fliers, assisting search teams, and attending vigils for Adrianna. Just last night there was a candle lit vigil in her honor held in front of the school.

I was surprised at how many people arrived last night to show their support for finding Ade. The whole school was there, and so were students from our rival school. It was as if this tragedy had brought us all together. Even the large rock in front of our school had been painted white, with the words, ‘Bring Adrianna Home,’ painted in blue; our school’s colors. Last night, we all stood as one, holding our candles high, and listening to stories about Adrianna from her family and friends. I had been too torn up to speak. I had even noticed Ben standing in the crowd, looking distraught. His attendance and appearance, disheveled and obviously still torn up about Adrianna’s absence, made it hard for me to believe he was behind all of this. I was officially convinced that David was responsible for taking my friend away from me.

There was so much grief inside of me at the idea that I had an idea of who was behind her disappearance, but couldn’t do anything about it. I had no proof that David was The Collector, and even if I did, why would the police believe a word I had to say after I called them to report a murder and nothing was found? I was stuck with no way of helping my friend and worst of all, I was starting to believe that it was my fault she was missing. The guilt was eating alive. If I had never gotten her involved in the first place, then maybe she would be safe right now.

I snuggled beneath the thick blanket Mom had placed over me and let my head rest on the arm of the couch. My head was pounding, whether from a headache or from all of the thoughts that were swirling inside, I didn’t know. What I did know was that I wouldn’t be surprised if it were to burst from all that was going on.

Breathing in the fresh, downy scent of the comforter, I tried fruitlessly to calm my thoughts and emotions. I didn’t want to focus on all of the negatives, but rather on the positives. We had a good police department, and with Adrianna’s dad on the force, they were sure to make her disappearance top priority. I just had to believe that they were going to find her. Maybe there was some way for me to point them in David’s direction to speed the process along? I just didn’t know how to do that. I had tried multiple times to find something for the police to go on and nothing had worked, so what would be different now?

I groaned, pulling the cover over my eyes to block out the daylight. It was early Saturday morning and the only thing I had planned for the day was to catch up on all of my homework, which had piled up over the week, and assist with the search group for Adrianna tonight. Any volunteers to help with the search were supposed to meet the Rodriguez family at the school and then they were all going to carpool to the location they were searching. There was also a day search going on, but Mom wanted me to focus on catching up on my schoolwork. I knew she was worried about me from the look in her eyes every time she regarded me. It was as if she was going over scenarios in her head where I was the one missing. On more than one occasion she’d said that she couldn’t imagine what Adrianna’s parents must be going through. I couldn’t either. I was a total wreck over her absence and Adrianna was only my best friend. Our relationship couldn’t even compare to the relationship between a parent and their child; or even a brother and sister.

Finally, after spending all of the morning wallowing and lying wrapped up on the couch, I emerged from my cocoon with the intentions of beginning my homework. The thought of doing my schoolwork without my best friend and study partner was almost enough to cause me to lie back down, but the world must’ve been against that because just then the doorbell rang, echoing throughout the house. With another groan, the umpteenth one of the day so far, I pushed the cover off and stalked out of the living room. My bare feet were cold on the floor as I entered the foyer, pulling the door open to reveal the last person on Earth I wanted to see right now; David. He stood on the porch, dressed casually in a black t-shirt and jeans. His hands were shoved into his pockets, and his mouth twitched upwards slightly at the sight of me.

Not knowing what to say, I continued to hold the door, blocking his entrance as I stood there, glaring daggers at him. I could hear my heartbeat thudding in my ears.
What is he doing here?
I thought, not even trying to hide the disgusted expression on my face.

David tilted his head sideways, his cold and calculating eyes taking in my disheveled appearance. “Claire, I heard about your missing friend. My condolences for your loss.” The casual way he spoke and stood made my blood boil. He looked so calm and serene, the exact opposite of how I was feeling, and had been feeling for the past week.

I resisted the urge to slam the door in his face at his weak statement.  Instead, I frowned deeply, and said, “It’s not a loss if she’s still alive.”

David nodded, looking smug. I wanted to grab him by his collar and demand he tell me where he was holding Adrianna, but my mom’s voice broke my thoughts.

“Claire, is that David?” she called down to me.

“Yeah,” I called back, before correcting myself and saying, “Yes.”

David slipped past me, his body pressing against mine for a moment, catching me off guard. I jumped backward, letting go of the door and allowing it to shut. The way David looked at me, his mouth curved upwards in an amused smirk gave me chills.

“Hopefully you find her,” he said, as my mom’s footsteps sounded on the stairs.

I nodded, heading back into the living room as Mom joined David. They began talking and Mom invited him into the kitchen for a cup of coffee. Knowing what David was capable of, I didn’t want to leave Mom alone in the other room with him so I grabbed all of my homework items and went to join them in the kitchen. Mom smiled at me as I entered, asking if I wanted a cup of tea. I nodded in response, taking the farthest seat away from David at the kitchen island.

Then I opened up my history textbook and began trying to complete my homework packet. It was insanely hard to focus with David and my Mom’s flirtatious conversation to distract me. When Mom placed my mug of tea in front of me, I began to sip it slowly, letting the hot tea warm me from the inside out. Once I was about halfway through my history packet, David excused himself to the bathroom.

“How’s the homework coming along?” Mom asked, coming to stand behind me. She looked down over my shoulder at my work.

I sighed. “It’s getting done. Slowly but surely.”

Mom chuckled, and then placed a kiss on the side of my head. “Slow and steady wins the race,” she assured me, wiping her lipstick stain off of my temple with her thumb. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“I love you, Claire. You know, things always have a way of working themselves out. We just have to hope and pray that Adrianna is somewhere safe and that soon she will be home again.” Mom stared into my eyes, trying to comfort me.

Nodding, I said, “I’m just so worried about her,” my voice cracking.

“I know you are, sweetie. It’s okay to worry. The police are doing everything they can to bring her home safely.”

The sound of the bathroom door opening signaled the end of our little conversation. Mom patted my back before going to return to where she had been sitting as David reentered the room. I pulled my
Chapstick
from my pocket and swiped it across my lips before returning to my homework.

I was reading about the Cold War when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled the phone out, wondering who was texting me. The name on the screen made my mouth drop open in utter shock. I unlocked my phone quickly, opening the message.

Adrianna: Meet me at my house tonight at 8. I’ll explain everything when you get here.