Peachville High Demons 01: Beautiful Demons (7 page)

For A Girl Like You

By the time I pulled down the driveway twenty minutes later, I was exhausted. I had no idea if Tori and her guy were going to jump in their car and follow me, so I pushed my body to the limit. My lungs burned. Cold tears spilled down my cheeks from the wind in my face. My legs were sore. But I pushed on.

I barely had the energy to pull open the large, stiff wooden door. Inside the barn, I stopped to catch my breath and noticed the pungent smell of cigarette smoke. Suddenly alert, I looked to either side, then saw the red burning end of Jackson Hunt's cigarette.

“Smoking will kill you, you know,” I said, certain he'd been watching me.

“So will sneaking out at night.” He stood and moved close enough that I could make out his face in the shadows. “Or so I've heard.”

“Is this what you do in here, all secret like?”

“This,” he said, “and work on my motorcycle.” He motioned toward the back of the barn, but I couldn't see much of anything that far back.

“Do you ride?”

“I used to. It's my dad's old bike. A good one too. A Harley.”

“Did your parents split? Or what?” I leaned against the wooden wall of the barn and ran my fingers along the smooth wood. Being this close to Jackson, especially in the dark, made me nervous.

“My dad passed away when I was a little boy.” He didn't elaborate, and I didn't push. “Want a smoke?”

“No way,” I said, sticking out my tongue and screwing up my nose. “It's completely disgusting.”

He laughed and threw his cigarette to the ground. “For a girl like you, I might consider quitting.”

The tone of his voice turned my body to melted chocolate. I steadied myself against the wall, afraid that if he moved any closer, I really would melt. I felt his nearness in my bones, a vibration of warm, flushed energy.

“You better get inside,” he said, checking his watch even though it was probably too dark to see the time. The way he raised his arm and leaned forward brought his chest so close to me, I wanted to run my hand along the rippled muscles I felt certain I would find underneath his black t-shirt. “It's way past your bedtime.”

My heart beat so hard in my chest my ears were filled with the loud thumping sound of it. I dipped under his arm and pushed open the barn door, grateful for the refreshing rush of cool, night air.

“I won't tell if you won't,” I said.

“Your secret's safe with me,” Jackson said. He drew an X over his heart as I ran toward the house, disappearing into the shadows.

What With Tori's Disappearance

The rest of the weekend passed by in a daze. I couldn't stop thinking about Jackson. Plus, I was anxious to know if anyone had found my necklace. I didn't get much sleep.

On Monday morning at school, the first place I went was the front office. I wanted to get there before homeroom, but I hated walking past that demon statue up front. Instead, I walked around to the side entrance and practically ran to the office. The secretary, Mrs. White, gave me a weak smile when I walked through the door, and there were dark circles under her eyes.

“Good morning, dear. What can I help you with this morning?”

“I lost something Friday night at the football game,” I said, my toe jiggling nervously inside my boot. “Did anyone turn in a necklace?”

“Oh, honey, I don't think so. It's just been a madhouse around here this morning, what with Tori's disappearance.”

My eyes widened. “Tori Fairchild?”

“Yes, bless her heart,” Mrs. White said. She brought the back of her hand up to her mouth and closed her eyes. After a few deep breaths, she opened them again and I saw that they were full of big, wet tears. “No one's seen her since the game Friday night. Half the town has been out looking for her since Sunday morning.”

I stood there in shock, thinking about Tori and that guy after the game on Friday night. A guy who wasn't her boyfriend. Had he done something to her? Had Foster found out about them and gone crazy with jealousy? I swallowed hard.

“I'm sorry, what was it that you lost again?”

“A necklace,” I said. “A silver chain with a blue sapphire pendant. But I can come back some other time.” It seemed petty to be talking about a lost necklace when Tori was missing. What if something horrible happened to her?

“You're Harper, right? The new girl from Shadowford?”

I nodded and she wrote my name down on a yellow sticky pad along with a note about my necklace. “If anyone turns it in to the office, I'll make sure we let you know.”

She stuck the yellow note onto a small cork board by her desk.

I thanked her and headed to my homeroom. The halls were filled with sobbing girls, sombre faces, and clusters of students sharing whispered conversations. I rushed to homeroom, wondering if I should tell anyone about my midnight Tori sighting at the football stadium.

If I came forward with the information, Mrs. Shadowford would know I left the house after curfew to search the stadium. I had no doubt she would contact my case manager and send me straight to juvie. Then again, if I could help save Tori's life, wasn't that the most important thing? My mind ran circles around the issue. What if Tori had just run away with her new, possibly older boyfriend? Maybe she wasn't in trouble at all. Was I willing to risk my entire future for a girl that wasn't even the slightest bit civil to me? I felt certain she wouldn't have risked breaking a nail if it meant saving my life, so why did I even care?

For the first part of the morning, I played it safe. I kept my mouth shut and listened to the gossip around me.

“She was supposed to come to the party at Foster's parent's cabin by the lake Friday night, but she never showed,” a brunette to my left was telling her friends.

“That's pretty typical Tori, thought, right? To bail on a party?”

“Last year, maybe, but this year she's dating Foster. I don't think she'd ditch him at his own party.”

“Well, what do you think happened to her?”

“I have no idea,” the brunette said. “I just hope they find her and she's okay.”

Then, in second period, I specifically sat near Allison Moore. If anyone knew about Tori's other man, it would be one of the cheerleaders. Allison's face was red and splotchy from crying.

“I can't believe this is happening,” she cried to one of her fellow cheerleaders. I recognized the blonde she was talking to, but I didn't know her name. “We were the last two girls in the locker room, but I had to run home and get my sweatshirt cause it was getting chilly, right, so I left her and told her I'd meet her at the party.”

“So she just never came home from the game or what?” the other girl asked in a whisper when the teacher turned her back.

“No one has seen or heard from her since I left the locker room Friday night.” Allison's face scrunched up and she began to cry again. “I never should have left her alone in there. If something's happened to her, I'll never be able to forgive myself.”

“It just doesn't make sense.”

“Maybe someone abducted her from the school. It totally could have been some crazy stalker that, like, watched her at all the games or something,” a petite girl with a short brown pixie cut said.

“The weirdest part is that the cops found her car parked on the street just a few blocks away from her own house,” Allison said. “But she drove it to the game that night. If someone abducted her, why would they drive her car to the street where she lives and just leave it there?”

I strained to remember if I had seen Tori's car in the parking lot Friday night. I remembered that the lot seemed empty, no cars. I wondered if the cheerleaders had a special parking lot or if they parked in the main lot, but I didn't want to ask any questions that might raise suspicion.

By lunchtime, I had pretty much decided that if no word came in about Tori's whereabouts by the end of the school day, I would go to the police with my information. I still didn't know who the guy was that Tori was there with, but at least I could give them a description of his voice and what he was wearing. It would make for a record short time at a home for me, but I couldn't keep this secret to myself any longer.

I watched the clock for the rest of the afternoon, feeling as if each second that went by brought me closer to my own deathbed. Then, minutes before the bell that would seal my fate, the news came in.

Tori Fairchild's body had been found.

You'll Need To Come With Us

Tori Fairchild's body had been discovered in the woods near her house at approximately two pm that afternoon.

News spread through the school like wildfire. Officers from the local sheriff's department knocked on the door of my seventh period English class roughly ten minutes after the news hit. Mrs. King, my English teacher, talked quietly with a tall, gray-haired officer for a few moments in the hallway, then entered the room with a pale face. To my surprise, she was looking directly at me.

“Harper Madison, the officers outside would like to talk to you.”

Her words pierced through me. Did they know about my secret? Had someone seen me at the stadium that night? I was unable to move, frozen to the seat of my desk.

“Harper?” Mrs. King called my name louder. Her voice had an edge of hysteria to it. No doubt she'd been really close to Tori, being her cheer coach and all. I couldn't imagine what she was going through.

Every pair of eyes was on me. Probably wondering what in the world the new Shadowford freak had to do with Tori's death. Hell, I was wondering that myself. It was possible I had been one of the last people to see her alive, but no one actually knew that.

Unless I'd been wrong and the guy out there with her saw my face.

Slowly, I stood and gathered my things. Outside the classroom, I faced the two officers. “I'm Harper Madison,” I said.

“You'll need to come with us,” the older man said.

“Why?” My mouth went completely dry and I had a hard time swallowing. “What's wrong?”

“I can't discuss the details of the case out here in the hallway of the public school. As long as you cooperate, we'll do you the favor of not handcuffing you here in front of your friends.”

Handcuffing? Jesus, what were they saying? That I was a suspect? The world around me began to spin uncontrollably. I shook my head.

“No, I didn't do anything wrong. I don't understand what's going on here.”

My entire body went cold and my stomach lurched. The younger officer, a middle-aged man with a beer belly and a bushy mustache, grabbed my upper arm and began to pull me down the hall. He pinched my skin a bit, his fingers digging into my arm as I shuffled reluctantly toward the front entryway.

The bright afternoon sun hit me full in the face as we pushed through the front doors. I jerked my arm away from the policeman and stepped back from him. He made a move toward me like he was ready to catch me if I decided to run, but he relaxed when he saw that I wasn't exactly trying to make a break for it.

“I can walk just fine on my own,” I said. But as I made my way past the tall demon statue, I felt the same wave of dizziness I'd felt on my first day of school. I stumbled slightly, then recovered.

“You okay?” the older man asked.

No, I wanted to say. I am most definitely not okay.

Instead, I nodded my head and walked obediently to the waiting squad car. This wasn't my first time in the back of a police car. I hated that feeling of being out of control. Locked away like an animal with no way to escape. It scared me to think what an actual prison cell must feel like. I hoped to God I wasn't about to find out.

The Peachville police station was a tiny building in the center of downtown. A young officer sat at the front desk in the small reception area. He didn't look much older than me with his fresh haircut and smooth baby face. As we entered the room, he stood quickly, knocking over a full jar of pencils.

“Oh shoot.” He scrambled to pick them up, but a few pencils rolled off the desk top and onto the floor. “Sorry sir.”

“Ellis, what did Sheriff Hollingsworth tell you about those damn pencils?” the older officer said.

“I know sir, I just-”

“Just clean 'em up and escort this young woman into an interrogation room. I don't have time for your crap today. We've got a serious investigation to take care of.”

Ellis bent over to retrieve the escaped pencils, then turned his attention to me. “Let's go.”

“Lead the way,” I said.

He brought me down a narrow hallway, then led me to a small room that held a single desk and two metal folding chairs. Plastic flooring curled up at the edges of the room and sad, faded yellow curtains covered a single grimy window. From the way the rest of the town looked with its brick sidewalks and landscaped parks, I hadn't expected the police department to be so rundown and dreary. Maybe a small town like this didn't see enough crime to warrant a fancy police station.

“Want a soda or somethin'?” Ellis asked.

“No thanks,” I said. I just wanted someone to tell me what the hell I was doing there. Plus, I wasn't totally sure I'd be able to swallow. Every muscle in my body was tense.

They left me alone in that small, slightly smelly room for over half an hour before a petite black woman finally came in. By then, I'd practically chewed off all my fingernails.

She was dressed in a navy suit with a white button down shirt. She didn't look like she belonged in a place like this, and I wondered if she was from DFCS like Mrs. Meeks. She slapped a yellow folder down on the desk in front of me, then sat down.

“Harper Madison. Sixteen years old. Adopted at birth by Heath and Jill Madison of Gwinnett County, Georgia. At the age of eight, your adoptive father was killed in a house fire. A fire that Jill Madison claims you started on purpose.”

“That's not true,” I said.

“Which part?” the woman asked.

“The fire,” I said. “It was an accident.” And why did that matter now? What did any of this have to do with Tori Fairchild?

“The state fire marshal’s investigation was inconclusive. According to his notes, the fire was unusual in that it did not have a single point of origin. Rather, he thought it seemed as though fire sprang up in several places simultaneously.”