A/N: I can't believe how quickly this chapter went by. Consider yourselves very, very lucky readers. Thank you Nova on the quick (yet more thorough job than last time—thanks for the notification on the spelling errors, Ash) editing job, and thank you to a few of the characters, for not freaking when they read this. ^.^;;
D/C: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
[Insert long list of names here that's posted in chapter five, which I can't (for some reason) access right now…] are based upon actual people, but their names have been changed to protect the actual persons from a life of fame and wealth (hah! You wish…).
"Talking inside of each other's heads" was made up by the real Kirsten and Inad. They came up with it freshman year. I have yet to figure out whether they actually do it or not.
The majority of the comments in this story actually came from the people that are said to have said them. A few were added by me, but I won't tell you which ones, 'cuz that would spoil the whole story. ~*sticks out tongue*~
The zipper shirt actually does exist: it was at one time sold by Hot Topic, a store at various malls in the Portland/Vancouver area. I actually have no idea whether or not it exists elsewhere—y'all will have to tell me if it does.
As a quick note, the majority of this chapter was originally written as a short story for English. It was 14 pages, double spaced, but I had to A) shorten it to single spaced for my purposes, and B) cut and paste parts that were no longer relevant to the story line. For example, Jack, Pyro, Chris, Lia, Kirsten, and Inad were all re-introduced. So anything that seems "simplified" probably is, and can be fixed if necessary. Oh, the reviews from that story? My teacher adored it, and everyone who read it in my class absolutely hated the cliffy. : ) Another job well done….
//…\\ means that it's a memory…
Thank you for all your wonderful reviews!
Chapter Nine - Voices In The Dark
"Zippers are mesmerizing…."
~Kirsten Leeann Orlae, of Pyro's zipper shirt
Zack sat down with a sigh. The day had been rough on him. Lia and Jack had fought twice during the car ride home, both ending up with another person yelling at them to shut it or lose it. The teachers had succeeded in their goal of assigning as much homework as possible before a three-day weekend. He had been having strange memories—as he was sure the lapses in the day were—of adults screaming, children running everywhere, and him in the wake of it all, facing what seemed to be an unknown opponent.
And to top the whole lot off, he had what felt like the mother of all headaches centered right around of the strange scar on his forehead.
He frowned down at the paper in front of him and tried to understand the figures that lay on it. He had been doing so poorly in math that the teacher asked him what level he'd been in before he'd moved from England. He had sighed, and then explained the situation of the car wreck almost a month before.
Wow, Zack thought to himself. I have known these crazy people for over a month now. Between school and—he glanced down at his geometry paper—homework, I'd forgotten about that.
He wondered vaguely if he'd recognize his former friends if he saw them, and then returned to geometry equations with a sigh.
~&~
Hermione paused in her writing, only to be jolted forward as another bout of turbulence began. She sighed, and put the papers and heavy book away. Even though the work they did in America wouldn't be counted, she still felt as though she had to excel. The United States history book was heavy, but not compared to the load that she normally hauled around Hogwarts.
"Excited, Hermione?" A Ravenclaw she didn't know peered over the top of the seat in front of her. Another spasm of turbulence threw him from his perch.
"Pardon?"
"Are you excited? About going back to America?"
Am I excited? Hermione thought to herself. She had bad memories of Seattle, and although Portland, Oregon, was in an entirely different state, it was still relatively close to the aforementioned city.
But was she excited…?
"I guess I am," she said finally, choosing her words slowly and carefully. "In a way, going back is a solace; and in another way, it is a burden."
[VWW: Eurg…look at what an AP English class has done to my vocab. Maybe I'll change this later…and maybe not….]
The boy seemed confused. Perhaps by her use of large words, perhaps by the tone with which she spoke. Hermione never knew, because the steward came by and told the boy to get back in his seat and buckle his belt.
Ron gently squeezed her hand (something he had been prone to doing as of late), and she smiled grimly. Harry was still out there somewhere. They would find him. She would find him.
Even if it killed her to do it.
[Jack: Jeeze, a little bit desperate there, isn't she?!]
[VWW: ::innocent look:: Yeah…so?]
~&~
Lia sighed and banged her head lightly on the table in front of her. She was going insane.
In the sixteen-year-old's eyes, insanity was a slow process, like learning how to drive. At first, you don't get to leave the parking lot, but once you've managed the basics, you get to drive on the streets, and learn that not everything is as difficult as it seems.
This was what math was doing to her. Well, math, and the fact that the teacher was going to put her to sleep if she didn't do something about it.
"Jack," she whispered. "Jack!"
"What?"
"Pinch me."
"Pinch you?"
"Are you deaf? I said pinch me!"
Giving her a strange look, Jack complied.
"YEOUCH!"
The classroom went dead quiet, and Lia rubbed her arm. "I didn't say hard!"
"Girls, is there something wrong?"
Jack was utterly bewildered by this point. "I'm really confused," she said, shaking her head.
Lia rubbed her arm more vigorously. "Nothing wrong; she just pinched me, is all."
"Jill?"—Jack sighed and Lia had to stifle a giggle—"Are we in second grade?"
"No, you misunderstand," Lia told her. "I asked her to pinch me."
Now the teacher looked confused. "Never mind, ladies. Now, to get to the absolute value function, press the math button…."
Lia sighed again. It seemed insanity would come sooner than she thought it would. [Nova: You mean it's not already here?] [Lia: Hey! I resemble that comment!] [Nova: You mean resent?] [Lia: Whatever….]"D'you know when those exchange peoples are coming?" she whispered.
Jack shrugged. "Probably any day now. It's not like we'll notice the difference. Adding twenty students to a school of over eighteen hundred is like placing 20 needles in a haystack of eighteen hundred hay…straws."
[VWW: Yes. 1800. That's the count for this year. It's pathetically huge.]
"Good point. But you'd recognize the accent, if you heard it! It's not like these people are moving in from a different state, where their accent is at least somewhat similar to ours."
"Um, Lia? Their accent is somewhat similar to ours."
"Whatever."
"Girls, pay attention!"
Lia grimaced, and she heard Jack's chair squeak as she jumped in surprise. The teacher loomed from the front of the room, looking very menacing indeed.
"Uh oh…."
~&~
The twenty Hogwarts students filed into the lobby, lugging their bags in an exhausted manner behind them. Hermione felt that Ginny looked as though she was about to fall asleep standing up, while Ron was barely stumbling across the cushy carpet as it was. Even Draco Malfoy, who had somehow been convinced to come along, was not as immaculate as he normally was. Professor Crowley, the Muggle Studies teacher who had volunteered to bring them along, somehow kept alert, while Professor White, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, looked as tired as the rest of them.
"Alright," Professor White said. She wiped a lock of her auburn hair from her eyes and tucked it back behind her ear. "Girls, follow me. Boys, follow Professor Crowley."
Malfoy jeered slightly, but everyone did as they were told, Hermione noticed. It seemed they were all too tired to object.
"We start classes tomorrow morning," Professor White explained to them as they walked down the hall, "So we're going to let you do what you please for the rest of the day. If you can, try not to sleep until a more reasonable hour. It'll be better for you, since you'll have to wake up early."
A few tired murmurs met Hermione's ears.
Blaise Zambini raised her hand. "Are we allowed to leave the hotel?"
"Good question, Zambini. As long as you take a partner with you, or go in a group of less than five people, you may leave the hotel. You also have to let one of the chaperones know."
"Can we go visit the school now, if we want?"
Professor White looked thoughtful for a moment. "You know, that's not such a bad idea. I know Professor Crowley isn't letting his boys off the premises (and with good reason!), but I'm willing to take you—as long as you don't mind walking."
Another bunch of tired murmurs met Hermione's ears, but this time they seemed slightly more interested in learning where they would be attending school for the next four months.
"All of you, go shower up and get ready in Muggle clothes." The light seemed to have come back into the young professor's eyes. "Let's go sightseeing."
~&~
Jack sat down at her desk, a rueful sigh escaping her lips. For some reason, the school day had dragged by, as though someone had rigged time to move five times slower than normal. She slipped her bag off her shoulder and let it drop to the floor. She was pretty sure the resounding thud could be heard from the floor below.
"Tough day?"
She lifted her head off her arms and looked through the bit of blue dyed tips that were her bangs at a maliciously grinning Lia.
"What do you want?"
"Nothing."
"What are you even doing in her? I thought you had AP English."
"I do. Well, I will. I haven't switched in yet."
Jack buried her face in her arms again. Another four days with Lia…they already had two classes together, and now another.
Crap.
The class started, and Jack listened dully to the teacher's rambling speech. Bored, the teen pulled a blank sheet of paper from her bag and began to doodle. Abstract art began to form, flowing straight from her hand into her pencil faster than she could think. Before she knew what was going on, she had filled the page with a scene right out of Picasso's paintings.
"Ms. Gilligan!"
Jack's head shot up in the air, her orange streaked hair flying everywhere. "Yes?"
"The answer, Jill." Jack sighed; for some reason, certain teachers could never get her name right. It was usually math teachers, though.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention. Could you repeat the question?"
Snickers laced the classroom. Jack resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
The teacher, however, seemed to have no such restrictions about rolling eyes, but repeated the question anyway. "In the second chapter, what is the main character's problem once she reaches the road?"
What? What problem?
"Uh…" Jack said, tugging at a lock of her hair. "Well…."
"Page twenty-two!" Lia hissed, nudging her.
Jack flipped her book open, and then realized that Lia had told her the wrong page number. However, it didn't matter, because she remembered. "Oh! She sees another car approaching, and due to her criminal state, she needs to jump back into the ditch."
"Good! I'm glad to see someone did the reading from last night."
Actually, I read this book last year, Jack thought to herself grimly. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to remember that.
Half an hour later, the final bell of the day rang, and cheers erupted from the students. They had made it through the week.
"Finish up anything you have left as homework," the teacher droned monotonously. "I'll see you all on Monday."
Lia bounced over. "You going to practice today?" she asked, referring to the swim practice that evening.
"Supposedly," Jack told her dryly. "Is there ever a day when I don't go?"
"Well, when you're sick, when you've got too much homework, when you and Daniel decide to take too many detours—"
"Lia," Jack said with a slight laugh. "We do not take detours."
"Then what do you call them?"
"Detours," supplied a deeper voice than what either teen expected. Jack turned and, to her delight, saw Daniel quickly approaching from behind them. She felt a grin form on her face and she wrapped her arms around the older boy when he got close enough.
"Bad day?"
"Am I that readable?"
"Hey-lo, chillens," Pyro said, coming up from behind as well, and draping her arms around their shoulders. Jack almost laughed at the reprieve.
"Howdy," Lia answered back, falling into step with them as they started off towards the 900 wing stairs.
"Having a good day, are we?"
"Yup!" Lia replied.
Jack snorted.
"No, then?" Pyro commented, raising her eyebrows.
Jack smiled sardonically in reply.
"What's up?" Daniel asked her.
She sighed and explained everything that had gone wrong that day, starting with missing morning practice because she slept in accidentally, and ending with her near brush with detention.
[Nova: Well, what's wrong with sleeping in?]
[Jack: I missed practice! ::Wails::]
[Nova: Yeah, so? That can be regarded as a GOOD thing for people who value sleep.]
"Doesn't sound that bad," Lia said with a shrug.
"That's because it didn't happen to you!"
"Uh, one part did."
"What? Oh, the detention. But teachers like you, Lia. She wasn't about to give you detention."
"Can I help it if I'm so cute and innocent?"
"Innocent, my ass," Jack murmured under her breath.
[Inad: Bad word! Bad word!! ::swats VWW over the head::]
[VWW: Yeouch! That's what she says! AAAAH!!! No!!! ::hides::]
"I heard that."
Jack sighed again and resisted the urge to run to the nearest wall and start hitting her head against it. Wait a second, she thought. What walls?! It was a huge joke among the students at her high school that their school was rich enough to have afforded new computers the previous February, but too poor to afford walls, doors, and working windows. Heh…maybe I should go search for one of those portable wall things, but it would probably roll away and leave me feeling all confused and more than a little gypped.
"Jack! Jeeze, you are inattentive today…."
Jack blinked. "What?"
Kirsten and Inad, two more of her best friends, were standing a few feet in front of her, both of them with their hands planted on their hips. "Well?" Kirsten asked.
"Well what?"
"Would you?" Inad chimed in.
"Would I what? Would you two quit being cryptic?!"
"No," they answered in unison.
Frustrated, Jack turned to face Pyro, Lia, and Daniel, and was surprised to see that all three of them had expressions of fear splayed on their faces and were shaking their heads violently. The teen suddenly had a lurking suspicion of what the crazy girls had asked for. "No," she said bluntly.
"No what?" Kirsten asked, looking confused.
"No," she repeated, this time with a little laugh.
"No?" Inad looked profoundly disappointed.
"No, I will not give you money to buy Skittles with."
Three enormous sighs of relief told Jack that she had hit the nail on the head. She tried not to laugh.
"Okay, then," Kirsten said, her smile returning full force, "would you give us a ride home? We don't want to take the bus, and Inad couldn't get her car today, and mine's in the shop."
"Why's yours in the shop?" Lia asked over Jack's loud groan.
"I got hit yesterday at lunch while waiting at the light. Someone couldn't wait to get out of the parking lot."
Jack groaned loudly again. It was bad enough that they had wanted her to buy them Skittles…now they wanted her to drive them?!
"I'll do it," Lia offered.
"That's okay," Jack said wearily. "I should be back in time for practice…if not, don't wait for me."
Jack watched as Lia went to her locker and, after struggling with the key and lock for a moment, opened it. Two jackets, a math book, and a chemistry book promptly spilled out and hit the floor. Jack snorted with laughter.
The teens clustered around Lia while she distributed belongings, including (but not limited to) three math books, a sweatshirt, two water bottles, and a small bottle of body spray.
"Inad, I the way this smells!! It's so good!" Kirsten said.
"Thanks!"
The two giggled for a few moments, and then followed Jack out to her car.
~&~
"I don't know whether to feel bad for her or laugh and laugh and laugh," Lia told Pyro, dropping her bag onto the floor near an armchair and then sinking into said armchair.
Pyro grinned in reply and went to the fridge.
"D'you think we should be worried?"
"Nah. Jack can take care of herself, and they didn't seem that hyper."
Lia composed a serious look on her face and stood up from the chair. "Don't forget: looks can be deceiving."
Pyro waved a negligent hand towards her friend. "She'll be fine. The worst that could happen is that they begin a giggle-spree, and that hasn't happened for two days."
"They're due for another one, then."
"Not necessarily." Pyro withdrew her head from the fridge, a large Rubbermaid juice container in her left hand. "They've gone for two weeks before."
"Once," Lia pointed out, patting Pyro's cat on the head before rudely shoving her off of the couch. Lia wasn't very fond of cats, possibly because they made her sneeze more often than not.
"Exactly. It could happen again!"
Lia laughed. "And pigs can fly."
"Let's not get into that again." Pyro grabbed a cup from the cupboard and began to pour herself some lemonade.
"Good idea." Lia sneezed loudly and absently grabbed a tissue from the nearby tissue box near by. "Do you have Angel from this week? I missed the last half hour, and I'm dying to know what happened…"
~&~
Jack turned up the radio to try to drown out the incessant giggling of Inad and Kirsten. Why me? she wondered sadly. Why did I have to agree to take them home? She glanced into the rearview mirror and was slightly startled to see that the two blonds were staring up at her, evil grins on their faces.
Why me? Jack wondered once more. She stopped at a traffic light and glanced out the driver's side window. They were pretty close to Kirsten's house now.
A black sedan pulled up beside them and rolled down the window. The man in the passenger seat motioned for her to do the same.
Jack frowned. There was something about the man that didn't rub her the right way. She shrugged internally. Maybe it was the fact that his eyes were too close together.
She rolled down the window. "Yeah?"
"Can you tell me how to get to Highway 99 from here?"
Jack relaxed slightly and gave him directions.
"Thank you, miss. Have a good day!"
Jack smiled warmly, although inside she was still bothered. There was something not right about that man.
The light turned, and Jack began to drive forward again. The black sedan followed them. That's strange, Jack thought. I gave him directions starting from here if he turned around…maybe he misunderstood…?
"Jack?" Jack looked into the rearview mirror again to see that Inad had turned fully around in her seat and was watching the sedan, while Kirsten looked up at her kind of worriedly. She hadn't even realized that the teens had stopped giggling. "What's up with that guy?"
"I don't know," she answered.
Finally, about five minutes later, he sped ahead of them and went around a corner. Jack relaxed and turned the music up again.
See? she scolded herself. There was nothing to be worried about!
Something slammed into the side of the car, and Jack's head collided with the steering wheel. She barely had time to register Inad and Kirsten's screams of fear before the world went black.
~&~
A dull ache throbbed in her head. My head has no business hurting, Jack thought dimly. The smell of dust was thick around her. She tried to open her eyes, but what felt like a hand was pressed tightly over them. A wave of terror encompassed her as the memories of what had happened spilled across her mind.
Jack felt like screaming, but her lips wouldn't open, so nothing more than a few muffled sobs emanating into the room. "Do us all a favor," an annoyed voice growled, "and shut up!" Jack moaned in fear, but a vicious kick to her ribs quickly quieted her.
"What are we going to do about her now that the other two are dead?" a heavily accented voice asked. Jack tried to roll over. When she found that the only parts of her body that she could move were her head and neck, panic welled in her stomach, threatening to take over her mind entirely. What had these strange men done to prevent her from moving? And where were Inad and Kirsten? Surely they weren't the two dead people her kidnappers were talking about…right?
"Even more important," another voice, this one in a much clearer British accent, said, "what are we going to do with their bodies?"
Jack felt like curling into a ball and rocking back and forth.
"Dump them somewhere."
"And the girl?" the man that had kicked her asked, nudging her hip with his foot.
The soft rustling of a shirt moving alerted Jack that someone had shrugged. "The boss said that he wanted one of their group alive. We have one; leave her alone…for now."
One of their group? Which group? What do they want with me?!
Two muffled thumps—one on either side of Jack—startled the teen so badly that she would have jumped, had she been able to. A delicate scent wafted into her nose.
"Don't bring them in here!" the heavily accented voice cried.
"Are you mad?!" the Brit exclaimed at the same time. "What if someone sees you?"
Jack strained to figure out where she had smelled the scent before.
"He wants all three of them," a new voice said. Jack thought it sounded familiar.
"Put them all in the back closet," the leader ordered. "Make sure they're out of sight."
With a surge of fresh pain, all feeling returned to her limbs, and she was dragged to her feet.
"Start walking," the new man said as two iron hands wrapped around her upper arms. Jack attempted to struggle against him, but found that her feet seemed to have mutinied and allied with her captors. The creaking of a door opening caught her ears before she was shoved into the small space. She flailed her arms, trying to keep her balance, and hit the wall with a sickening thud.
Dazed, she listened as two more people were shoved into the small space, and heard the door shut again. A lock clicked into place.
The delicate scent met her nose once more. Jack strained to figure out what it was, but the body-binding sensation that had been on her earlier was once more in place. She stifled back the urge to cry, and instead lay there, listening to the voices in the dark.
~&~
A cell phone went off in the midst of the group of teens chattering noisily.
"Who's got Pink Panther?"
Lia grinned and raised her hand before diving into her bag and pulling out a well-loved cell. "Alo?"
"Lia?"
"Well, who else would this be, Daniel? This is my phone, after all."
"The last time I called, I got your brother."
Lia grinned sheepishly. "Oh. Why are you calling?" She frowned. "Why aren't you here?"
"Jack's mother called; she never came home. I'm driving over there to prove that she's not hiding out in my car again."
"Hello! She took the evil twins home! Inad lives way out in the boonies!"
"Well, do me a favor and call Kirsten…I don't have her number."
"Daniel, relax! She'll be fine…she probably stopped somewhere with Inad after dropping Kirsten off to get a bite to eat…or something." Lia felt unnerved. She couldn't remember the last time she had heard Daniel sound this worried. She couldn't remember ever hearing him sound worried.
"I'll call back in twenty minutes."
"I'll be in the pool in twenty minutes. Look, if she doesn't show up to practice, I'll give you a call, okay?"
A few people were giving her weird looks.
"Bye."
"See ya." She hung up and put the phone back in her bag.
"Lia? Care to share?" Pyro asked.
"Daniel's being paranoid."
"Daniel normally has a reason to be paranoid," she pointed out.
"Jack never came home." Lia shrugged. "I told you, he's being paranoid!"
"Yeah…." Pyro grinned and glanced up at the clock.
"I'm going to head on down," Lia said, looking up as well. "See y'all in a few."
~&~
Stupid headache, Jack though angrily. The voices had abated long ago, and the slamming of a door a few minutes earlier announced their departure.
Suddenly, Jack felt the weight of the hand on her eyes disappear, and she somehow knew she could move her body and open her mouth. She sat up slowly, feeling her bones and muscles ache and pull as she did so.
Then she remembered.
//"Inad, I the way this smells!! It's so good!" Kirsten said.
"Thanks!"\\
Jack choked back another sob as she gazed at the prone bodies of Kirsten and Inad. She wrapped her arms around herself helplessly.
She sat there, staring at them, until the tears ran freely down her face, and she prayed that someone would find her before it was too late.
Before she ended up like her friends.
Stupid headache! Jack though again, getting up and running her fingers along the door, searching for anything that could allow her exit from her prison. Anything that could get her away from the bodies.
She shook her head violently and fervently continued. The men had left, so she figured she might as well try to get out. What do they want with us? she thought for the hundredth time that day. She sat back on her heels and contemplated the situation at hand. All I know is that they don't care that they've killed someone—killed two someones… Jack smiled bitterly. You know what…if there's no one here…
The now crying teen pulled her leg back and kicked the door as hard as she could. An almighty crack! sounded from the door, but other than that, there was no effect. Jack kicked it again, ignoring the pain in her foot. A splintering sound met her ears. She kicked once more, and was rewarded when her foot hit the wood and then continued through to freedom.
Sort of.
Now she was half-stuck in a closet with her foot sticking out the door. Jack nearly laughed at the irony of it all.
Today just isn't my day.
~&~
Daniel couldn't have cared less if the metal door put permanent welts on his hands from all the pounding he was doing. Someone would let him in—eventually. Finally, he heard a click as someone twisted the handle and he stepped back to see who it was. A very annoyed—and wet—Lia stood at the door.
"Oh, it's you," she said.
"Yeah."
Lia's annoyed looked changed to worry. "What's up?"
"Nothing."
Lia raised an eyebrow. "That was ambiguous," she commented.
"Not really."
"Well, something's wrong. You don't—"
"Kirsten never got home." He hesitated, not wanting to tell her the rest.
Lia picked up on the pause. "And…"
"I found her car, smashed on the driver's side, on the road three miles from Kirsten's house. Empty."
Lia went pale. "Give me ten minutes—no, five. I'll grab Pyro."
~&~
Jack gritted her teeth and pulled her leg free from the door, pleased that she had at least somewhat secured her way out. She gingerly put her arm through the hole and felt around for the doorknob. There wasn't one. Panicking, Jack frantically felt around until her hand hit something cold and definitely metal. She sighed in relief and started to laugh quietly. She twisted the knob and let herself out. The sun's dying light filled the room with such brilliance that it hurt Jack's eyes. She covered her face with her arm and leaned against the doorframe, waiting for her eyes to adjust.
Inad's perfume wafted up her nose again, and Jack turned to look at their bodies once more. Strangely, they looked unhurt, except for what would have been a nasty bruise on the left side of Inad's head, and a gash on Kirsten's leg.
What should I do with them? Jack wondered, trying not to cry and, mostly, not to pass out. Finally, grief overwhelmed her, and she fell to her knees in tears and sobbed over her dead friends.
~&~
"How much longer?" Lia asked, fingering a still damp curl.
"Not much," Daniel said hollowly. "Maybe two minutes to where the car is."
"Did you tell Jack's mother?" Pyro wanted to know.
Lia turned to look at Daniel. He hesitated. "No."
"No?!" Lia burst out. "Why not? She's her mother, for Pete's sake!"
"Lia, calm down."
Lia rounded on her friend, her eyes very green. "Calm down?"
"Yes, Lia. We can all hear you just fine, as we're all no more than a few feet away from each other."
Lia harrumphed and leaned back into her seat, looking decidedly grumpy.
"There it is," Daniel said finally, and pulled over. The sun had just started to drop below the trees, so Pyro grabbed a flashlight from the back seat and the three of them stepped out of the car.
The little Honda looked pitiful. Both doors were swung wide—the driver's side looked as though it had been pried off—and a chunk of blond hair was stuck in the back window. Lia examined it, very careful not to touch anything.
"It's Kirsten's," she said.
"How can you tell?" Daniel asked.
"There's enough of it that has the wave that hers does, and it's so blond!"
"Lia, how much of that forensics stuff do you remember from Biology last year?" Pyro's voice asked from down the road a little ways.
"Enough," Lia admitted.
"And how good are you with measurements?"
"In meters or yards?"
"Either."
"Not good. Why?"
Pyro flashed the light on the pavement in response. Parallel skid marks began from halfway down the road in an arc from where a car should drive and ended where the car had stopped.
"I can tell you in good faith that they were going the speed limit," Lia admitted, "and that they were definitely hit."
"Good job, Sherlock," Daniel said sarcastically. "Care to state any more of the obvious?"
"And I can also tell you that it was done purposely."
Pyro looked startled. "How?"
"There's no marks coming from where the other car would have run into them. If I'm remembering everything right, that is."
"Who would want to kill them?"
"No idea."
A loud crack made the three of them jump, and Pyro quickly turned off the flashlight. A limping figure emerged from the trees onto the road.
Without stopping to think, Lia grabbed the flashlight from Pyro and turned it on, bellowing, "Police! Freeze!"
The person obeyed.
"What are you doing?" Daniel hissed in her ear.
"Better to play it safe than sorry!"
She began to walk forward slowly. "Put your hands up where I can see them!" Again, the person obeyed.
"You've got to help me!" the voice came back to them. Lia nearly dropped the flashlight.
"Jack!" The three teens ran towards the girl and smothered her in a hug. Lia made a fuss over the bruise that was forming on her forehead, while Daniel devoted his time to wrapping her in his leather coat.
"Are you okay?" Pyro finally got out, after the babbling of Lia and Daniel had somewhat died away.
Jack began to shiver, and it wasn't until a sob escaped her lips that they realized she was crying.
"Jack?" Daniel said.
"Where are Kirsten and Inad?" Lia asked slowly.
Jack sobbed harder.
~&~
Jack took a sip of the coffee that had been firmly placed in her hands and sighed. What a day, she thought. There are so many things I could have done differently.
A pair of hands grabbed her shoulders, and Jack jumped away. She turned and saw the hurt look on Daniel's face.
"Oh, D, I'm sorry," she said softly. "I'm just…" she trailed off and stared into her mug.
"I understand."
Jack took another sip and looked at him again. "I was just thinking…that's all."
Kirsten and Inad's giggling sounded in her mind. She closed her eyes, but the tears dripped out anyway. Daniel's arms enveloped her in a hug. "I've…I…"
"Shh," Daniel murmured. "It's okay. I know."
"They'll never catch those men unless they confess to it," Jack said finally. "I never saw them."
"I know."
Something didn't ring right about the tone in his voice. Jack turned again to look at him.
"How do you know?"
He smiled at her, but it was a cold smile. "Do you really want to know?" he asked her, leaning close. Jack felt her blood run cold.
"Oh, my God," she whispered. The familiar voice from the house…it was Daniel! But how…?
A gunshot echoed off the walls in the room, and a body slumped down to the floor.
[VWW: Mwahaha…let the fun begin….]