CHAPTER 6

"Have you told anyone?" Chip asked quietly.

"Only you," Katherine said grimly.

They were walking on the way to lunch. Katherine had wanted to tell Chip about the contents of the letter this morning when they had been waiting for the bus, but she had woken up late. She had kept herself up last night, brain tied in knots, and her stomach twisting in worry.

Those words were so ominous… And that's what made them terrifying.

Chip didn't seem to like her response. That was fair, as Katherine herself didn't like it either. She almost had the urge to go to Mom and Dad and spill everything to them, the letters, her fears, everything. But Jonah was right about them freaking out a bit, because that morning they had been acting as carefully with her as if she'd been made of glass or something.

Katherine sighed and adjusted her ponytail as they entered the cafeteria. Her classmates were being as loud and boisterous as ever, and while usually she didn't mind, today it annoyed her. None of them had to deal with this.

"What if Jonah sent it?" Chip said suddenly.

"Huh?" Katherine was sure she didn't hear him right… he couldn't possibly be suggesting that Jonah sent her an ominous letter.

"I didn't get one," Chip said, "So maybe Jonah sent it to you as a prank." He shrugged at Katherine's bewildered expression. "I don't know, I'm just brainstorming."

Katherine thought back to how desperate Jonah had seemed when begging her not to search for her identity. How serious he had been.

"It wasn't Jonah," Katherine said shortly.

"Fine. What did the letter say, again?" Chip asked.

"'Beware, they're coming back to get you!'" Katherine recited. She had read it hundreds upon hundreds of times, each more gut churning than the last. One letter could be a fluke. Two was stretching it.

"Huh," Chip said, "Did you make anyone mad recently? They might come 'get you' or something."

Katherine appreciated that he was trying to help her figure this out, but his answers seemed like they were getting stupider and stupider. "Not that I know of," she said.

They'd reached the lunch line by that point, behind a rather nervous or ill looking Sarah Puchini. What happened to the poor girl? Sure, she was a bit skittish, but never on this level…

Katherine opened her mouth to ask her if she was alright, but then she was interrupted the sound of children yelling about a fight happening later in the day. Oh boy. She watched Sarah get her lunch and walk over to a table by herself. Sheesh. Rough day for her.

Katherine and Chip got their own lunches and headed over to their table, far away from other kids. She didn't really want to have to explain her bad mood to anyone else.

"Hey," Chip said suddenly, nervously, after they had sat down. Katherine looked up from where she had been poking at her "mashed potatoes." "You… you wouldn't mind walking with me to my house, yeah?"

Katherine was confused for a moment before it clicked. "Are you scared that you got the same letter?"

"Not scared," Chip said quickly, "Just… if we both got the same letters, there has to be something going on, right? It can't just be a coincidence…"

That's what Katherine had been worrying over since last night. She was really, really hoping that Chip didn't get a letter.

She continued hoping that all the way home on the bus, sitting besides Jonah who was blabbering about something she couldn't be bothered to listen to. Her stomach felt like it was tied up in knots. She couldn't focus on anything except for that stupid letter.

Thirteen words in total and here she was, having a breakdown because of it. She was worse than Mom and Dad at this rate…

The bus stopped, and Katherine looked up in surprise to see that they were already at their street. Her stomach flipped like a pancake. Oh boy…

She shakily got up and followed Jonah off the bus, but stood back while he continued on forward. He didn't notice this at first, but then when he realized she wasn't following him, he turned around suspiciously.

"I'm walking Chip home," she explained, praying that he would just accept this and let her go. Thankfully, with a sharp nod, Jonah squinted at her, then turned around and started walking towards their house again.

Katherine sighed. Chip appeared next to her suddenly.

"Ready to go?" he asked, attempting for a cheerful and uplifting voice that ended up sounding more like a depressed Mickey Mouse.

"No," Katherine said honestly, but she began walking to the Winstons' house anyways. Chip hurried after her.

It wasn't too far away from the bus stop. But even that short distance was enough to fill Katherine with dread.

When they reached the mailbox, neither of them opened it. They both just stood there, staring at it as if it would reveal its secrets.

"Well…" Katherine said, clearing her throat.

"Fine," Chip sighed and opened the mailbox. He pulled out a large stack on envelopes because of course! Nothing can be easy and stress free in this world.

"Bill, bill, bill, ad…" Chip muttered to himself, flipping through the stack of letters, his voice growing steadier and steadier with each one that wasn't an unmarked envelope. Katherine was starting to relax, too.

Big mistake.

Chip's face suddenly went horribly pale, as though he had lost a lot of blood. Katherine looked down quickly at his hands to see him holding a stack of unmarked white envelopes. Oh no.

In her haze of fear, Katherine noticed that some of the envelopes had yellow forwarding stickers on them with Chip's old address of Winnetka, Illinois.

That ruled out this being a prank from school. Nobody except the school office knew where Chip used to live.

Chip's hands and voice were shaky as he said, "Katherine, open them. I'm… I can't…"

Katherine took them from him, trying for grace. In reality, she snatched them like a starving man snatching food. Slowly, she opened each one.

She swallowed. "'You are one the missing,'" she read off, "'Beware! They are coming back to get you!' There's another one of those, too…" Whoever had sent these had sent two copes of each: one to Chip's old address and one to his new address… to make sure he truly got them.

Katherine stared at Chip, completely unsure of what to say. Thankfully, she was saved when her phone rang.

Relief flooded through her body as she dug around in er pocket to find her phone. Finally, she grabbed it and saw that it was Mom calling her. Weird. She pressed the accept button.

"Mom?" Katherine asked, trying to keep her voice stable. It didn't help that Chip was still staring at her with a terrified expression on his face.

"Hey, Kathie," said Mom sweetly. Uh oh. The nicknames and the sugar sweetness. Was Katherine in trouble or something? "How was your day, dear?"

"Fine," Katherine said truthfully.

"That's good," Mom said. There was silence. Then she took a deep breath. "Katherine, I called the adoption agency for you like I promised."

Katherine's heart skipped a beat. She… what? She wasn't sure what to say. Give thanks? Say that Mom didn't have to do that but oh I'm so glad you did? Katherine gripped the phone tighter, mouth dry.

"Eva, the social worker we knew- she isn't there anymore," Mom began, "But I talked to someone else, and, Katherine… there is new information on your case."

Katherine froze. She managed to let out an, "Yeah?"

"A name," Mom said, "A name on your file. The lady was a bit confused because she didn't know if she was allowed to tell us…" Mom audibly swallowed. "but… it wasn't your birth parents. It was someone else. Someone listed as having information about you."

"Who?" Katherine demanded, and, yeah, her voice cracked, but at the moment she didn't care. She just needed to know who this person was.

"A man named James Reardon," Mom explained, "I think he works for the FBI."

a/n: hi. i have no excuse. im really sorry this is so late dbjhdfvdhj but um yeah i think im gonna have to change my schedule like. a lot. because i've been really busy recently. so im hoping that i can keep a once a month schedule now. sound good? hope so because thats as low as i can go.

anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter! stay safe out there 3