Whispers in the Dark
- Chapter Eight – Whispers in the Dark
"Despite the lies that you're making, your love is mine for the taking.
My love is just waiting to turn your tears to roses.
I will be the one that's gonna hold you, I will be the one that you run to.
My love is a burning, consuming fire.
No, you'll never be alone.
When darkness comes; I'll light the night with stars.
Hear my whispers in the dark.
No, you'll never be alone.
When darkness comes; you know I'm never far,
Hear my whispers in the dark…"
Artist: Skillet – Song: Whispers in the Dark
Cory diverted her eye's from Jason's stare as she looked down to see what had rolled to her feet, it was a white and yellow swirled 2 wick candle contained in a delicate pink glass –which by some miracle was only slightly chipped from it's journey out of the trashcan and down the driveway.
Kneeling down she picked it up and looked up at Jason as she swallowed hard and managed to breathe, "Hey…"
"Hey." He greeted back, walking closer to her and frowning at the small cuts still visible on her face from the accident she'd been in.
They stood in silence, neither of them entirely sure what to say to the other. Offering a small smile he asked, "When did you start taking midnight walks in your pajamas?"
Her lips curved up in a small smile and she looked around, as she shrugged, "I don't know, it's never too late to start a new tradition, right?"
Trying to ignore her heart racing almost painfully hard against her still sore ribcage she looked to the trashcan behind him and asked, "Why are you throwing all of this away?"
"Oh, uh, I'm just trying to fix the house up right now… I found these boxes in the basement." He gave a small shrug as he spoke, but Cory shook her head and called him on his lie, "You know what all of this stuff is… it's things that people left here when Ali went missing."
Nodding he glanced over to some stuffed animals that were on the ground next to the trashcans and explained, "I just don't really see a point in keeping this junk around… it's not going to bring her back."
"True, I guess…" She breathed, wanting to ask him so many questions. Starting with wondering if he'd really been at the hospital to see her and what he was doing back, why he'd want to live in that house of all places.
Leaning down he picked up a few other things that had rolled down the driveway and reached out to take the candle from her but she stepped back and protectively held onto it as she admitted, "I'm the one who left this here…"
"Oh." He realized feeling bad when he saw the pained look on her face, "I didn't know…"
"My dad had some medical conferences in Pittsburg, it was this entire weekend event so my whole family went. I brought Ali with me and we found this small craft store not too far from the hotel." Cory remembered with a smile as she continued, "We picked the scents, wax colors, the glass holders… we made matching candles."
"That's the one you made?" He quietly asked, his eyes never leaving her face as she spoke.
"No, actually this is the one Ali made. We tried to swirl the yellow and white wax but hers didn't look as good as mine… so she made me trade her." Cory laughed and Jason smiled as he nodded, "Sounds like something she'd do."
"I guess since she's the one who made this one… I probably should have hung onto it." Her voice was a quiet whisper, so soft that he had to lean in to hear her.
"Why didn't you?"
Shrugging she looked back up at him, her eyes locking with his and for a moment she couldn't breathe. Clearing her throat she admitted, "It's stupid… but I guess, I thought if I left this here that when she came home she'd see it and know that I'd never forget about her, that no matter what was so bad she had to leave Rosewood over –maybe if she saw this candle she'd know that she still had me and she could come home."
Cory looked down, feeling tears stinging her eyes as she looked down to a deep crack running along the side of the pink glass jar she hadn't seen before she whispered, "Like I said… it's stupid." As she turned it in her hand the glass cut her finger and she winced as blood started to bead to the surface.
"No." He argued, "That's not stupid."
"Yeah, looking back it kind of is… especially knowing what we know now." She argued, shaking her head and using her non injured hand to wipe the tear that had slid down her cheek.
He opened his mouth to say something but she pulled in a deep, painful breathe and looked around wondering what she was even doing there. What good could possibly come from this? Alison was dead, really gone and nothing could change that.
"It's late… I should get home." She stammered out, taking a few steps backwards and nearly tripping over her own feet.
He quickly stepped forward in case she did lose her balance.
"I could drive you-" He started to offer but she shook her head back and forth, "No, it's okay. I want to walk."
He looked around, not liking the idea of her walking home alone in the middle of the night in the same town where his sister had been killed, but with the way she kept backing up away from him –he couldn't tell if she was afraid of him.
"I could walk with you." He offered, with a small smile.
"No." She said, shaking her head back and forth, "You're really busy and I… I shouldn't have come here anyways." She stammered out her excuse as she handed him the candle to throw away and nervously called out, "Goodnight."
He looked down to the candle and saw blood smeared on the glass, "Cory, are you hurt?"
"Uh, the glass cut me… but I'm fine." She quickly answered, before politely saying, "Have a goodnight, Jason."
A little confused by her reaction he slowly nodded and called after her, "Uh, yeah… you too."
By the time she'd reached her own street she was practically in a full blown sprint, she'd thought she'd be ready to see and talk to him again because she'd convinced herself that she was over him but now it was becoming clearer and clearer that she still felt the same when it came to him.
But everything seemed to be happening all at once, she was still recovering both mentally and physically from the car wreck, Ian Thomas was still alive, she was banned from seeing or speaking to her best friends and as much as she liked seeing Jason again –seeing him also brought up painful memories that she'd tried to keep buried.
She kicked her boots off inside of her bedroom door and pulled the sweater off, letting it fall to the floor as she walked into her bathroom and washed her injured hand. Winching and letting out a pained cry when she had to use the tweezers to pull a small piece of pink glass from the cut but at least the bleeding had slowed a lot.
Putting a Band-Aid on she left all of her lights on as she crawled into her bed and pulled the blankets over her head, hoping she could get some sleep before school the next day.
~(The next day)~
The group of friends made their way through the lunch line, walking as slow as possible so they could talk.
"I can't believe the videos are all gone… that was our only evidence against Ian." Aria sighed, as Emily filled them in on how the entire hard drive had been whipped clean on her computer.
"Well, we don't have it anymore." Emily said, feeling like she'd let everyone down even though it wasn't her fault.
"We should have made like a hundred copies." Cory said as she grabbed a cup of fresh fruit and sat it on her tray.
"Has Ian sent anymore messages?" Hanna whispered as she cut between Spencer and Emily in the line.
Spencer shook her head, "I don't know. She's not leaving her phone sitting around."
They scooted down a little farther and Hanna eyed the selection of cookies.
"What about Jason, what is he doing back… and in that house?" Emily whisper-yelled at them.
"Maybe he's just looking for closure or something." Spencer guessed, but Hanna quickly said she wasn't allowed to use that word since their therapist who split them apart used it all of the time.
"Guys… I have a confession." Cory whispered looking at her friends as they stood in front of the drink cooler she admitted, "I went back to Ali's house last night… once we all separated."
"Damn it, I knew I should have walked you all the way home." Hanna groaned shaking her head.
"Did you talk to Jason?" Aria questioned.
"Yeah, not for very long… he said he was clearing those boxes of stuff out because keeping it around wasn't going to bring her back." Cory explained, then glanced around before she added, "Maybe he feels like since he knows what happened to Ali now, he can finally come home?"
"Even you have to admit it's creepy that he's back." Emily said, her voice almost sounded like she was scolding her friend.
Cory shrugged.
"I really don't like you going over there by yourself." Spencer admitted to her, and Hanna had to add in her two cents as she nodded and said, "You've got a past with him so you're not exactly the best judge of character."
"Thanks Han." She sarcastically replied.
"You know what I mean… I'm just saying, you end up getting too trusting of him –go into that house and then we may never see you again." She continued.
"I thought we were all in agreeance that Ian killed Ali." Aria spoke up.
"We are, but that doesn't mean Jason's not dangerous… or creepy." Emily pointed out and Hanna nodded.
Cory grabbed a bottle of apple juice from the cooler and walked over to pay for her lunch without another word to them.
Once they'd all filed out into the cafeteria, Aria sat down at their usual table and Hanna started to sit with her until she protested, "Han!"
"What?"
"I don't think we should sit together." Spencer quietly said as people started to stare at them all just standing in the center of the cafeteria.
"We always sit together." Cory argued, finding something to finally agree with Hanna about that day.
"We have to make it look like we're going along with this." Spencer reminded her as Emily nodded and walked over to a table with some of the swim team.
"Looking like were doing it is the same thing as doing it. It means that we're wrong and we're not wrong, we're right." The blonde continued to plead her case.
"Are we? We don't even really know what happened." Aria pointed out.
"Then that's more reason to sit together." Cory said, knowing if she didn't sit with them, she'd have no one to sit with.
"Sorry." Aria apologized and Hanna sighed storming off as she dropped her lunch tray on the end fo a table and stormed out of the cafeteria.
Cory found an empty table in the corner and sat down, feeling like she wasn't sure if she could actually eat her lunch or not now.
Her phone went off and she opened the text to reveal a new message from a blocked number;
'Look at you, all alone in a crowd. I win! Xoxo –A'
She lifted her head to see if she was the only one who got the message, but when she saw her other friends staring down their phones she knew A had sent it to everyone.
~(Later that night)~
"Spence, what are you doing here?" Cory whispered as she walked up onto the porch of the DiLaurentis house right as her friend had rung the doorbell.
Spinning around she raised her eyebrows as she asked, "What are you doing here?"
"I asked you first."
"Look, he came back for a reason and we need to figure out what that reason is… Jason and Ian used to be friends." She whispered at her, praying he wouldn't open the door yet.
"So you think he's hiding Ian in there?" Cory gasped.
"I don't know, maybe. But we need to know what we're up against." Spencer reasoned and Cory nodded before she looked down to the plate of pastries in her friend's hand and asked, "Wait… what are those?"
"I picked them up from a bakery earlier… I'm trying to act normal and blend, like I'm welcoming him back to the neighborhood." She shrugged, but Cory's jaw dropped as she whined, "I didn't bring anything to welcome him back with!"
"Cor, you used to sleep with him… I don't think you need to bring baked goods to his door step as an excuse to be here." Spencer pointed out causing her friend to roll her eyes as she argued, "Can we just say those are from us both?"
"What? No, this was my idea. I even stopped by home to move them from the box to a dish, so they'd look homemade." Spencer defended, until Cory gave her a look that she couldn't so no to and she sighed, "Fine, but that's if he even answers the door."
Reaching forward she rang the doorbell again and then her attention was diverted back to where there was a tarp over a small hole dug in the front yard, a little dog was barking and scratching at the tarp.
"What do you think is under that?" Cory asked.
"Hey, what you doing, buddy?" Spencer asked the dog in a voice that sounded like she was trying to entertain a small child.
The door flung open and Jason stormed out of the house, as he hurled a newspaper towards the dog and screamed, "Hey, get out of here!"
The paper landed next to the dog on the ground and startled it, as it whined and took off running.
The girls stared at each other wide eyed; thinking maybe this was a terrible idea.
Sighing and watching as the dog ran off he waited till it was out of sight before he turned to them and said, "Hey Cory."
"Hey…" she greeted, wondering why he was so mad at the dog and what the dog was so interested in under that tarp.
"Hi." Spencer said, interrupting as the pair stood and stared at each other in silence.
"Hello, Spencer." He greeted, pulling his eyes away from her friend.
Deciding to talk while she had his attention she said, "Sorry for just showing up like this… but I saw you back-"
"We." Cory cut in with her correction.
"Yeah, We saw you were back and thought we'd try to beat the welcome wagon." She continued with a dry laugh, knowing very well no one was lining up to welcome Jason back to Rosewood.
"Uh, thanks… that's great." He replied as he took the plate and stepped into the still open door to set the plate down and both girls followed like they were going to walk in after him, but he quickly blocked their view and stepped back out, causing them to back up as he pretty much slammed the door behind him.
"Are you parent's coming back?" Spencer questioned.
"No… it's just gonna be me for the time being." He answered, looking between them and wondering what they were really doing there.
The teenage girls stood in silence, Spencer awkwardly crossed her arms over her chest while Cory seemed to be looking around at anything except him. "I heard what happened… you guys okay?"
"Working on it." Spencer replied and Cory nodded as she asked, "So you know about everything that happened?"
"Just what I get from the news. The cops in this town don't really talk to me, I'm the bother of a murder victim… but mostly they see me as a big pain in the ass. I ask too many questions." He continued, feeling the need to take up the silence as Spencer and Cory just stood there.
"Uh, is that why you're back? Trying to get closure?" Cory asked, as she finally faced him again and nervously played with the sleeve on her jacket.
"Is there really such a thing as closure?" He questioned, his gaze lingering on her until Spencer said, "I think there can be… now that we know what happened."
"Okay… the bell tower he said."
"What about it?" Spencer asked.
"I heard that you told police Ian confessed to killing Ali, is that what happened?" He asked, stepping between them and down the porch stairs, leaving them in the porch light and him in the darkness when they turned to face him.
"No one really believes us." Cory said, her voice a little hoarse as she spoke.
"Yeah, that's what's being referred to as my version of events…" Spencer nodded, "The police think Ian ran away, but not because of your sister."
"Did he confess?" Jason asked, looking around the yard as he put his back to them.
"Yeah, I think he did."
"You think he did?"
"Well, he wanted everyone to believe that I killed her." Spencer explained.
Turning back around he nodded, "And how did you do it? According to Ian?
Spencer looked over to Cory as she took a deep breath and then said, "I pushed her, she fell and it was an accident."
He looked at her and she shook her head, "Jason, I'm sorry… I know that you and Ian were once close-"
"Did he say he killed her?" Jason gruffly asked them.
"That's what he meant." Cory spoke up, hoping Jason would at least believe her.
"That's what he meant? That's what you think…" He said, his voice growing louder as he stepped up the stairs to the porch and so close to her that she almost felt threatened, as he gruffly asked, "Did Ian say; "I killed Alison?""
"Not in those words." Cory shrugged.
"Not those words?" Jason asked, stepping closer to her and for the first time since they'd known each other, making her feel threatened as she took a step back and admitted, "Not in those exact words, no."
Spencer grabbed her arm and pulled her over to her and Jason took an apologetic step back, not trying to scare or intimidate either of them –especially Cory. But he needed to know if Ian was the one who killed his sister.
No one else knew, but the night Alison had gone missing he couldn't remember a thing. He'd literally blacked out, and when he woke up he had a note in his pocket saying that someone saw what he did, he'd spent all this time wondering if he'd accidently killed his sister. If he knew without a doubt that Ian killed her, then it would be the biggest relief he'd ever felt.
"It's, uh… it's getting late and I've got a lot to do inside." He said, giving Cory another apologetic look before stepping back up to the door.
Even though she no longer felt the least bit safe there with Jason, Spencer knew they needed to see inside of that house and figure out if he was harboring a badly wounded Ian. So she shakily asked, "Can we help?"
"You already have." He said, before looking at Cory and saying, "Good night."
She slowly nodded, still not sure how to feel or why he'd gotten up in her face like he was trying to scare an answer out of her. Either way, he'd succeeded. She wanted away from the house and for the moment at least, away from Jason.
Once he was inside with the door shut and locked behind him, Spencer asked, "Cor, are you okay?"
"I'm fine." She quickly answered, glancing back at the door and whispering her to friend, "What was that about?"
"I don't know." She admitted.
The porch lights clicked off and left them standing in darkness and spencer said, "We should go."
Cory nodded and they both walked down the porch stairs and out onto the road as Spencer said, "He's hiding something… it just doesn't feel right."
"You really think he could be hiding Ian in that house?" She whispered, feeling like they were being watched.
"I don't know what to think."
"Me either."
Spencer looked around, "I know we're not supposed to be seen together, but you want to come over for a little bit…"
"No, it's okay. The last thing I want to do is give your parents more reason be on your case." She said with a friendly smile as she reminded her, "Emily's mom might be keeping an eye on her phone, but my dad isn't… so you can call me if you need to."
"Same here, my phone's on me all the time… SOS if you need me." Spencer said as she stepped forward and hugged her friend, before starting the short walk to her house.
Cory looked back at the house one last time before starting her own walk home, feeling like she was carrying the weight of the world with her.
All of her friends were going through a hard time, Hanna was having to deal with Caleb being back in town and the fact that her dad was deciding to stick around for a while. The next day was Mr. Fitz's last day teaching at Rosewood and Aria had found out that Jackie Molina worked at Hollis. Emily's mom was still wanting to move them away to Texas and they were all reeling from the idea that Ian might still be alive.
Worst of all, this was a time that they desperately needed each other –and they weren't even allowed to sit at the same table during lunch. Everything was a disaster and it felt like the walls were crumbling and collapsing in on all of five of them, leaving them each out in the cold to whether the storm alone.
A/N- Thank you so much for reading guys! JASON'S BACK! I was so excited to get this chapter posted now that Jason is back in town and there's room for plenty of Cory/Jason interaction. ^_^ What did you all think of the chapter?
I owe a special shout out and many thank yous to xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Nirvana14, RHatch89, xxxRena, Momsen-xxxx, love2bh8ers, SmellYourScentForMiles, Lucy Greenhill, Heartless-Princess33, Joeyackles2, Shannon2015, Guest, jk522, guiltypleasurexo, and to BloomingBlueMoon85 all for reviewing chapter 7! I know I left 7 on a cliffhanger but I sorta made up for it by updating quickly, right? Lol No, but seriously thank you all so much!