Whispers in the Dark
- Chapter Twelve – You Haunt Me
Cory was sitting her desk in class, looking down to the missed call she had on her phone from Jason. Rubbing her eyes she wondered what to say to him. She'd been sneaking around to see her friends; so she could probably sneak around to see him too… but she didn't want to.
If they were sneaking around town behind closed doors it wouldn't be much better than what they had before. She wanted to be able to go out with him and not worry about it getting back to her dad or running into him when they were out.
If they were hiding he'd have to drop her off around the corner after their dates and she'd have to lie about where she was going, get her friends to cover for her and she was so sick of lying about things.
"Ian didn't commit suicide." Emily announced walking up to her friends at their desks she continued, "That entire suicide letter is made up of A texts."
"What?" Spencer gasped, and Cory stopped thinking about her current situation with Jason and her dad as she asked, "Are you sure?"
"How do you even know that?" Aria questioned.
"When I read back over it a couple of words stuck out to me, so I checked my old messages." She said nodding for them all to follow her to the back of the classroom, then she took the pages she'd printed out of a folder to show them.
Taking the pages Aria read them out loud nodding, "Yeah, these are all lines from A texts."
"And only six people know about the texts… us and A. It's proof that A wrote the suicide note." Emily explained.
"Good work, Em." Cory congratulated and Emily said, "Please, I've been watching Wheel of Fortune with my mom since I was three."
"If A wrote this, that means that Ian never actually confessed to killing Ali in writing." Spencer said.
"And it get's worse…" Emil started to say but Cory groaned, "How is that even possible?"
"Logan Reed, the guy who dropped off the money for Ian the night of the sting? Well, I know where he works. And we need more answers." Emily said, but it was clear Spencer didn't want to hear it.
~()~
"There's Byron." Austin said to Cory as he spotted her friend Aria's dad and waved before he asked, "You okay on your own if I go say hi?"
"Yeah." She nodded, wondering if her had even noticed she was barely speaking to him after their fight about Jason.
As he walked over to speak to Aria's parents, Cory lingered towards the back of the church eyeing the casket at the front where Ian's body was. It seemed so wrong, that his casket was in the exact spot where Alison's casket sat just months before.
"You okay?" Aria asked walking up to her.
"I guess." Cory quietly said as she looked around and waved to Hanna and her mom.
"What's wrong?" Aria questioned, knowing it was just more than them being at a funeral that was bothering her friend.
"The other night… I admitted to my dad that I was talking to Jason again and it didn't go well." She explained, not going into much detail.
"Well, maybe if he sees how much Jason's changed-" Aria started to say, but stopped when her friend shook her head back and forth, "He pretty much banned me from even speaking to him and I mean I could sneak around, but I don't want to… and I shouldn't have to."
Nodding Aria said, "Yeah, secret relationships aren't near as fun as they seem to be on TV."
"Speaking of… I thought you and Ezra were going to go public now that he's not teaching at Rosewood High anymore."
"We are, in time… but he's supposed to be here today. The plan is to get people to see us as friend's first –the people being my parents, and then hopefully show them that we're actually more." She explained, pulling in a deep, almost painful breath and holding it in her lungs.
"I hope it works out." Cory smiled, thinking how great of a couple Aria and Ezra made.
"Thanks." She smiled, then said, "I hope your dad comes around to the idea of you and Jason too."
"Probably not going to happen… and honestly, since we found Ian's body I've not answered a single call from Jason. I just don't know what to say really… and now this whole thing my dad completely overreacting, it's just a mess."
"Things are always a mess. The other night… Jason caught my brother trying to break into his house, apparently Mike's gotten bored enough to try committing felonies." She admitted.
"Oh my god!" She gasped, before lowering her voice to a whisper and asking, "What happened?"
"He brought him by my house and didn't call the police." She explained, "Looks like maybe you were right all along about him not being a bad guy."
Cory nodded then nudged her friend as she saw Ezra walk in, Aria turned around and looked at her nodding in thanks before she walked over to stand by her parents.
It was a short service before they went to the cemetery to bury him, not very many people showed up. Mainly the girls and their parents, plus a few of Ian's old friends –but it seemed like anyone who showed up was just there to be nosy.
As they lowered Ian's body into the ground, Cory blew out a heavy breath as she and each of her friends threw a handful of dirt into the open earth on top of his casket. Their way of helping bury him after what he'd done to Alison –after what he'd done to all of them.
Cory looked up through a part of the small crowd and saw Jason sitting on a bench not too far away from the service.
Once the crowd started to thin out, Cory started towards him but then stopped when she remembered her dad was there too.
"I take it things didn't go well with Ezra? I saw the look on your face earlier." Cory said as Aria walked up beside her.
"Yeah…" She breathed, "So much for us looking like friends even; he still talked about me like I was one of his students."
"I'm sorry, Aria." Cory sympathized as she put an arm around her and gave her a half-hug.
Hugging her back, Aria offered, "Hey, I can go talk to your dad and distract him if you want to go talk to Jason for a little bit."
Before she could say anything, Emily walked up to them and asked, "What is he doing here?"
"Maybe he came for the same reason we did." Arai shrugged, keeping an eye on Cory as she spoke and the three girls watched Alison's older brother.
"To spit on Ian's grave?" Emily questioned.
Aria and Cory looked at her with a small laugh before Aria corrected, "To get closure."
"I still think he's creepy. I mean, even if he wasn't hiding Ian… the guys a freak and he always has been." Emily coldly said and Cory bit down on the inside of her cheek until she couldn't take it anymore and said, "He's not a freak. He's a really decent guy and I really like him, okay?"
Aria looked at her and Emily's eyes widened as she asked, "What?"
"I really like him." Cory repeated, then added, "And I don't care if you think he's a creep or my dad hates him."
Without another word to her friend's she walked away, heading right towards Jason and not caring if all of her friends or even her dad saw her.
"Hey." Cory greeted as she neared where Jason was sitting on the decorative stone bench.
Looking up from a leaf he'd been absentmindedly shredding he looked a little surprised as he said, "Hi."
Sitting down next to him, she awkwardly looked around –not even sure where to begin the conversation.
"Uh, Aria told me about what you did for her brother… not calling the cops on him." She quietly said, avoiding the topic of how she'd been avoiding him.
He nodded, watching her for a few moments before he looked away. Wondering why after almost a week of ignoring him, she finally wanted to talk to him –about Mike Montgomery of all things.
"Why didn't you call the police?" She finally questioned.
"I don't know." He sighed, "I guess partly cause Ali used to threaten to turn me into the police all the time."
"She never did though, right?"
"Nah, Ali was too smart for that." He said with a small smile at remembering his younger sister, "She was fearless, even as a kid when she needed to be. I was always jealous of that –of her. Guess that's why my parents can't even look at me anymore." Their eyes locked for a few brief moments before he looked away and added, "They know they lost the wrong kid."
His words and the thought of losing him stung her, with furrowed brows she said, "Don't say that… don't ever say that."
Silently he looked away from her, and she glanced around the crowd –seeing her friends were standing near the cars watching them, her dad however was talking to Spencer's parents and apparently hadn't noticed she was missing yet.
"You don't have to be here." He said quietly, just loud enough she could barely hear him.
"What?"
"You don't have to be over here with me… you can go be with your friends, I'm fine." He said.
Closing her eyes she sighed and turned on the bench to face him, even though he seemed to be avoiding looking at her.
"I'm sorry… I kept meaning to call you back but I've been so busy with school and-" She started to ramble off excuses for why she'd been avoiding him, but he didn't need to hear it. It seemed like a waste of her breath and he could take a hint.
"You don't have to explain." He cut her off as he started to stand up and walk away, but she followed him. Catching up to him under one of the large tree's lining one of the paved paths as she said, "Jason, wait… I'm sorry."
"I get it, Cory." He said as he stopped and faced her, but she shook her head, "No, you don't get it. The truth is I have been really busy with school and my dad's been forcing me to see this therapist –she's the one who made it where I couldn't spend time with my friends, I've been spending so much time sneaking around to talk to them that I haven't had time to do much else. And I've been sort of nervous to talk to you…"
"Why?" He asked, his eyes searching her face in the broken, shadowed light from under the canopy of leaves above them.
"I've been doing a lot of thinking lately… and remembering back to the way things were between us, and we were always so out of it; I guess honestly… I'm just kind of worried that you might not like me now." she cringed with her admission and looked down to the ground until she heard him say, "You know that's impossible, right?"
"I'm not the same person I was before." She reasoned, slowly raising her head to face him again as he smiled and said, "I'm not either."
He looked to the side and she followed his gaze to see a few people still lingering in the cemetery, watching Jason and speaking quietly amongst themselves.
"Maybe it wasn't the best idea coming here today." She shrugged, knowing the town still practically shunned him almost as much as they did Toby Cavanaugh.
"No." He said, turning back to her, "I'm glad I'm here. You have no idea how good it feels to know it wasn't me."
"That what… killed Ali?" She followed along with a confused expression.
He nodded, "I don't remember a thing from that night… I black out and the next morning I woke up with a wicked hangover and… this."
Cory watched as he reached into his jacket pocket and took out a folded up note on an old, crinkled up piece of paper and handed it to her.
Slowly she opened it and saw it read; 'I saw what you did'
"Who gave you this?" she questioned, but didn't get an answer as he shrugged.
"What does this even mean?"
"I don't know, but… it almost destroyed me."
"Jason…" Cory whispered, "You thought you hurt or… killed Ali?"
"Like I said, I was always jealous of her. And you know how most of the time I got loaded; I got angry." Jason reminded her as he pulled the note back and looked at it before adding, "But Ian's confession changed everything. From what the news said, he confessed to murdering Ali in his suicide note."
"He did it… not me." He continued, before he shook his head and said, "I wish I could have seen it, the note he wrote."
Cory looked down, knowing if she showed him the note –it would help him feel better, but it would also be a lie because Ian didn't write the note, A did.
Taking the tablet from her purse she brought up the note and said, "Here…"
He gave her a questioning look as he pulled the computer tablet from her hand before he silently read it.
Raising his head he asked, "Where did you find the note?"
"Beside Ian's body… I, uh, I took a picture before the cops got there." She admitted, then her eyes widened as she explained, "Of the note… not him."
"Wait…" He breathed, lowering the tablet to his side and looking at her with his eyes full of concern as he questioned, "You're the one who found him?"
"Well… Melissa found him, my friends and I sort of stumbled in afterwards."
"Are you okay?" He asked, not seeming near as worried about the note, but more concerned about her.
"Like I said… I've had a lot going on." She answered with a weak smile, and he realized she'd actually had some valid reasons to not be answering her phone.
Swallowing hard he read the note again before handing her tablet back and looking around as he tried to hold his emotions together, for so long he'd hated himself for possibly killing his sister and now it was over. It was finally over and he could have some peace.
"Why didn't you say anything about the note you got?" She questioned, adjusting her purse strap on her shoulder.
"Everyone already thought I had something to do with it." He reminded her.
"But I wasn't everyone… why didn't you tell me?"
He looked down for a moment before he faced her and blew out a breath before admitting, "And have you look at me like I was some kind of monster?"
"I wouldn't ever think that, if you'd told me-" She stammered out, hating that he'd kept that to himself for so long.
"No, Cor… you don't get it." He cut her off, "You were the only one who I actually cared about what you thought and how you saw me. You were the last person on earth I would have showed that to."
Their eyes locked and the rest of the cemetery almost seemed to fade into the background, she forgot about her friends being near and even that her dad was still around there somewhere.
All she was focused on was him and how much she'd missed him, missed everything about him and she didn't care if everyone in Rosewood looked down their nose at them for being together. She was tired of having to hide how she felt, of worrying about her friend's finding out how much she still cared about him.
Before she'd even fully been able to process what was happening, his mouth was on hers and she melted into the kiss; into the moment with him as she slid one hand around to the back of his head her other hand gently landed on his chest where she smiled against his lips at the feeling of his heartbeat under her palm.
Her own heart beat wildly in her chest and her stomach was a chaos of butterflies with huge, thunderously fluttering wings when he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer against him. She didn't want the moment to ever end, it was perfect –until she heard someone clear their throat and heard Aria say, "Uh, Cory…"
Breaking the kiss, it took her a moment to catch her breath before she turned to her friend as Aria said, "You're dad is still here…"
Cory looked over to where her dad was talking to Hanna's mom and apparently hadn't seen her moment with Jason. Aria offered Jason an awkward half smile as she tossed her hand up in a small wave and then whispered to Cory, "He didn't see you guys kissing… but he saw you sitting on the bench together and he did not look happy."
She nodded appreciatively to her friend before looking to Jason and apologizing, "I've got to go…call me?"
With a smile he questioned, "Will you actually pick up this time?"
She laughed, "I promise."
She wanted to stand there and talk to him longer, but Aria didn't give her the chance when she grabbed onto her arm and pulled her back towards the cars where there was just a few people left now.
~(Later that night)~
After meeting up with her friends when Emily sent out an SOS text, Cory hugged her jacket to herself as they started to walk through the cemetery in the cold, fogginess of night.
Shivering Aria pointed out, "Okay, you guys realize if we get caught that we are in so much trouble!"
"Oh please, like we're the first teenagers to sneak into a graveyard." Hanna sighed as she used the flashlight on her cellphone to help light their path.
"This is just the first chapter of a Stephen King book." Emily said and Cory nodded, "It honesty is… or the Rosewood Observer's headline for tomorrow; 'Five teens sneak into cemetery after dark; found dead by early morning joggers.'
"That is seriously not funny." Aria whined, huddling closer to Spencer who couldn't agree more and lectured, "Yeah, guys… not helping."
Using the flashlight in her hand, Emily looked back down to the plot guide in her hand and said, "I think we're getting close."
"I still don't think this is a good idea." Hanna said and Emily argued, "I told you, A set us up…"
"Emily's right, this isn't over." Cory backed her."
"I know I said earlier I didn't want any more to do with this, but honestly I'd thought I'd feel differently after we buried Ian, but I don't –and it's because A is still calling the shots." Spencer admitted, causing Emily to smile at seeing her friends were finally starting to take what she was saying seriously.
"A's the one who took the body… it had to be. And then made it look like a suicide." Spencer continued to back Emily's theory.
"No." Aria dismissed before she asked, "Why would A even bother doing that?"
"So that the confession in the note makes Ali's murder look like an open and shut case?" Cory shrugged.
"But that's where it doesn't make sense. That would mean that A has been helping us the whole time we've been trying to convince the police that Ian killed Ali." Aria pointed out, but it didn't make any more sense being said out loud.
"And why would A help us when we know that A ultimately wants to hurt us?" Hanna whispered.
"How do we know that Ian's actually Ali's killer?" Emily questioned and Cory looked over at her, "He is!"
"You can't be for sure… he didn't write the letter, he didn't actually confess to anything."
"No, Em. I'm sure about this… it has to have been Ian, it was Ian all along." Cory asserted, but even Spencer brought up how Cory hadn't been a hundred percent on Ian being the killer before.
"What changed?" Spencer questioned.
Cory looked down, knowing she couldn't tell her friend's about the note that someone had slipped to Jason the night Ali disappeared. But Jason was so relieved about the Ian revelation in Ali's murder that it had to be Ian. It needed to be him.
"What makes you guys so sure it wasn't Ian now?" She hissed at them in a low whisper, wondering why they couldn't all ever agree on anything at the same time.
"It just doesn't sit right." Emily sighed, "A practically handed us Ali's killer on a silver platter."
Nodding Spencer said, "Whatever the bitch gives, she's takes it back and then some."
"Guys… look." Cory breathed, as she shined her flashlight over a headstone and they realized it was Alison's.
Slowly, they all walked up to the headstone but before they could say anything else, the sound of Alison's laughter filled the air and cut through the night around them.
Gasping they looked up and saw a video projection of the video with Alison and Ian at the kissing rock being played against the side of the mausoleum.
"Where is it coming from?" Spencer yelled out, looking around but they couldn't find the source.
Once it got the part of the video they'd watched a hundred times –where the camera fell to the ground and all that was left with a few video frames of Alison's still hand they all expected it to stop there, but it didn't.
Instead Alison laughed again and picked the camera up, everyone gasped and remained frozen in shock at the realization that Ian was not the one who killed their friend. There it was; proof that she was still alive and Ian wasn't exactly innocent –but he was when it came to Ali's murder.
"Thanks for meeting me…"
Alison's voice rang out through the quiet graveyard from the video as Ian turned and smiled at her before walking away, leaving a very alive Alison behind just before it went dark.
Several minutes passed before the friends could even move or manage to speak to one another.
"I want to go home." Hanna complained, feeling like they knew less now than they did before.
"We have to find the projector." Spencer apologized before nodding to her friends to follow her.
But they couldn't agree on which direction to go in, Spencer swore it was back behind them and Aria thought it was closer to the actual mausoleum.
"You sure it wasn't farther away?" It was unclear whether Hanna actually believed that or was just wanting to throw something out into the argument.
"Wasn't it on the ground?" Emily asked.
"I don't think so." Cory sighed and Spencer asserted, "It was definitely up in a tree."
It was another twenty minutes before they finally decided to get out of the cemetery –empty handed. They never could locate the projector.
A/N - Thanks for reading. ^_^ Finally getting some progress with Cory and Jason, huh?
I owe a huge thanks to BloomingBlueMoon85, Momsen-xxxx, xxxRena, Nirvana14, RHatch89, Lucy Greenhill, EmisonLuvr4ever, Guest, Guest, DancingDorisDay, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Torrence, SmellYourScentForMiles, and Heartless-Princess33 for reviewing chapter 11.
I am so grateful for all of the kind words and support you all have been showing for this story. Thank you all so much.
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