Whispers in the Dark
- Chapter Fourteen – Smile, the Worst is Yet to Come...
"I'm not happy about this, Cory." Austin said to his daughter as he saw her walking down the stairs with her laptop computer in her arms.
"It's for the fashion show, dad." She reminded him, as she rolled her eyes and walked past him towards the hallway leading into the dining room, but he followed behind her.
"And you couldn't just run the picture slideshow past Alison's mother?"
"It's too hard for her to look at them, dad."
"I understand that, but I have a very strict no-Jason-contact rule for you." He reminded her, causing Cory to lower her head and hide the small laugh at how she'd been spending so much time with Jason lately and her dad didn't have a clue.
"I know, and I don't agree with it… but I'm trying to show you that I've grown up, that I can be trusted… which is why I asked him over here to look at the pictures and didn't go to his house. You're happy about that, right?" She questioned as she sat her computer down on the dining room table.
He was silent for a moment, giving some thought to what she said before he nodded, "I know you're grown up and I've seen how far you've come, but that is exactly why I don't want you even associating with Jason DiLaurentis. He's bad news, Cory… he always was."
"Well, I think you're wrong." She admitted, pulling in a deep breath for strength before she continued, "People can change dad… and he's changed so much and grown up a lot-"
"I already agreed to let him in the house for this, you don't have to keep trying to sell the idea." Austin sighed.
Cory opened her mouth to point out that she wasn't trying to sell him on anything, she was trying to get him to listen to her and give Jason a chance but didn't get a chance when the chime from the doorbell sounded throughout the house.
"I know you don't like him, but can you please at least be polite? Alison was his sister and the tribute at the fashion show is going to be hard for him too." Cory said in a lowered voice before heading for the front door with her dad right behind her.
Shooting her dad a warning look over her shoulder, she opened the door and smiled when she saw Jason in a light button up shirt and a pair of nice jeans, he looked adult, clean cut… a huge change from how he'd looked a year ago. She hoped since he looked different, her dad would realize how much he'd changed.
"Hey." She greeted, starting to step forward to kiss him but then stopped with widened eyes as she remembered her dad was right behind her.
"Hi." Jason greeted back with a smile that still made her knees weak.
Stepping to the side she said, "Come in."
They glanced at each other again before he walked into the large house; they'd had a few long phone conversations about this day –well, mainly him listening to Cory while she reminded him over and over that her dad didn't and couldn't know they were together.
She held her breath as Jason faced her dad and for a moment she started to panic thinking this was a terrible idea –the vein in the side of her dad's neck was slightly raised under his skin. It was taking everything he had to not start tearing into Jason, after all he'd spent well over a year blaming him for his daughters downfall.
"Dr. Blackwell." Jason politely, greeted as he extended a hand to Austin.
Cory's eyes widened when her dad didn't immediately shake his hand back, instead he looked him over with a scrutinizing eye until he looked over at his daughter and sighed as he shook Jason's hand right as he was starting to lower his arm.
She beamed a smile, thinking it was a start. Her dad was at least treating him with a small degree of respect, this could be the start of something good. Without another word, Austin turned and went into the living room, leaving them alone before he ended up saying something he'd regret.
Once he was out of sight, Cory looked to Jason as she said, "That went well!"
"Well?" He whispered back with raised eyebrows, "If that went well, I'd hate to see how 'that went badly' would have looked."
"Yeah, you would have." She whispered back with a small laugh, before she rose up giving him a quick kiss then announced, "I've got my computer in the dining room."
She nodded for him to follow her as she led him through the house; he looked around at the paintings on the walls and the other decorations. The only family photos were a few scattered frames on top of the large fire place. He'd been in her family's old house before she moved a few times, but he remembered it pretty well and there used to be all kinds of family pictures. But a lot had happened, not only had they lost her little brother, but now her mother had gone missing on a cruise.
As they got sat down at the table, she scooted her chair against his and started to get the picture viewing program she'd loaded the images into up on her computer when she noticed he was watching her.
"What?" She questioned, her hazel eyes a little wide.
"I was just remembering your old house…" He admitted looking around the dining room that looked like it was ready to host a formal dinner part at any minute, the room didn't have a warm, inviting family feel at all.
"Why?" she asked confused.
He watched her closely before he shrugged and admitted, "I just remember all of the family pictures you guys had up."
"Yeah? Well… half the family is gone now, it's just me and my dad… so what would be the point of having family pictures up?" She asked, her voice harsher than she'd meant for it to be. But she hated anyone brining her brother's death up and now with her mom still missing –she tried to think about them as little as possible. It was too painful to see reminders of what she'd lost.
"Okay." He nodded, a little taken aback by how she reacted.
Feeling bad for snapping at him, she closed her eyes and sighed, "Jason, I'm sorry I just don't really like talking about them…"
She looked down under the table when she felt his hand on hers as they intertwined their fingers and he said, "You don't have to apologize, I get it. It took a while before I could talk much about Alison."
Keeping a hold on him and hoping if her dad walked by, they're connected hands would be shadowed under the table well enough her dad wouldn't be able to see, she said, "We should get these pictures picked out, there's still a lot that needs to be put together before the fashion show tomorrow night."
Cory brought up the first few pictures as she admitted, "I got these off my old cellphone actually… they're some of my favorites."
He smiled as they went through the pictures together and she brought up one of all of them on the porch of a house, it was a bright sunny day and they all looked happy.
"Where was that taken?" He questioned as he reached out with the hand that wasn't connected to hers and tilted the computer screen down a little to get a better look.
"I think the Hasting's lake house." Cory remembered as she stared at the picture.
Thinking back to the last several pictures she'd shown him of her group of friends he said, "You and Alison are always in the middle of the pictures; the center of the group."
"Her, more so than me." Cory corrected as she said, "You know how Alison was, always had to be center of attention… she was always the focal point of group photos, the other five of us just kind of faded into the background."
"No." He argued, looking at the picture, "You definitely never just faded into the background."
Their eyes met and she softly smiled at him, he leaned in to kiss her but she quickly pulled back when she heard her dad's footsteps in the hallway.
"How's it going in here?" Austin questioned, as he poked his head into the room to check on them.
"Fine, dad." Cory said, her grip tightening on Jason's hand under the table as he nodded in agreement.
Once her dad left, Jason asked, "He's going to be in here every 5 minutes isn't he?"
"Are you kidding? We're just lucky he's not sitting at the other end of the table staring you down." She said before pointing on, "He'll come around, he has to."
"I'm not so sure and honestly, I can't really blame him." He admitted, his voice low as he spoke.
"Stop talking like that." She sighed, as she nodded back towards her laptop and said, "Come on, we need to get this done."
After several more pictures Jason questioned, "My mother asked you to do this?"
"What? No…" Cory lied, but when he lowered his head some and looked at her from under his eyebrows she admitted, "Yeah, kind of… why?"
He scooted around in the seat some as he sighed, "It just seems like something she'd do."
"I think it's a great idea though and I'm happy she asked for my help. Ali loved the fashion show and I think a tribute at the end is perfect, it's what she would have wanted." Cory said confidently, before clicking past a few more pictures.
She stopped on one of Alison standing next to a taxi outside of Emily's house.
Swallowing hard Cory looked over at him for a brief moment before focusing on the picture, "This was taken the day she got back from your grandma's in Georgia. She came straight to Emily's and we were all there waiting on her." She said, but she could feel his eyes on her instead of the picture she was talking about.
"Use it." He said, and when she looked at him he nodded towards the computer and said, "she looks really happy there."
"She was… she couldn't wait to show off her tan and I remember I was so jealous." Cory laughed with a bittersweet ache in heart at remembering that day, "I always manage to go from ghostly white to red as a lobster."
They both laughed and Cory asked, "Are you sure you want me to use this one? I know she looks happy but I'm not sure if we should use any of the pictures from the day she disappeared…"
"I don't think anyone but you guys would know that." He cut her off.
"What about your mom or you?" Cory questioned, her eyes moving back and forth over his face as she spoke.
"I don't remember anything from that day… I told you that." He reminded her.
"You told me you didn't remember anything from that night." Cory corrected, quickly opening her mouth to backtrack and apologize when she felt his hand slide out of her grip and his voice raised a little as he asked, "Is that supposed to make a difference?"
"Apparently not, but I didn't know that… right after Emily's, Ali went home to change and eat dinner before Spencer's party in the barn. I'm sorry, I guess I just thought since it was your family's last dinner all together that you'd remember that part." She apologized, but wasn't sure why he was getting so angry.
"Yeah? Well I don't remember anything from that day, and I've tried to… so many times." He harshly said, then looked around before asking, "Why am I even here for this? You and your friends probably know which pictures Ali would have wanted used better than me."
"I didn't think your mom was up to this… so I asked you."
"My mother and I live on different planets."
"Okay…" She breathed, but now she was irritated at him for acting like that when she felt she'd done nothing wrong, "If you don't remember anything why are you getting so mad at me and defensive?"
"Because clearly you don't believe me."
"That's not true…" She tried to argue, but he didn't let her finish as he cut in, "I don't remember the day Ali went missing, only the next day –when I was questioned by the police and this is starting to feel like that."
Cory sighed and shook her head, fighting the urge to keep arguing with him even though he'd gotten her under her skin.
Scooting the chair back away from the table, he asked, "Why are you accusing me all of a sudden?"
"Jason… I'm not accusing you of anything." She defended, standing up when he stood up.
"Right." He scoffed, "Just lying to you about that day."
"I never said that!" She loudly exclaimed, but he shook his head and started for the front door with her right behind him.
Grabbing his jacket off the hall tree he pulled it on as she muttered, "This was a bad idea…"
"You're right, it was a bad idea." He agreed opening up the door and stepping outside when she said, "Jason… I'm sorry."
He paused on the porch as he shrugged and replied, "Don't sweat it, alright? We all make mistakes… I just thought you were different."
Her mouth hung open as a small pained noise escaped her lips as if his words had actually hit her.
She stood just inside of the door and watched as he got into his convertible and drove off, not looking back to the house and leaving her both in pain and confused about what happened and where they even stood now.
Walking back inside of the house she slammed the door and turned to see her dad standing there as he asked, "What happened?"
"Nothing." She muttered, pushing past him to get back to the dining room. Now she was on her own to decide what pictures would be used during the tribute.
~(Later that night)~
"These pictures are all perfect." Spencer smiled as Cory finished showing her the pictures she'd decided on for Alison's tribute during the fashion show.
"She looks so happy in all of them." Cory nodded, but didn't return the smile.
"Everything okay?" Spencer questioned, noticing for the first time since they'd met at the restaurant how unhappy her friend looked.
"I messed up." She sighed shutting her computer and running her hands through her dark, wavy hair.
Not understanding what her friend was referencing, Spencer said, "Are you kidding? These pictures are perfect for the slide show-"
"No, Spence… I don't mean the pictures. Well, maybe partly the pictures because I didn't get to clear them all with Jason." She admitted, "We sort of got into a fight…"
"About what? She questioned. She didn't like or trust Jason, but she hated seeing Cory upset more.
Checking her surroundings to make sure there wasn't anyone eavesdropping on them, she quietly said, "Jason told me that he can't remember a thing from the night Ali went missing… like it's literally an entire day missing from his memory. And I know he was trashed over half the time… I have some holes in my memories around that time too, but I'm not missing entire days."
"I told you something strange was going on." Spencer hissed, "And it's way too convenient that he can't remember that entire day."
"I don't think he had anything to do with what happened to her… just forget it." Cory groaned, realizing she'd picked the wrong friend to open up too.
"What? No… you're upset, you can talk to me." Spencer encouraged, an apologetic look spread over her features as she realized how quickly she'd jumped the gun and brought up her own thoughts.
"I said something wrong or asked too many questions… I'm not sure, all I know is whatever I said he took as an accusation and we got into this fight where he said he felt like he was being questioned by the police."
Spencer drank the last of her tea down and tried to hold her silence, not wanting to get into a fight with her friend or upset her. But finally she couldn't control it anymore and blurted out, "Cory, normally when people get really defensive… it's because they have something to hide."
"Just forget I said anything." She breathed, hoping she could talk to Jason before or after the fashion show the next day to work things out.
"Sorry." Spencer apologized, as she grabbed the food ticket off the table and offered, "To make up for it, I'll pay for dinner."
"It was your turn to pay anyways." Cory laughed, shaking her head at her friend.
As they stood up Spencer said, "I have to stop at the restroom before we leave, I drank way too much tea."
"Can I have the keys so I can just wait in the car?" She questioned, to which her friend nodded and handed the car keys over.
Walking out of the side exit, Cory adjusted her purse and computer bags on her shoulder and looked down to the keys in her hand. It was a quiet night and she realized for the first time how tired she felt after the long, taxing day.
She hoped Spencer didn't have plans for them after dinner, because all she really wanted to do was go home and crawl into bed.
As she reached the car she used the button to unlock the doors and opened the back door of the SUV to put her bags in, but as she laid her purse in the seat it fell over and rained the contents on the floorboard.
Groaning she leaned in and started to pick everything up. Hearing footsteps behind her she opened her mouth to greet who she assumed was Spencer, but it was soon apparent whoever was in the parking lot with her wasn't her friend when a gloved hand tightly clamped over her mouth and muffled her surprised scream.
Before she had time to react a strong arm slid around her midsection and started to drag her backwards. Her mind was in a race with her heart as she tried to think of a way out of this situation, her feet kicked helplessly and she clutched onto the arm of the hand over her mouth. Her terrified and frantic screams were muffled and the more stressed she became the harder it was to breath.
Looking over she saw a dark color car, and from what she could see it looked like the same dark car that had been following her. Which was completely terrifying on its own, but what made the moment even more alarming was that the trunk of the car was wide open and it was clear that was where she was headed.
A new surge of fear and power shot through her and she struggled even harder, remembering Spencer's keys in her pocket she grabbed them and started to push every button on the key fob until she found the right one and the alarm went off, echoing through the nearly empty parking lot and catching her attacker off guard.
When he paused briefly, startled by the noise she sprang into action and got her footing enough to swing one leg back and stomp on his foot. There was a pained groan and the hand slid off her mouth allowing her to get out a few screams for help.
Cory almost managed to get away but he stopped her and in the struggle they both fell to the ground as she tried to scramble away, screaming loudly for help until he grabbed her legs and pulled her back towards him. She hissed in pain as the side of her face scraped against the pavement just before he grabbed her tightly with both arms around her middle and lifted her up from the ground.
Fighting with everything she had, her legs flailed in the air as she tried to kick the trunk shut when they reached the back of the car; knowing if they got her in that car she was never coming home.
"Cory!" Spencer's voice rang through the parking lot louder than the still playing alarm from her car.
"Help!" Cory shrieked, still trying to kick the trunk shut as her attacker failed to get her inside of the claustrophobic space.
Her friend's appearance startled him and her almost abductor dropped her to the ground, and raced to the open driver's door as Spencer rushed to her friend and pulled her to her feet. Both girls watching in horror as the dark car sped off with their trunk still wide open.
"Oh my god, are you okay?" Spencer asked, turning her friend to face her. Cory had a mixture of blood and tears smeared on her face as she made a few inaudible noises as her mouth hung open –she didn't have an answer to her friend's question. In that moment she wasn't sure if anything would ever feel okay again.
A/N - Thanks for reading! ^_^
Thank you so much to SmellYourScentForMiles, RHatch89, xxxRena, Lucy Greenhill, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Momsen-xxxx, Heartless-Princess33, EmisonLvr4ever, Guest, Guest, BloomingBlueMoon85 and the other Guest for reviewing last chapter. Thanks so much!