Whispers in the Dark
- Chapter Twenty-Two – What Have You Done?
It was early the next morning that Cory unlocked the front door to her house and went inside trying to be as quiet as possible, hoping her dad was in bed and hadn't noticed she'd never come back the night before.
The sun was just starting to rise as she started to make her way through the otherwise still dark house on the way to the stairs. She had a plan; shower, get dressed for school that day and then come downstairs and pretend she'd been there all night, hopefully her dad would not only buy the story but would also not feel like picking the fight up where it had left off the night before when she'd ran off.
"Good morning."
She froze just as she reached the bottom of the stairs thinking she'd get away with her plan but it was clear her dad now knew she'd been sneaking back in as he added, "Or is it goodnight considering you didn't come home last night?"
Hanging her head in defeat she blew out a heavy breath trying to form an excuse in her head but as she turned around she saw he was also still in the same clothes as the day before.
"Have you been down here all night?" She questioned, dropping her heels on the bottom step. She'd taken them off as she unlocked the door so they wouldn't make noise on the hardwood floor and give her away.
He slowly nodded rubbing his hands over his tired face, slightly squinting as he looked over towards the large windows where the early morning sun was starting to both illuminate and warm the otherwise cold room.
"Should I even bother asking where you were last night?"
"Oh…" She breathed, "I just didn't feel like being here after the fight we had… I just crashed at Spencer's."
She'd barely gotten her lie out before he cut her off and flatly stated, "Try again."
Her eyebrows lowered in confusion and in response he explained, "Spencer called here looking for you last night."
When Cory avoided her dad's judgmental stare he added, "Guess my phone calls weren't the only ones you weren't answering."
"I'm too tired to go round after round –fighting with you, I don't' want to pick up where were left off last night. So… I'm going to just pretend you didn't just lie to my face and ask you again; where were you last night when you didn't come home?"
"I…" she had to stop herself from lying again by saying she'd been at another friend's house for all she knew they'd called the house trying to reach her too or her dad might have even called them. Whether she wanted to or not she knew honesty was the only thing that would help her case right now, as much as he'd hate her answer, he would be angrier if he caught her in another lie. With that thought she pulled in a deep breath and admitted, "I... I was with Jason."
Judging by his lack of shock at the answer she figured he'd already assumed the answer and it was probably that knowledge that had kept him up all night waiting to see when she'd return home.
"I'm sorry." She instinctively replied, hoping to lessen her punishment and end the line of questioning there but he caught her off guard when he questioned with a disappointed tone, "Are you sorry? What are you sorry for, Cory? For the stunt you pulled at the Montgomery's yesterday, making me sit here all night worried about you, or because you completely went against everything I said and you've been sneaking around with the one guy I asked you to not have anything to do with?"
She stood in silence, not knowing how to respond to him. In a way she was sorry for all of it and equally not sorry at all because in her mind if her dad would have just given Jason a chance and realized how much he'd grown up and how much he'd changed –they wouldn't have been in this mess in the first place.
Standing up, her father Austin looked at her as he said, "Let me guess… you're just sorry you got caught, right?"
"Dad, no…" she argued, "Look, I'm sorry about all of this but honestly if you'd just tried to get to know Jason than-"
"Are you really that selfish, Cory? So selfish that you think this whole thing is because I don't like Jason?"
Her silence was the answer he needed and he angrily shook his head as he stood up and started for the stairs but when she called after him, he stopped and turned back around.
"You want to know the truth? I'm actually glad you were with him; because he's clean now right? So if you were with him than you weren't out at some party or out on the streets doing god knows what all night? It means that you made it home safe and I didn't wait up all night to get a call from the police or a hospital."
Her face fell and her heart felt like it had sank down through the floor; it seemed like the only time he ever wanted to talk about that point in her life was to throw it back in her face. But she didn't argue with him, she knew she deserved what he'd said –in truth she deserved a lot more but she hadn't realized exactly how much he worried about her.
"God, Cory… do you even realize that for a year now I pay attention to everything you're wearing when you leave in case something happens and you don't come back home? You have no idea the thoughts that go through my head when I'm working late and text to check in and don't immediately hear back from you." Austin pointed out and Cory couldn't hide the shocked look on her face at his words.
Her eyes dropped down to the hardwood floor for a few brief moments before she looked back to him and hoped to calm his nerves by reassuring him, "I'm sorry. I had no idea you even worried this much… but you don't need to. I'm fine, dad."
"And I'm willing to bet that Alison's parents didn't think they had anything to be worried about either –and then look at what happened." Taking in a breath that almost seemed to burn his lungs he shook his head back and forth, "And just look at what you've done before, Cory. The drugs, the drinking… the recklessness –you've put yourself into some really dangerous situations before."
Tears stung her eyes as and her voice was hoarse when she argued, "But that's not me anymore… I'm not like that now. What happened to Alison scares me too dad… I am constantly looking over my shoulder when I'm out at night sometimes even in broad daylight I'm paranoid."
"See the dad in me wants to believe that; I want to believe you Cory. Believe that you really are as changed as you swear you are… but the doctor in me has seen countless addicts relapse –even after pulling their lives together. I have people coming into the ER every night giving me a three page list of things that are wrong with them because they want a prescription for pain meds or even worse they hurt themselves to get it."
With his every word she felt herself shrinking down to the size of a pea. She'd made more than her fair share of mistakes in life –she knew that but hearing her dad comparing her to addicts he'd dealt with on a day to basis from working in healthcare was a blow she hadn't expected.
"I'm not just some junkie or something… we're family; I'm your daughter." She said, her voice barely over a whisper –feeling like she didn't even have the right to defend herself at all during this conversation.
Letting out a burdened sigh he brought the conversation back to the night before as he pointed out, "According to you we're not really much of a family at all, right?"
When she stayed silent and wouldn't even look at him he said, "You were right about how it's just you and me now. We're all we've got –but that doesn't make us any less of a family it just means that we need to be looking out for one another and we can't do that when you're constantly lying to me. You know most people have to put more effort into a lie than telling the truth but not you… I'll never understand how you got like that."
When she continued to hold her silence, he shook his head back and forth as he started up the stairs and said, "I've got to change for work."
"But you were up all night…" She softly replied, thinking that if he'd ever deserved to call off for a shift at the hospital it was that day.
"Part of being an adult Cory, is that you can't just run away from your responsibilities."
She stood in place until she heard his bedroom door shut. Rubbing her hands over her face she fought back tears at everything he'd said. He was right, she'd been nothing but selfish since they came back to Rosewood, especially after Jason came back into the picture.
Once she'd reconnected with him, she'd remembered how much she liked him before and how he was about the only person it wasn't exhausting for her to be around. But her dad was right, the situation was much bigger than Jason and how her dad didn't care for him.
She'd known Alison's disappearance and death had affected her and her friends, had them constantly looking over their shoulders and fearing they might be next but she hadn't really taken into consideration how it must have affected all of their parent as well.
Leaning down she picked up her shoes and headed up to her bedroom so she could shower and change for the school day, with a promise to herself that she'd be better.
The lies had to stop and she needed to take responsibility for herself and her actions. She needed to be a better daughter, a better friend –a better everything. Which in those moments felt impossible but she knew she couldn't keep going at the rate she'd been going
~()~
Cory gathered her text book and folders for her first class from her locker and started down the hallway when she spotted Spencer at her own locker. She came to a stop, a part of her wanted to turn and scurry in the other direction –she wasn't ready to fight with Spencer over whether Jason had killed Alison or not.
In truth, she was still angry about all the accusations that her friend had said the day before over the phone to her and Aria but after she'd charged her phone up some that morning before school she'd seen she had texts from all of her friends –including an SOS text and she felt awful for not seeing them sooner.
The old Cory would have just turned and went in the other direction, avoided Spencer and held onto her anger –but like she'd promised herself earlier that morning she needed to be a better friend; a better everything.
Pulling in a deep breath she walked up to her and said, "Hey Spence…"
But her friend didn't make things easy on her as she faced her with slightly narrowed eyes and said, "SOS, Cory. I sent you an SOS and that means you drop everything and meet up with the rest of us."
Her jaw tensed in anger and she said with a gravelly voice, "I didn't see the text until this morning when I plugged my phone in, it died last night. I'm sorry."
Spencer blew out a heavy sigh as she slowly nodded and opened her mouth to fill her friend in on everything she'd missed but stopped when she spotted Garrett from down the hallway heading towards them.
"Oh my god." Spencer breathed, her eyes focusing back on Cory as she whispered, "Don't say anything."
"What?" She asked confused as she started to look over her shoulder but Spencer hissed, "Say nothing!"
"What are you doing here?" Spencer questioned as Garrett walked up to them and offered a friendly smile.
"It's my day to teach the driver's ed class. I'm hoping I can scare kids into watching the road instead of their cell phones." He said with a small laugh and when neither girl gave much of a reaction he asked, "Funny, right?"
"Yeah." Cory nodded with a small laugh, as her eyes diverted to Spencer with question.
"It's actually really funny." Spencer said but didn't even attempt a smile or a laugh as she grabbed onto Cory's arm and said, "We need to get to class."
"Spencer, we never finished our conversation last night. You ran off." Garrett reminded her stepping in front of the teens to block their exit.
Avoiding his eyes, she said, "I just have a lot of drama going on at my house."
"Is everything okay?" He questioned; getting the feeling that it was a lot more than Hasting's family drama that had sent Spencer running off the night before.
"It's fine." Spencer answered a little too quickly with her voice a few octaves higher than usual, causing Cory to look over at her.
"It's just… you had a lot of strong ideas and questions about weapons and head wounds-"
He didn't get to finish his question as Cory interrupted, "What is he talking about?"
"Oh you know." She said with a nervous laugh, "What we were reading about in biology the other day… it just got me thinking about Ali's autopsy. But like you said, the case is closed so there's nothing to worry about. I really have to go to class."
With that, she walked away from the young officer pulling Cory along with her until they ducked out if sight into the girls bathroom.
"What the hell was that about?" Cory asked, pulling her arm from her friends grip and adjusting the strap of her messenger bag.
"I went to talk to Garrett last night, ask him if they knew what kind of weapon it was that killed Ali, only while I was with him Aria texted me and said we couldn't trust him. Turns out she found something of Jenna's in all the loot Mike had stolen –only he swore he got it from Garrett's apartment and not Jenna's."
Cory's eyebrows lowered in confusion as she reasoned, "Maybe Mike couldn't keep track of where he'd stolen everything-"
"No, Cor… it gets worse. That SOS you didn't respond to… we all went to keep an eye on Jenna's house and Garrett showed up. At first we thought maybe he was going to visit his parents since they live right across the street but he went into Jenna's house and we saw them through the window." Spencer explained.
"Saw them…" Cory's voice trailed off in question but as her friend knowingly raised her eyebrows Cory's nose wrinkled as she breathed, "Oh gross."
"We can't trust him." Spencer started to say then asked Cory what was wrong when she saw the look on her face.
"It's just… it makes sense. I'd seen them around each other right before Ali went missing. Garrett sort of followed her around like a lost puppy from what I saw. I just never thought much of it… plus, I don't really trust my memories from around then anyways." She admitted, her lips pressed into a thin line after she was done speaking.
"Garrett and Jason were friends before…" Spencer remembered out loud while she internally thought of how Cory would have been around Garrett and Jason's other friends back when she'd party with them.
"What are you getting at and don't even say Garrett and Jason were working together on this." She sighed, thinking her friend already had thoughts running through her mind of Garrett and Jason teaming up to kill Alison.
"Fine. I won't say it out loud."
"Spencer…" Cory sighed and her friend tucked her hair behind her ears as she said, "I'm sorry I know it's not what you want to hear, but think about it. After Ali went missing Jason left town and then apparently Garrett became a cop. Being on the police force he'd have a chance to bury evidence –bury anything that could lead back to them."
"On that theory then it could have been Garrett and Jenna who killed her and Garrett became a cop to keep them protected."
"It's possible." Spencer said with a shrug, but in her mind she was sure Jason had to be involved somehow. His entire reappearance in Rosewood had been shrouded in mystery and she knew in her gut that he was hiding something.
"I really do need to get to class." Spencer said as she checked the time on her phone and said, "Next time you get an SOS pay attention to it… even if you're with Jason."
"How did you know-" She started to question but Spencer cut her off, "You weren't with any of us and I even called your house but your dad said you weren't home. That left one option and you just confirmed it."
Opening up the door to the bathroom she looked back at her and said "Just be careful, Cory. I know you don't want to believe Jason was involved in any of this… but we don't know enough to rule him out yet either."
After her friend was gone, Cory walked over to the sink and sighed as she looked in the mirror at herself. She wasn't sure what else she could say to get her friends to believe that Jason was innocent –it was getting to where she wasn't sure there was anything she could say that would convince them.
As much as she hated it, she could tell it was driving a wedge between them too. These were her best friends –her sisters and she never thought a guy would come between them but now it seemed like Jason was. Only because she was really the only one who believed he didn't have a thing to do with what happened to Alison. Aria would back her when she'd get into fights with the rest of the group but she could see the doubt in her eyes too.
Jason wasn't perfect, he was deeply flawed in many ways and she knew that. But his imperfections didn't matter much to her –mainly because in her own ways she was just as damaged as he was.
No one was perfect; but while some people wore their heart on their sleeves –others wore their demons. Out on display for the world to see and judge them for –her and Jason were both the second option and the most comforting feeling in the world was knowing that he didn't judge her and in return she wasn't going to judge him either.
Taking a deep breath and trying to push her problems from her mind so she could focus and make it through the school day, she pulled the door open and walked out into the hallway, almost literally bumping into Garrett.
"Cory, hey." He greeted with a smile.
Looking around she glanced back behind her to the bathroom before arching a brow and questioning, "Were you waiting on me?"
"No, I was just on my way to the office. I thought you'd already went to class with Spencer anyways." He shrugged with a knowing look in his eyes.
"Just had to make a stop at the restroom first." She said before saying, "I need to get to class now though."
"I'll walk you." He offered. When she shot him a confused look he explained, "It will give us time to talk."
"What do you want to talk to me about?" she asked, knowing if he was somehow involved with what was going on then he had to be getting nervous with Spencer's behavior from earlier.
"Is everything okay with Spencer?" He asked before pointing out, "She was acting really strange today."
"Yeah, it's fine… she's fine." Cory offered with a shrug, trying to not seem as nervous and as obvious as her friend was acting earlier.
"You know, it really seemed last night like she didn't think Ian was the one who killed Alison. Is that how you feel too?" He pushed, watching her reaction closely.
"I think Ian Thomas was a complete creep with a sick obsession over younger girls." Cory blatantly stated her real feelings without answering his question, something she hoped he wouldn't notice but he was a police officer. He knew what it meant when someone deflected and wouldn't give you a straight answer on something –they were lying.
"But you don't think he's responsible for what happened to Alison?"
She let out a small sigh when he caught onto what she was trying to pull off but before she could get a chance to answer him she heard someone crying out in pain.
Looking down the hallway she spotted Emily clutching onto her side just before she collapsed on the floor and continued to yell out in pain.
Cory's eyes widened and she was frozen for a moment before her legs finally caught up with her brain and she rushed to her side.
"Emily!" Cory shouted as she dropped to her friends side and asked, "What's wrong? What's happening?"
But her friend couldn't answer as she sobbed in pain and her hands tightened into fists from how much it hurt.
"L31 requesting a rescue ambulance unit at Rosewood high school." Garrett said into the shoulder microphone of his radio, and Cory looked over realizing he'd also rushed to Emily's side.
"Emily, it's okay… there's an ambulance on it's way." Cory tried to soothe her, but Emily was too frantic and in too much pain to hear what was being said to her.
Trying to keep his voice calm Garrett added, "Hang in there, Emily. You're gonna be fine."
The next several minutes passed in a blur as she never left her friends side and Garrett yelled at the students lingering in the hallways to back up and give Emily some space. Once the ambulance arrived and the EMTs got Emily loaded on a stretcher and got her outside, Cory stood with tears in her eyes watching as they loaded her into the back of the ambulance.
She had no idea what was wrong with Emily. She didn't know if it was all the stress her friend had been under about trying to get the scholarship to Danby that she'd lied to her parents about, if there was something else medically wrong with her or maybe this was even the result of an attack by A.
When the ambulance sped off for the hospital with sirens blaring, Cory felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked over to see Garrett was beside her as he asked, "Are you alright?"
"I… I don't know." She admitted roughly running her hands through her hair and pulling at the roots. Her mind was racing, she needed to let her friends know what had happened, get to the hospital and make sure Emily was alright. There was so much she needed to do but in those moments she was frozen.
"I could give you a ride to the hospital?" He offered.
"No." she answered a little too quickly, but after what Spencer had told her –any trust she'd had in him was long gone.
His eyebrows rose in question as he asked, "You sure?"
She looked back towards the direction the ambulance had gone and now the sounds of the sirens were just barely audible in the distance.
"We'll go straight to the hospital?" She asked in a wary tone as she turned to face him.
"Of course." He nodded.
"Okay…"Cory agreed, letting out a sigh as she followed him to his patrol car.
The drive was mostly silent, every time he'd start to bring up what had happened in the hallway with Spencer earlier that morning Cory would cut him off and start talking about something else.
To her it felt like they'd been in the car for hours by the time they finally reached the hospital.
"Thanks for the ride." Cory said as she exited the passenger seat of Garrett's police car and headed for the door to the hospital.
She'd barely made it inside of the doors when he caught up with her. Gently laying a hand on her arm, he said, "They're probably still checking her over and running tests; I doubt she's allowed visitors yet."
Cory's gaze snapped down to where he had a hold of her arm before her eyes locked with his and she asked, "What do you want?"
"I want to help you… to help your friends, but I can't do that if none of you are being honest with me." He said, letting go of her as he added, "Something happened since last night that has Spencer scared and I can tell you don't really want to be around me either."
"Right now, the only thing I'm worried about is Emily." She tried to dismiss the conversation and walk away from him, but he again took her arm and brought her to a stop.
"What happened?" He questioned, knowing there was clearly something that had happened to turn the group of friends against him.
"You were at Alison's the night she was killed, weren't you?" Cory asked with a stone voice and a cold expression to match her tone.
He looked shocked for a minute before he quickly regained his composer and asked, "Wait, what?"
"I don't remember much from that night, but I remember Jason drunk dialed me at some point and I could hear people in the background… I know you were at the house that night." She admitted, a slightly pained looked on her face as she tried to force her hazy memories to clear up and remember more about that night.
His head cocked slightly to the side and with narrowed eyes he said in a low tone, "Go ahead… ask me."
Cory looked around them to make sure no one was listening before she questioned in an almost shaky voice, "Did you kill Alison?"
"No." He admitted, wondering what else she remembered or knew about that night.
"Do you know who did?" She added.
"Yeah, Ian did… you know that." He answered, not liking the look of disbelief in her eyes as she nodded and said in a dry voice, "Right, and he's dead too… so I guess we've got nothing to worry about."
Just as she started to walk away he stopped her again with a warning, "You should be careful about the things you say, an accusation like that could ruin someone's life."
Silently, she looked at him. Feeling like she'd already said too much, but deep down she didn't feel like Garrett had killed her friend. He was hiding things, that was for sure and he more than likely couldn't be trusted –but that didn't make him a killer.
"It also probably wouldn't reflect too well on you either. After all, you were pretty messed up back then… not exactly the most reliable source." He pointed out but she refused to take his remark silently as she retorted, "Yeah? Well, you weren't exactly some upstanding member of law enforcement back then either, you know. As I remember it… you hardly ever missed one of Jason's parties."
The pair stood in an unwavering silence. Neither of them wanting to be the first to back down after the things that had been said, that was until a voice came over Garrett's portable police radio attached to his uniform. With a sigh, he clicked on the shoulder microphone and replied as he started to walk away before looking back to Cory and saying, "I hope everything's alright with Emily."
A/N - I hope you all liked the chapter! Thanks so much for reading.
Thanks to RHatch89, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, SmellYourScentForMiles, thereaderlotter, Momsen-xxxx, xxxRena, LittleLiar, Heart of Emison, BloomingBlueMoon85, Lucy Greenhill, Guest, Jay .walker .104, sarahmichellegellarfan1, SecretShhh, and to BaDWolF89 for reviewing since my last update. You guys rock, thank you all so much!