Everyone started talking at once and Tracy put up a hand to silence them. “Let her speak.” She turned to Kellie. “Start at the beginning.”
“Well, Emily hasn’t been talking to me lately because—” she hesitated as she looked at me, “because she said I’d chosen you as a friend over her.”
I frowned. “What? That’s ridiculous. You wouldn’t do that.”
“She didn’t see it that way.” She sniffed. “Anyway, I hadn’t heard from her for a few days and now her mum called and asked if I’d seen her. No one has seen or heard from her since after Wednesday’s lesson!”
She broke down then, and Justina put her arms around her while she cried. Kaydan put an arm around each girl and I stood there awkwardly. I wanted to comfort Kellie, but Justina sure as hell wouldn’t let me join in.
Thoughts raced through my head. A lot of the people who had gone missing were female. There must have been a reason they were being targeted. A chill ran down my spine as my mind conjured up all the reasons why and what they could possibly do to them.
I had to push all of those horrible images aside and be there for my friend.
Jackson stood to the side, wanting to help, I could tell. It must have been so frustrating for him to just be an observer. Him wanting to be able to dial a number on my phone made more sense now.
My mind went back to the run-in with Emily and her cronies that night. I was angry with her, but was basically over it by the time we got home. What could have happened to her after that? Who did she piss off?
A girl like that had to have a lot of enemies. I ran through the possibilities from the serial kidnapper theory to maybe one of her so-called friends turning on her for some petty reason like Emily stealing her boyfriend or something.
Justina pulled away from their hug. “Emily’s a bitch and I hate her, but if it means there’s another missing person…”
Her words hung in the air.
Kaydan rubbed Kellie’s back gently as he hugged her. “It’ll be okay, Kell. There’ll be an explanation. It won’t be what we’re all thinking. She’ll be back. I know she will.”
I wasn’t sure who he was trying to convince. All of us or himself. Probably both.
It didn’t really work.
Thinking about Sophie and how I’d found out that she wasn’t one of the “missing people” didn’t give me any comfort. I suppressed a shudder at the thought of someone finding Emily’s body somewhere.
This was getting beyond ridiculous. How could so many people go missing in the one town? Why wasn’t more being done to find them?
There didn’t seem to be any answers.
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I was glad that Ruby had left me on my own the next morning at work. Mainly because I wasn’t on my own and was able to talk to Jackson about all the things that had happened since I last saw him. He was there last night when Kellie told us about Emily, but he disappeared afterwards. He’d been gone a lot lately.
Even though I was worried about him being MIA all the time, I was glad that he hadn’t heard my conversation with Alina about him. My face heated just thinking about it. It would be so mortifying if he knew what Alina had said.
I needed to divert my thoughts away from being in a relationship with Jackson. It would never work. Plus, I didn’t like him like that.
“I keep thinking about what could have happened to Emily. I mean, she is such a bitch to everyone. She would have a huge list of enemies.”
He strolled over to Dragonia and made a show of pretending to swipe dust off the top of one of her wings. “Yeah. People like her usually do.”
“Maybe she pissed off the wrong person.”
“Yeah. The police have got a lot of work to do. A lot of people to interview. I don’t envy them.”
I watched the people strolling by outside. “I just feel sorry for Kellie. First they lose Piper and still don’t know if she is dead or alive, then they lose Kassie.” I sighed. “At least they know what happened to Kassie.”
We were silent as we were both lost in thought.
My mind kept coming back to the fact that he hadn’t been around much lately to annoy me. I didn’t want him around most of the time, but it bugged me that he didn’t even know where he went and lost track of time.
I decided to just come out and ask him about it.
“So,” I fidgeted with a display on the counter, trying to play it casual. “I haven’t seen you around much lately. What have you been up to?”
His eyebrows scrunched together. “I’ve been trying to find Jade and find where she lives, but with no luck.” That was a relief. “But the rest of the time, I’m just in that nowhere place where time just seems to disappear.”
Oh.
“That doesn’t really make sense. None of the other ghosts I’ve come across seem to have this problem.”
He leaned an elbow on the counter and gave me a cheesy grin like someone from some old-time movie. “Well, I’m not like other ghosts.”
I laughed, but had to stop myself when the door opened. As soon as I saw the beehive hairdo and the glasses on a chain, I recognized the woman from the bookshop. I was immediately on alert when I remembered how she’d refused to give me a job because of where I lived.
Her already-stern look became a scowl once she recognized me. “You.”
I tried to smile pleasantly. After all, she was a potential customer. “Good morning. How can I help you?”
She pointed a finger at me. “I don’t need no help from the likes of you.”
So why are you even in here?
I couldn’t think of any reason she’d come in here except to cause trouble.
She looked around in disgust. “You have all you need in here to complete your witchy rituals to worship the devil himself and call forth his demons.” She pointed a finger at me again. “You are their newest recruit. How many demons have you summoned to our poor little town?”
8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeQQaidDayy
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Author's Note: What do you think of Jackson? Let me know in the comments.
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