The Darkness Within (12 page)

Waiting

Mom pulled the car to a stop at the front of the school. The search team was meeting in the lobby of the building, and through the main doors I could already see a group of people standing inside. Mr. Rodriguez and Lorenzo were passing out clipboards to all of the volunteers.

Reaching over the console, Mom took my hand in hers. “Promise me you’ll be safe out there.”

“Of course. I’ll stay with the group the entire time,” I lied through my teeth, hoping she wouldn’t pick up on it.

Mom looked conflicted, like she didn’t want me to go. If only she knew what I really had planned for the night. “I just want you to be safe. You have your pepper spray, right?”

I nodded, showing her the pepper spray clipped to my keychain. She bought it for me the day after Adrianna went missing and spent the evening showing me how to use it. She didn’t want me going anywhere without it, and I didn’t blame her.

Sighing, Mom said, “Great. Ride with Adrianna’s parents back to their house when you’re done and I’ll come pick you up from there. How long is the search?”

Really the search was scheduled for two hours, but if the text I had received earlier was a trick, then I wanted her to show up much sooner than that. “It’s only an hour long. We should get to their house shortly after it ends,” I told her. “Love you, Mom. See you later,” I said as I climbed out of the car. Then I waved goodbye and walked to the front entrance. Like I hoped, Mom began to drive off as soon as I reached the doors. My hand gripped the cold, metal handle of the entrance for only a few seconds before she was turning out of the school’s parking lot. Sighing in relief, I hurried away from the door before anyone inside saw me and began my walk to Adrianna’s house. I took a different route, going the long way to avoid passing my house.

The walk was about twenty minutes long, and by the time I was down the street from Ade’s house it was already fifteen minutes past eight. The streets were shrouded in shadows and everything was eerily silent. It was as if no one was home. Every light on the street was off and all of the cars were gone from the driveways. I assumed everyone was back at the school to assist with the search. When I turned onto Adrianna’s street, I noticed that all of the houses looked deserted. The absence of people only made me more nervous as I advanced toward the Rodriguez home.

There was a huge lump in my throat, like when you dry swallow a large pill, and my chest rose and fell as I breathed deeply. I grew more nervous the closer I got to the house. Finally, when I stood on the pathway in front of Adrianna’s house, I said a quick prayer that Adrianna was here and she was safe. Then I began to proceed up the walkway.

On the porch I noticed the front door was wide open. Hesitant to go inside, I called out Adrianna’s name. When no response came, I pulled out my cell phone, dialing Adrianna’s number from memory. Then I waited. It wasn’t long until the phone began to ring inside the house. It sounded like it was coming from upstairs. Now I
had
to go inside.

The darkness inside the house frightened me. I was afraid of what could be lurking in the shadows. At this very moment I was thankful for my pepper spray, and I slipped my keychain from my pocket quickly. Once I was poised and at the ready, I took a step inside of the dark house.

I kept my eyes peeled, looking all around as I stepped inside farther, heading toward the staircases to find Adrianna. The sound of heavy breathing and the door creaking closed behind me told me that I wasn’t alone. I turned quickly to see David pushing the door shut and clicking the latch on the door.

He gave me an evil grin as he stepped toward me. “I’ve been waiting for you, Claire.”

Reunited

I raised my pepper spray, my hand shaking as I pushed down on the button hard, unleashing a long spray.

David turned away, shielding his eyes just in time. He kept his head tucked into the crook of his elbow as he growled, “Put the pepper spray down or your friend dies.”

I hesitated momentarily, wondering if this was another trick.
Was Adrianna even still alive?
Information about The Collector filtered through me. All of the articles I read said that he took one girl from each town, and didn’t kill the girl from the previous town until the night he took the next girl. Of course, that was only speculation by the medical examiner’s office based on the time of death of each girl. It was impossible to know whether Adrianna was alive or not considering how David was straying from his usual mo.. Either way, I wasn’t going to take any chances when it came to my best friend’s life. I was terrified, knowing what David was capable of doing to me, yet I stooped down, placing the pepper spray on the ground anyway.

“Kick it to me,” David ordered, lowering his arm from his face. “I want your cell phone too.”

I obeyed his instruction, sliding my phone to him and then kicking the pepper spray so hard that it slid past him and hit the front door.

He glared at me, but retrieved both items and tucked them deep into his pocket. “Now, on the bottom step there is a pair of handcuffs. Put them on
tightly
.” He pointed at the handcuffs on the bottom step and waited for me to follow his orders.

I groaned, not seeing any way out of this other than to do as he said. Grabbing the cold, metal cuffs, I tightened them around my wrists, leaving only an inch of space between my skin and the metal. It wasn’t enough room for me to get out of the handcuffs, but it was enough space to keep them from cutting into my skin.

David fixed that instantly. He stepped toward me, tightening the cuffs on both wrists, making them so tight I could no longer move my wrists within the confines of the cuffs. Then, holding onto my arms just above the handcuffs, he leaned down, lowering his face to mine. Even in the dim lighting, I could see the whites of his eyes and the slope of his broad nose. Black stubble covered his defined jawline, emphasizing his cruel, chilling smile.

“Now, are you ready to see your friend?”

I nodded my head slowly, hoping that was the correct answer.

“Just so you know, if you scream, I’ll snap her neck. Or maybe I’ll get creative and use you to kill her.” He shrugged, looking dazed for a moment, as if he was mulling over the possibilities in his mind. It didn’t take long for him to snap out of it, and when he did he produced a cloth from his back pocket. He stuffed the rag into my mouth, making it hard to breathe. “This way,” he said as he began to tug me up the wide staircase. At the top of the stairs, he yanked me to the left, steering me toward Adrianna’s bedroom. My heart pounded in my chest as we came to a stop outside of her closed bedroom door. I shut my eyes tight, hoping once again that she was still alive.

“Reunion time,” David said in a singsong voice. I opened my eyes to see him smiling from ear to ear. He actually looked genuinely happy. The skin around his eyes crinkled, and his black eyes, which I thought were incapable of holding emotion, were practically glittering. “Reunions always get me a little teary eyed,” he added before he thrust the door open.

The first thing I saw was the lifeless body slumped in the center of the room. The putrid smell of decay smacked me in the face, making me recoil from the powerful stench. It was so strong that my eyes began to water and I could taste the death on my tongue. “Oh my god,” I whispered, turning my head to avoid the sight before me as I tried to keep the bile from rising in my throat.

“Oh, ignore
her
,” David said with a chuckle. Then he shoved me into the room, hard, causing me to stumble to try and maintain my balance. As he locked the door behind us, I began to understand the meaning of his words. The girl in the center of the room had long, blonde tresses. I hadn’t noticed before, because I was so shocked and horrified by seeing a dead body, but she wasn’t Adrianna. It was Holly Martin.

I covered my nose and mouth with my arm and stepped away from her body. I couldn’t look at her anymore. My gaze flitted around the room, going any and everywhere to avoid looking at her—the girl who was never going to get to see her family and friends again, who had been stripped of her identity to play out some bizarre fantasy of David’s, and who would now be just another statistic in his killing spree.

As I looked around the room, my gaze landed on another slumped over body. This one was propped up in the rocking chair that sat in the corner of the room. Mrs. Rodriguez used to tell us stories about how the only way she could get Ade to sleep as a baby was to rock her in that chair and sing to her until she finally closed her eyes. The thought made me want to cry as I stepped toward Adrianna’s unmoving body. I had to know if she was alive. Stepping closer, I leaned down and looked her over. Up close she looked weak and on the verge of death. If it weren’t for the slow rise and fall of her chest, I would’ve thought she was dead. Her brown hair hung down, shielding her face from view, with the purple streak hanging in the center. I gingerly brushed the hair off of her face, jumping backward in fright when her face was uncovered.

Adrianna’s eyes opened wide, and when she saw me they flickered with recognition before drooping closed seconds later. It hadn’t taken long for me to notice how bloodshot and red they were. She looked like she was in so much pain that it hurt
me
. Her skin was puffy and bruised—black, blue, and purple. If it weren’t for her purple streak, which now matched some of the skin on her face, I would hardly recognize her as my best friend. What really grossed me out was the deeply cut seven now carved into her forehead, the wound crusted over with blood. My eyes prickled with tears at her fragile state.

David let out a booming laugh at my reaction. “Isn’t she beautiful? I have you to thank for putting her on my list. She was completely unplanned—a spur of the moment decision that actually worked toward my benefit. I tried to think of a way to get the picture from her without having to take her, but none of my other options were this fun.”

I tried to speak, wanting to tell him just how disgusting he was and how he needed to be hospitalized and put behind bars. This wasn’t normal.
What kind of person was capable of this?

When David advanced toward Adrianna and me, I stepped in front of my friend, trying to protect her. All David did was grab me and fling me to the ground like an unwanted ragdoll. I landed hard, unable to catch myself before my butt hit the ground. “Want to see something cool?” David asked us both, crouching down next to Adrianna. She closed her eyes tightly, a tear leaking from beneath her lashes. The moonlight filtering in through her window made the scene before me all the more haunting.

I shook my head ‘no’, not wanting David to show me anything he thought was
cool
. Instead, I tucked my chin to my chest and closed my eyes tightly. The tears came harder now, flowing freely down my cheeks. I was ready to wake up from this nightmare, but this time my dreams were actually reality.

David clicked his tongue. “Open your eyes, Claire, or I’ll kill her. I’ve been letting her live out of the kindness of my own heart, but that doesn’t have to last any longer.”

I took a deep breath before looking up and glaring at him. Adrianna had her eyes open too. We watched, horrified as David returned to the center of the room. He squatted down next to Holly’s body, dragging her closer to Adriana and I. Then, he propped her up against Adrianna’s bed. Holly’s eyes were frozen, open in fear even in death, and my heart ached for a girl I hardly knew.

I let out a muffled gasp through my gag as David raised my pepper spray to her face and began to spray it her directly in her eyes. When he finished, he looked back and forth between Adrianna and I, his face lit up in excitement. “Isn’t that cool?” he asked. “I’m always fascinated that in death you can feel no pain.” David chuckled lightly before adding, “As you’ll soon find out,” while looking at Adrianna.

Suddenly it all began to make sense. David may have deviated from his usual method, but he had fixed it by luring me here. He was going to kill Ade tonight, leave her and Holly behind, and take me with him to start the cycle all over again. I shivered at the thought.
I have to escape.
No one else was going to die tonight. I just needed to find a way to stall until my Mom got here. Hopefully when she saw that the house was dark she would know something was wrong and would call Adrianna’s parents who would tell her I never showed up to the search. Then she would call the police in a panicked frenzy. At least that’s what I hoped would happen.

David stepped toward me, yanking me up off of the ground.

I tried to speak, but my words came out muffled around the cloth.

David placed his hand near my mouth, holding a piece of the cloth’s material between his fingers. “If you scream, I’ll kill you and then I’ll go to your house and slit your pretty mother’s throat. You wouldn’t want that would you?”

I shook my head no. I didn’t want him anywhere near my mother.

“Good,” he said, pulling the gag from my mouth.

I breathed in a deep breath before saying, “You’re a revolting
freak
. I knew it from the moment I met you.”

David chuckled at my words. Raising his hand, he stroked my cheek with his thumb. I forcefully turned away, causing him to drop his hand.

“Don’t touch me,” I growled. “You’re a psycho.”

Smirking, David leaned close to my face, grinning wickedly. “Oh, Claire. That doesn’t hurt my feelings.” Then he shrugged, and added, “I don’t even think I have feelings.”