Authors: Katlyn Duncan
“In my room?” He shoved his hand in his pocket and pulled out a key. His front door key. “It’s funny because I found this on my floor when I got out of the shower.” He stepped closer to her, his eyes burning into hers. He was inches away, almost stealing the breath from her lips.
She took a step back, her skin immediately flushed. “I wasn’t in your room.” Even she didn’t believe that lie.
He shook his head. “I have a feeling I know what you saw. And I need to know how much you know about Abbey going missing.”
The weight moved from her shoulders to the pit of her stomach. Hearing someone confirm it was so much worse than she imagined. “I could ask you the same thing.”
He stepped back from her, his hand resting next to the container on the table. “Why would I know anything?”
“You have her phone.”
His eyes widened. “How do you know that?”
Bri swallowed, gathering courage. “I saw you and Chloe take it. So I should be asking the questions here.”
“I don’t—”
She knew he was going to lie so she stopped him. “The carving. Under your bed. It’s the same as the tattoo she has.”
He bared his teeth. “Do you know what it means?”
She shook her head. “All she said about it in the past was it was a dare when she was seventeen.”
He scoffed. “A dare. Clever.” His eyebrows lifted briefly. “I shouldn’t talk about this with you.”
This time Bri was the one to invade his space. Someone knew about the secrets her mom held. She needed answers for herself and Sloane. She grabbed his shirt sleeve. “I need to know. She’s been missing for almost two days. And I know you know where she is.”
He chuckled grimly. “If I knew where she was we’d never be having this conversation.” He swiped a hand over his mouth; his eyes were distant. “When was the last time you heard from her?”
Tears welled up in her eyes. She had expected him to come clean about everything. This was going to take more cajoling than she thought. “Before she left for her conference. She was supposed to call but she never did.”
Kael looked away from her, leaning more heavily into the table. He shook his head before he met her eyes. “Everything has changed.”
“What do you mean?”
“With her missing.” He almost said this to himself. “Everything has changed for you. She was supposed to protect you. Now more than ever.”
Those stupid tears welled up again. She held them back as much as she could.
“When I sent you the note, I thought it was enough to keep you inside.”
“You sent the note?” Had he also sent for Sloane?
Kael leaned close to her, his hands were on her arms as if he was holding her upright. “This might sound crazy. There is another girl here in Willows Lake that is pretending to be you.”
Not what she expected. He knew about Sloane? How?
He continued. “And I think she has everything to do with Abbey’s disappearance.”
Bri knew Sloane had nothing to do with it. Sloane wanted to talk to Abbey as much as Bri did. She wasn’t sure telling him about Sloane would help the situation. And she needed to protect her. And to see how much more Kael knew.
He stepped away from her and peered into the living room as if realizing Bri might not be alone. “Abbey should be the one doing this.”
She reached for him, touching his hands. His gaze fell to where they connected. He didn’t pull away. “Tell me.” She tried to hold back the panic in her voice. “My mom is missing! If you know where she is you have to tell me. Or else I’m going to call the police.” She had no intention of calling the police. It had been the right thing to stop him from leaving.
“You can’t.”
“Then tell me.”
He scratched his chin. “You’re part of something bigger. Abbey has worked her whole life to keep you safe. Trust me. Don’t go to the police.” His mouth opened and closed a few times before he was able to form words. “Give me a day or so to try to figure this out.”
He opened the door and came face to fist with Jake.
Sloane
Max yelped as Jake crashed through the doorway. Another person yelled and I shoved Max out of the way. Where was Bri? My breathing relaxed only slightly when I saw her against the wall holding her arms against her chest. She was staring at the floor and on the verge of tears.
Kael leaned over Jake, holding Jake’s arms behind his back. Jake grunted with effort but Kael didn’t waver.
Until he saw me. His eyes widened to large pools of fury.
The only thing I registered was the throbbing in my back and arms. I struggled against Kael who had somehow launched from the floor and had me pinned against the wall within seconds.
“Get off her!” Bri shouted.
Her feeble attempts to free me didn’t budge him.
Kael had me. “She murdered a man and now she’s after you.”
Tucker, Max, and Jake stood behind Kael, his words giving support to the thoughts they’d already had about me. The lies. “I didn’t murder anyone. You’re the one who stole Abbey’s phone. Who’s to say you didn’t murder her?” I immediately regretted how I’d worded the last statement. We didn’t know Abbey was dead.
Bri’s eyes welled up and my stomach twisted.
Kael’s grip loosened but he didn’t let go. “I would never harm Abbey. Bri, you know her?”
Bri nodded. Kael hesitated briefly before letting me go moments later.
Kael stepped back and looked at each of us. He settled on Jake. “Sorry, dude. You attacked me first.”
“What’re you doing here?” Jake’s eyes never left Bri’s.
“Bri broke into my house today and I wanted to know why.”
We all looked at her. Her jaw clenched but her eyes were firmly locked on Kael. “I used a key.”
Kael raised his eyebrows. “Semantics.” He turned to the rest of us. “I came over here to find out why.”
“Is that why you wanted to stay home today?” I asked, offended that she hadn’t told me her plans.
“Not exactly. The idea came to me later.” She scoffed and waved her hands in front of her. “Let’s forget about that for a second and figure out where my mom is. Do you have any idea, Kael?”
He looked at me. “He probably thought I took her out.” I crossed my arms.
“I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? I was asked to come to this Podunk town to find out more about my own mother.”
Kael seemed confused. “Are you messing with me?”
All five of us were silent. Even Tucker for a change.
“What did you expect to find here about your mom?” Kael asked.
I shrugged. “Anything.”
Kael’s gaze bounced between Bri and I. “You really have no idea what you two are?”
“Are they twins?” Max asked.
Kael slipped past Jake and went for the door. Bri went after him. “What are we? What are you talking about?”
Kael’s hard expression softened when he looked at her. I had a sneaking suspicion there was more to him than we thought, especially where Bri was concerned.
I knew Bri didn’t want her friends to know about the laptop but Kael might have been our best shot. And I wasn’t about to let him walk away. “Abbey has a locked folder on her computer.”
Bri nudged me in the arm with her elbow. I carried on. “It needs a password. Would you have any idea what it would be?”
Kael shook his head as his cell phone rang from his pocket. He picked it up, quick enough that I couldn’t see the screen and who it was from. Someone spoke on the other end of the line. He pressed his lips together before hanging up. “I have to go.”
He looked over our shoulders at Tucker and Jake. “If you want to keep Bri safe, keep her here. It’s safe.” He looked from me to Bri. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay here tonight. I’ll be in touch if I find out more about Abbey.”
And with that, he left.
I closed the door behind him, locking it. “Well that adds more questions to the pot. He was pretty much useless.”
“A useless psycho.” Jake came to Bri’s side. “Are you okay?”
Max crossed her arms. “And why the hell did you go to his house?”
Bri shrugged.
I thought of the day I wasted pretending to play dress-up as her. “We could have gone together.”
Jake squeezed Bri’s shoulder. “What were you thinking?”
Tucker kicked his shoes off at the door. “Did you find anything?”
Bri smiled. “Yes. I think I did.”
***
The five of us were huddled in Abbey’s room in front of the laptop, Bri’s hands poised over the keyboard. The password box stared back at us.
Max leaned against the desk. “What word are you going to use?”
Bri took a post-it from beside her and drew a circular symbol with eight lines coming out of it, looking like stick-figure pitchforks. “It’s the Helm of Awe. Mom has a tattoo of this symbol and I saw the same carving in Kael’s bedroom.”
Jake sighed loudly.
Bri continued on, ignoring him. “She said she had it done on a dare. When I asked Kael about it he seemed to think otherwise. It has more meaning to both of them.”
Tucker adjusted his position on the bed to face us. “What would Abbey and Kael have in common?”
“Type it in!” Max said excitedly.
She did.
The words glared back at us before Max reached over her shoulder and pressed “enter”.
Bri and I sucked in an audible breath as the screen blinked.
Another error message.
Bri slumped against the chair.
“What about numbers?” Tucker suggested. “Maybe your birthday. All of my mom’s passwords have someone’s birthday at the end.”
Bri typed in the same words then added her birthday.
Then something unexpected happened.
The folder opened.
Bri
Over a dozen subfolders opened on the screen in front of Bri. Her skin prickled at the top of her head. This is what she’d been waiting for. So why did it feel so wrong? Could she stand to know what her mom had really been up to?
“Click that one.” Sloane pointed to the folder that was named “Two”. “That was the word that my mom used in the note.”
Max stood from the bed. “You did find information about your mom?”
“Sort of.”
Bri could understand Max’s excitement though, for once, she didn’t share the emotion.
“Abbey had something that my mom wrote before she died. I think before we were born,” Sloane told Max.
A pit deepened inside of Bri’s stomach.
Sloane stood up. “Wait. Can Bri and I have a minute?”
Bri stared at the screen. Her ears were hot and she could feel the others’ looks on her. She didn’t turn around.
“There have been enough secrets,” Jake said. “We should all stay.”
Bri took his hand. “It’s fine.”
His jaw clenched. “No.” His eye flicked to Sloane’s for a second too long.
Bri’s gaze darted between them and she let go of his hand. “What’s your problem?”
“Nothing,” Sloane and Jake said at the same time.
Bri’s insides twisted. Why all of a sudden were they on the same side?
The air thickened in the room before Max announced, “Come on, guys. Let’s go downstairs.”
Sloane waited until the door was closed before she spoke. “Whatever this folder contains is a secret, at least from your mom and Kael’s point of view. Right now, I want it to be between me and you.”
“Okay.” The need for information took over her need to understand what Jake’s problem was.
Bri double-clicked the icon and held her breath. Documents and thumbnails of photos scrolled down the screen. They were sorted by date and as she scrolled through she realized whatever information they contained went further back than both of their mothers and probably both of their grandmothers.
Sloane tightened her grip on the back of Bri’s chair. “Wow.”
Bri shook her head in disbelief.
“Let’s start at the closest date to now and work backward.”
It was a good idea, but Bri still couldn’t shake the chill that wouldn’t leave her skin. Did Sloane feel it too?
Bri began to click through the icons. They started off unsurprising. More photos of Sloane and even some of Bri at various ages. As the dates started to descend, more questions arose in Bri’s mind. Photos of strangers. All women with different names and in different time periods. Sloane made her slow down at the two photos of Cara Baker.
“Wait a second,” Sloane said and Bri stopped clicking through. “Click this one and the other one.”
Bri followed her instructions and pulled up a photo of Cara and another woman named Talia. She clamped a hand over her mouth as she glanced between the two photos.
“Two names, two different women.”
Cara and Talia could have been the same person. Like Sloane and Bri would be to anyone who didn’t know them. Bri knew they were two different women. And their eyes. They had the same genetic deformity as Bri and Sloane.
“Talia was your mom’s—” Twin? She still wasn’t sure what to call them.
For the next few minutes, Bri and Sloane paired up different women who had the same faces.
“She said something about a ‘Two’ in her letter,” Sloane said. “Is that what all these women are? Twos?”
“What does that even mean?” Bri asked, more to herself than to Sloane. “Why aren’t they just called ‘twins’?”
Pounding footsteps came up the stairs and down the hall. Bri and Sloane turned to the door as Max burst into the room. Her breathing was labored but all Bri could focus on was the phone in her hand, blinking Abbey’s face on the screen. The word “work” displayed at the top of the screen.
Bri grabbed the phone from Max and slid her finger across the screen without hesitation.
“Speaker!” Sloane hissed and Bri complied.
The two girls stood in front of Bri as they listened.
“Mom?” Bri asked and briefly wondered how true that name was.
“Brianna?” Abbey said through the phone. Her voice seemed far away but Bri’s heart lifted at the sound of it.
“Where are you?”
“I’m at the school, honey … my car … don’ t…” Her voice was breaking up.
“Mom?”
The phone line went dead.
Bri shot up from the chair and redialed the number. It went straight to voicemail. She tried a few more times with the same result.