Beautiful Demons

15. What With Tori's Disappearance

The rest of the weekend passed by in a daze. I couldn't stop thinking about Jackson. Plus, I was anxious to know if anyone had found my necklace. I didn't get much sleep.

On Monday morning at school, the first place I went was the front office. I wanted to get there before homeroom, but I hated walking past that demon statue up front. Instead, I walked around to the side entrance and practically ran to the office. The secretary, Mrs. White, gave me a weak smile when I walked through the door, and there were dark circles under her eyes.

"Good morning, dear. What can I help you with this morning?"

"I lost something Friday night at the football game," I said, my toe jiggling nervously inside my boot. "Did anyone turn in a necklace?"

"Oh, honey, I don't think so. It's just been a madhouse around here this morning, what with Tori's disappearance."

My eyes widened. "Tori Fairchild?"

"Yes, bless her heart," Mrs. White said. She brought the back of her hand up to her mouth and closed her eyes. After a few deep breaths, she opened them again and I saw that they were full of big, wet tears. "No one's seen her since the game Friday night. Half the town has been out looking for her since Sunday morning."

I stood there in shock, thinking about Tori and that guy after the game on Friday night. A guy who wasn't her boyfriend. Had he done something to her? Had Foster found out about them and gone crazy with jealousy? I swallowed hard."I'm sorry, what was it that you lost again?"

"A necklace," I said. "A silver chain with a blue sapphire pendant. But I can come back some other time." It seemed petty to be talking about a lost necklace when Tori was missing. What if something horrible happened to her?

"You're Harper, right? The new girl from Shadowford?"

I nodded and she wrote my name down on a yellow sticky pad along with a note about my necklace. "If anyone turns it in to the office, I'll make sure we let you know."

She stuck the yellow note onto a small cork board by her desk.

I thanked her and headed to my homeroom. The halls were filled with sobbing girls, somber faces, and clusters of students sharing whispered conversations. I rushed to homeroom, wondering if I should tell anyone about my midnight Tori sighting at the football stadium.

If I came forward with the information, Mrs. Shadowford would know I left the house after curfew to search the stadium. I had no doubt she would contact my case manager and send me straight to juvie. Then again, if I could help save Tori's life, wasn't that the most important thing? My mind ran circles around the issue. What if Tori had just run away with her new, possibly older boyfriend? Maybe she wasn't in trouble at all. Was I willing to risk my entire future for a girl that wasn't even the slightest bit civil to me? I felt certain she wouldn't have risked breaking a nail if it meant saving my life, so why did I even care?

For the first part of the morning, I played it safe. I kept my mouth shut and listened to the gossip around me.

"She was supposed to come to the party at Foster's parents' cabin by the lake Friday night, but she never showed," a brunette to my left was telling her friends.

"That's pretty typical Tori, though, right? To bail on a party?"

"Last year, maybe, but this year she's dating Foster. I don't think she'd ditch him at his own party."

"Well, what do you think happened to her?"

"I have no idea," the brunette said. "I just hope they find her and she's okay."

Then, in second period, I specifically sat near Allison Moore. If anyone knew about Tori's other man, it would be one of the cheerleaders. Allison's face was red and splotchy from crying.

"I can't believe this is happening," she cried to one of her fellow cheerleaders. I recognized the blonde she was talking to, but I didn't know her name. "We were the last two girls in the locker room, but I had to run home and get my sweatshirt cause it was getting chilly, right, so I left her and told her I'd meet her at the party."

"So she just never came home from the game or what?" the other girl asked in a whisper when the teacher turned her back.

"No one has seen or heard from her since I left the locker room Friday night." Allison's face scrunched up and she began to cry again. "I never should have left her alone in there. If something's happened to her, I'll never be able to forgive myself."

"It just doesn't make sense."

"Maybe someone abducted her from the school. It totally could have been some crazy stalker that, like, watched her at all the games or something," a petite girl with a short brown pixie cut said.

"The weirdest part is that the cops found her car parked on the street just a few blocks away from her own house," Allison said. "But she drove it to the game that night. If someone abducted her, why would they drive her car to the street where she lives and just leave it there?"

I strained to remember if I had seen Tori's car in the parking lot Friday night. I remembered that the lot seemed empty, no cars. I wondered if the cheerleaders had a special parking lot or if they parked in the main lot, but I didn't want to ask any questions that might raise suspicion.

By lunchtime, I had pretty much decided that if no word came in about Tori's whereabouts by the end of the school day, I would go to the police with my information. I still didn't know who the guy was that Tori was there with, but at least I could give them a description of his voice and what he was wearing. It would make for a record short time at a home for me, but I couldn't keep this secret to myself any longer.I watched the clock for the rest of the afternoon, feeling as if each second that went by brought me closer to my own deathbed. Then, minutes before the bell that would seal my fate, the news came in. Tori Fairchild's body had been found.