Masquerade of Shadows

Chapter One

The coffin being lowered into the ground reflected the rays of sunlight peering from behind the dark clouds, scattering across the wooden surface. A crowd of people stood in a mass of black on the cemetery lawn, the grass still glistening from earlier's rain. Aria stood separate from the crowd, just a dark figure against her bright surroundings. She never understood the point of burying an empty coffin. Was it for closure? So they could feel as if they had tried and now they were burying their empty hope? To Aria, the empty coffin being lowered into the ground was just a symbol of those around her giving up, and this wasn't the first time.

Four months ago, Aria's best friend, Cassy, had disappeared into thin air without a single trace. There one minute and gone the next. Police searched for Cassy, her parents putting up hundreds of missing person fliers, for a month, before they started searching for a body. None of them searched as hard as Aria had. They didn't have the skills, or her knowledge, or her experience.

This was not the first friend of Aria's to go missing. The year before, her friend Jackie had also disappeared without a trace and Aria hadn't stopped searching for her to this day. Cassy had always been there to help, of course, she was her partner in crime so to say. Aria grew up learning how to hack computers and traffic cams, anything and everything needed to find a missing person. If anything would turn up, Cassy and Aria would be off to investigate, though most "investigations" ended with the police being called on them.

Now, standing in the middle of a cemetery, Aria knew the two disappearances of her friends were connected, if only she could find that connection. The crowd in front of her began to split, and Aria caught sight of a picture that had been set by the hole where the coffin now was. The picture had been taken three months prior to Cassy's disappearance. Aria didn't want to observe the picture, so she turned away, she didn't need a reminder of what Cassy looked like, she hadn't forgotten. Blonde hair and blue eyes, she didn't need to think about the details. Aria scanned the crowd for her mom, but all she could make out was just a group in black.

Off in the distance, by the tree line, Aria caught sight of movement. The wind, she told herself, but she wasn't so sure. Instead of standing apart from everyone, she started off to the tree line, her black boots damp from the dew on the grass. Speed walking wasn't fast enough for her, and soon she was running, forgetting that she was wearing a black dress her mother had made her put on that morning. Moments later she reached the tree line, pushing past a thorn bush that cut at her bare legs. She was oblivious to the sting of the small, red cuts on her pale skin. She pushed deeper and deeper into the woods, the canopy of green leaves blocking out the sun.

Aria wasn't sure what was driving her, curiosity, determination, or hope. She was never one to accept death easily. When her father had died when she was 11, she never believed it for a second, until the realization had settled in. A year ago, when Jackie disappeared, Alina started her search. Now, all she could do now was blindly push forward with a hope that might be false. The silence filled the air when she came to a stop, deeper than she thought. She couldn't hear the voices from the funeral, nor the engine of cars as many drove away.

"Great, I'm going crazy." Aria whispered to herself.

With fading determination, she turned and started to make her way back to the funeral, cursing under her breath as she realized the state of her legs and the bottom of her dress. Her mom was going to kill her. She hadn't made it far when she heard the sound of a twig snapping, the sound loud in the silent forest. Aria spun on her heel only to find that the woods behind her were as empty as before. Her first thought was that it had only been an animal, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she wasn't alone.

"Who's there?" Aria called out.

There was no reply, just the quiet that had hung in the air since Aria had stepped into the woods. She had been so sure that what she had seen was a figure, a person, a flash of blonde hair. Aria sighed in disappointment and started to turn to make her way back to the cemetery. She gasped when she saw the sight behind her, frozen in shock and fear. Someone had replied.

The space on the ground that had been covered in leaves moments before had been cleared away to show the dirt underneath. Written in the dirt in block letters was a message, consisting of only two words.

Stop looking.

Scanning around, Aria saw that there was no one around her. She hadn't heard anyone approach from behind, had not heard the crunching of leaves under feet, and it was impossible for that message to be written within the few seconds Aria had been turned away. Panicking, Aria took off at full speed, racing back to the opened field with headstones set at random places. Despite her panic, Aria was sure of one thing. The message had told her to stop looking, but that gave her all the more reason to look.

She reached the end of the tree line within seconds, the sun blinding her as she stepped back into the light. It was hot, the black clothes absorbing the heat making it hotter than it seemed. She squinted in the light to see very few people left by the grave, among them her mother waiting patiently. Still a little shaken from what she had just experienced, Aria began to make her way over to her mother, who had already seen her and was headed to their black Toyota that was parked close by.

Aria walked by Cassy's grave as men with shovels threw dirt onto the shiny wooden surface. In the distance, past the crowd and most of the headstones, someone was standing in the shadows of the trees. Aria could make out a boy her age wearing a leather jacket despite the spring heat, his hair just as dark. Even from the this distance, Aria could see his eyes, a startling shade of gray that seemed to almost glow in his dark surroundings. Aria couldn't help but stare as she kept walking, thinking that maybe she really was going crazy.