Sinister

Chapter Three

Sinister

Chapter Three

Leighton pressed her nose to the cool glass and watched as her breath clouded her vision and then cleared it. Rain pelted the window as individual drops rolled down the glass in long lines that intertwined and swerved until they reached the bottom.

It had been raining since Jack Norton was buried. It wasn't uncommon to receive large amounts of rain where Leighton lived. Summer storms were normal for her town. However, there was something about this storm that made Leighton's skin prickle. Something about its relentlessness that made her wonder if this was nature's way of balancing out an untimely death.

Leighton watched as the lights at the Norton's went out, plunging the house into darkness before the sun had fully settled. She had noticed that the Norton's no longer had friends over, no longer gardened, no longer smiled.

"Why don't you come away from that window, kid? You don't want to get hurt if a bolt of lightning hits too close to the house," Tom warned. He sat with Karen on the couch, their legs tangled beneath a heavy blanket as they watched the evening news.

Leighton blinked, her mind straying as she watched Mr. Norton take the garbage to the end of the road. He stood at the end of the driveway for a long moment, not caring that his housecoat was now soaked through. I helped him. Her mind had been toying with those words, turning them over and over, trying to make sense of their meaning.

"Leighton? Are you hungry?" Karen asked, voice laced with concern. No response came. Leighton continued to watch the rain fall, her mind a million miles from her body. She felt a shiver run the length of her spine and heard his voice again. I helped him.

Tate hadn't helped Jack Norton. He killed him. There was nothing helpful about killing a teenager with his entire life ahead of him. Leighton remembered the chill in her blood, the weight of the damp cocktail dress on her skin, the feeling of glass under her feet. In her mind, Leighton saw the white light crawling across the forest floor, leaving nothing behind but a layer of frost. Frost in June.

"Leighton." This time Leighton was shaken from her reverie, eyes darting to meet her mother's as her heart thumped hard in her chest. Karen was standing over her daughter, hands crossed against her chest, lips tight.

"Sorry?"

Karen's forehead crumpled. "Are you alright?"

Leighton nodded as if on reflex. "Yes." She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and smiled, trying to look believable and wondering why she couldn't manage it. Surely her inability to smile genuinely came from the Prozac prescribed to her.

Karen frowned and shot a quick glance to Tom who only raised his eyebrows. "We were calling to you for over a minute, Leigh, are you sure everything is okay?"

Leighton glanced out the window. She watched as Mr. Norton leaned over on his front porch and placed his hands on his knees, shoulders shaking with grief, bathrobe soaked from the rain. It was hard to look at that sort of pain for too long.

"I was thinking about Jack," Leighton told her mother. She heard his laugh and felt her stomach twist. Had Leighton known that would be the last time she would hear him laugh she might have laughed with him.

Karen tucked her hair behind both ears and sat beside her daughter on the window seat, tucking one leg beneath the other and taking Leighton's hand. "I noticed that you're behind on your medication. Tom and I are worried. I just need to ask one more time, are you sure you're alright?"