RED: Welcome To Fayetteville | Complete ✔️

Chapter 12: The Yellow Light

Evelyn finished her lemonade. The conversation with Jasper was beyond small talk. It was going deeper, to the meaty topics she loved to talk about, and so did he.

"How is it living with Zach? I know this is still fresh to you guys," Jasper said.

"Yeah. It's still fresh. To be honest, I'm mad. Our parents just ditch our families and get together. Now I'm step-siblings with someone I was just acquainted with. Then, our parents take off on some honeymoon. What were they thinking?"

"Do they even know about what's been happening here? About Genni?"

"If they had social media, but they're in some cabin or something... I don't know. We can't contact them. They said we probably wouldn't be able to talk to them."

"That's weird." Jasper didn't think about overstepping a boundary by calling her parent and step-parent weird. Good thing she didn't notice... or care.

Evelyn shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes. She danced the ice around in her cup.

"If it makes you feel any better, my parents fight all the time," he told her.

"Ah, the luxury of having parents that aren't divorced."

"It's rare... but my parents act like it anyways. Sometimes they don't even notice me. It's like I'm not even there."

That hit Evelyn. She hated everything about it. "I'm sorry, Jasper."

"No! It's okay. I'm not in a fit over it. It is what it is. I'm about to graduate and Lord knows where I'm going next."

---

The white sheet with Genni's face was everywhere. It went from everyone looking at it, to it just flapping in the cold wind. The morning dew turning the corners of the sheet into ice. Soon, the sun gets higher, it gets brighter and it melts the ice. The damp corners end up just like the rest of it: unnoticed.

It wasn't about Genni being "MISSING" anymore. Almost everyone in this small town thought she was dead at this point... and they were right. 

They drove over it almost every day. The bridge over the Elk River was hiding something inside its cold waters: Genni's body.

---

Jasper had his camera and the town square. He loved the blinking traffic lights this late at night. The yellow put a new tint on the pavement that he felt was unique. The road was empty. No one was out at this time of night... so he thought. His denim jacket wasn't keeping in enough warmth, but he didn't care. He liked the lighting, and he loved this surge of inspiration he was feeling. He leaned down and put one knee on the ground. He leaned to the left, hitting the button. Click. The shutter in the camera flashed open to take the picture.

Yes, it was a beautiful scene. His camera was capturing something that would look great on Instagram. But, something a little more exciting was behind him. At the street corner by the Coca-Cola mural on the brick wall... someone was watching. But, he'd never see who they were... the red hoodie was hiding their face.

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