By August

Chapter 3

"All ready?" I ask, hopping to the ground from the tree near my bedroom window. Pluto is loyally sitting in my backpack, licking my ear every now and then.

"Ask me how I knew you would leave the house in a less than conventional manner," Dallas says, standing there looking critical of my tree-climbing.

"How did you know?" I ask.

"I didn't I just thought I'd sleep out here until morning then act like I arrived early," he says, shrugging, "Where are we going?"

"Back to the road, we need to hurry, Claire usually only shows up at the time she died," I say, taking a squirming Pluto out of the backpack.

"That sounds valid."

"My bike's around front," I say, leading him around the house, "We have to be quiet though my dad's still up."

"Won't he notice your absence?"

"No he'll be too drunk he doesn't usually come check on me."

"If he did it would be quite a shock to his heart."

"He'll be fine."

Dallas climbs on behind me on the bike. He's decent at this by now. "I like this mode of transportation."

"Good, it's my only one till I'm sixteen. Then my-stepdad Andy says I can have his car and he'll finally get a new one," I say. Claire was supposed to get his car when she turned sixteen. Whenever we got back from staying with my dad and it was her birthday. Except she didn't get back. I flew home with my mom. My dad was in the hospital. Claire was dead. And I kept telling them I needed to stay to figure out who did it.

"That is very decent of your step-dad-Andy."

"Yeah, hang on, we're gonna go fast. I don't want to miss her."

"Was your sister permitted to leave the house at this dark and unfriendly hour?"

"No, she was at a sleepover with friends and they all went out to bike in the woods and look at the stars. They said in their initial statements that she said she wasn't feeling well and was going to go home. But that doesn't add up."

"Why not? Going home is valid."

"She was struck walking. Her bike was never found. If she was going home why didn't she take her bike? Where is it if it got a flat or whatever? If it got a flat or whatever then why didn't she go home with the other girls and call my dad he would've come and picked her up? No, she didn't come back with the other girls, meaning they had a fight, or something, while she was out."

"Then what happened to the bike?"

"That is the question, Dallas."

We get to the road just past ten. Almost time for the witching hour. Dallas hops off the bike unsteadily, and Pluto runs around us barking.

"So we just wait?" Dallas asks, as Claire stands up in the middle of the road. She's wearing her short shorts and tank top, like she was the night she died. Her hair is a mess and plastered to her face with blood. Her stomach and side are split open with bone and organs sticking through. She's shaking in fear.

"Claire it's okay, I'm back for the summer now, and I'm gonna find who hurt you," I say, holding out my notebook, "Can you show me what the car looked like?"

She backs away, looking ready to cry, as she looks down at her hands, then at us. Then she turns and runs into the woods.