The sister in the dark

Chapter 1

Part 1: Jewels and Clues

I am curled up, crying, in our attic bedroom. My attic bedroom. Now that Rose is dead, I have it all to myself. Not that I want it, anyway. Memories of her funeral this morning come flooding back, like the tears that have never ceased since I was told about her death.

A teacher at her school, Stowe, claims they were woken up at 3 am to the sound of a fight outside their bedroom window. They went outside to investigate, but the sound of the door opening must have alerted the participants because they fled into the woods at the side of the school and at registration the next morning, Rose and a girl called Charlotte were absent.

Two days later, an indistinguishable body was found dead in the river, and an occupant of a nearby village apparently sighted a girl of Charlotte's description running in the evening light away from the school.

Tears pour down my face once again, unstoppable, heart wrenching, uncontrolled. I cried like this until my stepfather called me for dinner. I wasn't hungry so I deliberately slowly trailed down the stairs from the attic that Rose used to race me down, past the large window where I used to sit with Rose to watch the sunrise.

Seated at the kitchen table, overcome by grief, lost in my own thoughts, I almost miss my mother rising from the table to accept a phone call from someone or other, a mourner for Rose, probably. But with Rose's death, I have lost spirit. I no longer want to eavesdrop on my mother and stepfather's phone calls. Instead, I eat in silence.

5 minutes later, my mother replaces the receiver and walks across the kitchen floor to stand in front of me.

"Well," she says, "It seems that with your... sister's death, a place has become available at Stowe, and the headmaster has asked you to take it. I accepted you. Pack up, you are leaving tomorrow."

I stand still, in the kitchen doorway, shocked at what this means.

It means I am going to the place where Rose was last.

It means I am going to Stowe.