Darkest Call

Chapter One

"The Morristown Police Department have just confirmed, that yesterday, January 7th, Clint Collins was murdered. It is believed that Clint was murdered as part of a satanic ritual, as the body was missing vital organs..." Aunt Thelonien's face was pale, when she turned off the radio. My gaze fell to the window once again. Outside the sun was shining on the houses and snow laid heavy everywhere. Even though I was 16 – almost 17 – years old, aunt Thelonien did not like me driving. She had allowed me to get my driver's license when I turned 16, but that was about it. I did not blame her though. Just 2 years ago, not more than a couple of months before my parent's death, she had lost her husband and son in a car accident. I had never really known my aunt and her family. I still had a hard time putting a finger on my aunt. But I felt I knew her now after more than a year being her ward. I knew her than my uncle and cousin anyways. I had only known my cousin from school, and that had not been very well. As far as I knew, he had been dating one of the girls in the Gang. The Gang was a friend group, who always hung out together, who my friends' and I referred to, by that name. You needed a pen name for a group of people, when you liked gossiping about them after all.
"When are you coming home today?" Aunt Thelonien sharpened her mouth. I shrugged. "I'm going to Blackwell's today" I said, referring to the Orphanage me and my friends volunteered at. Aunt Thelonien nodded, "Will Adler be there?" she asked mentioning one of my two best friends, Adler Holmes, or Ad as I called him, who was the sheriff's son. I nodded, "Yeah and Nic to" I said, thinking about my other best friend, Nicola Hughens. Aunt Thelonien did not answer. She turned the car into the school parking lot and I opened the door, "See you aunt Thelonien" I said and she gave me a wave, before driving off to her work.

"What Pen, you haven't dropped chemistry yet?" It was Ad's bright voice that broke through my thoughts, as I was standing at my locker taking out my chemistry book. I smiled at him. Ad was not a bad looking guy. He had dark blondish hair that was always messy, his grey eyes always had a gleam in them, and you could always count on him to help you. "Whenever your future economical occupation of some sort has a gas leak or something, you'll be wishing you'd taken AP chemistry" I said. Ad chuckled, "Yeah good luck with the economy in your chemistry firm" he said, and I rolled my eyes.
"You know Ad," a new voice said, "Most people working with chemistry are either researchers, engineers or something like that" Nicola gave me a hug as she came over to us. Her blonde hair hang lightly around her face, the sparkling blue eyes, that never missed a clue in her many small investigations, gleamed with amusement. It was thanks to her, I always knew the weirdest facts about almost everything. Nicola knew a lot about everything. Her dream was to become the next Sherlock Holmes, and she was very well on her way.
"Pfff. I knew that" gulped Ad. I rolled my eyes but did not answer. Nicola caught my glance and smirked. "Anyways, I'll see you guys later" Ad said leaving for his financial studies class. Nicola started walking with me. She was having French in her first class and I was having chemistry. Ad always joked, that whenever Nicola would need either economical advice or chemistry experiments for her investigation, she'd have us. He was right, of course, she would always have us.

*****

The class was half full when I entered. I sat down at my usual spot in the front. Behind me two people from the Gang sat. It was Maia Felloe, whose curly dark hair and sun warm skin would always draw attention to her sparkling green eyes, and Noah Parkinson, who sat beside her. Where Maia seemed more talkative I chemistry, Noah was often quiet in class. In recess, however, Noah talked loudly with the other members of the Gang. His greenish brown eyes often scouted every room he entered. The light brown hair was that length, where it was almost long enough to style, but not quite. Nicola always talked about how the Gang just were hot people with a rich family background coming together, which wasn't exactly inaccurate. They were all children of old wealthy families. My cousin had been as well.