Jack Kline's Sister

Chapter Seventeen: Prophet and Loss, Part Two

"I'm Mallory," the girl said.

"Hello, Mallory," Jack said. "Um, can you tell me who Addison's acquaintances were? Friends, enemies?"

Mallory stared at them for a minute. "She had a boyfriend. Matt. And a friend named Suzie, but she's in South Dakota right now. Other than that, she was a quiet girl."

"You said you were there when she died," Jack continued. "Did you see who killed her?"

Mallory looked down. "No." Her voice was soft. Then she looked up, eyes full of tears. "Yes. It was Jessica. Barnes. Only she wasn't human, she was...like her body would look now." She shook her head. "It's dumb, I know, but that's what I saw."

"It's not dumb," Monica said, placing her hand on Mallory's. "We've heard stranger, I can assure you."

"Do you have any idea why Jessica would want Addison dead?" Jack asked.

"Jessica's dead."
"We know."

"She dated Matt."
Monica sighed inwardly. If only we could just kill Matt.

"That all?"

Mallory nodded. Then shook her head. "Do you think Jessica's the one killing people?"

It's a theory."

Mallory's eyes widened. "Then I'm next," she breathed.

"What?"

Mallory looked at them, eyes full of shame. "I dated Matt. In secret. He cheated on Addison for her sister. Me." She shook her head, the tears starting to flow. "She was my sister. How could I do that?"

Monica exchanged a glance with Jack. "Look, Mallory. It's going to be okay. We're going to stop her." She scribbled Jack's number on a piece of paper and handed it to her. "Anything--anything at all comes up, call us."

Mallory nodded.

"And, uh, stay in the room for the rest of the day. And if you can, line the edges with salt."
Mallory's eyes narrowed.

"I'm serious," Monica said. "I swear."

Then they left. "So, there's no way in hell we can find her remains," Monica said. "How can we stop her?"
"We can hope about the cursed object thing. Otherwise, there is nothing we can do."

"Besides kill Matt," Monica muttered.

"What did you say?"
"Nothing."

"So now what? We go back to her room and try to find something else?"

"I can't think of anything else."

They pulled up on the road of Jessica's house. The Barnes' car was gone.

"They left," Monica whispered. She looked around. "If we hurry, we can grab it before they come back."

Jack looked at her for a moment before apparently agreeing, because he followed her into the house.

They were in Jessica's room when they heard footsteps. Monica spun around holding a shotgun of rock salt.

It was Mallory.

"Mallory? What are you doing?"

"I can't stay calm knowing my dead friend is after me. And I saw you pull into Jessica's house even though they're not home--"

"It's fine. We're FBI. We can do that."

Mallory didn't look entirely convinced. "Fine. What are we doing?"