*formerly known as Shadow Hillcreak*
Iveline Carterson was expecting three things at her new school when her family moved to ShadowHill, Virginia.
1. A clique of bitchy mean girls.
2. Hard classes, strict teachers.
3. The heartthrob that makes ever...
This chapter is written from Phoenix's point of view! Enjoy!
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"LET'S GATHER WHAT WE HAVE SO FAR AND WORK OUR WAY FROM THERE."
I turned my eyes to Ivy who was sitting next to me, her hands absently placing more flowers onto the homemade frame she and I have been working on for the past several weeks for Caleb's dedication. It was supposed to be done a week ago but the chaos from the past several days had delayed us.
Across from us, Jolie and Lycon sat next to each other, pulling up notes they had written on their laptops. We had agreed to gather in the woodshop down in The Circuit like we always did since deciding to play detective to solve this case.
In the middle of the table were four takeaway platters of burger combos Lycon had picked up from the local diner. This had become sort of a routine now. We would crash in the mechanic room of the basement, eat some sort of ordered food, and go over the evidence we had gathered to plan our next move.
In some sort of way, it was comforting.
"So what we know so far is that Caleb Hollow went missing in the late afternoon of August fifteenth and was found dead August twenty-sixth in Hillcreak River" Jolie started, typing away on her laptop. "He was found with a single gunshot to the head and a slit throat but upon autopsy reports, six of his ribs were cracked and he was found with multiple lacerations to the chest and abdomen, suggesting some sort of struggle before the final wound that killed him."
I winced at that last detail, the images of Caleb's pale body spread out on that autopsy photo flashing in my head. Seeing him so cold, dissected, and stitched together, his blonde hair now dull and resembling hay, his lips blue, and his green eyes devoid of all color sent a cold chill down my spine.
That one image had been haunting me since we stumbled upon it in Lycon's dad's office and it had been in all of my dreams. I couldn't get him out of my head, even if I wanted to. It was as if he was taunting me from beyond the grave, waiting for me to break.
Which, at this point, seemed like it would happen any day.
Jolie looked up, an apologetic look on her face. "I'm sorry" she whispered.
"It's okay" I reassured her. "Keep going."
Lycon gave me a questioning look but picked up where Jolie stopped. "He was last seen heading back home from football practice with Greyson Chaliander and Tyson Bernard. Greyson separated from Tyson and Caleb on his way home at 456 Rosewood Drive and according to Tyson, he separated from Caleb at the intersection of Somner and Forest Hill Avenue. He never returned home. His parents filed a missing person's report twenty-four hours after his disappearance."
Lycon gave Ivy a nod to which she continued from where he left off. "From what we found so far, Caleb had been receiving notes from an anonymous stalker dating back to last year but had since become more frequent and more detailed. In the last few months leading to his death, he had been documenting his uneasiness of being followed by a stalker and feeling like his life was in danger. He planned to run away at the end of the first semester to New York until the danger had surpassed. According to the last few entries of his journal, it is presumed that Caleb discovered who his killer was before his untimely death."
