Clarke had been preparing mentally for her date with Jack on Saturday. She had no idea where he was going to take her or what they were going to do. She tried to get at least a little information out of him every day, but he just wouldn't budge. She didn't even know what to wear. She hated to say that because it made her sound like such a girl. She had been on dates with other guys, but she didn't care nearly as much about those as she did this one. Jack was something else. He made her feel different than any of the other guys she had dated. When she was with him, she didn't think about murder or victims. She only really thought about him, which was extremely refreshing considering that was all that went through her mind all day. He was like a safe place to land in very turbulent conditions.
When Saturday finally rolled around, she was just a jumble of nerves. She had set up a visit at the juvie Thomas was being held in for Sunday and she planned on asking Jack to go with her. She was hoping that he would say yes, but Clarke was less worried about his answer and more worried about his mothers'. She would be the final approval if Jack could go or not. She could worry about that later though. Right now, all she needed to focus on was what to wear for today. She settled on jeans and a cute t-shirt. That seemed like a safe option, right? Jack didn't have a lot of money so she knew he wouldn't be taking her to any fancy restaurants. Maybe the movies or just dinner? Jack was a simple guy, yet Clarke had no clue how to read him. She heard her mom shout that there was someone at the door for her and she ran down, excited that Jack was here. He was a little early, but she was pretty much ready. When she got to the door it wasn't Jack it was a girl with a manila envelope in her hand.
"Who's this from?"
"I was just paid to drop it off. Your name is Clarke Holden, right?"
"Yeah that's me, but there's not a return address on this."
"I was just supposed to deliver it." The girl was tall with short brown hair and looked normal enough. The girl left before Clarke could ask another question and pulled out of the driveway. The folder was heavier than it looked, and Clarke decided she should open it in her room alone.
When she closed her door, she undid the metal piece and opened it. She pulled out one photo that was of her and Jack in the park the other night. Then another one and another one of her and Jack together. Someone had been stalking them. There were photos of even her and Jack on the first day they met when she let him in her car. There were photos of them through the window in Jack's room. How had they not noticed someone out the window snapping pictures of them. Clarke's heart was racing. The last was a typed piece of paper with instructions.
Dear Clarke,
I have been watching you for some time and it seems that you and Jack have gotten close. That's going to end. Do whatever you have to do to break it off with him or he'll end up getting hurt just like the rest. Say whatever you have to say, or I will fulfill my promise and there may be one less Jack in the world.
Sincerely.
Clarkes eyes were wide as she stared at the piece of paper. It was typed so there was no way she could find out who wrote it. Maybe if she tracked down the girl who delivered it, she could ask her, but she had nothing to go on. Jack would be over in a couple of minutes. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know what to say to him. She walked to her sister's room in a frenzy. Someone was watching her. Her breathing was heavy, and tears were coming to her eyes. She was afraid. Whoever this was could kill Jack and easily kill her. She had never truly realized the danger they were both in by looking into this. She knocked on Caroline's door heavily and as she opened the door. She saws Clarke's face and immediately felt concerned.
"What's wrong? Clarke, Clarke can you hear me?"
Clarke was tuning out the world as she shakily walked to her bedroom and slid down the wall. She couldn't breathe and her head felt so heavy. Was she having a panic attack? The room felt like it was spinning, and she struggled to breath. It was like her throat was slowly closing up. Caroline was trying to get her attention, but Clarke couldn't focus on anything. This was really happening. She was in danger. Caroline gripped her face telling her to calm down and to tell her what was wrong and then she saw the pictures on the bed. Caroline walked over to look at them.
"Is this you and Jack?" Clarke nodded and gripped her head in her hands trying to focus. Caroline was a little freaked out that there were pictures of her sister in private settings like their house and Jacks. These were spanned over the past few weeks. Someone had been stalking her ever since she had gotten out of juvie. They both heard a knock on the door and their breathing stopped. That had to be Jack.
"Clarke. I need you to focus now and get in the bed okay?" She nodded and crawled in bed. Caroline picked the photos up and hid them in her sister's desk drawer. She opened the door only a crack to look at Jack. He was in a dark blue dress shirt and a pair of light wash jeans. He gave Caroline a big smile as he held the flowers in his hand.
"Hey Caroline, Clarke in there?"
"Yeah she can't go out tonight she's been feeling really sick all day." His face fell and Caroline kind of felt bad for him.
"Oh, why didn't she tell me? Can I talk to her, see if she needs anything?"
"She doesn't want anyone to see her like this. She kind of looks like a mess," Caroline chuckled nervously. She had never been a good liar.
"I don't care I want to talk to her." Jack was getting more and more suspicious. Clarke wouldn't just cancel their date unless something was wrong. Clarke had finally composed herself and knew the only way she could get Jack to go away was to talk to him.
"It's okay Caroline I got this." Her sister looked at her worried but moved out of Jack's way and let him in.
"Hey what's wrong?" She waited until her sister left to look at Jack. She needed to make this as brutal as possible because all of her attempts before this hadn't drove Jack away. The concerned look on his face made what she was about to do even harder.
"I'm not really feeling well. I can't go out tonight." Jack's face switched within a millisecond.
"Do you need anything? I can get soup from the Gash."
"No Jack I'm fine I just want to be alone." Clarke could tell that Jack wasn't buying her story, but how was she supposed to explain to him what was really going on. She felt she knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't care about the photos. He wouldn't take them seriously and still insist on being in her life because he was that dedicated of a friend, or whatever they were.
"Clarke what's really going on? You don't seem very sick to me?" He didn't like being lied to. He hoped her explanation was better the second time around on why she couldn't go out tonight.
"I just don't want to go out tonight."
"You don't want to go out tonight or you don't want to go out with me?" Clarke internally groaned. Why couldn't he be flaky like every other guy in this town. What would she have to say to get him off of her back without completely destroying their relationship all together? She would figure out how to fix this and when she did, she didn't want to alienate him to the point that he would never talk to her again.
"It's you okay. I'm not interested in you in that way. I thought I could fake it because you're my only friend, but I just can't.
"What are you talking about? You don't mean that." He wasn't going to go down without a fight, so Clarke had to be more brutal.
"I'm not interested."
"Why are you lying. I felt the way you kissed me the other day. You're telling me that wasn't real?"
"Jack I'm not a project, and I'm not Amy. Just because you couldn't fix her doesn't mean you need to fix me." That was a low blow and she knew it, but it was the only thing she could think of that would hurt him enough to get him to leave.
"How could you say that to me?"
"Truth hurts." Jacks face was hard now. Clarke could only hope that he could forgive her for it when it finally came time to explain. Maybe he was better off this way. He could stay away while she tried to finally figure out what the hell was going on in this town. He left the room without another word. It was a shame that she felt so damn guilty about doing the right thing. Caroline came in as soon as she saw Jack storm out of the room.
"You okay?" There was hesitation in her voice, like Clarke was a fragile balloon she didn't want to pop. Clarke hated that tone, but she knew her sister was only trying to help.
"I've been better."
"What happened?"
"What needed to. I don't want to talk about it right now. I'm gonna try and figure out what times and dates these photos were all taken." Caroline nodded and left her alone. She knew her sister wasn't ready to talk it out and she was going to respect that.
As soon as Caroline left Clarke pulled the photos out and her notebook. Her eyes found them, and she suddenly was throwing them across the room. The little control she had over her life felt like it had been ripped away. The one good thing in this entire mess was Jack. Wasn't framing her for murder enough? Why were they still ruining her life? She threw herself on the bed and let out a frustrated scream, balling her fists into the comforter.
The first photo was of them on the first day when Clarke made Jack get out of the car before she parked. How had someone even known that he had been in her. It had to have been a lucky shot. Or they would have had to have seen Jack get in her car in the first place. There were plenty on kids on the bus that pulled away that could have seen her and Jack so that didn't really narrow anything down.
There was also a photo of them the day they went out to the diner to do their project. Who was there? She remembered making the comment that no one from school was in there. Was there someone she was missing? Someone she wouldn't have recognized. If she was being honest with herself, there were way too many people that it could have been for her to figure it out. That was also over a month and a half ago. Maybe if she could ask for the receipts from that day, she could catch whoever it was. Or maybe these photos were more telling than they originally let on. Jack and she had been sitting next to a window the day they did their project. Maybe there was something in the reflection of the window.
She didn't remember the last time she held a magnifying glass and it was severely unlikely that there was in the house. It couldn't hurt to look for one though. She asked Caroline and she said there might have been one in the shed with the old microscope they played with when they were kids. The garage wasn't the neatest part of their house that was for sure. There were a bunch of old toys in there from when they were kids because no one ever bothered to throw them away. She spotted the old kit in the corner of the room next to the gardening equipment. The magnifying glass was there with a couple of scratches on it, but it still served its purpose.
When she made her way back to her room, she held it up and looked through the magnifying glass. It was really hard to see, but there was no other way she could enlarge the photo. She wasn't nearly tach savvy enough to do that and no one she knew was. She could only see a hand in the reflection, but it was too blurry to even see what color it was. She tried to squint her eyes even harder, but it didn't help at all. Okay so she could see a hand. What else was there? A coffee cup and a plate with what looked like crepes. A set of keys were blurrily sitting on the table. They had a lot of keys on them. The reflection wasn't very good at all. That's when she saw it. Sitting on the table was a wallet, one with a pink string attached to it. That was something she could look for. Not a lot of people had that on a wallet. She spent the rest of the night trying to find other things in the photos, but to no avail. She would have to postpone her trip to the juvie. She had to figure out who took these photos.