3. Penumbra

Cori gets a message from a stranger with a shocking picture from the past.

I picked up my pace after looking at my cell phone and seeing that it was already 6:40. School started at 7 and if I was late again Brian and Meghan would be getting another phone call from the school about what a pain in the a*s I am.
I didn't usually walk to Kit's house in the mornings but he wasn't answering my calls or texts so I figured he must have still been asleep.
Lucky for me it was late August so it was still fairly warm out. The wind had a slight chill to it that made me pull my black hoodie tight against my body. I checked my phone again and then looked at the sky. Why was it still so dark out?
I saw Kit's car in the driveway to his house but his father's truck was already gone. He usually was gone by 4am. The lights in his house were all off so I knew he was still in bed. I stepped onto his small porch and lifted the soggy welcome mat to pick up the hidden key. I unlocked the door and walked in, shaking off the cold that still clung to the fabric of my hoodie and jeans.
"Kit?" I called into the darkness, my voice echoing. I've never liked his house. It always gave me the creeps. It always felt so hollow and abandoned.
I walked up the creaky staircase half expecting one of them to give in under my weight. I passed the first two doors and went straight to Kit's bedroom door. I knocked and called out his name again but no answer.
I opened the door just a crack to peek inside. Kit's still body lay halfway under his covers. His bare, tan back facing me. His frame slowly moving up and down with his breathing.
I rolled my eyes and stepped inside the room. A smile played at my lips as I slammed the door hard enough to make him jump from his bed so fast that he fell backwards off of it, dragging the blanket around his waist with him. He thumped hard on the floor and then quickly threw his head around, looking in all directions.
With a hand over my mouth I busted out laughing at the sight of him.
"Cori?" He asked, clearly confused. "What the hell?"
"We're gonna be late." I said after I'd calmed my laughter.
Kit picked up his phone from his nightstand next to the bed and squinted at it.
"Uh.. " He looked from his phone to me and back again. "Right.. I'm going back to bed." He said after throwing his phone back down. Holding the blanket around his toned waist he stood up and plopped back down on the bed.
"Kit, I seriously can't be late again." I argued.
"Cor," He sighed, with his arm over his eyes. "Unless we're walking I think we'll be fine."
"But my clock says.." I trailed off as a thought hit me. I pulled my phone out and checked it again. It should be light out by now but it was still mostly dark. Unless someone changed the clocks in my room. The twins would do that...   "I'm going to kill them."
I groaned and sat down on the end of Kit's queen sized bed. Kit nudged me with his foot.
"Kill who?" He asked. "The keepers of time?" He peeked down at me from under his arm.
"The twins changed my clocks." I said, grudgingly.
"Probably to help you to not be late again." He shrugged.
He was right. I was grateful for that but it still didn't make me any less angry at them.
"You can curl up in bed with me." Kit winked down at me.
I slapped his foot playfully and smiled at him.
"Dare to dream." I shook my head at him.
"Awe come on. What else are you going to do for 30 minutes? I'm going back to sleep." He ended the conversation by rolling over to the other side of the bed and facing away from me. I sighed in defeat and climbed in next to him.
"Please tell me you aren't naked." I said.
"Only one way to find out." He sang at me.
I snorted and decided to just stay above the covers. I was way too nervous to find out for myself. Kit was no stranger to me but I'd barely even had my first real kiss unless you count me kissing my neighbor boy when I was still in diapers.
"Your loss." He chimed.
I ignored him and closed my eyes.

I woke up with a heavy weight around my waist and an annoying buzzing coming from somewhere above my head. I heard a groan and felt the weight lift for a moment before being replaced by more weight as Kit's entire body came across mine as he reached for his phone to turn off the alarm. His warm bare chest making contact with my clothed one sending fire into my cheeks, which I'm sure he would see if he wasn't still half asleep. I was now wide awake.
"Ever hear of personal space?" I asked as I tried to push him away. My palm touching his hot skin only making me more flustered.
He leaned away from me but only a tiny bit. He was still close enough for me to feel the heat coming off of him.
"To be fair you are in MY bed. This IS my personal space." He smiled down at me making my face burn more.
"A little too personal for me." I said as I scooted my way out from under him.
He laughed through a yawn and shook his hair which was sticking up in every wild direction it possibly could.
"Does that mean you won't be joining me for my morning shower?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. It always baffled me how comfortable and cocky he could be.
"Hurry up so we can go, pervert." I said leaving the room and quickly closing the door behind me.
"Guess that's a no." I heard him say through the door. I smiled and shook my head.
I made my way downstairs to the front door where they had a large antique mirror hanging on the wall. My light freckled skin was in desperate need of some sun light. My long dark hair needed some life to it as well. My gray eyes even seemed to stare back at me with a delicate sense of death. I was practically invisible at school and I could see the reason staring right back at me through the mirror. Part of me liked it that way.
"Ready." Kit called as he came down the stairs a few minutes later. His hair was still wet making it look darker. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt today with dark blue jeans and sneakers. I couldn't help but smile as I felt my face get warm again. I'd never thought of Kit that way but I still found him attractive. He stopped at the bottom of the steps and smiled at me.
"What?" I asked, feeling self conscious.
"That was the first time we've slept together," He sighed. " Can't wait to tell the guys."
I rolled my eyes and slapped his arm.
"I wouldn't even know how to hurt you enough for that." I sneered at him.
"You know I'm kidding." He said, pulling me to him and kissing the top of my head.

First period was History. Boring. I was lost 4 minutes into Mr. Stone's lecture about some guy doing something historical at some point in history.
I let my mind fall into a daydream about Kit. About this morning. Kit had never even hinted at any real interest in me that way. Or any other girl for that matter. He had always been more interested in building a future for himself. Getting away from his father and this town. Of course, I'd be going with him. Our plan was definitely to stay together. I just hoped his plan was still the same as mine. Sometimes I was afraid he would leave without saying anything. Just disappear and I'd be alone.
I felt an odd chill come over me, creeping up my spine. It broke me out of my day dream. My eyes were drawn to the opposite side of the room in the back where Damon was sitting. He was staring straight at me. He didn't even look away when I caught him staring but instead curled his lips into a smile that chilled me to the bone. What was his problem?
I tried to ignore him by listening to Mr. Stone but my eyes kept going back to Damon and every time he would still be looking at me.
The bell rang to signal the end of class and I practically bolted out of the room. Having him stare at me was way too weird. Lucky for me I didn't have another class with him until final period. Maybe by then he'd find some other innocent girl to creep on.

At lunch I found Kit in the court yard outside, eating his lunch of macaroni and cheese with chicken nuggets. I took my own tray to the stone table and bench and sat down across from him.
"Hello, bed buddy." He greeted me with a boyish smile.
"Please don't make me punch you." I said, though I smiled back.
The court yard was right outside of the lunch room and on nice days they would leave the doors unlocked so the kids could spread out a little more. There were several more kids sitting at the other tables scattered around the yard.
Kit's smile faded and suddenly his tone became very serious.
"Did you hear about Amber?" He asked.
"What about her?" I asked, not really caring.
"Her parents said she never came home last night." He replied quietly.
"Didn't Damon take her home? Why not question him?" I asked.
"Hes at the police station right now. Although rumor has it that Damon drove her out to a friends party and dropped her off there. One of the kids in my P.E. class said he saw him dump her off there. " Kit shrugged and took way too big of a bite of his food.
I didn't mention the way Damon was staring at me in class that day. I usually told Kit everything but something was compelling me to keep it to myself like an embarrassing secret. The guy didn't strike me as dangerous but he definitely activated an alarm inside my head that said he was at least some amount of trouble. No matter how easy he was on the eyes.

On my way to last period I caught little bits of the gossip about Damon in the hallway. Some of them thought he was the reason for it and others swear he couldn't have been. He does seem a little strange to me but I couldn't picture him hurting anyone. But I still didn't know him well enough to judge.
Some of the girls claimed someone so gorgeous couldn't be involved. Some said he was involved because he was so gorgeous. Some think he murdered her. I even caught a conversation between a group of girls where one of them bet he was holding her in a basement somewhere for sexual purposes and one of the girls wished she was being held in his basement for those reasons. Yuck. I stopped listening after that.
I made it to my English writing class before the bell rang. Today was the day we all had to pick a partner to team up for our presentations on famous historical American writers. We have two weeks. Two weeks of working alone with someone. Not my idea of a good time. I'd prefer to just do it by myself. I dropped my backpack by a seat at the last empty table, glad to have my own space. My heart quickly sank when I realized the only person that wasn't in class yet was Damon and my seat was the last empty one.
"Alright, everyone settle down!" Mrs. Hunt called from the front of the room. Her way too large glasses obscuring almost her entire face as she looked over a paper in front of her. She was a thin woman with long frizzy dried blonde hair, pulled back into a messy bun.
"I hope you're all happy with the person you're sitting next to because these are your partners for the writing assignments that are due in two weeks!" She announced excitedly.
The room started with loud whispered chatter and a couple of protests but Mrs. Hunt shook her head.
"No changing, no partner swaps, no complaining. Work together or receive an incomplete." She said.
I raised my hand hoping that Damon wasn't going to be coming back but I knew it was only a foolish hope.
"Oh Cori, of course. Not to worry. Damon called the school this afternoon and informed us that he will be back to school tomorrow. He will be your partner." She smiled, probably thinking she was giving me good news.
"Great." I mumbled.

I hope your day went better than mine." I glumly said to Kit as we met at his car in the student parking lot.
"That bad?" He asked.
I sighed and leaned against the trunk of his car.
"I have to partner up for a writing project." I moped.
"And you're paired with a cheerleader?" Kit asked.
"Worse."
"The whole squad?" Kit gasped in exaggeration.
"No!" I barked. "Damon."
Kit smiled at me like I was a puppy that just did something adorable.
"What?" I frowned at him with annoyance.
"Oh come on." He tilted his head. " You can't tell me you aren't at least a little interested in the guy."
"Excuse me?!" I yelled back.
"Is it not true?" He raised his voice but was still smiling down at me. He obviously found this way more amusing that I did.
I hesitated though. I did find him attractive and a little appealing at times but he still was weird.
"See.." Kit sighed. "Other than being a suspect in a missing person's case, I'm sure hes a really great guy."
"Well from what I overheard in the hallway, serial killers are all the rage right now." I said with a laugh.
"Turning a negative into a positive. I'm so proud." Kit messed up my hair and that was the end of that conversation.

When I walked into my house it was chaos. The twins were chasing Sarah with a dead frog. Erin was talking over the noise on her phone. I assumed Shawn and Meghan were still at work and probably left Erin in charge. They had way too much faith in her abilities.
I sighed and grabbed Michael by the collar of his shirt as he ran past me with the frog. I crouched to his level and stared him dead in eyes.
"Drop it." I said in the calmest voice I could. For some reason the calm tone seemed to scare him the most so I used it when he was really getting on my nerves. Without missing a beat he dropped the frog which I picked up with the very tips of my fingers and carried to the trash. Gross. After washing my hands I walked to the couch where Erin was perched with the phone pressed to the side of her head. I snatched it from her hands and held it my ear.
"Hello?" I asked.
I heard an unfamiliar male voice on the other end. "Erin?"
"This is her sister. I'm really sorry but Erin has the stomach flu and just made a run for the bathroom. Call her back later." I hung up and threw the phone back at Erin. Her jaw was practically touching her lap it was hanging so low. Her eyes open in horror. I shrugged and quickly hopped up the stairs to my room. I spent the rest of the night finishing my homework and just being alone. I didn't even come out when the Farrows came home.

At 11:00 I decided it was time to hop into bed but just before I closed my lap top I heard the familiar ping sound of a new message. Kit wasn't usually awake this late but maybe he couldn't sleep either. I opened the window and was surprised to see that it wasn't Kit. It was someone I didn't know. All it said was "Thought you might want to see this." with an image to download below it. My first thought was that it was a joke or probably a disgusting naked picture but my curiosity will always win in the end. I clicked download and the picture popped up almost immediately. It was a really old black and white picture that was probably taken in the mid 1900's. In it was a small group of five men. The three in the back looked like they were between the ages of 40-50. The two guys in the front were probably in their mid to late 20's. But what caught my attention were the cloths that were around all of their necks. They were like mine. They had the exact same symbol. My pulse quickened as I stared at them. How did someone find this? Who found this? I quickly clicked back to the window to type a message.
"Who is this?" I hit send.
No answer.
"How did you find this?" I rapidly typed and sent.
"This user is no longer online."
My frustration flared. I slammed my fist down on my desk and then realized that could have woken someone up. I sighed and put my head in my hands. I had to find the person that sent it. There had to have been a reason for it.

Author's Note

All feedback is appreciated!