Deadly Hallows (The Dead Ringer Series Book 1)

by Taylor Henderson

  “Don’t make me ask again.” He crossed his arms over his chest tightly, causing lean ropes of muscle to become prominent. He was now glaring at me so angrily that I felt as if I was going to melt under the intensity of his gaze. I offered him a forced smile, one that showed my discomfort and probably came out looking more like a grimace than an actual smile. I wished I could just disappear and never come back, effectively getting me out of this situation. He looked different than when I first met him a few months ago. His hair was noticeably longer and far more disheveled, and dark bags were clear under his bloodshot eyes. His expression was hard and cold as he waited for me to answer, but I could see a hint of sadness in his eyes. His nose was tinted a light pink color, and his eyes were glassy, as if he had been crying before he caught me. Maybe he’d heard the rumors, and regretted coming to school now. I felt for him instantly. As if someone had reached their hand into my chest and squeezed my heart in a tight fist. I couldn’t even imagine what he was feeling right now, and I had only made it worse.

  Mason leaned closer to me, his hair falling into his eyes and making him look even scarier than he had before. “Are you deaf or something? I said, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” he questioned.

  My mouth opened, but I couldn’t make any sound come out. A short gasp of breath escaped, which sounded like I was trying to talk, but nothing resembling actual words came out. My face grew hot, as it typically did when attention focused on me. I didn’t like being the center of attention, anyone’s attention, and it didn’t help that Mason was furious with me. I took a deep breath in an attempt to calm myself down, and Mason seemed to understand that he was making me nervous. He took a step back and leaned against the wall in anticipation of my answer.

  Once my nerves had receded and I could breathe easy again, I blurted out the first explanation I thought of for looking at his sister’s profile. “I—uh, was going to write a rest in peace post for her like everyone else has been doing,” I lied. “You two saved me from falling. It’s the least I could do since I never got the chance to repay her for helping me.” I swiped a strand of hair that had fallen from my ponytail behind my ear. Despite calming down, my cheeks were still hot. I was a terrible liar.

  Mason lifted an eyebrow, as if challenging what I said. I didn’t say anything else, instead I impatiently waited to see if he believed me, though from the annoyed gleam in his eye, I knew he didn’t. Maybe he noticed that my leg was shaking or that my face had turned red from how hot I felt again. I was never good at lying, so why did I even bother?

  “That would be touching,” he said tentatively as he came toward me again. He stopped about a foot away from me and leaned in, making an intense heat sweep across my face. I was blushing. From his close proximity it was hard to focus on anything other than how close he was. “Well, it would be if you were even signed in to your own Facebook.” He pointed at the screen to where Mindy’s image and name was shown in the corner. I was busted.

  “I’m sorry,” I blurted out instantly. I felt terrible for lying, but I also wanted to get him to lean away from me. For some odd reason, I also felt bad that he was angry with me. Why should I care if this guy, who I hardly knew, was mad at me? I honestly didn’t owe him any type of explanation for my behavior, and yet I felt the need to alleviate some of his anger by coming clean. “I shouldn’t have lied,” I added, but nothing changed. Mason continued to glare at me, still leaning over me as he waited for the truth. I sighed. “Look, I just wanted to see her face again. It’s crazy how we looked so much alike and I was just curious about who she was as a person since I hadn’t really gotten a chance to know her. There isn’t anything wrong with being curious,” I explained, but Mason didn’t seem convinced. The icy gaze he still had fixed on me set my nerves on edge. I wished he would say something, anything, but he didn’t. It was clear he wanted me to say more, but I didn’t have anything else to say.

  Curiosity; that was my excuse and I was sticking with it.

  Finally, he stood up to his full height and took a step back. A breath of air I didn’t realize I had been holding in escaped my lungs. He raised a hand and rubbed at his defined jawline, shaking his head slightly. “Why would you want to do that? Can’t you just leave it alone?” he asked. “She’s dead. Sophie’s gone, and she’s never coming back. You’ll never get a chance to meet her and know her for who she really was.” I couldn’t help but notice how it seemed like he was talking mainly for his benefit rather than mine. “Her Facebook page isn’t going to tell you who she was. Besides, what does it matter if she looked like you? Plenty of people look alike. It’s called a coincidence.”

  I blinked at him, not knowing how to respond to that. He was right after all. Plenty of people shared similarities, so what made this situation any different? Was I special because I looked like a girl who had been murdered? No. “Well, these kids in class brought up that we looked alike and…” I trailed off, realizing how dumb it sounded as soon as I began.

  Mason’s expression softened after I was honest with him, but it hardened again quickly. “Just leave it alone,” he blurted out, attracting the attention of everyone in the library. Mrs. Prince scowled, raised a wrinkly finger to her lips, and shushed him. He offered her an apologetic smile before turning back to me. “Listen to me,” he said, his voice low and serious. It scared me, but I couldn’t escape because he leaned in so close to me that my back pressed against the chair uncomfortably. At such a close proximity, I could see specks of gold and different shades of green in his eyes, but even that didn’t ease the tension I felt building between us. “My family has enough to deal with. We don’t need you meddling in our lives because this is the most excitement you’ve gotten in this dark, depressing, little town of yours in the last hundred years. Sophie, my sister, is dead. We can’t bring her back, no matter how much I want to. I can’t explain why you think the two of you look alike, because honestly I don’t see it. You look nothing like her to me; she was my sister and you’re just some girl she wanted to save. That’s the kind of person she was; friendly, bubbly, and willing to risk her life for others, even those she didn’t know. Let that be how people remember her. She deserves at least that much from you. So if you want to repay her, let her memory rest in peace.” He moved back without breaking eye contact to make sure I understood.

  I nodded my head, and then turned to look away from him in shame. My gaze focused on the ground by my feet.

  “Also, I’m deactivating that damn Facebook page as soon as I can. None of those people knew her for who she really was, and they don’t deserve to pretend they did. She was a better person than all of them combined.”

  Once he was sure I would stop snooping, he turned on his heel and walked out. I noticed that he didn’t look back, not even when he lifted his backpack from the ground and tossed it over one shoulder. Everyone’s eyes, including my own, followed him until he was out of sight, then they turned their attention to me.

  My cheeks burned again from the unwanted attention, and I quickly turned around to avoid looking at them. I was about to close the tab for Sophie’s Facebook, when something stopped me. Mason was right, she did deserve to rest in peace. Maybe the police would find out who did this to her, and then her family could have answers. I wished I could help, but what could I do? Not much.

  I sighed and closed the tab, then shut off the computer. As I got up to walk out of the library and head to my next class I couldn’t decide if I wanted to see Mason again, or if I’d rather be the killer’s next victim before running into him again.

  Maybe the killer would be the better option in that case.

  Chapter 4

  Bad Boy

  My hands gripped the lunch tray tightly as I made my way through the crowded lunch room toward the table where Mindy and her friends were sitting. I tried to ignore the stares I received from my peers. I knew they were whispering about Sophie and me, about how we looked alike, or about how they thought I could be next. There were so many rumors over
the last few days it was hard to keep track of them all.

  I heard one boy, Alec, comment yesterday that I should keep vigilant from now on. There wasn’t a threat in his words, I could see the worry in his eyes. I had grown up with Alec, and almost everyone else in this room, except Mason. I shook my head, I didn’t want to think about Mason or how the kids in school were worried about me being the next possible victim. We still weren’t sure what happened, so the whole town was cautious. Everyone tried to watch each other’s backs as well as their own, but that could only go on for so long before someone wasn’t paying attention. Just like Sophie had done.

  I took a deep breath, trying to collect myself. I didn’t want to think about my resemblance to Sophie, or anything that had to do with her. Mason was right, I needed to let her rest in peace and stay out of it. I couldn’t do anything to give her justice anyway, I was just a teenager. What did I know about solving murders? Just because I read them and watched police officers solve them on television didn’t make me an expert. The police would do their job and catch her murderer soon; that was if they ever found a lead.

  From the discussion I overheard with my mom on the phone last night with Mrs. Dawson, there weren’t any leads. If she wasn’t careful, Mrs. Dawson would single-handedly cause pandemonium in town and we may never find out who killed Sophie. I hoped we would, she deserved to have whoever killed her found and thrown in jail. Maybe even receive the same fate he had given Sophie, but that always stirred up too much controversy.

  I placed my tray on the table in the empty spot next to Mindy and took a seat. Of all of the people at the table, the only person who even acknowledged my presence was Mindy herself. She glanced at me and offered a small smile before continuing to talk with her other friends. She never minded when I sat with her, and she always tried to involve me in her conversations. I was thankful for that. Especially on days like today when I didn’t want to be alone. Even if I wasn’t actually friends with Mindy’s friends, sometimes the aimless chatter about their lives and superficial problems were comforting. It made me feel normal.

  Usually, if I didn’t sit with them, I would take my lunch into the creative writing classroom. The teacher, Mrs. McCarthy, didn’t mind, but didn’t encourage it either. Luckily after she noticed how shaken I was after the confrontation with Mason two days ago she let me sit in her class to eat. I never messed with anything. I sat in the back of the classroom with my headphones on while she searched her pigsty of a desk for her students’ papers. One day she lost all of their essays, so she gave them all A’s, even the ones who didn’t turn in their assignments. How could she know who didn’t turn them in if she lost them?

  Today was one of the days Mrs. McCarthy didn’t allow me to eat there. Her door was shut and locked up tight. I had tried to get in before coming down here, but to no avail. So now I was listening to one of Mindy’s friends, Caitlyn Collins, talk animatedly about an episode of some show she had watched last night. With every word, she twirled a lock of her light brown hair around her finger twice. It was a habit of hers that I had always found annoying, but everyone else thought it was cute. Caitlyn was a nice girl, but there was something missing. She wasn’t all the way there, mostly in the common sense meaning of the phrase. She tended to rely on her looks for most things. She was pretty, with naturally thick, curly hair that hung to her shoulders. Her eyes were brown and almond-shaped, and her skin was a natural olive tone which I envied. She was the only one of Mindy’s friends who didn’t act like I didn’t exist whenever I sat with them, so I accepted her for what she was. She was a good person in my book.

  I picked at the food on my tray, burnt mac and cheese, a greasy pizza, and smiley face potato fries. I wasn’t really hungry. I hadn’t been eating properly since the news of the murder swept through town a few days ago, and it didn’t help that every time I saw Mason he glared at me. I was disturbed that someone I knew was responsible for the death of a girl my age, but now her brother wouldn’t let me forget that he caught me prying into his sister’s death. Between him and the constant spread of rumors involving me and Sophie, some even delving into Mason and me from the few that had seen our fight in the library, I wasn’t in the mood to eat.

  The ones about Mason had gotten to me the most, because I think he believed I started most of them. Including the one where we had broken up because he was so broken hearted over his sister. They were ridiculous, but they were sticking. Everyone was looking for something to believe, something other than that there was a killer among us.

  I shoved those thoughts from my mind as I tried to force myself to eat, even just a little to make it through lunch. I picked up a small baby carrot that looked a little sad. It wasn’t firm, and was scarred by a dark spot. Normally I would have set it on the tray, eaten the rest of my food, and then tossed it with my trash, but today I didn’t. Instead, I dropped it onto my tray and shoved the food away from me, most of it untouched, to be thrown away.

  “Casey,” Mindy whispered, leaning toward me and elbowing me lightly in my side. “Mason Peters is staring at you.” I looked up at her just as she flicked her eyes in Mason’s direction. He was sitting alone at the opposite end of a table filled with boys from the soccer team, elbows propped up with his head resting in his hands, and his eyes focused on me. When I met his gaze, he glared and looked away. What a jerk.

  “Just ignore him,” I said, unfolding my milk container.

  Mindy turned sideways so she was facing me. Her dark hair spilled over her shoulders as she shifted positions. I noticed that her other friends tossed me annoyed glares as Mindy gave me her undivided attention, all except Caitlyn, who was still talking about her television show. “Wait, did I miss something?” she asked, her heavily lashed eyes opened wide. “What is going on between you two? I thought you said it was just rumors about you and him.”

  I rolled my eyes. When she had first heard the rumors about Mason and me, she was furious. She thought I took him away from her or something. It took a long time to convince her there was nothing going on between us, but it only took one glance from Mason for her to revert back to believing we were secretly an item. “Nothing, with a capital N. He’s rude, and annoying, and apparently he enjoys spending his lunch period staring at me rather than eating like a normal person.” I raised my milk to my lips and took a long gulp. My eyes flitted to Mason, taking in his appearance. He looked different today. Like someone had forced him to get a haircut and take a shower since the last time I’d seen him. His hair was still messy, but in the ‘I just rolled out of bed’ kind of way. He looked well rested and revived after a few days of recovering from the shock of his sister’s death. He looked…good. My gaze lingered a little on him before I looked away, hoping Mindy hadn’t noticed. She did.

  “He’s rude, huh?” Mindy asked, her tone teasing. There was a playful smile on her lips I hadn’t been expecting.

  I nodded in response. “Don’t forget annoying.”

  She shook her head slowly, a sheepish smile playing on her pink lips. “He’s also hot. I’m sure you noticed that too, though. Especially after the rumors about you two.” She batted her eyes suggestively.

  I feigned a gag. “Yeah, right,” I said, my words dripping with sarcasm. I turned my body toward Mindy, mainly in an attempt to keep myself from looking back at Mason and confirming her speculation. “Plus, I thought you’d be mad if another girl showed interest in him. I recall you being rather angry with me when you thought we were an item,” I stated pointedly.

  She shrugged. “Yeah, well, I would totally date him,” she said with a laugh. “And I know you would too.”

  I shook my head adamantly. “No way. Too much baggage. His sister just died, for goodness sake, and he’s already screamed at me once. I don’t want it to happen again. I’m avoiding him for as long as it takes him to forget me.” I gifted myself a short glance in Mason’s direction. He did look handsome, and I would date him. If only he hadn’t caught me and labeled me as a stalker. Mindy cleared her
throat, causing me to turn to her again. I noticed the same playful smile, and couldn’t help but wonder why Mindy had dropped her advances toward him. “Why aren’t you interested in him anymore? You were gung ho about trying to get him to date you.”

  Mindy bit her lip, leaned forward, and widened her eyes. “I heard he killed her.”

  I scoffed. “No way. He’s a jerk for sure, but I don’t think he’s a murderer. I can’t see him killing anyone, especially not his sister. You’ve seen how torn up he is about this. He’s standing up for his sister. We’ve seen him cry on the news,” I reminded her after one particularly nasty rumor caused Mason’s tough exterior to crumble. It had spread like wildfire: Mason’s family had all worked together to kill Sophie and dump her body in the woods. He defended his family tooth and nail. The newscast was the night after our confrontation in the library and had left him shattered. He hadn’t come back to school until today.

  She leaned back and shrugged, swiping her dark hair behind her ear. “Either way, he’s dangerous. Are you into bad boys, Casey? I never knew that about you.”

  “Maybe, but trust me, I’m not into that bad boy. He’s not worth my trouble,” I said, fighting the urge to tell her that she knew nothing about me. She hung out with Katie and I while she climbed the social ladder, and just wasn’t willing to burn any bridges—just in case she needed us for something later.

  Mindy shrugged and turned forward again, much to the pleasure of her other friends. “Maybe he is,” she said in a whisper that was tossed over her shoulder.

  Maybe he is, but I wasn’t willing to find out.

  Chapter 5

  Savior

  The halls were cluttered with people, scattered papers, and sports equipment. All of the sports teams were still active, looking to lean on their teammates to make it through such a tragic time for our town. The football players were tossing a ball in the hall, which almost hit a teacher in the back of the head. A couple of field hockey players were twirling their sticks in the air to show off a few tricks they made up before their coach ordered them to stop ‘lollygagging’ and get to the field. The cheerleaders were heading to the gym to practice their competition routine with their bows and ponytails high on their heads. They passed a couple of swimmers mingling with a few friends who were in the process of trying to get the school to start a water polo team. Walking past them, the head cheerleader said a friendly hello to the captain of the swim team before following the throng of her teammates down the hall. It was a gesture that would have gone unnoticed by most, the captain’s slight head nod in her friend’s direction, and the cheerleader’s twirl of her fingers as a curt wave. Standing on the edge of the crowd, I noticed.