The Willows

by Krystal McLaughlin

  He turned to me. Here it comes. He's going to do it. My heart was racing just waiting for the words to come. I was surprised when he leaned forward and kissed me. It was just a small peck at first, but when shock kept me frozen instead of moving me away from him, he took it as an invitation and leaned in again, this time running his tongue along my lips forcing them open so he could deepen the kiss.

  Okay, I'm not going to lie here. Part of me knew that I would be relieved if he had broken up with me. I just didn't have the energy to try to make someone else happy when I wasn't even sure how to make myself happy. When his lips moved against mine, though, and his hands moved up and tangled themselves in my hair, it felt good; and good was something.

  I moved back on my bed, pulling him with me and laid back against my pillows. He laid partially on the bed and partially on top of me, pushing me further into the mattress. My breathing was coming hard and fast and I could feel his heart racing against my chest.

  He moved one of his hands down the side of my face and cupped my cheek before moving his mouth from my lips to the side of my neck and back towards my ear. My body was aching, begging for something I knew I wasn't ready for. Something that Landon and I hadn't even gotten close to in the past. The hand on my face moved lower, brushing softly against my chest before pulling up the hem of my shirt and resting on the bare skin of my side.

  I moaned softly and his mouth moved back to mine. "I love you, Evie," he murmured.

  We had said the words before, but in this setting they sounded different, they sounded scary. I moaned again. Not wanting to stop and then wanting to stop. "Landon, please."

  He misunderstood my meaning and moved his hand further up my side and around to the front, cupping me over the soft fabric of my bra. It felt so good. It felt so amazing as he began to caress me. It felt... terrifying.

  I pushed away from him. "No, please, stop."

  He wasn't a jerk. This wasn't one of those after school specials where I was afraid he wouldn't stop. This was Landon. This was my boyfriend, my friend. I had know him almost my whole life.

  He rolled over and ran a hand up his face and through his hair. We were both breathing hard and when he turned and saw the look on my face he started laughing softly. "I'm not mad, babe. It's okay."

  I let out a breath, relieved, "are you sure?"

  In answer to my question, he pulled me closer to him and pushed my head gently down onto his chest. I could feel his breath on my hair before I felt him press a kiss onto the top of my head. "I'm sure."

  We laid there like that for a long time. It could have been hours, it could have been minutes. I wasn't sure and I didn't care. All I knew was that when he finally got up and climbed back out the window, it was dark out. He stopped in the window and looked back at me. "I do love you, Evie. You know that right?"

  I nodded, and satisfied, he left. It wasn't at all how I had expected his impromptu visit to go and when I looked at myself in the mirror, my hair was sticking up and my cheeks were flushed with heat. Maybe this was the key, I thought. Maybe if I started doing things that were different, things that weren't normal for me, I'd start to feel something again. I'd certainly felt something when Landon had his hands on me.

  Confused and unsettled by my thoughts, I grabbed a pair of sweats and a shirt and went to go take a hot shower. Jackson was zombied out in front of the TV playing a video game and grunted a greeting when he heard me walk by. Mr. Gates was gone and I chuckled softly wondering how long he had stayed to talk to Jack.

  Once in the shower and under the steaming hot spray of the water, I couldn't stop myself from thinking back over my day. It had been just like any other day since the accident. Until the end, that is. Until Landon. It wasn't surprising that he occupied my thoughts for the rest of the night. Jackson even asked me a few times what I was thinking about and then looked at me funny when I blushed.

  I figured that when I went to bed, I'd be visited with images of what had happened and what could have happened between us if I hadn't stopped him. My heart was racing just remembering his hands and my skin tingled where he had touched me. Thinking about this should have made falling asleep and dreaming about him easy. So why was it then, that just before I finally slipped into oblivion it was Piper's face that flashed through my mind? In doing so, it wasn't the lovely forbidden pleasure of being with Landon that stole into my dreams, it was the image of Piper and the fear in her eyes that haunted them.

  Chapter Three

  Someone was knocking at the door.

  At first I thought I was dreaming. It wasn't normal for someone to be knocking on the door this early in the morning. I partially opened my eyes and was instantly even more disoriented. It was dark out. I looked at the clock on my nightstand; five thirty a.m. What the heck?

  Knock. Knock. Knock.

  Groggily, I pulled myself out of bed and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. Flipping on my light, I opened my bedroom door just in time to see Jackson, standing much like I was, peeking out from his room down the hall.

  "What the hell is that?"

  I started laughing. "Don't you mean who?" He stared at me blankly so I motioned to the door, "someone is at the door."

  I mumbled a few words under my breath and started walking passed him toward the living room. His arm shot forward and stopped me before I could pass. "That wasn't the door."

  "Yeah, it was." I answered, clearly confused.

  He shook his head and motioned for me to be quiet before pushing me behind him. "What's your problem?" I mumbled.

  He turned and glared at me, "if someone was at the door they would have rang the bell." I raised my eyebrows, it wasn't unheard of for someone to just knock, was it? He held his finger against his lips again. "Get a clue, Evie, that sound came from the back of the house."

  Now that he mentioned it, it had sounded closer to me then it would have if someone was at the front door. The two of us tip toed into the living room. My heart, thanks to my wild imagination, was racing and I was suddenly very aware just how secluded our house was.

  "Just stay here," he said when we reached the front of the house. I nodded, not trusting my voice to speak. I was scared. I knew it was paranoia, but I was really scared. Just to humor me, I was sure, he unlocked the front door and looked outside. Seeing nothing, he turned back toward me, "stay here, I'll be right back."

  I cowered behind the couch. My palms were sweating and my adrenaline was pumping. The injustice of having my baby brother go and check on things wasn't lost on me, and feeling a need to feel empowered, I hurried to the kitchen and grabbed a steak knife from one of the drawers.

  When I returned the front room, the door was still wide open, but there was no sign of Jackson. I crept toward the door and looked outside. I was blasted with a gust of icy wind, it had snowed through the night. Our house had a porch that wrapped around either side, so wrapping my arms around myself, I took a few steps out onto it. There was no sign of Jackson, but the sky was just starting to lighten, making it easier to make out the shapes around me.

  "Jack?" I whispered it, and then laughed to myself realizing he wouldn't be able to hear me. "Jackson?" I called a little louder.

  Off in the distance, it sounded like branches cracked followed by a loud crash. I jumped and then took off running around the side of the house. My first thought was for my brother. I wondered if something had happened to him. Fear was radiating off of me in waves and I was sure that I had never been more scared.

  Just as I was about to jump off of the porch to walk around to the back of the house, an arm reached out and grabbed me. I screamed so loud, I figured it was just a matter of seconds before Mr. Gates would come running to see what had happened. The knife fell from my hand clanking to the ground, the sound echoing around us.

  "Evie, Evie... calm down, it's me."

  Jackson hugged me to him and laughed while he comforted me. Wrapped in his arms his body felt relaxed and normal. He wasn't scared at all. So I leaned back and punched him. Hard.<
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  "Ow!"

  "What the hell was that?" I asked him, sinking into a nearby chair.

  He leaned against the rail of the porch and rubbed his chest. "No clue. I didn't see anything."

  That didn't really calm my already frazzled nerves. "That doesn't make any sense Jack. We both heard it, there was someone out here."

  He shrugged, completely at ease with the whole situation. "Well whatever..." my eyes snapped to him and he held up his hands, "okay, whoever it was, they are gone now." I wasn’t so sure. As I stood there with him, I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching me.

  For some reason, one that I will never understand, the thought of it being a person was more comforting to me than the thought of an animal or... something else. We sat there for a little while longer, both of us just looking off into the forest and wondering what had caused the noise. When the sun had risen completely, I stood up. "I'm going to go take a shower and get ready for school." Jackson waved me away and then took my place in the chair.

  An hour later, I walked into the kitchen. For the first time since the accident, my hair was fixed, my makeup was on and I wasn't just wearing ragged old jeans and a sweatshirt. Jackson looked up at me and his jaw dropped. "What's the occasion?" He asked through a mouthful of cheerios.

  I blushed. I could actually feel the heat as it rushed to my cheeks. "No occasion." I wasn't about to tell him that the night before I had engaged in a rather invigorating make out session with my boyfriend and was maybe starting to feel back to normal. "We were already up. I had time to get ready."

  He shook his head and smiled, but I ignored him. It was still pretty early, but after we both finished breakfast, with nothing better to do, we decided to go to school. The roads were a little slick anyways, especially for my beat up Cavalier, so I was thankful for the extra time.

  In the seat next to me, Jackson was messing with his cell phone. It looked like he was scrolling through the text messages and he was frowning. "Piper?" I asked.

  He nodded. "Yeah, like twenty times," he said, distracted.

  I wasn't sure if he was exaggerating or not, but the look on his face made me not want to pry so I turned the volume up on the radio and let the music wash over me, mellowing me out. There were butterflies in my stomach when I thought about seeing Landon. It made me hopeful. I hadn't felt this way in a really long time and I was determined to hold on to it and enjoy it.

  Rocky Point Colorado was small enough that pretty much everyone knew everything that happened. Still, when we pulled into the parking lot of the high school and saw the lights flashing from two cop cars in the no parking zone, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Something was going on.

  Jackson sat up straighter in his seat. Both of us scanned the area for any clue as to what was going on, but there weren't a lot of people there yet. We were still really early. I pulled into a spot and we both jumped out of the car.

  "I have a bad feeling about this, Evie."

  I stopped walking and looked at my brother. "Why? This can't have anything to do with us."

  He shook his head and I saw a shiver run through him. "I don't know. I just..." he turned intense eyes on me, "you know me Evie. Just don't forget that."

  Before I could answer we were approached by two uniformed cops. "Jackson Magwire?"

  Jackson gulped and nodded and our principal Mrs. Nelms joined us. "Really Officers, is this necessary?"

  One of them, his name tag read Sutherland, nodded, "we just need to ask him a few questions. Is there someone we can call for permission to speak to you?"

  "Our brother, Mason. He's our guardian now."

  Not missing the 'our', Sutherland turned to me, "you must be Evelyn Magwire?"

  I nodded, "what is this about Officer?" It was beyond my comprehension that Jackson could be in trouble for anything. He was an amazing student and had never been in trouble, well real trouble, a day in his life.

  "When was the last time either of you spoke with Piper Graham?"

  Piper? What the hell? I felt dizzy. I felt sick. If they were asking about her, did that mean that something had happened to her? "Yesterday for me."

  Jackson nodded. "Yesterday for me too."

  "What time yesterday?"

  "Is she okay?" I asked instead of answering.

  "Piper hasn't been home since yesterday morning." This was from the older of the two Officers. His name tag read Ives.

  I looked sideways at Jackson and he had gone completely pale. "Jack, have you seen her?" I knew the answer was no, I mean he had been home with me, but I was still relieved when he shook his head no.

  "Well all the same, we were told that the two of you were close. If it's okay with you, we'd like to get permission to speak with you." This from Officer Sutherland.

  "Yeah, we can call Mason. I don't think he'll be in class yet." Jackson fumbled with his phone and it fell to the ground. His hands were shaking. I watched the officers look back and forth between each other and the look they exchanged made me nervous.

  "Why don't we take this into my office?" Mrs. Nelms asked.

  Officer Sutherland nodded, "I think that sounds like an excellent idea. Mr. Magwire?"

  Jackson nodded, but I placed a hand on his arm, stopping him from leaving. "I'd like to go too, if that's okay."

  They nodded and I linked my arm with Jackson's while we walked behind them toward the school. "Have you talked to her?" I whispered to him.

  He shook his head, but there was something in his expression that led me to believe he wasn't telling me everything. "Those texts this morning. They were from her, right? So just tell the officers what she said and that you didn't get them until this morning."

  He gulped, but didn't say anything. We walked the rest of the way to the office in silence. My mind kept racing to the last time I had seen Piper. She had been acting strange. Should I tell them that? I chewed on my lower lip. No. They'd think I knew something more than I did. I really didn't want to get involved. I closed my eyes. What if I was the last person to see her? Could I handle more guilt?

  Once we were sitting, I used my phone to call Mason. He picked up after three rings sounding groggy, like I had woke him up.

  "Evie? Do you know what time it is? What's wrong?" He sounded panicked and I wanted so very badly to tell him that I had called just to tell him good morning, but I couldn't. Almost immediately Officer Sutherland motioned for me to hand him the phone.

  "Mason, don't freak out, but there is someone here that needs to talk to you."

  "What do you mean? Who? What's going on?"

  His voice sounded really freaked out and I looked at Jackson. He was staring out of the office window. His face was still pale, but completely blank. I had no idea what was going on in his head. I really wanted to grab his cell phone and read those texts, but I didn't want to draw attention to them.

  "Mason Magwire? I understand that you are the guardian of Jackson Magwire?" A short pause. "No, he's not in trouble, we just want to ask him a few questions." Another pause. "Sure, I'll let you talk to him."

  Officer Sutherland handed Jackson the phone and turned to me. "I'm going to have to ask you to wait outside, ma'am. Your brother is not in trouble, we just want to talk to him."

  I nodded, feeling like I didn't really have a choice, but I was disappointed that I couldn't hear what Jackson was saying to Mason over the phone. I walked out to the receptionist part of the office and sat down by the door. Out in the halls, the noise level was increasing, a sure indicator that school was still going on like planned despite the news of Piper's disappearance. It was sort of sad. I'd like to think that she mattered. That we all did, but I guess life really does go on.

  "What's going on in there?"

  The school nurse had just walked in and asked the receptionist that question. They both looked in through the opened blinds of the office windows, but with the door closed, you couldn't really hear anything.

  "I'm not sure, really," the receptionist answered.


  "Is that Jackson Magwire in there?" The nurse whispered back. The receptionist nodded. "Oh that poor kid. What could they possibly need with him? He's such a good guy and that poor family has been through enough."

  Hello! Didn't they see me sitting here? I wanted to scream at them. Luckily, the buzzing of my cell phone distracted me. I just hoped that when they realized who was sitting in the office with them, they were sorry for talking about "my family".

  It was a text message from Mason.

  What the hell is going on Evie?

  I wrote back: I don't know. Something about Piper.

  What about Piper?

  She's missing.

  Shit. I'm driving home today.

  Probably a good idea. Jack's freaking out.

  I waited for a response, but I didn't get one. I figured that, knowing Mason, he was running around his dorm room, throwing clothes in bags. It was Thursday so he would have been coming home tomorrow anyway. I just figured it was a good thing for him to come home. I wasn't sure how to deal with Jackson, or how he'd feel after this little discussion.

  "Evie! What's going on?"

  I jumped, but smiled slightly when I saw Landon's head peaking around the door. I stood up and walked out of the office. We stopped just around the corner from it. He pulled me into his arms and despite not knowing what was going on behind the offices closed doors, it felt good to be in his embrace.

  "Piper's missing." I said into his chest.

  He pulled away from me and looked down into my eyes. "Why are they talking to Jackson? Shouldn't they find that asshole she dumped him for?"

  The thought hadn't occurred to me, even though it should have, and I could only hope that Jackson mentioned that. "Yeah, you're right. I don't know. He seemed scared though. I wish I knew what was happening."

  The first bell rang. That meant he had exactly three minutes to get to class without being late. "Shit! I'll text you later, babe." He leaned down and kissed me briefly on the lips. "Love you!" He called over his shoulder when he rushed down the hall away from me.

  I waved at him and then rubbed my hands over my face. I wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep and start this day over again. My emotional numbness was threatening to sneak back in and I rubbed my arms against it, much like I would rub the cold away.