You're Next! Chapters 11-13
Follow the continuing adventures of Emily as she tries to track down her missing friends while not being the next victim herself!
All right, it’s Friday, and you know what that means, right? Yup. It’s time for the next chapters of You’re Next!
In this part of the story, Emily begins to doubt whom she can and cannot trust, and makes a startling revelation that might break the mystery wide open!
Haven’t read the beginning parts yet? Well, follow these links and get yourself caught up!
Otherwise… Enjoy chapters 11 through 13!
CHAPTER 11
It seemed that now Emily was looking for Derek everywhere she went, he’d become invisible again, slipping into the shadows, outside of everyone’s peripheral vision. She wasn’t sure if she preferred it when he was following her around—at least then she knew what he was up to.
Thursday lunchtime, she skipped the cafeteria, and took the pasta salad her mom had prepared for her to the art studio. With everything that was going on, her final piece wasn’t going to plan; she needed to put it right or she’d have to start again, and she didn’t think she had the energy to recreate it from scratch.
She pushed open the door and froze. The room was empty, apart from Derek, who had his back to her working on his own project.
Holding the door handle, Emily considered turning around and walking away before he realized that she was there. She glanced at the artwork in front of him. She’d seen it drying on the racks, only she hadn’t known it was Derek’s work. It was brilliant. It was Persephone biting into a pomegranate, but the pomegranate seeds were hundreds of tiny butterflies, painted with such intricate attention to detail that Emily had been mesmerized. Now, she couldn’t believe that this boy had created something so beautiful.
Derek must’ve sensed her presence because he turned around, paintbrush in his hand, heat rising from his neck upwards when he realized that she was watching him. “I …” he began. “I’m sorry, Emily …”
She chewed her bottom lip. She’d given him a curt apology in the gym during the self-defense class, but they’d both known that it wasn’t genuine. Reliving the moment she kicked him, she was overwhelmed with guilt now. What if she’d got it all wrong? What if he was telling the truth and Kyle really had taken the photograph from her locker.
She kept her eyes on his painting. “I’m sorry too. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“It was an accident, I know,” he said.
If only that were true.
“Can I see your picture?” She stepped inside and closed the door behind her.
“No.” He raised the hand with the paintbrush. “Stay where you are.”
Emily smiled. “It’s okay, I won’t steal your idea, and besides, my work is nowhere near that level.” She walked around the desks towards him.
Derek moved so that he was shielding the piece from her. She wondered why he was being so modest—if she’d produced work like this, she’d want to show it off to anyone who was interested, but as she came closer, she noticed that the surface of the canvas appeared lumpy. What was he doing to it? There was red paint on the paintbrush which made her think of the red paint inside her locker, but there was something stuck onto the painting.
Closer still. The butterflies didn’t look the same as before. Whatever he’d stuck on top of them, he was spoiling his own painting.
“Emily, I didn’t do this …”
She reached out a hand to touch the surface of the canvas and squealed, pulling away, when she realized what she was looking at. Butterfly wings. Real butterfly wings. Derek had pulled the wings off real butterflies and glued them over the top of the painted insects. She couldn’t drag her eyes away from it, even as she pictured him in her head, torturing the poor beautiful creatures. Didn’t psychopaths demonstrate their cruelty from a young age, by tormenting defenseless animals?
“I didn’t do this, Emily.” She realized that Derek was still speaking. “You have to believe me. I could never … and why would I do this to my own work?”
She stared at him. Emily opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. There was red paint on the paintbrush.
His gaze followed Emily’s to the paint as if seeing it for the first time. “This isn’t mine either. Whoever did this—”
“Stop lying.” Emily finally found her voice.
“I’m not lying to you. The glue is still wet. Whoever did this … I just missed them. They left the paintbrush here too so that I would know they broke into your locker. I need to save my painting first, and then we’ll find them.”
She took a step backwards, her thighs colliding with a desk. “I’m not going anywhere with you. You …” She shook her head. “Why …? I don’t understand why you would do this.”
“Emily.” Derek placed the paintbrush down on the easel. “Listen to me. Whoever has Jordan and the other girls, has been in this school. They’re trying to make it look like it’s me, but I promise you, I have nothing to do with what’s going on. I could never—”
“I’m going to the police.” Emily didn’t wait around for Derek to finish.
**********
Emily and Chloe were already in the diner when Abi arrived alone. They were seated in a booth towards the back of the restaurant, where they could watch the door without being noticed themselves. Emily had tucked her hair inside a baseball cap and was wearing fake glasses, while Chloe had a scarf pulled up around her chin. It wasn’t much of a disguise. If Abi recognized them, they would simply act surprised to see her, maybe even ask if her if she wanted to sit with them—Abi didn’t know that they knew about her secret rendezvous, so she wouldn’t suspect they were following her.
Abi sat at a window-table. She barely looked at the menu before ordering a coffee, then scrolled through her phone, her gaze flitting back and forth to the window. Her coffee arrived, and she gave the server a half-smile, her eyes returning instantly to the window.
“Do you think he’s late?” Chloe asked, keeping her voice low.
Emily nodded. “She seems a bit jittery, like she’s worried he won’t show.”
“What do we do if he doesn’t? It’s not like we can go over and ask who stood her up.”
“Maybe we should give it fifteen minutes and then pretend we’ve just realized that she’s here. She might even be grateful to see us for once.” It wasn’t like Abi hung out with Emily … ever … but even she would rather be seen with a semi-popular girl than alone.
They sat in comfortable silence, drinking hot chocolate, and eating double chocolate chip muffins. Emily liked Chloe, but she still wished Jordan was here. It was as though the day Jordan vanished, Emily had been transported into a parallel universe where girls went missing and no one was quite who they should be anymore.
Abi was still alone. She raised her phone to her ear, peering around the diner and causing Emily and Chloe to turn the other way. When they glanced back at her, the phone was on the table, and she was staring into her coffee cup.
The door opened with a gush of cold air, and Derek came in.
Emily’s pulse quickened. “What’s he doing here?” she whispered.
Chloe followed her gaze. “Did you arrange for him to meet us?”
Derek ignored Abi as if he hadn’t even noticed her and took a seat at a table-for-one at the opposite side of the diner from where the girls were seated.
Emily turned away. “No, I didn’t arrange for him to meet us. I …maybe I should’ve told you sooner, but I think Derek might know where Jordan is.” She told Chloe everything, from the warning inside her locker, to the dead butterflies, watching Chloe’s expression alternate between horror, anger, and disgust. When she was finished, she looked across at Derek who was tucking into a bowl of fries smothered in ketchup.
“Do you think he’s here to meet Abi?” Chloe asked. “Oh my god. When she arranged to meet him, he must’ve given her a false name. That must be who she was talking to on the phone in the club. They both disappeared at the same time.”
Without missing a beat, Chloe slid out of the booth and dashed over to Abi. Emily watched as excitement crossed Abi’s face and quickly turned to disappointment. She glanced over at Emily, giving a little wave.
It didn’t add up. Abi couldn’t have been on the phone to Derek because he was in the men’s restroom at the same time—she would’ve heard him.
Chloe brought Abi back to the table with her. “I wish I’d seen you guys here sooner,” Abi said, sitting next to Chloe. “You won’t tell anyone, will you?”
“Tell anyone what?” Emily asked.
“That I’ve been stood up.” Abi’s eyes darted around the diner as if her date might have arrived in the last few seconds.
“No.” Emily shook her head. “Were you supposed to be meeting Derek?”
“Ew! Derek Graham?” Abi’s face scrunched up with distaste. “Why would you think that? You’re the one who kicked him in the balls.”
Emily swallowed. “Are you sure? If it’s someone you’ve been chatting to online, maybe he’s a catfish.”
“Emily, are you okay?” Abi said, leaning closer. “I mean, this whole situation is getting to all of us, but you’re looking a bit, you know, tired.”
“I’m fine.” Emily removed the glasses and smoothed the soft flesh under her eyes.
Abi shrugged. “No. You’ve got it all wrong. It’s just an infatuation, that’s all. I thought he liked me too but, hey, you can’t win them all.” She helped herself to the last bit of Chloe’s muffin. “Do you guys want to come to the club tomorrow?”
CHAPTER 12
“Hey, Mrs. Bland.” Chloe leaned in the driver window of Emily’s mom’s car which had been lowered as they pulled up outside the club. Her mom had insisted on giving her a ride—she wasn’t happy about Emily coming back to the club and had only relented when she knew that Chloe would be here.
“How are you doing, Chloe?” Emily’s mom reached for her hand and squeezed it.
“You know.” Chloe shrugged.
“You girls stick together. I’ll pick Emily up later. Do you need a ride home, Chloe?”
“No, I’ll be fine, thank you.” Chloe straightened. “Ready, Em?”
Emily felt a pang of loneliness. Jordan was the only one who ever called her Em, and it hit her all over again how much she missed her friend.
Abi had only invited them along tonight because her other friends couldn’t make it and she didn’t want to be stuck at home watching Netflix on a Friday night, and Chloe was her friend by default because she was Jordan’s sister.
She was still confused about Derek. For a while, she had believed that he wanted to be her friend, but now she didn’t know what to think. She’d seen the butterflies. She’d discovered the photograph in his locker, but still … she hadn’t mentioned any of this to the police because she had no concrete evidence. The explanations he’d given her could’ve all been true.
They went inside and stopped at the coatroom. The girl taking the coats was the same one who’d been there the night Jordan disappeared. “You’re back,” Emily said.
“Did you miss me?” the girl asked.
“Uh-huh. I wanted to speak to you about the night my friend Jordan went missing. You were here. You saw her come back for her jacket.”
The girl took their coats and handed them a ticket each. “Yeah, I told the police everything I remembered. I don’t know what else to say. It’s terrible, and I feel bad about letting the guy in so late, but Roger is always telling me not to turn customers away.”
“Which guy?” Emily stared at her, wondering if she’d misheard. “You never mentioned this before.”
“It didn’t seem important because he left before Jordan. She came back in, recognized him. They had a brief chat by the doors, and then she went inside to get her jacket, and he left.”
“Are you sure he left?”
“What are you thinking?” Chloe asked.
“I was waiting outside.” Emily’s gaze flitted between the two of them. “I was waiting for Jordan to come back out and I didn’t see anyone else leave.”
“Are you sure?” Chloe asked. “You might have forgotten after everything that happened.”
“I’m sure.” Emily thought about it. Maybe Chloe was right, and everything else had been blanked out apart from Jordan’s disappearance. “Even if I’m wrong though, it still doesn’t explain how he got to Jordan without me seeing them.”
“Unless they left via another exit.”
“Roger said the only other exit is behind the bar and no one gets past him,” Emily said.
“Unless they have his permission.” Chloe turned to the girl. “Can you describe this guy?”
“Dark hair. Super-cute. Knockout smile, you know, the kind that makes you smile back.”
“And Jordan definitely knew him?” Emily persisted.
“Sure. He said her name like he was surprised to see her.”
Emily looked at Chloe. “Any idea who it could’ve been?”
“If he was super-cute, then he definitely wasn’t from our school.”
They thanked the girl and went through to the club. It felt like every time they heard a whisper of a potential lead, it turned out to be a dead end, and the days were ticking slowly by with the missing girls still missing.
Abi was already on the dancefloor wearing tight black pants and a silver bralette. Coming on her own tonight obviously hadn’t fazed her. She didn’t even notice Chloe and Emily as they headed straight for the bar.
Emily peered along the bar to Roger’s usual position at the far end. He wasn’t there. “Where’s Roger?” she asked the girl behind the bar who didn’t look much older than them.
She slid two sodas their way. “He’ll be back in a sec.”
Emily nodded. “Thanks.”
They found a booth and sat down. Two minutes later, Roger reappeared. He downed a drink, checked out the number of people in the club, and left again. This happened several times, the girls watching him, before he came back and leaned against the bar, ordering what looked like a double shot of something strong.
“What do you think is going on with Roger?” Chloe asked.
“No idea,” Emily said, “but I think we should speak to him.”
She didn’t wait around for Chloe. Emily approached Roger with a smile—she didn’t want to scare him off before she’d had a chance to say hi—and stood next to him.
“Who are you here with tonight?” Roger asked, peering behind her at Chloe who was still in the booth.
“That’s Jordan’s sister,” she reminded him.
“Derek not with you?”
Emily hadn’t worked out what she was going to ask Roger, but Derek was as good a place as any to start. “How do you know him?” she asked.
Roger swallowed a mouthful of his drink and gasped as it went down. “I knew his dad. Years ago. We grew up together down the same street. I still stay in touch with his grandma.”
Emily studied his profile. Was it her imagination or did he look as though he’d aged the last couple of weeks? She was starting to feel like she was suspicious of literally every person she spoke to these days. “What happened to Derek’s parents?”
“Car crash.” Roger closed his eyes briefly, remembering. “It was a tragic accident. The truck driver had a brain embolism. They were on the highway at the time, traveling in the opposite direction; there was nothing they could’ve done to avoid it.”
“Oh my God,” Emily whispered. “That’s horrible.”
She thought about Derek, and the way he kept to himself in school, the way other kids avoided him because he had holes in his sweaters and second-hand sneakers. Emily had been almost as bad as the rest of them. If she was honest, would she have treated Kyle the same way, jumping to conclusions that he was guilty without trying to prove otherwise? Probably not. Derek had tried telling her that Kyle picked up the photograph from her locker and she’d automatically dismissed it as a lie. She felt a pang of guilt recalling the self-defense class.
“I still call in occasionally,” Roger was saying. “Pick up some groceries for her if I’m passing by. She had to cover her son’s debts after the accident, and Christ knows they’ve not had it easy.”
That explained the sweaters, Emily thought, feeling even more guilty.
“He’s not a bad kid, you know,” Roger said. “You could do a lot worse than Derek having your back, especially right now.”
Emily nodded. She would speak to Derek in school next week if he’d let her; the least she could do was give him the opportunity to explain. If someone else had sabotaged his artwork, they’d probably destroyed his chance of getting onto an art course next year.
“The girl in the coatroom told us she saw Jordan with a guy that night. He arrived late and left after Jordan came back in. I was waiting outside, and I didn’t see anyone leave. Are you sure there’s no way he could’ve taken the fire exit out the back?”
Roger shook his head. “Not without me knowing about it.” He left his empty glass on the counter. “Sorry, gotta go.”
Emily returned to her seat and told Chloe what Roger had said about Derek. “So, you think he might’ve been telling the truth?”
“At this point, I don’t know what to think anymore.” Emily had the start of a headache throbbing behind her eyebrows, and she wished she hadn’t agreed to come. Abi was still dancing. If she’d noticed that they were here, she hadn’t bothered coming over to speak to them.
They were subdued for the rest of the evening. Chloe was quieter than her little sister, the one who would rather stay home and read a book while her sister was at the park kicking a ball around with the boys, and neither of them were in the mood for dancing.
Emily went out to the lobby and called her mom to pick her up early. She collected her coat and went back inside to wait with Chloe. Shortly after, the girl from the coatroom came in and said that Emily’s dad was waiting outside.
“My dad came?” Emily asked. “Okay, I’m coming.”
“Wait for me and I’ll come out with you.” Chloe stood and picked up her purse, as Abi grabbed her arm and dragged her onto the dancefloor. She grimaced at Emily over her shoulder as though she wanted to be rescued.
Emily laughed. “Go and dance. I’ll see you in school on Monday.”
She wandered outside, zipping up her coat. She couldn’t see the girl in the coatroom to wave goodbye, and Roger had disappeared from the bar too.
Stepping outside, she sucked in her breath as the cold night air brushed her cheeks making her shiver. The sidewalk was sparkly with frost, the way it had been the night Jordan disappeared.
At the bottom of the steps, she looked left and right, but couldn’t see her dad’s car. On the other side of the road, some distance away, a car had its headlamps full on and the engine running. She smiled. That must be her dad although she couldn’t see the car in the glare.
Head down, she walked towards it, her eyes streaming with the bite of cold air. She heard a noise behind her and turned expecting to see Chloe. There was no one there. She looked back at the entrance to the club and there was no one hanging about there either, unsurprisingly, given the temperature outside.
She kept walking towards the headlamps. There was a crunch behind her that sounded like a footstep. Emily whirled around, faster this time, but again, she was the only one on the sidewalk.
Emily walked faster. The car pulled out and drove off—it wasn’t her dad after all. There were other cars parked along the curb, but none of them were her dad’s car. Now, she could definitely hear footsteps behind her, despite the sound of her own heavy breathing. Too late, she realized her mistake. She should’ve stayed in the club, waited for Chloe, waited for her mom to come in and find her.
Spotting an alleyway between two buildings on her left, she darted into it and was instantly swallowed by the dense darkness. There were no lights along here, but she knew she couldn’t turn around. The words YOU’RE NEXT flashed behind her eyelids.
Emily took a deep breath and ran. Behind her, the footsteps turned into the alleyway, and they too started running. She opened her mouth to scream, but all that came out was a whimper. Her boot skidded on an icy patch, stretching her thigh muscle as she tried to keep her balance, but she didn’t stop. Keep going, she told herself. Keep going!
A car appeared at the other end of the alleyway. The driver door opened, illuminating the interior, and a man yelled at her, “Emily! It’s me, Roger!”
She cried out—she couldn’t help it—and picked up speed, sprinting towards the car. When she reached it, she ran around the front of the car, her fingers slipping on the icy handle as she tried to open the door. Roger reached across from the driver seat and opened it for her. She climbed inside, the warmth enveloping her like a cocoon, as he put his foot down and accelerated away.
CHAPTER 13
Emily hardly ventured out of her bedroom all weekend. She told her mom that she didn’t feel well. Her head was still pounding, and she felt achy and shivery as though she were fighting off a cold or a virus, so she wasn’t exactly lying.
In the car, Roger had spoken a little about his daughters. His ex-wife had simply packed a suitcase one day and taken his daughters across the border and into Canada, but not before she’d trashed the house, and emptied their joint bank account.
Emily hadn’t known what to say. She didn’t know how Roger had found her in time—he said the girl in the coatroom told him that a young man said Emily’s dad was outside, and he’d put two-and-two together, and ran straight out to his car to find her.
She’d logged it with the police but there’d been little she could tell them as neither she nor Roger had seen whoever was following her.
It had driven home the message though—Emily was next. This wasn’t a game of hide-and-seek. The perpetrator had warned her, and now he was following through. She got lucky on Friday. She might not be quite so lucky next time.
She was hoping to see Derek outside school on Monday morning, but he wasn’t there. She didn’t see him all morning. Then she walked into the cafeteria to get some lunch and he was at his usual table by the window. He didn’t look at her.
Kyle and his jock mates walked by rubbing their groins and laughing at him, saying, “Bet you can’t do that without crying,” and Derek didn’t even acknowledge them.
Emily ate her lunch quickly and scribbled out a note on a scrap of paper ripped from an exercise book, asking Derek to meet her in the library. She tossed it into his tinfoil parcel of sandwiches as she left the cafeteria without stopping to wait for his reaction.
In the library, she chose a table near the back, and waited.
She never thought that she would ever be sitting here nervously waiting for Derek Graham, but she needed to hear his side of the story. She realized she should’ve listened to him sooner, but she couldn’t turn the clocks back. She only hoped he liked her enough to meet her halfway—she could do with people looking out for her.
Five minutes went by and there was still no sign of him.
Ten. He wasn’t going to come.
She’d obviously destroyed any chance of being friends with him if he wasn’t prepared to let her apologize. She waited another twenty minutes before she switched off her phone and picked up her bookbag. She couldn’t wait any longer; she had to get to her locker, and she didn’t want to be late for her first afternoon lesson.
Emily rose as Mr. Dubium came towards her. “Emily,” he said. “How are you doing?”
She knew people meant well whenever they asked how she was doing, but she wished they would stop asking. How did they think she was doing? Her best friend was missing, and she was next on the list. How would they be doing under the circumstances?
The teacher sat opposite her, so she sat back down. He’d vouch for her if she was late.
“Okay, I guess,” she said.
He frowned. “Has something happened?”
She told him what had happened outside the club on Friday evening, realizing as she did so, that she’d promised him she wouldn’t go anywhere alone. “I know,” she said, “it was a stupid thing to do, but I thought my dad was outside waiting for me.”
“Hey.” Mr. Dubium shifted in his seat forcing her to make eye contact. “No one’s judging you, okay? Anyone would’ve done the same.”
She nodded. “I need to get to class, sir.”
He flashed her his super-cute smile. “I don’t want to make you late, but … well, I saw Derek Graham following you along the hallway when you left the cafeteria.”
“Following me?” She didn’t understand. Why didn’t he come to the library then if he read the note and left after her?
“After what you told me last week, I thought it best to keep an eye on him, so I trailed him up to the art studio.”
That made sense. “He’s trying to salvage his art project,” she said. “Someone tried to ruin it.”
“Why do you think someone would do that?”
“I don’t know. I guess he’s not that popular, sir.”
He nodded. “It’s just …” he hesitated as if gauging how much to say to her, “it’s not the first time I’ve caught him following you.”
The pounding in her skull kickstarted back to life. She wished someone would tell her who she could trust and who she couldn’t trust. She wished the police would find the missing girls and arrest the perpetrator so that their lives could return to normal.
Mr. Dubium was still speaking. “Every time I see you in the hallway between periods, I look around, and there’s Derek Graham not far behind. I think we should speak to the police, Emily. Before something bad happens again. I’d never forgive myself if I had this information and did nothing about it.”
“I …” She shook her head and rose too quickly, tiny stars spiraling in front of her eyes.
Mr. Dubium reached for her arm to steady her. “Whoa there,” he said. “Take it easy. No one’s going to complain if you’re a couple of minutes late.”
“I’ve not been sleeping well,” she said by way of an explanation.
“That’s hardly surprising. Look, sit there for a few minutes. Whose class are you in next period?” Emily told him that she had History with Mr. Johnson. “I’ll speak to him and make sure he gives you a pass if you’re a little late. Go to the medical room if you need to sit the class out. You need to listen to your body, Emily, especially when it’s telling you to take a break.”
She smiled at him. “Thanks, sir.” It would give her time to sit here and think about Derek following her around. She needed to make sense of it in her head before she confronted him … again.
Mr. Dubium’s eyes lingered on hers. No wonder the girls thought he looked like Zac Efron; she hadn’t understood all the fuss at first, but she got it now. He turned and walked away, and that’s when she noticed the hairclip attached to the back pocket of his jeans. It was gold with a tiny pearl set into a flower on the top. She might not have even noticed it were it not for the pearl, but she’d seen that hairclip before. It was vintage. Once worn by Marilyn Monroe, apparently, on the movie set of a film the name of which she couldn’t remember. And she knew this because Jordan had gushed about it when she bought it.
It was Jordan’s hairclip, and she’d been wearing it the night she went missing.
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