I was in the mood to ditch school and avoid everyone and everything, and by everyone I meant Jason and Eli, but if I did that I wouldn't be able to ambush Allie later. Because of this reason I forced myself to finish out the day of school. I had to endure the stares and whispers from those who had seen the argument between me and Jason and Eli earlier and ignore the whispers when people noticed that the two boys weren't sitting with her at lunch. I was sighing in relief when the last bell rang and I was one of the first people out of the door. I waited outside of the school's building until I saw Allie and Sarah walking coming out of the stairs. I watched on in annoyance. I hadn't thought about if she wasn't alone, what we had to talk about couldn't be said in front of an audience. I resigned myself to having to follow them waiting for a chance when Allie was alone to speak to her.
I quietly followed behind the two girls feeling like a stalker. I couldn't believe the absurdity of it all. If someone had of told me a few weeks ago that I would be following Sarah and Allie hoping to talk with the girl who made my school life miserable, I'd of thought they were insane. I chuckled quietly to myself. Here I was ready to claim someone was insane for seeing the future when I received the same treatment whenever people discovered what I could do.
As we came to a corner where the sidewalk forked off into two separate sides, the girls finally parted. Allie went left and Sarah went right. Once I was sure that Sarah wouldn't look back in jogged down the street Allie went down trying to catch up to her. "Allie." I called out just as she was unlocking the door to a modest sized home. She whirled around, eyes wide in shock.
"What are you doing here?"
"I really need to finish talking to you about Camryn."
Allie frowned and turned her back on me. "I have nothing else to say, everything I already told you is everything I know." She said as she attempted to close the door on me. I sprinted up the steps and held the door from closing completely with the palms of my hands pressed solidly against the wood.
"Please Allie, I know there is something you aren't telling me, I could see the fear in your eyes." I pleaded. "You have to tell me so that the real killer can be stopped, if we don't do something more innocent women will be killed." The pressure on the door was lifted and Allie opened it wide inviting me in. I sighed in relief and stepped into the front hall of the home. As I looked around I was shocked at how, normal, her house seemed. I don't know what I was expecting but this wasn't it, not from the girl who took so much pleasure in torturing me.
"I really don't know what else I can tell you." She glanced behind her at the stairs that led to the upstairs section of her house.
"It could be something small that you think is small but has been bugging you. There has to be something at the back of your mind that you want to mention about Camryn, something you think might have to do with her disappearance. Even if it's something you think no one will believe." I urged her. Allie's eyes flickered with uncertainty when the sounds of footsteps on the stairs drew my attention.
"Allie that you?" A male voice called out and my body seized in shock and disbelief. It can't be him, why would he be hear? I looked at Allie as if asking for conformations as to why this man would be in her home calling out her name but she looked just as in shock and fearful as me. I backed away a step as Mike Linux descended the stairs stopping at the bottom. He looked over at me and his perfect smile spread across his face, eyes lighting up. We stared at each other locked in a face off when my addled brain but two and two together. Mike Linux, Allie Linux, they were related. How could I have not realized this before? With Mike's age he could only be Allie's older brother. As if hearing my thoughts Mike addressed Allie. "Introduce me to your friend little sis." He said eyes still focused on me.
I shivered and couldn't help the look of complete revulsion as I finally broke our gaze. "That's okay, I don't need to introduction. Allie I'll talk to you at school tomorrow." I was anxious to escape but I stopped at the front door. Would Allie be safe here with him? He was her brother, would he really hurt her? I want sure did psychos have morals about not hurting family members? I turned back around to see Allie standing still, she was watching her brother who was watching me. Her body was ramrod straight and I could feel the fear rolling off her in waves. "Actually, Allie do you want to come over?" The sound of my voice startled the girl and she jumped gaze landing on me.
"Uhmmm yeah, that would be cool. We could get started on our project early." She said hurrying to my side.
"Don't stay out too late, mom and dad will worry." Mike said as me and Allie hurried through the door.
We walked quickly down the sidewalk, both of us practically jogging and breathing hard. "How do you know my brother?" I didn't speak my mind going in three different directions at once. "Did you...did you see anything about him when you touched me?" She asked sounding worried. I stopped in my tracks to study her more carefully.
"Why?" I asked suspicious.
Allie bit her lip and looked down at the ground. "Can we go to your house first?"
I was anxious to hear what she had to say but I didn't want to push her. I could wait until we made it home.
As me and Allie came to my apartment I stopped short seeing Jason standing outside. My heart clinched and my throat went dry. I hadn't expected to see him, not after that argument earlier and truthfully, I didn't know if I had forgiven him yet. "Krystal." He called out when he finally spotted me and Allie standing a few feet from him. I reluctantly walked over to stand in front of him. "I wanted to speak to you." He said eyes curiously gazing at Allie. He was probably confused as to why the two of us were together and why she was coming to my house.
"Now's not a good time Jason." I tried to brush him off motioning for Allie to follow me when he grabbed my wrist.
"Please, Krystal."
I almost waivered at the sound of regret and desperation in his voice. "I need to apologize for what I said." His dark eyes seemed to mist over, searching mines for understanding. I really wanted to stop to talk to him about us, our friendship, and if we'd be able to go back to the easy way were with each other before, but I couldn't. Not right now, this thing with Allie was more important that my need to hash out my problems with him.
"I forgive you okay. But I am busy right now so let go." I ordered harshly. Jason flinched at the tone in my voice. I'd never talked to him this way before. Expression filled with hurt Jason slowly released my wrist and stepped back. Before I could cave in I turned my back on him.
"You okay?" Allie aske uncharacteristically showing concern for me as we entered my apartment.
I shrugged. "Yeah, I'm fine." I wasn't really. I hated that me, Jason, and Eli were currently not on good terms. I hadn't known them long and we weren't this close until recently but I never wanted to go back to a time that I didn't have them in my life. It was hurting me that we were fractured right now, that I'd just brushed off Jason's attempt at reconciliation. "I can talk to Jason later, this is more important. Tell me about your brother Mike." If Allie was surprised that I knew her brother's name, she didn't show it. She dropped down listlessly onto the couch.
"Mike's always been.... Different. When we were younger my parents worked a lot so Mike would be in charge of babysitting me. He hated it, he'd rather be out doing whatever it was he did when he disappeared." Allie began to absentmindedly to rub her arms which she had crossed in front of her chest. "He'd lock me in the closet for hours, until our parents came home. And any little thing would upset him, and when he was upset he'd punish me. One time he tied me to the bed and burned the soles of my feet with a lighter."
I felt sick to my stomach at the horror. Imaging Allie a young girl being tortured like this by her own brother. Someone who was meant to love and protect her.
"He told me if I told our parents that he'd light my hair on fire as I slept at night. I was so afraid of him and I believed he really would do it so I never told. I just made sure to stay out of his way and not doing anything to upset him, of course it didn't always work and he'd find an excuse to have to punish me. Soon though I was old enough not to need him to watch me, and he mostly left me alone after that."
"Oh Allie, I'm so sorry that you had to go through such horrors." Now I knew why I always felt such a sense of foreboding and darkness from Allie, why I knew any flashes I got from her would be horrible.
"I never told anyone about what Mike did to me, not even Camryn. And she'd always had a crush on him, she didn't know what he was really like. When he came back from college and started training at the police academy he began to show more interest in her. It was little things but I noticed it, and she was totally in love with him. I think, Mike might have been the guy she was seeing that she didn't want to tell me about. After she disappeared I asked Mike about her." Her voice began to waiver and her eyes brimmed over with tears that silently trekked down her cheeks. "He said she was free, and that I should stop asking questions. I knew then that something wasn't right but I ignored it because I was afraid of him. I should have said something." Allie began sobbing and I rushed to her side. Wrapping my arms around her shaking shoulders I held her to me.
"It's not your fault Allie. It's not. You couldn't have known and you were justified to be afraid, you knew how cruel he could be." I didn't want to tell Allie about her brother being a sadistic serial killer but on some level, I think she already knew. She knew how sadistic and cruel he could be, how he felt pleasure and hurting others. "Your brother is the real Mystic Killer Allie. He's the one killing all of those girls." Allie shook more as she continued to cry. "I need you to tell me anything you can think of that will help me expose him. Right now he has everyone thinking Jimmy Santorini is the killer, he might just get away with everything if we don't do something."
"He has a cabin." Allie Whispered. "Out by Emerald lake. Its secluded, he built it himself in the woods when he was in high school. He goes there a lot, he says it's the only place he can be himself."
A cabin in the woods, how cliché. It was the perfect spot for him to bring his victims and torture them before he killed them. The perfect spot for him to be holding my sister. "We need to go to this cabin Allie." I didn't want to bring her with me but I wouldn't be able to find it without her. Allie shook her head vehemently.
"No, he always told me If I went there or told anyone about it he'd kill me."
"Your brother has my sister." I forced her to look at me hands on her shoulder. "He has been holding her for 2 years, I need to save her and I think she is at this cabin. You have to help me save her, please."
Allie worried her lip, still shaking from her recent bout of crying, when a glint of steel entered her eyes. "Okay. I couldn't help Camryn, if we can save your sister than let's do it. I know Mike has a shift today, he'll have to report in to the station at 6, we should go then."
I hugged Allie to me tightly grateful that she was willing to put aside her fear and help me. After I let her go I marveled at the fact that I hadn't received a flash. The more I gave in to the flashes the more I was beginning to control it. I found that if I specifically concentrated on the person I was touching, and kept my mind focused on the here and now, it was easier for me to prevent the flashes from taking over. I wasn't willing to test it with others yet, but I was just grateful to Allie so I wanted to show that. Who would have expected that a girl I used to go to all lengths to avoid would be the one to break the mystery of the Mystic Killer wide open and lead me to Jessica.