Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Bennet

Little Rory is back. And no fucking body told me. I'm not sure how I feel about that really. On the one hand, I understand that she’s my sister’s best friend, not mine, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t hang out. Hell, we did everything together until I turned sixteen and started driving. Then somehow, we just seemed to have…drifted into separate spaces.

I still saw her plenty. I drove her and my sister to school damned near every day and then to the ice cream shop where they both worked after school. But slowly over time, I saw less and less of her and then I graduated and went to the police academy in the city. I spent a year there as a rookie and by the time I came back, Rory was gone.

Mom told me Bronte went to spend weekends with her sometimes, but I never got around to going to see her myself. I didn’t really have a good reason either. Again, she was Bronte’s friend, not mine. I had no way of knowing little Rory had grown up until I saw her standing in the aisle at the supermarket. It was like a punch in the gut. I always remembered her as the shy sixteen-year-old girl I last saw at our graduation party.

What I saw at the supermarket today was no sixteen-year-old and if the sass she was giving me with that hand on her hip tonight is any clue, she isn’t shy anymore either. What’s got me more concerned is the fact she owns the Snodgrass house. Everyone in town knows that house is fucking cursed and now Rory is the one staying in it. She’s way too...small, to be that far from Mom and Bronte. Way too small to be in the fucking Murder House.

I have my phone in my hand before I can even try to talk myself down. I might not be able to argue with Rory over this without sounding like a world-class ass, but my sister is another story. Her I can yell at all day long and not feel as bad about it.

“Hey bro, how you doing? Arrest any evil jaywalkers today?”

“Ha, ha, very funny, Te.”

Mom was a huge book nerd and named both of her children after her favorites. And then there was Rory. She fit in perfectly with the name Aurora. Mom took her in and mothered her like she was her own since Aurora’s mom was sick most of the time. Rory’s dad walked away from them when her mom got sick, so it was just her and her mom. They moved here when Rory was ten, I think to be closer to family but I was too young to really pay much attention to what was going on outside of my own family.

“You’ll never guess who I saw tonight in the grocery store?”

Silence greets me. But I can do the whole waiting thing too.

“I assume you are talking about Rory being back.”

“Hell yes, I’m talking about Rory. Why didn’t you tell me she was back?”

“I guess I didn’t think it would be important to you.”

Didn’t think it would be important! What the hell?

“We only grew up with her, sis, gees.”

“Well, it’s been five years since the two of you saw one other. It isn’t like you all were speaking every week and she snuck back, Ben.”

“Four. It’s been four years, not five.” I correct her. I’m not sure why it’s important but it fucking is. “Did you also know she bought the Murder House?”

“Okay, calling it that is extremely creepy and not cool. And yes, I knew.”

“And you still let her go through with buying it?!”

“Ben, she’s a grown-ass woman. It’s not like I could stop her.”

“Someone should have because she is way too…”

Te interrupts me, “Shit, she’s calling. I’ll talk to you later, bro. Stay safe.”

And just like that she’s gone, taking my avenue to vent with her. I can’t even check in on Rory because I don’t have her number to call her, and I doubt my sister is going to give it to me. Maybe there’s another way. It would be underhanded and sneaky as shit and if Te finds out she will kick my ass so hard. But…it seems the two girls have tied my hands.

I’m going to mom.