Beautifully Broken by Sherry Soule

likes to play soccer, and his favorite color is blue,” she said, matter-of-factly.
    I quirked a brow. “You learned all that already?”
    “Please. I got that hours ago. Between homeroom and third period.”
    Everyone cracked up and I only smiled. A massive twinge of disappointment hit my heart.
    He doesn’t go to school here. Damn. That really sucks.

    “His father’s a big snob,” Jada said. “Mr. Donovan never comes into town. Thinks he’s too good for the rest of us. I guess that murder charge didn’t help him win any friends.”
    A shudder passed through me. “Murder?”

     

CHAPTER SIX

     

     

     
    “They tried to keep the rumors about the murder quiet.” Jada leaned forward and I edged closer on the cafeteria bench. Around us, kids gabbled and screeched, but Jada lowered her voice and continued speaking, as if oblivious to the loud high school lunchroom surrounding us. “Maxwell Donovan was suspected of killing his wife inside Ravenhurst. Police didn’t believe it was a suicide at first. According to my dad, Sheriff Boyd said the charges didn’t stick. Afterwards, Trent’s dad took him outta school and they left town.”
    “Can we get off this subject?” Ariana asked. “It’s creeping me out.”
    “Why? What else does a small town like ours have to gossip about?” An insolent grin swept across Jada’s face. “C’mon, not much happens in Whispering Pines. Unless…you count all the missing kids—”
    “Ohmygosh, did you guys hear about Sarah Boyd?” Paige interrupted. “She was taken from her bedroom two weeks ago. She just…vanished.”
    “That’s three kids who’ve gone missing in the last two years,” Jada said and leaned across the table and everyone else mimicked her. “For a grand total of six kids who have vanished in the last seventeen years.”
    “I overheard it on the news yesterday morning,” I said. “No wonder Sheriff Boyd enforced a curfew. His only daughter—disappearing like that. Hmm, I wonder what those kids have in common.”
    “They’re all descendants of the original thirteen families.”
    We stared at Jada, shocked by her statement. Paige caught my gaze and gave me a raised eyebrow, like she was wondering if I knew something. I shook my head and turned my attention back to Jada. 
    Jada rolled her eyes. “Don’t you guys study our history?” Everyone either shrugged or shook their heads. “Thirteen families originally settled in Whispering Pines and each of the missing kids can trace their ancestry to the founders…like us and the few others who are left.”
    Her last words dangled over our heads like a noose.
    “You’re right. Only seven of us left,” Ariana whispered. “It’s like the rumors are true—there really is a curse on our town.”
    “Or it’s some crazed serial killer,” Paige said. “ Ohhh!— or someone with a serious grudge against our families.”
    “Too many unsolved disappearances. Even the FBI was baffled,” I said, recalling what I’d heard on the various news accounts.
    “Because whoever’s taking these kids has the ability to make people disappear that borders on the mystical ,” Jada added quietly.
    Shadow Man’s threat resonated through my mind: Debts must be paid.
    I tugged my sleeve over my scar. And I blurted what everyone was thinking, “Why only our families? And how does someone make a person just disappear?”
    Silence descended. Gradual, obscure. Heavy and thick as fog.
    A single thought screamed in my mind. Shadow Man. He’s behind this. He has to be the one taking innocent lives. The question is how and why. And who’s next on the supernatural hit list? I shivered in panic as my gut told me my terrible thought was correct.
    “This is too horror-movie-of-the week for me. Change of topic—now!” Ariana touched my arm. “Did you find a summer job yet? School gets out in three weeks.”
    The group seemed to breathe. Move. Life returned to limbs, but the tension and unsaid questions remained