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Only that wasn't it.
After being dumped by his girlfriend, Thomas managed to somehow track down the people who abducted him and restarted their crimes.
Because of Thomas, four more children had died, another two were now missing.
At least there was one positive. Thomas had obviously remembered enough from the time he was missing to find the people who had kidnapped him. Which meant that Clara, too, knew enough to find them. They just had to help her remember.
February 11th
2:29 A.M.
The sound of screaming woke her.
Clara didn’t know who was screaming, but the sound echoed in the dark.
Disoriented, she couldn’t quite figure out where she was or why someone was yelling.
She jumped when arms wrapped around her, unsure of whether she should fight back.
“Shh, Clara. You were just dreaming.”
The voice calmed her almost immediately.
Sinking into the arms that held her, Clara focused on clearing her mind. It had to be the early hours of the morning, and she was in her bed. She’d thought that after finding that doll on her bed, she’d never want to sleep in it again. But tonight she’d been tired and craved her soft mattress, her feather pillows, her favorite quilt, so she’d fought off the last dregs of nerves, climbed under the covers, and promptly fallen asleep. It was pitch black outside, but Clara didn’t like to sleep with her curtains drawn, so moonlight streamed into the room. In it, she could make out Jonathon’s concerned face watching her.
Noticing her looking at him, he asked, “You okay?”
Nodding, she closed her eyes and rested her head on Jonathon’s shoulder. She took long, slow, deep breaths to calm her ragged breathing. Just a dream. That was all. Just another nightmare.
“Want to talk about it?” His hands and his voice both seemed to possess magical powers when it came to calming her. His hand smoothed her hair; his voice was soothing but not patronizing.
“No.” What was Jonathon doing here anyway? He hadn’t been here when she’d gone to bed. Without lifting her head, she opened her eyes again and peered up at him, “Where’s Naomi?”
“I sent your sister home to rest. I think she’s had even less sleep than you have the last few days. She was starting to look like she’d collapse if she didn’t sleep soon.”
Agreeing completely with his assessment of Naomi, she thought it was sweet of him to care enough about her sister to worry. She’d gone to bed early, but she’d thought her brother was going to come and spend the night so Naomi could get some rest. “Is Davis here?”
“Your brother and I arrived here at the same time; we agreed he would take Naomi home and I'd stay here with you.”
“How did Naomi like that idea?”
“She protested a little,” he smiled.
“A little?”
“Okay, more than a little,” he chuckled.
She garnered up enough courage to ask what she wanted to know. “What did Sarah Ellis say about Tommy?”
Since she was still in Jonathon’s arms, she felt him stiffen. “Are you sure you want to know?”
“Yes,” she answered immediately—she needed to understand what had made Tommy change so dramatically from the shy, sweet person she’d always known into a child-murdering monster.
“Sarah broke up with him six months ago,” Jonathon began.
“Six months ago is when I stopped hearing from him,” she inserted.
“His mom, too.”
