Anyway, Jordyn barged in the room waving a piece of paper and practically screamed, “I’ve got a great idea. Let’s go find Wither!” Violet and I both said Shh at the same time.

She flopped down on my bed and we sat down next to her and Violet tried to grab the paper out of her hand, but she held it high over her head.

“Why would we want to find Joseph?” I asked Jordyn as if this was the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.

“Duh, because Joseph loves you, Corareef12,” she said. I nearly threw up. I looked over at Violet but she wouldn’t look me in the eye. She told Jordyn about DarkestDoor and the letters. She promised that we wouldn’t tell anyone about it, especially Jordyn. I wanted to cry and it was a miracle that I didn’t, but there was no way I was going to let Jordyn see me blubbering like a baby.

Later, Violet told me that she only told Jordyn about DarkestDoor and not about the letters he left for me. I don’t know if I believe her or not. Everyone in school probably knows about it now.

Jordyn took her own sweet time showing us the piece of paper she was holding. It ended up being a map she drew of town, but not a very good one. I asked her what the X’s meant and she said that the X’s were the places in town where Wither supposedly killed or kidnapped a girl over the years. There was an X by Locust Creek, one by the cemetery and another X in the train yard. Violet told her that she forgot a few.

“Oh, well, let’s just ask him,” Jordyn said and pulled up the DarkestDoor site on her phone.

For once in my life I stood up to Jordyn and took the phone out of her hand before she could post anything.

“Stop it!” I told her. “It was just a joke. I don’t even talk to him anymore.” This was a lie, of course.

But Jordyn wasn’t giving up. “This is perfect,” she said. “We’ll go to the train yard and once he shows up to grab Cora we’ll…” She crossed her hands over her neck in a choking motion and stuck out her tongue.

I kept saying what a stupid plan it was. How there was no way we could get to the depot without our parents finding out—which was a total lie. I still go back to the Primrose every few days to see if Wither left a note for me in the jar. Violet said that if we spent the night at her house there was a good chance we could sneak out and not get caught because her mom would go up to bed and leave us alone while we slept in their living room.