Free The Darkness Within by Taylor Henderson Page A

knew she wasn’t going to back down from this plan of action. “Claire, don’t be selfish. You getting into trouble for breaking and entering David’s house is miniscule in comparison to the big picture. He hurt these girls!”
    I stopped pacing. Fixing her with a hard stare, I said, “We don’t know that for sure. We can’t just jump to that conclusion. He could just be some pervert who gets off on watching girl’s suffer. That doesn’t mean he’s the one who did it.” Even as I said the words out loud, I didn’t believe them myself. I didn’t know for sure whether David had hurt the girls in the photos, but if he had, then he deserved to go down for it. One thing was for sure; I wanted him to stay as far away from my mom as possible.
    Adrianna shook her head at my statement. “You have to do the right thing, Claire, and the right thing would be to call the police.” She crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow at me. The accusatory expression on her face made guilt bubble up inside of me.
    Sighing, I threw my hands up into the air. “Fine, you’re right. I can’t worry about myself in a situation like this.”
    Adrianna smirked, obviously pleased that I was seeing things her way, and handed me my phone. “Put it on speaker,” she ordered as I began dialing 911.
    It rang once, before a monotone, woman’s voice answered. “911, what’s your emergency?”
    “Uh, hi,” I began slowly, staring at Adrianna with wide eyes. I should’ve thought this through more. I had no idea what I was supposed to say. While I was having my internal panic attack, Adrianna snatched the phone from me and began speaking.
    “Hello. I’m a concerned neighbor who would like to report a possible crime,” Adrianna stated coolly, holding the phone in front of her face.
    There was the sound of nails clicking on a keyboard as the woman said, “Okay, what’s your location? I’ll transfer you to your local police department.”
    Adrianna gave her my address and after a moment we heard the phone dialing and another woman answered the phone.
    “Clifton Heights police department, how may I help you?”
    “Um, hi. I’m a concerned neighbor who would like to report a possible crime,” Adrianna repeated.
    “Okay, what is your first and last name?” the lady questioned.
    My eyes widened as Adrianna answered her with, “Claire Anderson.” Her flickered to me, taking in my horrified expression before she waved it off like it wasn’t a big deal.
    “What is the phone number you are calling from, in case we get disconnected?”
    Adrianna recited my cell phone number from memory. They continued to go back and forth, the dispatcher collecting details about our location before asking what the nature of the crime was.
    “I have a neighbor who recently moved into the house next door and I’ve witnessed a few odd occurrences.”
    “Odd occurrences, such as?” questioned the officer.
    Adrianna bit her lip, thinking for a second before she said, “Well, I was helping him move into his house and I saw a box that had some disturbing photos inside of it.”
    “What were the nature of these photos, ma’am?”
    “They were headshots of battered girl’s faces.” Adrianna shivered noticeably after speaking.
    I walked over and joined her on the bed, wondering how the dispatcher was going to respond.
    “Were these girl’s minor’s? Was there any nudity in the photos?” she questioned, not even sounding shocked. Her tone remained flat.
    Adrianna shook her head as she said, “The age’s of the girls is unclear, but it’s possible that they are young adults. There was no nudity in any of them.”
    The officer sighed. “Well then, I’m sorry, Miss Anderson, but there really isn’t anything we can do. It’s not a crime to have photos of that nature in your home. We can’t do anything unless we have evidence that a crime was or is about to be committed.”
    Adrianna’s expression dropped. “Okay, thank you for your