by R. J. Adams
She walks over to me and leans right up against my locker as if striking a pose for Vogue, “so I heard your mental family was murdered by a mental person, funny that weirdo, now you’re an Orphan, no wonder Jack came to me,” her evil smirk stretches across her face, “I’m just what he needed.”
Rage surges through me like fire, I want to punch her in the face, strangle her but I already have enough attention on me right now. Her sarcastic ‘I’m better than you’ smirk all over her face deserves to be wiped off. I feel it coming and I cannot stop, I raise my hand to hit her and she winces, but just before I do something grabs my arm and stops me.
“She isn’t worth it,” a soft voice warns behind me. I turn to see Jack.
Lucy gasps and then smiles, “well hello lover, finally came back for more did you?”
“Enough Lucy, I never fucking touched you and I never will, can’t you see she has been through fucking trauma, do you care about nothing but your god damn self?” He snaps.
She moves closer, practically pushing her body against his, “that’s not what you were saying when you were with me.”
I turn to Jack and punch him in the face and walk off. I hear him calling out my name but I keep going. How dare he have a go at me for one fucking kiss when he spent the night with her doing god knows what.
I hide in the toilet, crying my eyes out. The door opens and there is a tapping on my cubicle, “come on Ray,” Rosie mumbles through the door, “if that’s who they want to be they are not worth it, you don’t need people like that in your life.”
I guess she is right. I have so much going on right now I shouldn’t let either of them get to me, but Jack. How could he do something like that? I thought he just ran away but he went to her first.
I come out and look at Rosie, “what am I going to do with my life?”
She smiles “perk yourself up for today and get on with it, because after that I’m sure there are other things you will need to do. Don’t let anyone see how much you are hurting.”
She is right, they are already whispering, if I cry or breakdown I can guarantee the taunts will start.
I head to my first class of the day, avoiding Jack at all costs but it’s never so simple, as he cannot see me and I will not speak to him, he texts me instead;
Whatever she told you is not true, well partly true, I did bump into her but nothing happened, I just spoke to her and she gave me a hug before I left, I swear it. Please believe me. J.xx
I want to believe him but it’s so hard. I don’t know who to trust anymore, even Rosie. Yes she is my friend but she does tend to hang with the ‘popular crowd.’ Maybe my mad family have driven her away too. No, I’m just being paranoid, Rosie is a kind girl, I know this and I shouldn’t doubt her like I doubt everyone else.
Staring at the board as the teacher writes up stuff we are meant to copy, I find myself drifting to sleep. The sounds of the room drift away and I feel spaced out.
I hear my name being called but as I look up, everyone seems to be robotically facing forward. I hear my name being called again but as I look around I see it isn’t coming from the room, it’s coming from the hallway.
I walk out of the classroom and everything is dark, people stood still next to their lockers, their eyes black whispering to each-other. I try to talk to them but they do not move, their lips move but their bodies are still, completely still.
“Who’s there?” I call out seeing something in the distance but my voice just echoes.
I see the black figure in the distance, the woman told me it was there to protect me but it doesn’t stop me from being afraid.
“What do you want from me,” I ask it terrified as my heart beats faster in my chest.
The black figure drifts closer and closer until finally, it is toe to toe with me. The hallway is freezing and the windows at each end ice over. It reaches out to grab me and I feel its touch on my skin.
The hallway starts to go hazy, grey and suddenly I’m in a bedroom watching Joe and my aunty sleep.
I look around quickly trying to hide before they see me, there, next to me is the black figure, nodding no. No? Is it telling me to stay put? Wait, I’m dreaming, please tell me this is a dream.
I see the door open and I look to the black figure terrified something is going to come for me, but instead it whispers, ‘just watch.’
As the door opens I watch as Sophia enters the room. She walks over to Joe and ties him up, he doesn’t flinch, just stays asleep. He is motionless as if dead already.
Then she walks over to her mother and strokes her face, “if I can’t have him or anyone then no-one else will,” she mumbles and then stabs her straight through the chest, then the stomach and repeats it all over her body.
I scream out to stop her but she cannot hear me, blood splashes all over the walls, the floor and the bed. When she is done, she lifts her nightgown and sits on top of Joe.
“Please stop, I don’t want to see anymore,” I yell out covering my eyes.
‘Now you know,’ the black figure whispers and then disappears.
As I take a gasp of air I wake up in class with everyone looking at me. Did I fall asleep? Was that a vision or a dream?
“Rayne, do you need to take a moment?” Miss Bradley asks me, her face showing genuine concern.
I nod in agreement, she hands me a form and excuses me from the class sending me to the nurse’s office. Images of that vision or dream are still fresh in my mind.
I feel sick; I head to the nurse’s station and just lie on the bed. She looks at me, asks if I’m okay and then leaves me to it. Maybe it was too early to come to school, maybe I was kidding myself.
I check my phone and strangely enough I don’t have any messages from Toby. He has normally text me by now. I’ve only known him a few days but his routine is predictable.
I read the news on my phone to see if anyone has been arrested for my mother’s murder but nothing. There are just reporters once again outside my house talking about the ‘brutal crime.’
I need my mom; I need to hear her voice. What am I supposed to do? Then again if she was here I wouldn’t be going through this, I begin to sob, and it’s too much to hold in.
I pick up the phone and decide to call the hospital. I know what Sophia did and if I am going to help I guess I need to speak to her and somehow convince people the ‘crazy’ person did it.
“Hello Doctor Barton,” a deep voice answers.
“Oh hi doctor it’s Rayne, I’m calling up to check on Sophia Rhodes and try and arrange a visit, when I show up unexpectedly she seems to go a bit....” how do I put this, “umm, well mental I guess.”
“Didn’t anyone call you Miss Watts?” His voice lowers, and I fear the worst, “Sophia escaped this morning.”
Chapter 15
I drop my phone in shock? Escaped? Oh my god is she coming after me? I need to speak to Toby, he is a policeman surely he can help me.
I pick up the phone grab my things and run out of the school. I try calling him but his phone reaches voicemail every time.
Well he said he is in work so it’s the police station I have to go to. Surely they will be out looking for Sophia, after my visions and speaking to Joe, the girl is not exactly the safest person to be around.
Running as fast as my feet will take me I run all the way to the station in the city. I’m doing so without thinking of anyone else around me, in a rush hopping to and from the bus to get there.
I reach the station and almost fall onto the reception desk trying to catch my breath. The officer behind the desk looks at me and jumps from his chair “Ma’am are you alright?”
“I need to speak to Toby,” I tell him panicky and out of breath, “is he here, can you get him it’s really urgent.”
“Sorry Ma’am, I do not know a Toby,” he looks at me baffled.
“Toby Klein, young officer, youngest in the force,” my words come out so fast, “please get him for me.”
“Ma’am, there is no offic
er here by that name,” he advises.
“You cannot possible know every single officer in this entire precinct, please look him up and call him down.”
“Do you have his badge number?” He asks sitting down pressing keys on his computer.
I take a step back and search my brain; to be honest I have never seen his badge number, or his police ID for that matter. “Umm no, can you not do like a police name search or something?”
He looks at me like I am the daftest person ever to set foot in here. He looks through the system but nothing flags up with Toby’s name at all, “I’m sorry Ma’am, there is no officer under that name.”
I take a step back and try to run over things in my mind. When my mom was murdered he was there in a police uniform. He didn’t have a police car but in conversations we have had he has said he always likes to use his own.
Memories flash back to the time when I saw him at reception desk here, I realise he was just there. The reason people ignored him, including the detective in my house, was because no-one knew him.
“Ma’am, is everything alright?” The officer asks noticing my pale white expression.
“Umm, officer is it possible for someone to pretend to be a policeman, or wear a policeman’s uniform?”
“You can buy blue ones just like this in the fancy dress store, I used to wear one as a kid, I always knew I wanted to be an officer,” he smiles as if remembering some sort of happy childhood memory.
I just realised that Toby, Toby Klein, this kind and generous man is not a policeman and is just posing as one. The more I think about it the more pieces of the puzzle fall into place.
“Officer,” I interrupt him, clearly panicking, “can you do an address search to see who lives at a certain address. I fear the man living there is not who he claims to be.”
“Well we don’t normally give that information out to civilian’s ma’am,”
“PLEASE,” I beg a little loudly, “please, I need to know the man at that house, the man I have been staying with.”
Seeing my fear and worry, he agrees to do this one thing for me quickly before anyone else sees. I give him the address and he does a quick search.
To my horror, the address is not registered to a Toby Klein, but to a Betsy Grainge who lives with her grandson, Mark Grainge. The name rings a bell in my head but I cannot seem to place it.
“Interesting,” the officer perks up, “it seems Mr Grainge is known to us already, does he look familiar to you?” He shows me a picture of ‘Mark Grainge’ and then it hits me, that person used to live in my street, he fancied me but I shot him down.
He once tried to kiss me in the park but I slapped him and ran away. I got with Jack and Mark would give really horrible looks at me. We once had him arrested when he tried to kiss me and he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
It says on the system he has been arrested for a multiple of issues, indecent assault, battery, burglary and worse, assault with a knife. Says he has even spent a few years in prison, which would explain why I didn’t see him ever again.
But Toby or whoever he is that I have been staying with in that house, is not Mark and looks nothing like the picture. So who is Toby? How does he come into all of this?
He could just be a nice guy but then why lie about being a policeman when you’re not, was it just to impress me?
I ring Jack, I’m heading back to the house and I fear that Sophia is there, looking for me. Is Toby all part of this?
Running down the road waiting for an answer, Jack’s phone goes to answer machine:
“Jack, I’m heading back to Toby’s, Sophia has escaped. I went to the police but....but....well, Mark Grainge, he is supposed to be living in the house I’m in, I mean I been staying in. I don’t know where Sophia is and....”
“Hello? Hello?” I call out as the phone cuts off. My phone dies, completely dies and now I have no way of calling anyone. How can my phone die right now?
As I reach the driveway, I start walking up looking at the house and see all the lights are off. The trees whistle in the wind and the birds ruffle through the leaves.
I look around to see if I can see Sophia but I see nothing, just the beautiful garden and the gorgeous house before me.
I approach the porch and look around once more, but still I see nothing, not even the black figure I would hope was still around to protect me after all it has shown me.
I push the front door open, shaking like a leaf and call out to Toby. The rooms are lit with scented candles, the smell of roses and mulled wine fill the air, filling you with warmth.
“Toby, are you here?” I call out following the glow of candlelight leading into the lounge.
Suddenly I feel hands come out my eyes, making me jump but I go along with it. I don’t know if this man really is Toby, I saw congratulations plaques on the wall, why would he hang them if he wasn’t who he said he was.
“I have a surprise for you,” he whispers distracting my dark trail of thought, “keep walking straight,” he orders nicely.
I walk forward, I think as his hands are covering my eyes. Fear grips me as I do not know what he is going to reveal.
“That’s it, stop right there, keep your eyes closed,” his hands slip away from my face and he holds my hand, “keep them closed, wait,” he lets go and I hear a bit of shuffling, “Okay, open,” he says happily.
Afraid but curious, I slowly open my eyes. To my amazement, I am not confronted with Sophia but petals of roses all over the floor. There are roses in vases surrounding the entire room with candlelight, wine and chocolates.
“What is this?” I mumble looking around the room.
“This is for you, the girl who has suffered so much and yet has remained so strong. The girl who deserves the world and so much more and I want to be the one to give it to you,” he grins, “you can have everything and more.”
I look around the room and then back at him. His smile reaches from ear to ear and his eyes beam at me like someone in love.
“The world is what we make of it and I want to make it with you,” he says.
I freeze; I have heard those words before. Memories flash back to just over two years ago when Mark had me in his grasp at the park. He was holding on to me so tight I couldn’t run away. He was telling me how much he loved me and how we ‘belonged’ to each-other and I would never be anyone else’s. Just then in that moment he pulled me close and leaned in, whispering those words in my ear, ‘The world is what we make of it and I want to make it with you.’
“Mark?” I whisper.
His face changes to total glee as he comes towards me and embraces me in a hug, “I knew you would work it out, I knew you would remember my words, you and I were always meant to be together,” he kisses my head repeatedly, “I knew you wanted me and your mother stopped us.”
A gut wrenching feeling rips through the core of my stomach; did he murder my mother to have me?
“But you,” I look up at him trying to pull away, “you don’t look like you.”
He looks at me, running his hands over his face, “you like it? I did this for you. I wanted to be the man you could love; I knew it was you and me all along.”
I pull away, “Mark, there has never been a you and me and there never will be,” a look of horror comes over his face, “I love Jack and I’m his girl not yours.”
I feel a bump to the back of my head and everything goes dark.
Chapter 16
Ouch, my head hurts. I open my eyes but everything is fuzzy. I go to get up but I cannot move, focusing on just barely seeing on what’s in-front of me, I can see my hands and legs are tied and I’m lying on a bed in some sort of room. Am I still in the house?
I try to wriggle free but I’m tied to tightly. Panicking I try and scream but my voice sounds hoarse, like I haven’t spoken in months. What the hell is happening?
I hear voices outside the door; I lie my head back down and close my eyes. I don’t want them to think I have already woken up, r
ule in my head: play dead and hope it works.
I hear the door open and the shuffling of feet. “You said she would love me, but she loves that piece of shit that turned you down.”
“Oh quit your whining will you and just fucking help me, he didn’t turn me down, she stole him,” a woman tells him. I peak my eyes open to see Sophia stood there.
Oh my god she is here, and she looks totally fine. There seems to be nothing wrong with her at all, was Joe right? Was it all just an act?
The bed moves and scratches against the wooden floor. Am I still in Toby or even Mark’s house? For fuck sake now I’m confused about his identity.
“Just put her over there, I will deal with her in a minute,” she snaps at him.
“You said we wouldn’t hurt her, that she would just give you what you need and then she was mine,” he bites back.
“Look, you’re the one who fucking clonked her on the head, she isn’t going to be with you is she you piece of shit and now she knows who you are we need to get rid of her,” she states angrily as she shuffles things around.
I make the mistake of opening my eyes trying to see what’s happening and just at that moment she clocks me.
“Ahh, the little bitch is awake,” she grumbles, she turns to Mark, “go get the stuff; I’m going to have a nice chat with our little darling.”
Mark looks at me; I see the look of obsession and lust in his eyes as he stares at me. He licks his lips and leaves. I feel sick, how can he think I ever wanted him. Okay, I admit, we had one kiss but I’ve told him in deep conversations it was a mistake and he agreed, but then went back to acting like I belonged to him.
“Why are you doing this Sophia, after everything I helped you with,” I ask her holding back my emotions.
“Oh why am I doing this?” she repeats with sarcasm, “let me see, your mother, the tramp that she was, made the love of my life leave me. I knew one day she would pay for what she did,” she states running a sharp blade over my body, “and you, the spoilt princess who stole everything from me.”