Who is watching Rachel? Vance?
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: The next day after school Sean helped me out to his car again. I kept asking him what exactly he had planned and he of course wouldn’t tell me. I asked again anyway. “Your questioning hasn’t gotten me to budge all day and it’s not going to start now,” he teased me. He booped my nose. “Did you just boop me?” I asked, crossing my arms. “Maybe, but if I did you had it coming,” he laughed and buckled in his seatbelt. He drove us to the highway but this time we went south. “Are we going to a beach?” I asked, he shook his head. “Are we… going to a restaurant?” I asked. He just laughed and replied, “That’s it, I’m saying ‘no’ to everything you guess. I’m not letting you ruin your surprise.” “Alright, alright,” I said, hands up in defeat. “Be like that.” He continued to drive down the highway and turned up his music, skipping a few songs until he got to one he knew I couldn’t help but sing to and I side-eyed him for it. But after a few bars I sang alo
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: Friday night was consumed with nightmares and at 4am I decided to give up trying to sleep. I leaned over to my nightstand and pulled out a book and a reading light. Might as well take this time to get something useful done rather than scroll away on I*******m again. It had been a bit but I was finally reading to finish the last book in this fantasy romance series I loved. I hadn’t wanted the story to end so I had put off reading the last book. I loved the romance between the two main characters, a bad-guy fae who turned out to be the good guy all along, and a human girl who finds herself thrown into a world of magic. I just loved their relationship, and the whole concept of soulmates. It was just so comforting and I found myself wishing for my own dark prince charming to conquer the world with and battle evil. But this was just a story. The sun had just started to rise when my phone buzzed. I couldn’t look away from my book for a minute, so caught up in the sto
CHAPTER FORTY: Things calmed a bit over the weekend after my huge talk with Jake. I was more at peace than I had been in some time. His apology would never undo anything, but it was really good to hear it. For him to acknowledge what had happened and how he hadn’t responded in any sort of good way. I would have been able to accept rejection if he had just talked to me, but the silence was uncalled for. We were friends, if anything, when I had confessed my feelings for him in a moment of bravery. I hadn’t deserved that response, and my heart relaxed a little knowing that he knew that. We had continued texting now and then over the weekend, but kept things much more light hearted. He filled me in on some shenanigans, and I mentioned some progress with my ankle. I was going to try to do without my crutches today. Jake thought as long as I wasn’t pushing myself, I would know my body’s progress more than anyone. Sean of course was paranoid that I was pushing myself, and so I lied and told
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE: The school day began just like others had. Sean arrived early and babyed me and my foot. I pretended to have forgotten my crutches on the bus and he nearly started calling the bus charter company to have them come back. I told him it was alright and I’d ask a friend to hold them for me. He grumbled for a few seconds then let it go. I was managing just fine walking here and there, and with being able to sit through classes for long periods of time, I was confident I wouldn’t overdo it. Ally, Simon, Sean and I were in the library before class and I was doing some homework ahead of time. It was nice to have this extra time to cut down on the workload I did at home. God, I really loved this school. The bell rang and Sean accompanied us to Humanities, insisting he wasn’t coming along because of my ankle, and was just wanting to spend a little more time with me. We got to the class early, Ms. Del Rios hadn’t opened the door yet, but more classmates were gathering. S
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO: I didn’t let Sean take me home. I needed something, and he wasn’t it. Instead I sat in the grass after school outside with Ally. She kept holding my hand or putting her hand on my shoulder, different things - to let me know that she was there for me. I still hadn’t been able to say a thing since running into Vance. And my hands shook too badly when I tried to write or text. So I sat there, replaying the horror of being so violated in this place that I loved so much. I went over and over every second of it, and tried to figure out why I hadn’t been able to fight back, but I came away with nothing. Ally sat with me patiently, as she had been during lunch and Trigonometry, in her comforting way. She had held my hand tightly and gotten everyone to leave me alone when Sean had dug more and more, asking endless questions trying to learn what had happened. The bus pulled up to the curb and I got on with Ally. The two of us sitting in my unofficially reserved spot. I ha
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE: I had made it home some time ago and was trying to focus on homework. I needed to get things done, and maybe focusing all my thoughts on anything else would help free my mind. It helped sometimes, losing myself in other thoughts. Like when I forgot the name of some person who was in that one show that I just couldn’t remember the name of. I could just spend some time watching TV or declutter my closet, and the answer from earlier would just hit me. I was counting on that today. My phone buzzed and I saw a notification for a new email, but didn’t recognize the sender. I opened it. This isn’t the end of this. I’m not giving you up I dropped my phone on the floor and stood straight up. In a panic I looked around, expecting to see Vance watching me from a window, but didn’t see anything. I walked to the windows and door anyway, making sure everything was locked. I closed blinds more, and peaked out searching for anything odd. But I didn’t see anything obvious.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR: Nightmare. Another. I knew it somewhere in my mind while it was happening - that it wasn’t real. But it didn’t help. All around me were warm, moist hands touching me all over, pulling at me as I tried to run. But it was pitch black and everywhere I ran to there were more arms. I was screaming but nothing would come out of my throat. There was no relief. I continued to run, desperate for anything, anything other than darkness and arms, and warm clammy flesh. I stumbled. Face first, and more hands reached out grabbing me. I pushed off from something and tried to stand but could only flip myself over. On my back, I tried swatting and kicking arms away. I hit one and it let go, but another hand grabbed my ankle and before I knew it I was trapped. Totally trapped in this darkness, covered arms and hands. And as more and more clamored on top of me I saw a pair of eyes in the distance, silver. And as the arms covered my vision, I thought about how sad I was that I had
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE I froze. Glancing around I could see the backs of Lucy and Elizabeth’s heads up ahead. But no one else was around. I stepped back, but his hand caught my wrist. The same warm, clammy skin grabbing hold of me took me right back to my nightmare and I tried to push against him, push him away. All I ended up doing was giving him my other hand which he held on his chest. He leaned forward. “Walk with me,” he hissed inches from my face. My skin crawled. I tried to push, to yell. But my body wouldn’t cooperate and my mouth wouldn’t even open. It was stronger than yesterday. I was weaker than yesterday. I tried to stay firmly where I was, I didn’t want to walk with him anywhere! “Hurry, Rachel,” he whispered, “Don’t make me lose my patience.” His eyes glowed, a red ring appearing. It flickered. He tugged me along and my body went with him, despite my every atom trying to pull away. Where were we going? Wouldn’t someone come walking around here and see him? Wh