AN: Comps and Prompts down the bottom.
WARNINGS: Brief Torture & Homophobia
In the Shadows
AlwaysPadfoot
Parents away. Come over. x
That was the message that had brought Susan to Daphne's childhood home. Dismounting her bike in the driveway, Susan couldn't help but feel uneasy.
Daphne's family had always been the subject of multiple rumours, one of which Daphne had already confirmed was unfortunately true. The house had been inherited, having been in the family for generations, left to Daphne's father after being in disrepair for decades. It had been abandoned by Daphne's aunt purely because she couldn't stand to be in the house — not after the murders. Susan couldn't even begin to imagine how the family could live within the same walls.
Exhaling deeply, Susan propped her bike up against the house and then climbed up the stone steps to the front door. There was no doorbell, so instead, she reached up for the large bronze knocker.
To her surprise, as she brought it down, Susan realised the door was open. Creaking loudly, she pushed it wider with her fingers. The corridor beyond was shrouded in darkness. Feeling a little like she'd become the main character in a horror movie, Susan reluctantly stepped inside and called out Daphne's name.
"Daph? It's me."
Frowning, Susan slipped off her shoes. Just as she turned to close the door, it slammed shut. Her ears rung, heart racing as she placed a hand on her chest. Okay, this was freaking her out a bit.
"Daphne?" Susan desperately attempted to keep the fear out of her voice. "Daphne, you here?"
Her fingers stretched out for the nearest light switch, but when she flicked it on nothing happened. Muttering a swear word, Susan reached for her phone. The blue light illuminated the dark of the hallway; the blinds were drawn in the main room to her right as though the daylight, even as it faded, wasn't necessary inside. Quickly, her fingers scrolled through the contacts in her phone for the name Daphne was under. Siren of St. Marks — Daphne had never been under anything serious.
Susan hit call and lifted the phone to her ear. Just as her eyes swept the room for another light switch, she heard Daphne's phone ringing upstairs.
"Daphne?" she called her name a few times as she moved to the bottom of the stairs.
This was getting creepy. Now concerned for her girlfriend's welfare, Susan hurried towards the sound of her ringing phone. The stairs squeaked underfoot as she took them two at a time, enhancing the eerie feel that encompassed her. Then, as Susan reached the last step, her foot went straight through the floorboard. Sucking in a breath as splinted wood clawed at her ankle, Susan gripped the bannister and pulled her foot free.
"What the fuck," she hissed.
How could the boards just give away like that?
Pulling up the leg of her jeans, Susan shone the light of her phone down at the drawn blood and scraped skin. Suddenly the sound of Daphne's phone stopped and Susan listened to her own mobile switch to answerphone. She ended the call; the ringing had been coming from Daphne's room.
Susan bit her lip and went towards Daphne's room. She ignored the sting of the jeans' material rubbing against fresh cuts and poked her head around Daphne's door.
Her room was empty.
Susan's eyes were immediately drawn downwards. On the floor lay Daphne's phone, the screen smashed but illuminated with a notification that read: Missed call from Susie x.
Fear crept across Susan's skin.
"Daphne. Daphne!" Anxiety flooded into her voice as she turned to check the ensuite and then the walk-in wardrobe for any signs of Daphne. "I'm going to call the police, Daph!"
She headed to the door of Daphne's bedroom, tapping 9-9-9 into her phone. But, before Susan could press call, someone wrapped their arm around her neck from behind. Her phone clattered to the floor and Susan yelled. Digging her fingers into the person's skin, Susan kicked as she was lifted into the air. Unfortunately, the pressure around Susan's neck was increasing and she was gasping for air.
"Stop, stop!" Susan expended her energy desperately trying to inflict pain on her captor. "Please … stop."
Her eyes rolled backwards and Susan reluctantly succumbed to darkness.
When Susan came to, her hands were tied behind her back and the room was in an eerie darkness. Blinking slowly, she desperately tried to make out her surroundings. Everything was just darkness and shadows and that made Susan feel sick with fear in her current predicament.
"Daph?" Her voice croaked when she spoke. "Hello?"
Susan heard the sound of someone move behind her and she tried to twist and find the source of the noise, the person behind her capture.
"Who's there? Let me go," she demanded, wishing her voice sounded far stronger than it currently did. "My parents know where I am; they'll call the police."
"Liar." The voice that replied back from the darkness was low and cold. "No one's going to miss you at that orphanage you live at."
Susan gritted her teeth. That had hurt her, but even so, she forced herself to stay calm and collected.
"No one uses the word orphanage any more; this isn't the 1900s," she said coolly despite being able to hear the blood behind her ears. "What do you want? Where's Daphne?"
Another heavy footstep came from behind Susan. She could feel herself shaking with fear as the man came towards her — until she could feel his body so close that Susan felt gripped by panic.
"Tell me," the man said, his breath hot on the back of her neck. "Have you enjoyed corrupting my daughter?"
"Corrupting—what?"
Susan stiffened. Not only was this happening courtesy of Daphne's father, but he considered their relationship as corruptive? This was bad. Was she being punished? Had he killed his daughter? What the fuck was he going to do to Susan?
"What have you done to Daphne?" Susan demanded.
"My daughter just needs a little incentive to return to the normality that is expected of her," he sneered. "You are going to help me with that."
"What—?"
Susan was interrupted by Daphne's father wrenching her to her feet, hand fisted in Susan's hair. A shout of protest left her lips as he pulled her through the darkness. She was suddenly lifted into the air off her feet and pinned down to a table top. The lights came on above her head and Susan winced at the bright white in her eyes. Then suddenly there was a sharp agonising pain in her right shoulder. She screamed, and for a long moment, Susan couldn't see; she couldn't even breathe. A gross sob left her lips as the room slowly came back into focus.
Right there, sticking out of her shoulder, blood staining her t-shirt, was a metal skewer.
"Fuck. Fuck." Susan's voice hoarse. She felt like she couldn't breathe and the pain was so intense so she forced herself to stop struggling. The skewer had gone straight through her and into the wooden surface beneath her — effectively pinning her down.
He was going to kill her.
"You are a—" Daphne's father slapped his hand over Susan's mouth to cut her off with a sharp 'shush'. Susan did the only thing she could think of and sunk her teeth into his hand. He yelped and recoiled fast away from her.
If Susan was going to die then at least she was going to make it as difficult as possible for Daphne's father.
"You bitch," he hissed viciously. "You little dyke."
"Ooo, I've never heard that before," Susan spat. "How original."
Daphne's father pulled a knife from the block on the kitchen counter across from them. Eyes widening, she struggled slightly to attempt to pull her hands free. He leered over her, his eyes wide and crazy.
"You know, I know exactly how to draw this out," he warned. "I know exactly how to make this as painful as I can for you."
"You son of a bitch," Susan retorted.
"Shh, shh, shh," he interrupted. "It's simply what you deserve for what you've done to my daughter. You will beg for death."
Susan opened her mouth, but before she could speak Daphne's father sliced a long cut into the exposed skin of her midriff, causing her to swear through gritted teeth. The hot pain seemed to go on forever as he cut into her skin over and over. She internally begged herself not to scream, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of eliciting such a sound from her. Despite herself, she could feel tears threatening to spill from her eyes.
"Shame, I'll have to try harder."
He raised the bloody knife above her body as though he was going to stab the knife into her as he had done with the skewer and Susan's mind went blank with fear. And then, just as her eyes squeezed shut in sick anticipation, there was a crash as the door of the room slammed open. Before he could even turn, someone brought something hard across Daphne's father's head with a crack.
The knife clattered to the floor; he slumped forward to the ground making the whole table shake. Susan whimpered at the jerking movement and then fearfully looked for the bearer of the hockey stick now in her vision.
"Jesus Christ."
Susan breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of her girlfriend's voice. Her eyes fell on Daphne. The blonde's eyes were filled with fear as she stumbled forward. Her chest was heaving, breathless as her eyes fixated on the skewer in Susan's shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Susie," Daphne said, her voice cracking. "He found out and I couldn't—I—"
"It's okay," Susan responded. "Just—fuck—get this out of me. Get us out of this murder house."
Susan cracked a smile despite herself.
Somehow that helped Daphne focus because she quickly slipped into her bossy-Daphne mode to help Susan. After escaping the basement where her father had locked her, she'd used the house phone to call the police. That was why, when she helped Susan out through the front door into the dark of the night, they could already hear the sirens in the distance.
Even though she was in a lot of discomfort and her clothes seemed to be covered in blood, Susan managed to sit up, leaning against Daphne whilst they waited. She had a tea towel pressed to the wound in her shoulder — Susan dealing with the entry wound and Daphne the exit one. Their first aid skills were limited to the little they had learnt in school, but at the very least they seemed to be managing. Not quite able to relax with her girlfriend still gripping onto the hockey stick just in case, Susan forced herself to breathe evenly. Feeling faint, Susan dropped her head onto her girlfriend's shoulder.
"I love you, Daphne," she whispered.
Blue lights flashed in the corner of her eyes through the darkness surrounding them and relief flooded through Susan. Daphne turned, pressing her lips to Susan's forehead.
"I love you too."
Comps and Prompts
Assignment 12: Psychology: Phobias — Task 5. Homophobia – fear/dislike of homosexuality, homosexuals, or gays
World Cup, Qualifiers: 18th June — Belgium vs Panama — 16:00 — Genre: Horror
IHC: Item - Knife
365: 309. Time - Dusk
Gobstones: Silver Stone - Darkness [A: 12. (word) blank, P: 13. (trait) pessimistic, T: 11. (word) ringing]
SC — Summer Prompts — (word) relax
SC — Flowers — Black-Eyed Susan - (character) Susan Bones
SC — Shays Musical Challenge — 6. Sweeney Todd - write about someone who takes revenge too far
SC — Gryffindor Prompts — Traits: Heroic
WC - Character Appreciation - 5. (word) Sneer
WC - Showtime - 4. Charlie's Soliloquy - (object) Shoes
WC - Amber's Attic - 13. Habanero: Write about someone who thinks they're better than someone else.
WC - Sophie's Shelf - 7. Sunny Baudelaire: Task: Write about a person biting another person.
WC - Lo's Lowdown - Character 8. Gaila — (trait) redhead
Word Count: 1849