Sorry for the very long delay folks; I'm at uni and this year is tough so bear with me! Warning, this chapter deals with sensitive issues of bullying, drug abuse, paedophilia, rape and withdrawal if you're under 18 I wouldn't read on. I try not to be too graphic with this kind of content but it is adult material.
Rachel staggered down to the infirmary and began to rummage through the cupboards and boxes. Her shaking, sweating hands grappling desperately for the fix that would help her think straight and decide what to do. She clumsily threw herself at the large locked cabinet behind the screen at the other end of the darkened sick bay and was relieved to find it open; Virgil must have used some of the supplies recently to treat his own injuries. She reached up and found a bottle of pills marked, metoclopramide. Without thinking she opened the bottle and swallowed half of it's contents. Still shivering, Rachel pocketed the bottle and felt mildly better knowing that she would be over the withdrawal symptoms soon.
Steadying herself on the units and beds that lined the infirmary she made her way back to the living room. The scene of devastation overwhelmed her, ornaments were smashed, pictures torn, lamps and chairs overturned. Her stomach lurched at the sight of the drips of blood that trailed out of the door. The room spun wildly as she lowered herself to the floor and drowsiness overcame her. Her heavy eyes closed and the young girl sprawled out, unconscious on the cold floor.
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As Tracy One landed, Virgil felt truly optimistic for the first time in weeks. Scott had finally agreed to give Rachel a chance and had even confessed that his behaviour had been unreasonable. Tin Tin was looking forward to meeting Rachel, saying how nice it would be to have another young female presence around the island.
"I'm starving; it's been hours since I've eaten, do you think your Grandma would mind heating me up some of her broth?" Tin Tin enquired as she walked up the steps to the villa.
"I'm sure she won't mind a bit, Tin Tin; that is if you have the chance to ask her, Alan's probably going to pounce on you the minute we walk through the door." Scott laughed.
The opened the door into the hallway, the villa was unnaturally quiet.
"Well, he can't have missed me that much..." Tin Tin sounded disappointed.
"He probably just fell asleep, Tin. Come on, let's go and fix you something to eat." Virgil said, the silence concerned him, he glanced at Scott and saw that he also had the same worried look on his face; something was just not right.
"I'm going to go and check on Rachel," Virgil said as he started heading towards her bedroom.
Scott and Tin Tin entered the kitchen.
"Shit!" Scott cried at the sight of the broken windows and the trail of blood leading to them from the portal into the living room. He raced into the living room and took in the scene of chaos around him.
He looked to the floor by the far wall,
"Rachel!"
Scott ran over to his younger sister,
"Oh God, Rachel."
He shook her shoulders lightly but she didn't stir.
"Virgil!" He shouted.
Scott gently tapped the blonde girl's face, "Come on sweetheart, wake up. I'm sorry, I'm not mad with you anymore, I just want you to wake up."
Virgil entered the living room and was at Scott's side in a flash. The darker haired man moved out of his brother's way, his eyes welled up slightly, the one time he could have seen his sister again and he had messed it up; now he was going to lose her and she would always believe he hated her. He watched Virgil looking her over.
"Is she dead?"
Virgil shook his head but continued to concentrate. Her pulse was thready and rapid and she was pale, her breathing was shallow. He gave her a rough shake and she moaned slightly. Both men sighed in relief.
Tin Tin raced into the living room, "Everyone's gone!"
"Dad..." Scott left that thought incomplete and turned back to his brother and sister.
"What happened to her?" asked Tin TIn
"I don't know." Virgil replied, he then spoke softly to his sister, "Ok Rach, I'm just going to put you in a better position so you can breathe better, ok?"
Virgil began to place the girl in the recovery position, as he did so, he felt a lump in her pocket. Gently he reached in and pulled the bottle out.
"Metoclopramide, oh Rachel." He murmured while opening the bottle. "She's taken near on the whole bottle."
"What's that?" Scott knelt beside his sister and looked at her, his face lined with concern.
"It's an anti nauseant and anti emetic – it stops vomiting – although I doubt she knew that. What was she playing at?"
"Will she be alright?"
"I think so, I need to get her to the infirmary, put her on the monitor."
Gently, Scott scooped the girl up into his arms and carried her down to the medical wing.
"What are we going to do about everyone?" Tin Tin asked, tears flowing down her face at the idea of never seeing her father or Alan again.
"We'll have to wait until Rachel wakes up and find out what happened, right now we've got nothing to go on." Virgil replied.
"I'll put my money on the Hood." Scott said grimly through clenched teeth.
"We don't know anything yet."
"Can't you wake her up with anything?" Tin Tin asked anxiously.
"I'm not putting anymore drugs in her system, we'll have to wait." Virgil grumbled as he connected the electrodes to Rachel's chest and connected her to the monitor. He covered her up with a blanket and the three of them sat back and waited next to her bed.
They didn't have to wait long before Rachel started to stir. Virgil was by her side instantly.
"Hey sweetheart, how do you feel?" He smoothed the hair back on her head. She looked even worse than she had when he'd first seen her. Her face seemed thinner and even gaunter and her eyes were darker. Her greasy hair was limp and straggly and she shook slightly despite the warm covers.
His sister coughed slightly, "Like Hell." She rasped.
She felt someone take hold of her hand, looking up she saw it was Scott. He gave her a small smile,
"You had us worried there, kiddo!"
"I'm sorry." She said weakly, avoiding her eldest brother's gaze.
"Rachel, what happened while we were away? Where's dad, Gordon, Alan and everyone?"
The beeps from the monitor increased their pace dramatically, "Oh God! I thought it was a dream! Was it real? Oh God it's all my fault!" tears rolled freely down her face.
"What do you mean, Rach?"
"Virgil, I'm so sorry, I couldn't help it! I was tricked! Oh God I'm so sorry."
Scott dropped her hand, "Explain yourself, NOW."
Rachel took a deep breath and tried to stop sobbing, "It's a really long story."
"Cut it short." Scott commanded.
"I ran away because nobody cared, I hated school, my life was miserable and nobody noticed. At school I shared a dorm with 5 other girls, Rosie, Lucy, Jenny, Kirsty and Crystal. They hated me from the moment they met me."
A tiny blonde girl unpacked her belongings into her cupboard, stashing her beloved dinosaur and fossil books under her bed for safe keeping. The other girls in the dorm were taller than her and dressed in the latest fashions. They looked perfect and Rachel felt intimidated as she stood in her pink tracksuit with her hair in plaits. The perfect girls were stood in a huddle, every so often looking over their shoulders and giggling at Rachel as they whispered their secrets to each other. Rachel sat down on her bed and hid behind her book as tears slowly slid down her face.
Weeks later her isolation became worse, Kirsty and her gang had ensured that no one wanted to be her friend. Rachel spent most of her time in the school library helping the librarian arrange books and reading as much as she possibly could, but after school hours when the library had closed there was nowhere for her to hide from the girls.
In the dining room at tea time, a new girl sat next to Rachel.
"Hey, my name's Carrie, I just moved here, is it ok if I sit next to you?"
"Sure." Rachel smiled.
"So, what classes do you take?" The red haired girl asked.
"Oh mostly science and math but some arts subjects like history, I'm a bit of a geek I have to confess."
"Wow that's so cool, I love science!"
"Do you, I'm taking advanced science classes are you?" Rachel relaxed into the conversation; finally she had a friend.
"Erno. How are you taking advanced classes; aren't they for the students older than 16?"
"Well yeah, but my teacher's said I could because I already know the stuff for our year. I love natural science; I'm studying advanced biology, archaeology and geology. I really wanted to do palaeontology but they don't have any specialised lessons in it."
"Right, er that's cool. What's palo whatever?"
Rachel laughed, "Palaeontology, it's like evolution, natural history, rocks, fossils, dinosaurs."
"Oh ok. Look, you know what, I think I'm going to go and sit with those girls over there, I met them in an English class and we, er, we just had more in common."
Rachel nodded and looked back down at her meal, hating everything about herself, no wonder no one wanted to be her friend. She was such a...
"You know what, Rachel? You're a freak!" Kirsty said casually as she walked over to Rachel, "I mean, someone sits next to you, tries to be your friend, and you still manage to scare them off!" Kirsty stopped at the blonde girl's table and leaned over the dinner. "Should you even be eating this? God, this is like, so unhealthy! I mean, if I had your figure I would definitely be trying to cut back on the pizza!"
"My figure?" Rachel looked confused.
"You're FAT dumb ass! God, for someone who is supposed to be 'the brightest girl in the year' you aint half stupid! I mean come on, you must have noticed that you're one of the chubbiest girls in our year?"
Rachel looked down at herself, she'd always been a little bit plump but she'd never noticed before now. Tears welled up in her eyes and she ran from the dining hall. She ran all the way to her dorm, threw herself onto her bed and sobbed into the pillow.
"Rachel, I had no idea..." Virgil started
"Of course you didn't, Dad insisted there was nothing wrong with his little girl, 'Tracy Kids don't get bullied; Tracy kids are popular!'" Rachel's face was stoney, she was immune to the taunts and bullying now, even her memories brought back little or no emotion. "After that everything got worse, when I went into second year, my life was a nightmare."
Rachel awoke to the sounds of giggling and whispering.
"Sssshhh, she'll hear you!"
"I don't care, let her wake up, what's she going to do?" Kirsty's voice was prominent, "Dear Diary, today Kirsty and her gang tripped me up as I was walking to my advanced geology class but for the first time I didn't care."
"We're obviously slacking then! We need to try harder!" giggled Rosie.
Kirsty continued, "I just can't wait until I am a successful palaeontologist, working on TV and making big discoveries. When I'm famous for filling in the gaps in the palaeo---anth----rop----, whatever fossil record they will be sorry because they will all be losers on drugs, collecting benefits and stealing to buy alcohol!"
"The little bitch!"
"Kirsty this is boring, she's so dull! Come on let's do something else!"
"Like what?"
"Let's destroy it, her precious diary!"
At this Rachel threw back her covers and launched herself towards the girls, lunging for her diary.The girls giggled, "Look who's awake? Ready for some fun, girls?"
"Please, give it back; I just want to go to sleep."
"But we need to punish you for saying we're all going to become junkie losers!"
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, I was just upset." Rachel said in desperation.
"Still I think this needs to be flushed away, I wouldn't want it to fall into the wrong hands and have people thinkingterrible things about us." Kirsty smirked.
Rachel tried to grab the diary, but Jenny, a tall, lanky brunette caught her by her hair, "Yuk, this is so greasy Rachel, when did you last wash it?"
Rachel pulled herself free and in a blind rage swung a punch at Kirsty's face, hitting her in the nose. Blood exploded from the other girl's face as she and her friends screamed.
"Little bitch!" cried Jenny as she lunged herself at Rachel pinning her down and grabbing her throat. Rosie pulled her friend off Rachel.
"Leave it, we can get her expelled for this and be rid of her for good!" The girls rallied round Kirsty and took her to the teacher's dorm. Rachel rubbed her throat and gasped for air, knowing she was in serious trouble.
"I remember that, Dad told me you had been fighting, I couldn't believe it. Our little quiet sister fighting other girls. Oh Rach' I'm so sorry, I should have asked, I should have realised there was more to it! Did Dad know?" Scott said, gripping her hand again.
"He wouldn't let me explain, he was so angry, he didn't care." Rachel wiped away a stray tear, "He didn't care, no one did."
Virgil put his arm around his little sister, "But Rach, you were probably right, they are probably junkie losers right now, whereas you can get your life back on track!"
"And there's the irony."
"What do you mean?"
"They're not the junkie losers. I am."
"What?!"
"It happened after I ran away, I slept rough for 2 nights before I met Chubb."
The chill wind of the night nipped at her nose and Rachel wrapped her jacket tighter around herself. She was starving, she hadn't eaten for 2 days and this would be her third night of sleeping in the cold. She felt like just going home and facing the music, even a place where she was hated was better than this. She shivered and kept on walking, looking for a reasonably safe, warm place to sleep for the night. She felt frightened, she needed a plan but with no friends and no contacts she had no one to turn to for help. She turned down a dark alleyway that sheltered her from the wind a little bit. She settled herself down against a wall and behind a large skip. Rachel pulled her hood up and nuzzled as far into her coat as she could before settling herself into a light and restless sleep. She was awoken a few hours later, at about 3am by a tall man.
"Hey girl."
Rachel's heart pounded in her chest and she tensed up.
"Please, leave me alone."
The man knelt down beside her and pulled her hood down and studied her features in the light of the moon.
"Yeah, you're a pretty girl."
"Oh gosh, please, leave me alone. I just want to be left alone, please don't hurt me."
"I'm not gonna hurt you, kid. How do you fancy somewhere warm to sleep for the night? I know this guy, he takes in street kids and looks after them. He'll like a pretty blonde like you."
Rachel knew that she shouldn't, but the icy wind blew around her ears and she knew that if she wanted any chance of surviving as a run away and not having to go home then this was her best opportunity. She nodded at the man and allowed him to lead her through the alleys to a small room above an adult shop.
"I don't want to hear anymore!" Scott leaned his head against the wall, overcome with guilt and anger. "I just want to know what's happened to my brothers and Dad, Rachel."
Rachel looked hurt but carried on,
Chubb was a very large man with a bald head and an oddly kind face. He looked Rachel up and down as the tall man introduced them.
"Excellent Roy, you've done well! A Natural blonde! Our clients will be most pleased; she might even bring in some new clients!" The fat man grinned, "You look hungry, child, would you like some food?"
Rachel nodded, her stomach growling at the mention of food.
"Don't look so scared, you're perfectly safe here, you will work for me and in return I will give you everything you need, food, a warm bed, somewhere safe to sleep. Sound fair?"
Again Rachel nodded, she was tired and hungry and just wanted to rest.
"How old are you darling?"
"13."
"Excellent, a perfect age! Ok we'll get you some food and find you a bed. All the other girls here are so friendly."
Rachel enjoyed a meal of fish and chips and was shown to her dormitory. The dorm contained 4 beds, all of which were empty.
"Where are the other girls?"
"Working, they will be back by morning, you get some sleep." Chubb replied, "Oh, and one more thing, I just need to give you something to help you stay loyal to me." The large man produced a syringe and injected the contents into Rachel's arm.
Virgil clenched his fists in anger. "My god Rachel were you stupid! You let a pimp take you in and get you hooked on heroin?"
"Why would he do that?" Tin Tin butted in.
"To ensure none of the girls ran away, he would feed their dependency and he gets paid a lot more for them than any fix is worth." Virgil replied bitterly.
Rachel nodded, once again she was emotionless.
"And that's how my life in the 'safe house' began." She paused, "I'm assuming you don't want the details of how many middle aged, fat married men slept with me? How many of them beat me? How I would often sleep with up to five men a night?"
"SHUT UP!" Scott cried, banging his fists against the wall, "My sister's a dirty, junkie whore! I get the message ok!"
"Scott!" Virgil cried. But Rachel just shrugged.
"Anyway, that's how I lived until the Hood bought me off Chubb. He promised me no more sex, no slavery, just a good home. Said he liked me, he felt sorry for me. He paid Chubb how much I would earn him if I slept with 10 men every night for 3 years. He agreed, said in that time I'd get too old to be of interest. So I went to live with the Hood. He was so good to me. I had a normal life again. I read, watched TV, played computer games and I didn't have to do any kind of 'work' in return."
"He hit you, Rach."
"Just that one time, he was so kind to me until then. I've been through worse beatings than his – and more regular beatings too."
Virgil winced.
"The Hood told me of his enemies, International Rescue, how they were hypocrits who had left him to die. I hated you guys. I didn't know International Rescue were my family until we kidnapped Virgil. After that I was angry, I believed you had all had better lives without me and that I wasn't missed. I was going to kill Virgil, but... I couldn't."
"How noble." Scott said sarcastically.
"The Hood then told me to help Virgil escape and tell him where the base is. He said that was the only way I could get my next fix. I tried to resist, you were all so nice to me when I arrived that I tried, I really did. I felt so bad, I needed it..."
"So you called him?" Virgil put his head in his hands. Rachel nodded.
"Well I hope it was worth it! Was it a good fix, Rachel? Was it worth the life of your brothers and your sick father?" Scott spat.
"I didn't get it. Hood tricked me."
"That's why you took the metoclopramide..."
The girl once again nodded.
"I trusted you." Virgil murmured.
Scott lost his temper, "You little bitch!" he picked her up and shook her, she cried out as the electrodes ripped off her chest, "How could you sell out your own family?!"
"I'm sorry." She sobbed lamely.
Virgil was on his feet,
"Scott, put her down! Please. This isn't helping anyone, we need her to show us how to get into the Hood's base, we need her to help us rescue the others."
Scott dropped her and she fell to the floor sobbing. She could feel the shakes from withdrawal taking over her again, her stomach clenched.
"I feel sick." She sobbed.
"So do I." Muttered Scott.
Virgil left her on the floor but looked at her,
"Get back on the bed Rachel, you've got a rough ride ahead."
"What?" She moaned.
"Cold turkey, we've got to get you clean."
"Can't you just give me something?"
"Fuck off."
Rachel did as she was told and pulled herself back onto the bed. Virgil hooked her back onto the monitor and turned to Scott,
"We're going to have to take it in turns to watch her, make sure she doesn't steal herself another fix or choke on her own vomit."
"Let her choke."
"We need her, Scott. We can't do this without her knowledge."
"We can't trust her!"
"We've no other choice, we're going to have to."
Scott turned to his sister, his face still flushed with anger,
"You brought all this on yourself, you sold yourself into prostitution and you only have yourself to blame. You are a traitorous, junkie slut and as soon as you've served your purpose, you're out of here, understand?"
"Virgil?" Rachel sobbed.
"I'm sorry Rach, he's right." Virgil's eyes welled up and he fled from the room leaving Scott to the first watch.
