Chapter 8.
"I'm telling you, I don't know what happened..." Rocky was explaining to his mom and dad as they cowered over him with questions about why the side of his head was bleeding. "I always thought you were the careful one with your ninja, son and you're brought home looking like this." His father says walking away from him wiping his face from the exhasperation.
"But I wasn't in a fight." Rocky insisted looking to his mom with a pleading face for her to understand him. She looked away sadly and shook her head and Rocky huffed. "I don't believe you don't believe me...you're own son. Dad I would not lie about something like this if I were beat up by somebody I would tell you but I don't know what happened."
"Why don't you just go lie down for a while you probably don't remember because you're still in shock, please sweety get some rest." Rocky's shoulder's slouched to his mothers words and he walked to the stairs sadly. 'I'll figure out what happened to me and when I do I'm going to the police.'
.........................................................
Emily is sitting on her bed late at night putting peach toenail polish on her toe nails humming a song from "Race for your life Charlie Brown" when she hears the bathroom water start to run. 'Huh?' She thought and looked at the door. The bottom of the door indicated that someone was indead in there and since Emily's parents had gone out for the night she knew she was alone and that made the sight of feet shading the night near the under side of the door run her blood cold.
Her first instinct was to do what Rocky had done- well what she thought Rocky had done back when they were kids and about to be kidnapped. She grabbed their make-shift phone and whispered through it. "Is anybody up there?" She listened for a response but none came. "Is anybody up there?" She tried a little louder.
At the Douglas house Rocky is taking his time going upstairs and when he got to the room he heard activity from his end of the line. 'Emily?' He thought and walked over to it. "Emily is that you?" He said when he picked it up and she got a wave of relief from him. "Rocky I need you to come over here and get me I think there's someone in the house...." He didn't need to hear the rest of what she was saying he let the phone go and ran to the door.
"Rocky where are you going?" Mrs. Douglas asked. "You're supposed to be resting!" She called after him but Rocky didn't stop- he wouldn't stop until he knew Emily was safe. When he got to the house he tried the door but it was locked. 'Damn it.' He swore to himself and looked for another way in.
Upstairs. Emily is watching the door as she slips carefully from her bed, any sudden noise would alert the intruder and send them after her. When she got one foot down on the floor she then swung her leg around to put the other one beside it. 'So far so good.' She thought and what ever or whom ever was in the bathroom perked up; theyw ere both frozen in their actions waiting for the next person to make their move first and with the way she was feeling inside that first person would have to be her.
She turned towards her door and made a break for it but what ever was in the bathroom moved in seconds coming out of it and grabbing her yanking her in. "Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!" She screamed before her hand was covered. "Oh no!" Rocky backed up a few steps and threw himself through the window of the front of the house after dusting off the glass he heard the burgalur alarm as he ran upstairs. "Emily, I'll save you, just hold on." He called out to her where ever she was. When he got into her room he looked around until he heard splashing in the bathroom.
"Emily?" He kicked the door open and walked inside but what he saw made his heart stop as he drew in a sharp breath. "Maria?" He said and a sudden flash of anger struck his face and he wasn't sure what he was doing but he had to do it quickly. He crossed the small distance and grabbed the girl by her throat then dunked her under the water.
"You wanna make a fool out of me? Huh? You wanna act like you can scare me and my girlfriend and family? Then lets see you do it dead." He couldn't believe his own ears or actions as he chocked this girl underneath the water.
When the police heard the alarm the neighborhood cops were the first to arrive along with alerting others if they needed back up on this one. They kicked the door open and walked into the house when they heard screaming upstairs they raised their guns and trampled up the steps and into the room where it was the loudest.
"Help me!" A girl cried and Rocky was becoming more violent with his intent of drowning her. "No one can help you now, you little-..."
"Freeze!" The cops shouted pointing their guns at the boys back and Rocky froze looking at them then he heard the sound of coughing and turned his head towards it. "Emily?" He said as she got out of the water holding her neck and gasping for air. "Emily I-..." He started but the officers rushed in and grabbed him.
Down at the station he's getting his finger prints checked out and looking rather confused about it. 'How did Emily get in there when I saw her- I saw Maria clearly!' He thought for a moment about the possibilities and found there were none, nothing made sense with this what did this girl want from him to lose his mind? Because he was so close to that breaking point if one more person didn't believe him. But just when he thought things couldn't get any worse his parents walked in along with his brothers. "Oh no." He turned to face them and they already looked like they didn't want any explainations from him.
"I can't believe you did this, to Emily. What has she done to you- son are you losing your mind?" Jessica asked ina paniced voice. "No mom I-..." he started but was cut off by his very angry father. "You think this is a game Rocky, you could have killed her? Not to mention you delibrately disobeyed our order not to leave the house." He looked at his son and shook his head. "What do you have to say for yourself?" He then asked.
"I didn't-...." but he stopped bothering with the explainations because they wouldn't believe him. "Is Emily ok?" He asked instead and Jessica nodded but Sam stepped in. "Barely. I'm still waiting for my answer." Rocky looked downwards and then back up at them shaking his head. "Go get Maria Atkinson, it's the only way you'll believe me." His fathers face scrunched up. "Who?" He crossed his arms and Rocky sighed and told them the address of the weird girl.
"We'll get an officer on it." The front desk said and he stood their waiting for his punishment. "The only privlages you get are breathing son I don't want to hear anymore of your nonsense about what's been going on, and you're lucky you got off with a warning if it were from me you wouldn't be so lucky....lets go."
They all followed a very angry man to the car and got inside. "Rocky I be-..." Colt started but when he heard the sniffles he stopped. 'Rocky never cries, this must be serious.' He tapped Tum- who was sitting in the middle- on the shoulder but he knew already and he looked like he was near tears. "We gotta do something about this." He whispered in his little brothers ear and he nodded to him tossing a glance back at his poor older brother.
"But what?" He asked and Colt shook his head and shrugged. "I don't know, but I know one things for sure if this girl is doing something to Rocky we can't let her, I think we should go over to her house and stop her ourselves. Tonight." Tum looked skeptical about the plan but then a smile spread across his face. "Yeah, for Rocky." Colt smiled at the sound of that. "That's the spirit but we can't let him know what we're up to, got it?"
Tum nodded and gave him a thumbs up. "Got it."
* * *
The lights were turned off at the girls house the only light they could see was showing from the kicthen where everyone in the neighborhoods usually leave them on any way. "It looks like the house might be empty." Colt said walking over to the window. "They might be at the police station being questioned like Rock' suggested, give me a hand with this window." He said to Tum, who helped him out then stood back while he climbed inside.
"Good there's no alarm, Tum come on." He called out the window but the boy was gone. "Tum tum?" He was tapped on the shoulder and his mental screamed it's head off as he turned around to see his little brother standing right behind him.
"Don't do that!" He shouted in a whispered yell. "How did you get in any way I didn't see you come through the window." Tum shrugged then walked over to the door. "It was unlocked I was gonna tell you but-...."
"Ssshh, I hear something." Colt said and walked over to the stairs as a door began to open, he motioned for Tum to do the same and he was already on his way. Colt held a finger up to his lips to tell him to be quiet. They looked up at the stairs railing the best they could from that view and they saw a dog walk out of a room growling.
"Shit." Colt swore lowly. 'Who knew she had a dog?' He thought. Tum tum who always had a way to an animals heart stepped out from his hiding place letting the dog see him; it growled low in its's throat and came down the stairs at him and just as it looked like it were about to attack him he whipped out a candy bar from his pocket and showed it to him.
The dog sniffed what was in his hand. "Come on boy, it's for you." He said sweetly and the dog let out sweet whimpers and took the chocolate from his hand.
"See, the way to any mans heart is through his stomach." He replied petting the dog who licked his hand in repsonse then went back to the snack. "I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it." Colt said coming from his hiding place as well. "That must be her room up there, lets go check it out but we have to be quick because she may come back at any second and we don't wanna get caught."
They krept upstaors and into the room the dog had emerged from. When they got inside they were surprised to see the room laced in stars and planets. "What is she an astrologer?" Tum asked pushing Mercury into Venus. Colt was checking the room over with his eyes and couldn't see anything really wrong with it. "Look around for a diary or any random piece of paper that might help us figure out what's going on."
Tum gave him a thumbs up and walked over to the strange girls bed, then felt around under the pillow case and in between the matresses for anything that felt remotely like a book. Colt checked shelves but found nothing unusual on any of them.
Outside a car is turning the corner sharply and two people are inside, one a woman and the other a teenaged girl. Colt looked inside of her dresser drawer and felt a book inside. "I think I may have found it." He pulled it out but there was a lock on it. He dug into his pocket and took out a paper clip that be brought for just incase and Tum looked out the window widening his eye in fright. "Colt?" He said in a panic heading towards the door, but he was still picking at the lock. "Hang on, I think I have her diary." He said, but Tum wasn't about to get caught in the womans house especially with her creepy daughter running around.
"Come on!" He ran over grabbing him pulling him out the door with him. "They're back we have to hi-..." It was too late the front door opened and the two people walked in, the woman was yelling in a low voice at the girl. The two of them dashed into a closet and left the door cracked a bit so they could hear them talking. "I mean it Maria no more of this, you leave that boy alone." She took her coat off and dropped it on the couch then slipped out of her shoes.
The girl said nothing as she started taking off her coat as well then slipped out of her shoes. "Whatever, listen you go upstairs and you go straight to bed, I don't wanna hear another word out of your mouth." The woman continued as if the girl had responded then she took her hair out and walked into the kitchen. The girl on the other hand was heading up the stairs angrily and nearly stomping her feet into the stairs. Colt and Tum tum held their breath watching her approach the closet but she went by as though she hadn't expected anything to be lerching there at all.
They took the libraty to exit the closet the kitchen went far to the right so they wouldn't be seen leaving unless the woman were in close range and it sounded as though she were near the refrigerater, they got to the front door slid it open as quietly as they could and they ran out. In the window above Maria was staring out at the stars when her eyes caught their movements she looked down and saw them running away. 'What were they up too?' She wondered but didn't bother to move from where she was to find out. 'Let them know, it's time I dropped this disguise anyway.' and with that she lay herself down in her bed and closed her eyes.
"I'm telling you, I don't know what happened..." Rocky was explaining to his mom and dad as they cowered over him with questions about why the side of his head was bleeding. "I always thought you were the careful one with your ninja, son and you're brought home looking like this." His father says walking away from him wiping his face from the exhasperation.
"But I wasn't in a fight." Rocky insisted looking to his mom with a pleading face for her to understand him. She looked away sadly and shook her head and Rocky huffed. "I don't believe you don't believe me...you're own son. Dad I would not lie about something like this if I were beat up by somebody I would tell you but I don't know what happened."
"Why don't you just go lie down for a while you probably don't remember because you're still in shock, please sweety get some rest." Rocky's shoulder's slouched to his mothers words and he walked to the stairs sadly. 'I'll figure out what happened to me and when I do I'm going to the police.'
.........................................................
Emily is sitting on her bed late at night putting peach toenail polish on her toe nails humming a song from "Race for your life Charlie Brown" when she hears the bathroom water start to run. 'Huh?' She thought and looked at the door. The bottom of the door indicated that someone was indead in there and since Emily's parents had gone out for the night she knew she was alone and that made the sight of feet shading the night near the under side of the door run her blood cold.
Her first instinct was to do what Rocky had done- well what she thought Rocky had done back when they were kids and about to be kidnapped. She grabbed their make-shift phone and whispered through it. "Is anybody up there?" She listened for a response but none came. "Is anybody up there?" She tried a little louder.
At the Douglas house Rocky is taking his time going upstairs and when he got to the room he heard activity from his end of the line. 'Emily?' He thought and walked over to it. "Emily is that you?" He said when he picked it up and she got a wave of relief from him. "Rocky I need you to come over here and get me I think there's someone in the house...." He didn't need to hear the rest of what she was saying he let the phone go and ran to the door.
"Rocky where are you going?" Mrs. Douglas asked. "You're supposed to be resting!" She called after him but Rocky didn't stop- he wouldn't stop until he knew Emily was safe. When he got to the house he tried the door but it was locked. 'Damn it.' He swore to himself and looked for another way in.
Upstairs. Emily is watching the door as she slips carefully from her bed, any sudden noise would alert the intruder and send them after her. When she got one foot down on the floor she then swung her leg around to put the other one beside it. 'So far so good.' She thought and what ever or whom ever was in the bathroom perked up; theyw ere both frozen in their actions waiting for the next person to make their move first and with the way she was feeling inside that first person would have to be her.
She turned towards her door and made a break for it but what ever was in the bathroom moved in seconds coming out of it and grabbing her yanking her in. "Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!" She screamed before her hand was covered. "Oh no!" Rocky backed up a few steps and threw himself through the window of the front of the house after dusting off the glass he heard the burgalur alarm as he ran upstairs. "Emily, I'll save you, just hold on." He called out to her where ever she was. When he got into her room he looked around until he heard splashing in the bathroom.
"Emily?" He kicked the door open and walked inside but what he saw made his heart stop as he drew in a sharp breath. "Maria?" He said and a sudden flash of anger struck his face and he wasn't sure what he was doing but he had to do it quickly. He crossed the small distance and grabbed the girl by her throat then dunked her under the water.
"You wanna make a fool out of me? Huh? You wanna act like you can scare me and my girlfriend and family? Then lets see you do it dead." He couldn't believe his own ears or actions as he chocked this girl underneath the water.
When the police heard the alarm the neighborhood cops were the first to arrive along with alerting others if they needed back up on this one. They kicked the door open and walked into the house when they heard screaming upstairs they raised their guns and trampled up the steps and into the room where it was the loudest.
"Help me!" A girl cried and Rocky was becoming more violent with his intent of drowning her. "No one can help you now, you little-..."
"Freeze!" The cops shouted pointing their guns at the boys back and Rocky froze looking at them then he heard the sound of coughing and turned his head towards it. "Emily?" He said as she got out of the water holding her neck and gasping for air. "Emily I-..." He started but the officers rushed in and grabbed him.
Down at the station he's getting his finger prints checked out and looking rather confused about it. 'How did Emily get in there when I saw her- I saw Maria clearly!' He thought for a moment about the possibilities and found there were none, nothing made sense with this what did this girl want from him to lose his mind? Because he was so close to that breaking point if one more person didn't believe him. But just when he thought things couldn't get any worse his parents walked in along with his brothers. "Oh no." He turned to face them and they already looked like they didn't want any explainations from him.
"I can't believe you did this, to Emily. What has she done to you- son are you losing your mind?" Jessica asked ina paniced voice. "No mom I-..." he started but was cut off by his very angry father. "You think this is a game Rocky, you could have killed her? Not to mention you delibrately disobeyed our order not to leave the house." He looked at his son and shook his head. "What do you have to say for yourself?" He then asked.
"I didn't-...." but he stopped bothering with the explainations because they wouldn't believe him. "Is Emily ok?" He asked instead and Jessica nodded but Sam stepped in. "Barely. I'm still waiting for my answer." Rocky looked downwards and then back up at them shaking his head. "Go get Maria Atkinson, it's the only way you'll believe me." His fathers face scrunched up. "Who?" He crossed his arms and Rocky sighed and told them the address of the weird girl.
"We'll get an officer on it." The front desk said and he stood their waiting for his punishment. "The only privlages you get are breathing son I don't want to hear anymore of your nonsense about what's been going on, and you're lucky you got off with a warning if it were from me you wouldn't be so lucky....lets go."
They all followed a very angry man to the car and got inside. "Rocky I be-..." Colt started but when he heard the sniffles he stopped. 'Rocky never cries, this must be serious.' He tapped Tum- who was sitting in the middle- on the shoulder but he knew already and he looked like he was near tears. "We gotta do something about this." He whispered in his little brothers ear and he nodded to him tossing a glance back at his poor older brother.
"But what?" He asked and Colt shook his head and shrugged. "I don't know, but I know one things for sure if this girl is doing something to Rocky we can't let her, I think we should go over to her house and stop her ourselves. Tonight." Tum looked skeptical about the plan but then a smile spread across his face. "Yeah, for Rocky." Colt smiled at the sound of that. "That's the spirit but we can't let him know what we're up to, got it?"
Tum nodded and gave him a thumbs up. "Got it."
* * *
The lights were turned off at the girls house the only light they could see was showing from the kicthen where everyone in the neighborhoods usually leave them on any way. "It looks like the house might be empty." Colt said walking over to the window. "They might be at the police station being questioned like Rock' suggested, give me a hand with this window." He said to Tum, who helped him out then stood back while he climbed inside.
"Good there's no alarm, Tum come on." He called out the window but the boy was gone. "Tum tum?" He was tapped on the shoulder and his mental screamed it's head off as he turned around to see his little brother standing right behind him.
"Don't do that!" He shouted in a whispered yell. "How did you get in any way I didn't see you come through the window." Tum shrugged then walked over to the door. "It was unlocked I was gonna tell you but-...."
"Ssshh, I hear something." Colt said and walked over to the stairs as a door began to open, he motioned for Tum to do the same and he was already on his way. Colt held a finger up to his lips to tell him to be quiet. They looked up at the stairs railing the best they could from that view and they saw a dog walk out of a room growling.
"Shit." Colt swore lowly. 'Who knew she had a dog?' He thought. Tum tum who always had a way to an animals heart stepped out from his hiding place letting the dog see him; it growled low in its's throat and came down the stairs at him and just as it looked like it were about to attack him he whipped out a candy bar from his pocket and showed it to him.
The dog sniffed what was in his hand. "Come on boy, it's for you." He said sweetly and the dog let out sweet whimpers and took the chocolate from his hand.
"See, the way to any mans heart is through his stomach." He replied petting the dog who licked his hand in repsonse then went back to the snack. "I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it." Colt said coming from his hiding place as well. "That must be her room up there, lets go check it out but we have to be quick because she may come back at any second and we don't wanna get caught."
They krept upstaors and into the room the dog had emerged from. When they got inside they were surprised to see the room laced in stars and planets. "What is she an astrologer?" Tum asked pushing Mercury into Venus. Colt was checking the room over with his eyes and couldn't see anything really wrong with it. "Look around for a diary or any random piece of paper that might help us figure out what's going on."
Tum gave him a thumbs up and walked over to the strange girls bed, then felt around under the pillow case and in between the matresses for anything that felt remotely like a book. Colt checked shelves but found nothing unusual on any of them.
Outside a car is turning the corner sharply and two people are inside, one a woman and the other a teenaged girl. Colt looked inside of her dresser drawer and felt a book inside. "I think I may have found it." He pulled it out but there was a lock on it. He dug into his pocket and took out a paper clip that be brought for just incase and Tum looked out the window widening his eye in fright. "Colt?" He said in a panic heading towards the door, but he was still picking at the lock. "Hang on, I think I have her diary." He said, but Tum wasn't about to get caught in the womans house especially with her creepy daughter running around.
"Come on!" He ran over grabbing him pulling him out the door with him. "They're back we have to hi-..." It was too late the front door opened and the two people walked in, the woman was yelling in a low voice at the girl. The two of them dashed into a closet and left the door cracked a bit so they could hear them talking. "I mean it Maria no more of this, you leave that boy alone." She took her coat off and dropped it on the couch then slipped out of her shoes.
The girl said nothing as she started taking off her coat as well then slipped out of her shoes. "Whatever, listen you go upstairs and you go straight to bed, I don't wanna hear another word out of your mouth." The woman continued as if the girl had responded then she took her hair out and walked into the kitchen. The girl on the other hand was heading up the stairs angrily and nearly stomping her feet into the stairs. Colt and Tum tum held their breath watching her approach the closet but she went by as though she hadn't expected anything to be lerching there at all.
They took the libraty to exit the closet the kitchen went far to the right so they wouldn't be seen leaving unless the woman were in close range and it sounded as though she were near the refrigerater, they got to the front door slid it open as quietly as they could and they ran out. In the window above Maria was staring out at the stars when her eyes caught their movements she looked down and saw them running away. 'What were they up too?' She wondered but didn't bother to move from where she was to find out. 'Let them know, it's time I dropped this disguise anyway.' and with that she lay herself down in her bed and closed her eyes.