Chapter 12
Hope reignited, Abby grabbed the funnel sitting next to the fuel canister and left the garage as fast as she could, trying to stop the cumbersome thing from clanging against her legs and making enough noise to drown out a full percussion. She quickly made it back to the bike, unscrewing the filling cap and jamming the funnel into the fuel tank. As she tipped the canister up and poured her newly stolen fuel in, the bike drinking hungrily as the gasoline vanished into the depths- a true testament to how empty it had been before- she turned to keep watch to make sure no one came out and spotted her. To risk stealing from these people was bad enough. To get caught would definitely spell Lynn's death.
'Why would someone only paint the top part of their house?' she wondered as she looked back at the place. From what little she could see in the darkness, the house had been painted some years ago, but they'd stopped less than halfway down. Now the part that had been repainted was also starting to show the signs of weathering that the rest of it had.
After a few seconds, Abby realised the fuel canister was spent. She replaced the cap on her bike and shut the canister before crouching low and making her way back towards the garage to replace the now empty canister and hide her theft. As she did, she noticed that an upstairs window was open. The tree outside the house had bark worn off it at specific points. Whoever lived in that room clearly used it as an escape route. Part of her wanted her to look away, desperately hoping not to be tempted. The other part saw this as an easy chance. All she had to do was get in, grab a page from an address book, a diary, a photo... Literally anything that would offer Jefferson enough reason to let Lynn go.
Before she even knew what she was doing, Abby was climbing the tree. The worn-off patches of bark were a big help, making it super easy to know where to put her hands and feet as she climbed, although the rain was making things a lot harder. It caused her to slip more than once and she dreaded to think what would happen to her if she fell. Even so, she was at the window in no time, knowing it was too late to go back as she crossed the boundary and entered the bedroom.
Looking around, she could only just tell it was a girl's room by the dressing table with the mirror over by the closet. If it wasn't for that, she'd never have known. The place was a mess, which scared her slightly. She knew for a fact there were still people in the house and she wanted to avoid making too much noise rummaging around looking for what she was after.
Wasting no time, she set her helmet on the desk and carefully got to work. She knew that the man with the crew cut wouldn't be back for a while, but anyone else who lived there was liable to enter the room at any given time. Her riding gear being so bulky also didn't help. She found herself cringing at every clump of her boots on the floorboards. Her searching turned up nothing. Just the remains of some old magic kit, a board game with bits missing and some boy band cards with pairs of boobs drawn on them in Sharpie marker.
Defeated, she let out a frustrated sigh. She allowed herself to slump against the desk, knowing that she couldn't risk staying too much longer. That was when a plastic clatter from behind her caused her to turn. She'd nudged up against the computer mouse, causing the PC to come out of screensaver mode. It wasn't locked! The girl who'd been using it had left everything wide open, including her social media. There were a couple of hentai websites with some very disturbing tags that made Abby wonder if this girl had low self-esteem or just some really unusual fantasies. There were also cat videos on YouTube to try and hide the hentai from anyone who walked in. She ignored all that and focused on the Facebook account that was still logged in. It was open to a page that a quick glance at the girl's internet history showed she accessed frequently. Another profile of some girl in Seattle. While there was a chance she could have been a pen pal, the amount of times she'd been on the page made it borderline stalking, especially since there was no message history between them. She also didn't have her added as a friend, which made it all the more curious.
This was perfect! Abby realised that she'd just been handed her golden ticket to save Lynn! All she had to do was snap a photo of one of this girl's photos on her phone camera and deliver it. She made a mental note of the name and went to access the photo gallery. The photo plus the name would be enough to make Jefferson leave Lynn alone. With a bit of luck, she would be long gone before he realised she was all the way out in Seattle. With that in mind, she eagerly scrolled through the gallery and realised just what a goldmine she'd found. She noticed that there were a lot of selfies on there, but there were other photos too. Really good ones, at that. It looked like something Lynn might have been able to do with the right equipment. That was when she saw one that looked promising. It was clear with a genuine smile and felt like a very natural moment. She clicked on it to enlarge it, reaching for her phone to take the photo.
Suddenly, a sharp pain knifed across Abby's head. It was so powerful that it caused her to screw her eyes shut on reflex. When she opened them again, she could see the girl in the photo. She was on the cliff to the lighthouse, the weather overhead perfectly calm as she stood there in a black dress, the breeze gently blowing her shoulder-length hair behind her. But the view of her was somehow distorted, entirely black on the left side and blurry at distance on her right.
She snapped back to reality, the pain instantly striking her left eye just like before. She fought the urge to scream as she looked right, hearing a mechanical whirring sound that was easily loud enough to be heard downstairs, and stared in horror as the printer spat out a full-size version of the image. She looked down to see her hand on the mouse, the printing menu up on the screen. Why the hell had she printed it? This just seemed like a fast track to get busted! But it was done now. She knew she had to move quickly. She could already hear feet on the stairs. Sure enough, she only just had time to fold the paper and conceal it in her riding gear before the door opened.
That was when the girl who owned the room walked in. Abby's stomach dropped like lead as her mind did backflips in disbelief. The girl that stood in front of her was about five-foot-nine with a blue streak dyed into one of the bangs on her fringe and wearing a loose-fitting sleeveless Illuminati shirt. She may have grown since Abby last saw her, cut her hair and changed her style, but there was no mistaking who it was.
"...but I could swear I heard my printer!" She stopped in the doorway, her expression morphing from a look of utter shock and ranging through the full anger spectrum and settling on absolute hatred. Any remaining doubt as to who was glaring at her was eliminated as Rachel appeared in the doorway too, standing behind the other girl with her own expression of shock.
"Abby? What the fuck are you doing here? Why are you breaking into Chloe's room?"
Author's Note: Well it's been an eventful week and, despite being short, this was actually a pretty eventful chapter. In response to MaxandChloe4Ever: I watched The Equailzer. I wouldn't exactly class it as a horror movie, but still an excellent one. Definitely glad I watched it. Thanks for the recommendation. To everyone else: I hope you're all staying safe out there. The next update will either be late Monday or early Tuesday. The update after that will be the final chapter and epilogue together. Yes, that's right. We're coming to the end of this one. Not to worry. There'll be an announcement coming when I upload the epilogue so be sure to look out for that.
