A/N: Hey everybody, Episode Five's second part is all ready to go and ready for your reading. I hope that this update will bring many answers to the questions you as the readers may have, because they will explain a whole lot of things that may have had you scratching your heads as to what they mean or what their significance to the story may be. Well, look no further because this is the update where it all unfolds for real. Now, let's dive right into the new update of "Life is Abominable" shall we? Enjoy!
Previously on Life is Abominable...
After burying Everest and saying their goodbyes to their fallen friend, Max attempts to use the photo she took before the ambush to travel back in time to resurrect him. However, instead of traveling back to the desired moment in the past, Max finds herself back in the nightmarish purgatory dimension she was trapped in before the storm destroyed Arcadia Bay. Halfway through the never-ending maze of pain and anguish, Max recieves a text message from the spirit of Rachel Amber which helps her escape and find herself in front of the Two Whales Diner where Rachel meets her. Max is then greeted by Rachel in the front of the diner, and offers her an explanation as to what her role in the journey she has taken truly is...
Two Whales Diner, Arcadia Bay. 2012
Max walked into the diner and saw Rachel was still waiting for her, sitting at the counter. She also looked around and noticed that there were people inside the diner as well. The minute Max approached the counter, Rachel turned her head and greeted her with a small smile.
"So, you ready to hear what I have to say?" asked Rachel.
"Yes, it would help me so much if I understood why this was happening to me" Max replied. Rachel nodded and patted down on the stool that sat on her left. Max sat down right next to her and folded her hands together as she placed them on the counter.
"I know I promised you answers, you deserve that much. But to get those answers, you need to go back to the beginning. Before you came back to Arcadia Bay. You need to know what really happened with me and Zara" Rachel told her. She then looked over to the booth closest to the exit door and saw Chloe sitting across the table from Rachel. Chloe's hair was still brown instead of blue like it used to be, and she wore gray short-shorts with black leggings and a tee-shirt for her favorite band "Firewalk" with a white long-sleeve shirt underneath.
"What's happening here?" asked Max.
"This happened shortly before I graduated Blackwell, and before Chloe changed her hair. She was treating me to some "Pre-Graduation Lunch" or whatever, and I told her there was something I wanted to talk to her about while we were eating" explained Rachel as she kept her eyes fixed on the other her that was talking with Chloe.
"What was it?" Max asked.
"Watch, and you will see" Rachel responded. Max did just that and payed attention to what was going on in the booth.
"Oh, you said you had something you wanted to talk with me about?" asked Chloe. The other Rachel nodded but with a straight face.
"You remember that redheaded girl with glasses? You had Ms. Grant's class with her?" Rachel asked, trying to jog Chloe's memory.
"You mean Emily Zara? Yeah, actually. She's a strange one... why?" Chloe asked. Rachel then took out a big yellow envelope from behind her back and placed it on the table right next to her drink.
"She's been sending me these for a while now. I didn't know it was her at first, but after I was walking out of the bathroom during lunch I saw her placing one inside my locker through the vents in the door" Rachel explained. With a concerned look on her face, Chloe slid the envelope closer towards her and opened it. Inside the envelope were several love letters in cursive writing, a lot of them explained some disturbing sexual fantasies that the writer expressed in great detail of wanting to do to her.
"Oh my Jeebus, Rachel... this is sick" said Chloe as she put the letters down.
"That's not all. Some of the envelopes those letters came in had pictures inside too" Rachel told her. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out another envelope, only this one was smaller. Chloe took the envelope and opened it to reveal several digitally print pictures of the outside of her house. One photo was taken close to the dining room window that showed Chloe and Rachel having dinner together with her parents, the other even showed Rachel in her room using her laptop for schoolwork that was taken right outside her bedroom window. The most disturbing picture though was one of Rachel sleeping, and it was taken from right inside her bedroom.
"How did she even take these without your family noticing?" Chloe asked.
"I don't know. I mean... I always heard footsteps as I slept late at night, but I always thought it was my mom or dad going to the bathroom or getting a glass of water. When I saw Zara putting the envelope in my locker today, I knew it was her that was taking the pictures" Rachel explained. Chloe then shoved the pictures back inside the envelope and slammed it down on the table in anger.
"This woman is a psychopath, Rachel. Why didn't you tell the police? Or at least your parents?" asked Chloe with concern in her voice.
"It wasn't on my mind at the time. I was still pretty pissed about my dad lying about my real mother and all that jazz that it just... slipped my mind" Rachel told her. Max couldn't believe what she was seeing or what she was hearing either, breaking and entering Rachel's house to take photos for her own personal collection, writing perversive and sadistic sex fantasies in letters she slipped into Rachel's locker, evidence like that would be so damning that it would have ensured a life sentance for Zara.
"Guess it makes sense you'd tell me about this then. We can press serious charges against her, Rachel. The letters and photographs are more than enough to lock her up" said Chloe.
"It's not that simple. Even if we could take her to court and show these letters and photos to her and the Jury, she could always say she didn't do it. We'd have to have something that actually SHOWS her doing these things" Rachel explained. Chloe nodded, she knew Rachel had a good point.
"You sure know a lot about this stuff" Chloe pointed out.
"I know a thing or two about law since my dad's Arcadia Bay's District Attourney" Rachel replied.
"What do you think we should do then?" asked Chloe.
"I say we keep a close eye on her, inside and out of Blackwell. I know she's been following me, even inside my own house" said Rachel. Chloe then placed a finger on her chin and began to tap her foot in deep thought. After a minute, she stopped and looked to Rachel with what she believed to be the ideal next move.
"Let's break into Blackwell, search her locker and her dorm and see if we can catch her writing any letters or printing anymore photos like that on her computer" Chloe suggested. She had to admit, she liked the sound of this idea. If Chloe could get into the Firewalk concert, she'd be able to get into Zara's locker without any problems.
"Alright, it's a good idea. I say we go for it" Rachel said while nodding in agreement with her. Max then felt Rachel tap on her shoulder and she turned to face her again.
"After that we started planning our "Break-In" into Blackwell" she said before standing up.
"Walk to the bathroom with me" she said while facing Max. She only nodded and followed her into the women's restroom of the diner. Once they walked through the door, they were teleported somewhere else.
Blackwell Academy. 11:57 PM
Max and Rachel now found themselves inside the darkened halls of Blackwell Academy late at night. Max began having flackbacks of when she and Chloe broke into Principal Wells' office late and night to try and get any form of information on Nathan Prescott. Rachel then turned to Max and began to explain what was going to happen next.
"Two days after we planned everything out, we carried out our plan. It was only three days until graduation at the time, so a lot of the other students went out to town to party and stuff like that. That meant for us, breaking in and getting what we needed was going to be easier" she told Max. Their heads turned to the exit door when they heard them open, and saw Chloe and the other Rachel with her walking through the hallway with flashlights.
"Which locker did you say belonged to Zara?" Chloe asked.
"C-18. Just up ahead, it's the one closest to the window on the left" Rachel said while she pointed over in the direction she was specifying. Max then watched as Chloe took out her lock picking tools as they approached the locker.
"Hold the light on the lock for me?" Chloe asked, Rachel nodded in agreement and held her flashlight right above the lock. Chloe then got to work and began to pick at the inner mechanisms of the locker's only feat of protection.
"You sure you know what you're doing?" Rachel asked.
"One of the things I learned how to do during all the time I spend with Frank, was how to pick locks. So I should be able to get into a high schooler's locker pretty easily" Chloe said with a confident whisper so she wouldn't attract the security guards that patroled Blackwell late at night. After half a minute of picking the lock, Chloe finally got it to unlock and they were inside Zara's locker.
"Boom, we're in" Chloe silently cheered while pumping her fist into the air.
"Hold the light for me?" Rachel asked before handing the flashlight over to Chloe.
"No problem, but just hurry alright? I don't know how long it's gonna be before security starts snooping around here" Chloe told her. Rachel nodded in agreement and she began looking through Zara's belongings. Some of it was pretty average, like text books as well as her class schedule taped to the locker's metal wall, as well as a poster for "The Tempest" which was the Blackwell Drama program's Spring production that year. There were even some Vortex Club posters and stickers on the wall as well.
"Anything?" Chloe asked.
"Not yet. Just some average high school crap you'd usually find inside a locker" Rachel answered.
"Didn't realize Zara was such a Vortex Club groupie" Chloe added, taking note of the posters and stickers that were stuck to the locker's walls. Rachel then looked up and noticed something white clinging to the ceiling of the locker, it was a paper envelope.
"I think I got something" Rachel said as she reached up and took the envelope. Chloe then shined the flashlight down on it while the brown-haired girl held it in her hands.
"Open it up" she encouraged. Rachel nodded and used her nail to slice through the top of the envelope. Max walked up to get a closer look at the envelope's contents and what she saw next shocked her. In Rachel's hand, she held more pictures taken with a high-definition digital camera. One of them showed Rachel undressing to get into the showers, another showed Rachel and her mother shopping together, the third photo showed Rachel and Chloe kissing one another while sitting on the bed in Chloe's room. But the one Max found truly disturbing was the picture that was taken right outside the Two Whales Diner, showing Chloe and Rachel discussing Zara's photos and letters.
"Oh dear, Jeebus. This woman is more sick that I thought" Max said out loud. She was lucky Chloe and Rachel couldn't hear her in this flashback or she would have been caught. Chloe grinded her teeth in rage at the sight of all these photos and then slammed the locker door shut.
"That's it! We need to take these pictures to Principal Wells, tell him everything that's been going on, and maybe, just maybe... he'll get the police involved" Chloe said.
"But what about Zara's dorm? We haven't even searched that yet" Rachel asked.
"Forget the dorm, Rachel. This is all the evidence we need right nere, the letters, the pictures you showed me in the diner, and the pictures we've got right here in our hands. Fifty bucks says this is more than enough to put her in jail" said Chloe with confidence in her voice. Rachel just nodded and the two of them left the school before security could show up. Once they were gone, Max was alone with Rachel's spirit once more.
"The next morning we took all the evidence to Principal Wells. Usually he would have dismissed claims like this unless we had proof, but Chloe was right, once we pulled out the letters and photos, he ordered a full inspection of Zara's dorm" explained Rachel.
"What happened after that?" asked Max.
"Wells placed Zara on Academic Probation. She was furious though and demanded that he lift it despite the evidence piling up against her" Rachel told her. She then took Max's hand and lead her into the janitor's closet which lead them somewhere else.
Price Residence, Arcadia Bay Oregon. 3:53 PM
(Start playing "Back to You" by Selena Gomez as you read this next part of the chapter until it says to stop)
Max now found herself inside Chloe's bedroom. Now, Chloe's hair was completely blue just like she remembered it being, and Rachel was lying down on the bed smoking a cigarette while the blue-haired girl paced back and forth inside the room reading some papers she held in her hand while "Back to You" by Selena Gomez played on Chloe's speakers. Rachel's spirit appeared from behind Max and began to speak once again.
"After we presented the evidence to Wells, he told my parents. My dad was pissed and began pressing charges against Zara for what she was doing. A court date had been scheduled and everything, we had a good feeling we were going to win since the evidence was in our favor" Rachel told her. Max then looked back to see Chloe sit next to Rachel on the bed and her eyes didn't leave the papers she held.
"What are those?" Rachel asked.
"It's a letter from your dad. He's requesting I come in and testify on your behalf as a key witness in the upcoming trial next week on Thursday" answered Chloe. Rachel took the papers from her and read through them thuroughly.
"Good, I may still be a little mad at him for what really went down but... he was smart to choose you to testify" said Rachel, giving her father some credit where it was due.
"I also managed to read this morning's paper before David took it into his garage. Aparently Zara's got some Hella expensive defense attourneys backing her up, and Nathan Prescott's rich as Hell parents are paying the legal fees" the blue-haired punk girl explained.
"Guess you were right about Zara being one of the Vortex Club's groupies" the other girl told her.
"I Googled both the lawyers representing her. They're sleazy as Hell, but they fight pretty fierce, they're gonna throw everything they can at us. This trial could go on longer than a month if we don't play our cards right" Chloe warned her. Rachel then gave a small smile and placed her hand on Chloe's shoulder as a comforting gesture.
"Hey, did you forget my dad's Arcadia Bay's DA? He'll do everything he can to help us get Zara expelled. Hell, if we're lucky he'll push for the judge to grant us restraining orders and even push for a pretty lengthy jail sentence for her" Rachel told her.
"I wouldn't put it past your dad to push for something like that" Chloe said while returning the smile.
"Besides, it's like you said... the cards are dealed in our favor. Not even defense lawyers would deny she did it after they see photos like the ones we found. They might even puke reading the letters" Rachel told her, which made the both of them laugh loudly. Max let out a small giggle at Rachel's joke as well.
"Courthouse janitor would be pretty pissed though when sees the aftermath" Chloe added, making Rachel laugh even louder than before.
"Tell me about it. Poor guy's probably going to demand a pay-raise after he finishes cleaning it up" Rachel said in between laughs. The sound of something tapping against the glass window caused the two girls to stop their laughter and turn their heads to where it was coming from. Chloe walked over to the speakers and shut the song off before walking over to the window to see who or what was making the noise.
(You can stop playing the song now)
"Uhh... Rachel? You better come take a look at this" said Chloe with a concerned look on her face. Rachel then got up off the bed and walked over to the window right next to where her blue-haired girlfriend stood. Standing right below them was Nathan Prescott himself, he was tossing tiny little pebbles up at the window to get the two girls' attention.
"What? He followed me here?" Rachel asked with a horrified look on her face.
"Followed you? Has he been stalking you too?" asked Chloe.
"Yeah, ever since Zara was ordered to stay away from me until the court date. He was outside my house earlier this morning too" the brown-haired girl told her. They then looked down to see Nathan holding up a sign written on a cardboard slate. The words "You Talk You Die" were written in sharpie, and he pointed to both Rachel and Chloe before making a cut-throat guesture with his finger across his Adam's apple.
"He was holding that exact same sign earlier this morning" Rachel said before taking her phone out and showing a picture of Nathan standing in the driveway of her house holding the sign to Chloe. Max gasped and covered her mouth with both her hand in shock, it was the exact same sign that was in her vision, as well as the one that was included in Zara's file that Dave gave to Jin the large weapons bag he gifted to him. Rachel's spirit then spoke up again.
"That's when things started to take a turn for the dark" she said before walking over to the door that lead to Chloe's hallway. Max then followed her out of the room, and just like before, the door teleported the two of them to someplace entirely different than the place they were before.
Somewhere Outside Arcadia Bay. 11:24 AM
Both girls now stood in front of a beautiful one-story ranch-style house made entirely of brick with a black Cadillac parked in the driveway in front of the garage, and five bird-feeders hung from the front porch. Max didn't recognize this place, she had never been to this house before in her life.
"Rachel? What is this place?" asked Max. Rachel only walked up to the mailbox that rested at the beginning of a pathway made entirely of circular shaped stepping stones and pointed to the side of the metal box. Max slowly walked up to the mailbox and looked to where Rachel was pointing and saw the name "Jefferson" written in black adhesive letter stickers on the side of the mailbox. Max felt her heart start to go faster in fear, this was Mark Jefferson's house, the house belonging to the man responsible for Rachel's death.
"Jefferson lived here!?" Max asked in outrage.
"I'm afraid so. Because this... is where things took a turn for the dark" answered Rachel's spirit with a somber look on her face.
"A turn for the dark? What do you mean by that?" asked Max, not understanding what Rachel meant when she said that.
"The court date was getting closer and closer by this point. Three days until it was scheduled to happen to be precise. That's also when Zara decided she would do anything to dodge punishment and make herself look like a victim. After she got some money from Nathan's family and lied about what she was going to use that money for, she came here" explained Rachel. After she had finished her explanation, both girls heard the sound of a car coming and turned their heads to see a silver 2007 Chevy Cobalt LT Coupe parking right in front of them, only a few inches away from Jefferson's driveway.
"Is that her?" Max asked.
"Yeah. She's brought the money with her and ready to ask Jefferson for a special favor" Rachel told her. The two of them watched as Zara got out of the car with the envelope full of the money the Prescott family had given her wedged in the crook of her arm. The redheaded teen readjusted her glasses and began walking up the stepping stone path all the way up to Jefferson's front porch. Max and Rachel followed right behind her until they were standing only two feet behind her as she rang the doorbell and knocked on the front door.
"Who is it?" a voice called out from the other end of the door. Max knew the voice belonged to Jefferson.
"It's Emily, Emily Zara. I took your class last semester" Zara answered. A few seconds passed and the door opened up to reveal Mark Jefferson wearing a light blue tee shirt as well as some faded gray jeans.
"Miss Zara, isn't this a nice surprise" Jefferson greeted.
"I'm so sorry for showing up to your house like this, but there's something I wanted to talk to you about" Zara said.
"Oh, of course. No need to apologize, please, come on inside" said Jefferson politely as he moved aside and invited her inside his home.
"Thank you, sir" Zara politely thanked as she entered the house. Max was about to follow her inside, but Rachel grabbed her by the wrist and stopped her before she could go into the house. Once Zara was inside, Jefferson shut the door behind him and locked it. Max then worriedly looked over to Rachel and asked a question.
"He's not gonna..." Max was about to continue but Rachel spoke up before she could say another word.
"No, she was never drugged or taken to the Dark Room like I was. In fact, she knew that the Dark Room existed" said Rachel. This made Max surprised a bit, she didn't know that Zara knew about the horrible thing that Nathan and Jefferson were doing to female Blackwell students for their own sick sense of pleasure.
"Then why would she come here?" Max asked, bewildered as to what she had planned. Rachel signalled for the young brunette to follow her around to the back of the house, and she did just that. Max followed her until she and Rachel now stood on the back deck and watched Jefferson and Zara through the sliding glass door.
"Prepare yourself, Max. Because what you're about to see is Emily Zara about to commit the most heinous crime a person can commit... hiring someone to torture and murder a person" Rachel warned Max, which made her gasp in horror and watch as Zara prepared to make the deal that would send Rachel Amber to her grave.
A/N: And there you have it, the nearly completed backstory of Emily Zara as a psychotic stalker and a conspirator in the murder of Rachel Amber. The next update, we will get more answers to more questions that have gone unanswered, specifically, why Max was chosen to help Everest get back home as well as kill Zara. Every second we get closer to the end of the journey, so be prepared for some hardcore drama and thrills headed your way. Please review, thanks!