Hey everyone. I want to apologize for not updating for so long. I'd just been caught up pretty badly with schoolwork and everything else. But I'm gonna try and make sure I update weekly from now on. Thanks again for all the reviews. Here's another chapter...
Chapter 5... Hook & Line
"Bevin! Bevin! Wake up!"
The voices became clearer around her. Louder, like stings. They hurt, and they wouldn't go away. She groaned and put the pillow over her head, feeling the cool underside on her face.
"Come on Bev!"
And then, the thoughts flooded back into her head. Everything, in one go.
The birthday party. The cake. The drinks. Oh, the drinks.
And then he came at night. Ian. He came, and he stabbed her.
Her eyes shot open, despite her body telling her to keep them tightly shut. She turned around, the pillow falling in a muted thud onto the floor. The people and objects in front of her became clearer; the light from the window flooded her. She put one hand up in front of her eyes, trying to make it go away.
"What… what happened?" She asked, her voice a hoarse whisper. Not like the usual Bevin.
The voice was Rachel's. She was standing at the side of the bed, aspirin in one hand and a glass in another. She tapped her foot impatiently on the floor, and it made an irritating rhythm. She was waiting for Bevin to sit up, and Bevin, completely unaware of this, continued to lie down, resembling a crumpled heap.
"Well, won't you get up?" Rachel asked, walking to the foot of the bed and sitting down, tired of waiting.
"Ohh… yeah," Bevin said, rising up slowly, cautiously. She held her head in her hands, blinking. It throbbed like someone had hit her straight with a hammer, and she'd do anything to make it go away. She reached with one hand for the aspirin, and put it in her mouth, then took the water, one hand again keeping away the sunlight.
"Where is everyone?" She asked, wondering. She still couldn't believe last night was a dream. Everything had seemed so very real. Too real. She looked at the places where Ian had stabbed her, and all that stared back was plain old Bevin. No scars, no blood, no wounds. She wondered why Rachel wasn't having a hangover. And so she asked.
"Not my first time," Rachel replied, plainly, with a wry grin.
"What are we doing today?" Bevin asked, feeling slightly better knowing she'd be having a shower soon. A cool shower sounded great at that point.
Rachel sighed, thinking. She suddenly remembered. "Oh yeah. Mouth and Peyton have gone to get a few things we need… diet Coke, water, chips, chocolate, you know? And then we all thought we'd check out the old High School here. I wasn't there the last time, and they both said it was really great. Should be fun, yeah? Cause I think I'm not exactly ready to start partying again." She meant to say it convincingly, but Bevin could tell Rachel was mostly always ready to party.
"Me neither," Bevin said. She stood up to head to the bathroom, just as she heard a quick knock on the door. She quickly staggered back, remembering last night. The door burst open and Peyton and Mouth rushed inside, looking extremely tense. Rachel hadn't noticed Bevin's little freak-out.
Thank god, Bevin thought. She didn't want to make Rachel think one night of drinking had totally fucked her up.
"What happened? You guys look like you saw a ghost," Rachel commented, walking over to them. She examined their empty hands and a scowled. "What? No chips?!"
Mouth looked at her incredulously. "Haven't you been outside? Or seen the local news?"
Rachel looked at him dumbly, and Bevin obviously hadn't, so he continued. "A girl was found, dead, completely cut up and hanging by ropes right across the street from here."
Bevin's eyes widened, just as Rachel mouth almost hung open.
"Right here?" She quickly ran to the window and peeked out, expecting to find a full fledged murder victim hanging from a store window. All she saw were two police cars, around a dozen townspeople, and red smudges smeared vertically near the department stores huge dust laden windows. No traces, except the blood.
"The owner found her in the morning," Peyton explained, as Rachel turned and looked back. Bevin remained silent. "She was just nineteen. They said she'd been hanging there for a while. Her intestines were hanging from her stomach towards the floor; it was pretty fucked up."
They all stared at each other. Mouth thought of the bloody hand he'd seen, and the man who'd smiled at them last night. Peyton thought of the ominous messages she'd been receiving. Bevin thought of her gruesome dream, and Rachel thought how odd it was that no one heard anyone screaming last night. They all wondered whether they should tell each other what they were thinking. But in the end, they decided to not say a word.
…
"Hey Brooke, we still on for tomorrow night at Tric?" Nathan asked, over the phone.
Brooke wanted to say no. "Yeah, most definitely. See you at 8, alright?" She tried to sound cheerful, but wondered if he knew she was faking.
"Alright. Love you," he replied, completely unaware.
"Yeah, you too," she replied, lifelessly, hanging up.
…
Instead of letting the murder ruin everything for them, they decided to go ahead and visit the high school. Bevin had finally started feeling better, and by the afternoon, she was perky again. Still, the thought of death loomed over their heads. They ate lunch at a local diner, not talking much too much. The mood seemed to have been ruined for the trip, and everyone knew it.
"I think I'm going to head back," Rachel finally said, finishing off her cheese and mushroom omelette.
"What? So soon? We still haven't seen some shops…" Bevin urged, trying to sound reassuring. But truth was, they didn't feel like shopping, at all.
"Nah, I'm alright. I'm pretty worn out, anyway. I think I'm going to go ahead to the room and take a little nap." She stood up from the booth, and started moving away, when Bevin yelled out 'wait!' and followed her.
"What about those two?" Rachel asked, glancing backwards at Mouth and Peyton, who were talking to each other in far away tones.
"They're just gonna pay the bill, and then fetch some things from the department store. They weren't able to get anything in the morning…" Bevin trailed off, trying to avoid the topic.
Once at the hotel, Bevin stayed at the reception, telling Rach how she'd somehow lost her room key the night before. Rachel took the elevator to the room. As she reached up, she walked in brisk steps to the room, her heels making cushioned thuds on the carpet. Once at the door, she pushed in the key, and sighed.
The first thing she did was shriek in shock.
The man was sitting on a chair, placed in the middle of her room. He looked bored, and stood up, sighing, as though relieved to see her. Rachel's eyes flashed to the door adjoining room 12/22 and 12/23. He'd placed a chair near the doorknob, to make sure no one could break in from the other side. On the bedside table she noted a pair of keys, no doubt Bevin's. What frightened her the most, however, was how much the man looked like Ian. Psycho Derek. That sick bastard who'd killed her friends last year. The man she'd stabbed to death. It was him, only not him.
"Hello there," he said, his broken English accent coming off in a mixture of anger and lust. "I don't believe we've met."
It wasn't Derek. No way.
She was standing at the door, frozen in fear, her back stuck to it, as he stalked towards her. He was wearing a long navy blue coat that touched his knees, and a black shirt underneath. He reached into his coat and pulled out a long knife, and grinned. And then Rachel screamed.
Sorry that chapter didn't have much of Brathan. There'll be more of those two in the next chapter, I promise. Thanks for reading. Hope you liked the chapter, and please let me know what you think.