Fallen Star

Ratchet froze dead, staring up at the house with apprehension. Why had they come here? Where had their logic gone?

“I can’t do this,” she moaned in a faded whisper.

Kirraley gently placed her hand on Ratchet’s shoulder. “We have to.”

Ratchet shook her head. “I can’t!”

“I can’t just go in by myself, or they’ll suspect something,” Kirraley said in the gentlest of
tones she could manage.

Ratchet swallowed and nodded. She sucked in a deep breath. “I’ll try,” she wheezed, it sounded as if she were about to burst into tears.

Kirraley couldn’t blame her. She was masking her own hysteria with a crown of bravado. It was slowly waning inside of her, her fear nibbling away its paint. She heaved a gulp and straightened out her posture, preparing herself to step into the unknown.

“So here’s the game plan, we go in, smile and wave and say hi, say we’re just grabbing some things and are going to go stay at Haven’s.”

“I don’t think we should actually go,” Ratchet whispered.

Kirraley turned and looked at her, confusion on her face.

Ratchet glanced at the front door nervously, shivering, unsure of herself. “What if they try and hunt us down?”

“No, I don’t think they will. Haven lives in a nice big house with a big family, remember? They
have a top notch security system. Naydeen and Richard wouldn’t dare try and get us there.”

“What if they come tomorrow morning to try and take us home, what if they try and stop us?”

Ratchet asked, a pleading look filling up her eyes.

“They won’t. We are going to call the police, I promise you.”

“Maybe we should now,” Ratchet offered, heaving a swallow.

Kirraley stared at her, considering this idea.

“I think it would be safer,” Ratchet concluded.

“Wouldn’t it be safer to do it when they don’t suspect anything, and when we’re guaranteed
a safe escape?” Kirraley protested.

“Oh, please, please Kirraley! What if they have decided now is the time to “get rid of us.” What then? We’re dead!”

Kirraley froze, fear creeping sharply into her bones. “You’re probably right, let’s go back to the mall, we should be safe there. But…”

Ratchet narrowed her eyes at her best friend, angered at her hesitation. “But what?” she hissed.

“What if they aren’t in there? What if we run into them at the mall or the police come and they get away or find the house empty and then what if…”

“What if they come after us,” Ratchet concluded glancing down at the ground, torn and heart broken.

Kirraley stood there for a moment, weighing her options, grinding her teeth harshly together. “Let’s go, distancing ourselves would be much safer. We should call Haven and tell her to call the cops and then we’ll meet up with her at the mall,” Kirraley offered.

Ratchet nodded vigorously.

Kirraley fished around in her pocket for her phone. Now that most of the initial shock was dying off, reason was re-entering their minds.

She flipped out her cellular and pressed speed dial. Kirraley traipsed casually down the porch steps and started to make her way across the driveway, heading towards the sidewalk. If she moved too fast, Haven wouldn’t be able to hear a word.
Impatience shuddered within her. “Come on Haven, pick up!” she silently hissed into the phone, fear rattling her heart around violently in her chest.

Ratchet slowly paced behind her, keeping a short distance of a couple feet between them, trying to stay quiet.

The ringing cut off for a second. There was a brush of static, then a clicking noise.

“Hello?” Haven’s sweet soprano voice cut in through the wall of static.

“Haven!” Kirraley hissed.

Fear imploded inside of Haven, ripping through her chest, it filled her voice. “Kirra, what’s wrong!” She shouted.

“Nothing’s happened yet, but listen to me, we need you to call the cops on Naydeen and R-”

“Kirraley, Ratchet! Good, it is you. Come in here for a moment, we need to speak to you!” Naydeen shouted out from the bedroom window.

Ratchet’s heart stopped dead in her chest. She whipped around and could see that the window was cranked wide open. Naydeen was leaning against the screen, glancing down patiently at them.

Ratchet faked a smile. “We’re coming!” She called up.

She twirled around quickly on her heel to face Kirraley, who had stopped in the middle of her speech. Ratchet signed at her emphatically, snapping her back into reality.

Kirraley pressed the phone closer to her face and turned casually away from the window; cutting off Haven’s anxiously calling voice.

“You know the address, place the call anonymously. Do it now!” Kirraley rushed.

“But you’re still going to meet up with me at clo-”

“Yes! Just do it, now!” Kirraley shouted in a hushed voice.

With that she snapped the phone shut and awkwardly raced back through the driveway and leapt up the porch steps. Ratchet followed behind her quickly.

Kirraley shoved her key in the lock and twisted the door open. She skipped into the hallway followed by Ratchet who slipped stealthily in.

If they were here when the police came Ratchet could confirm the threat once they were pulled aside. They would be safe when the cops came. Until that moment they had to look as innocent and unassuming as humanly possible.

Ratchet slinked off into the kitchen the way she normally did when she got home and raided the fridge for a fresh bottle of water, nervous to actually drink it but her throat was so dry she swallowed down half of the bottle in one go.

Kirraley instantly headed for the steps and bounded lightly up them, getting it in her head that she had to act like nothing had happened, she had to pretend that she didn’t know anything, convince herself that it was just any other day. Easy, perhaps in theory, but nearly impossible.

She had gone to Haven’s before; certainly they wouldn’t stop her now.

Her pulse pounded in her throat as she meticulously climbed the stairs. They wouldn’t suspect anything, there was no way, they just couldn’t.
Kirraley swallowed, fear growing sharply inside of her chest, blooming like a flower that grew daggers instead of petals.
The fear thumped raggedly inside of her as she passed by Richard and Naydeen’s room. Their door was flung wide open; she could see Richard sitting down in his black recliner chair through the doorway.

Kirraley faked a genuine looking broad smile and waved. “Hey Richard.” She called, her voice whispering like crackling paper inside of her throat.

Her chest clenched tight. It hurt to breathe.

He grunted and nodded to her, eyes glittering like angry knives in his face.

Kirraley was a little stunned by the cruelty drawn across his face. Now that she thought of it that was his usual expression, she just never realized how hostile his countenance was before.

“Umm…Ratchet and I are going out to Haven’s.”

“You’re back from work early,” Naydeen cut in with vicious sounding words, appearing suddenly like a slinking, enraged apparition in the doorway.

Kirraley reeled for a split second to regain her composure, keeping a steady poker face. She shrugged. “I got off early, yes. Stacey’s filling in for me. We’re going to go get Haven out of work early to shop a little before the mall closes, then head over to her place for the night.”

Naydeen’s dark eyes narrowed infinitesimally. “You better go pack up then.” She hissed out as Ratchet silently emerged up the stairs, coming to a halt at Kirraley’s side.

Kirraley turned and looked at her. “Come on Ratchet, you heard Naydeen, let’s go pack.” Kirraley suggested, infusing a false layer of enthusiasm into her voice.

“I had to call her to confirm how long we were staying, that’s why we were standing around outside. We get bad reception inside the house.” Kirraley added with a flip of a smile.

Ratchet sheepishly nodded a hello before following Kirraley down the hallway.
The two girls rocketed themselves into Kirraley’s room. The walls were painted a light powder blue. It was an alright room with white curtains and black blinds behind them and a small navy blue bed.

Kirraley grabbed the photo albums as well as some books off her black bookshelf and dumped them silently on the floor while Ratchet yanked her closet open to retrieve her biggest back pack.
She tossed it on the floor and started pulling Kirraley’s best clothes off of her hangers and clumsily throwing them on the ground. Kirraley dug through her white dresser, retrieving a few more clothing items, balled them all up, and shoved them into her bag.

After her most vital and sentimental items were packed securely away she swung her bag over her arm. It hurt, applying much pressure against her back which cracked for a second beneath it. She exhaled deeply and shifted it a little, easing the weight marginally.

They opened the door and walked into Ratchet’s room. Her room had dark purple walls and a black bed and navy blinds, which wasn’t the best contrast.

They scrounged up her oversized shoulder bag and tossed her favourite CDs in there; including some mixed CDs her boyfriend Trance had made for her and threw in all of her picture frames and photo albums. They rounded up some of her clothes and tossed them in. She hefted her acoustic guitar into its case and held it in one hand; her bag slung over her other shoulder.

Fear blossomed inside of the two friends as they entered the hallway, thudding loudly as if it coloured their very pulses.

They heaved their bags up higher and then began to saunter with a forcefully confident gait down the hallway, their backs hurting. Naydeen cut in front of them, hands on her hips.

“Layla Hewett...” She began.

Ratchet looked her in the eyes, fear flooding her chest. Naydeen had shown enough respect to only call her by her full name, and her real name, when she was enraged with her, which had been rather infrequently in the past couple of weeks.

Ratchet loved her original name, Layla, it was a gorgeous name, but it wasn’t the name her father had called her most of the time. Before he died they were best friends, they only had each other after her mother died in labour. Her mother’s middle name had been Layla. He was a mechanic and on the weekends he would bring her to his shop. When she got to the pre-teen stage she started helping him fix things up, even though her affinity for music flourished, which he had supported. They played Blue Grass music together on the guitar during the weekend nights and all through the summer. Ratchet became quite good at fixing things, and so he nick-named her that.
He had died of a massive heart attack only a couple months before Kirraley had lost her own parents. That’s why she wanted everyone to call her Ratchet.

“Yes?” Ratchet whispered.

“Can I speak with you for a moment?” Naydeen asked.

Ratchet blanched, floundering within.

“I’m really sorry Naydeen, but can you speak with her when we get back? We won’t be gone all that long. It’s just we have to carry all this stuff back over to the mall, you know, meet up with Haven. She just texted me. She’s expecting us in ten.” Kirraley interjected with expert ease. Inside she was screaming.

Naydeen’s eyes narrowed further. “No, I don’t think so.”

“What’s this about anyways?” Ratchet asked with a shrug.

“Come and I’ll show you.” Naydeen offered, visibly gnashing her teeth together.

Ratchet shot her a dejected look.

“We really do need to get going….” Kirraley protested.

“It won’t take that long.” Naydeen growled.

Kirraley slid a side long glance at Ratchet, able to all too clearly read the hidden fear lurking deep within her best friend’s eyes.

“No.” Kirraley replied, a firm bit of aggression residing in her voice.

Momentary shock crossed Naydeen’s face. Kirraley never disobeyed her.

“Not unless you tell us what you want.” Kirraley added, the sternness thick in her voice.

Naydeen’s mouth gaped a little, she floundered for a moment.

“Fine, then, we’re leaving. Come on Ratchet.” Kirraley said, grabbing her friend’s arm.

Ratchet quickly swept her bangs off to the side more, out of her eyes and took a step forward.

“No.” Naydeen argued, barring their way.

Rage exploded inside of Kirraley like an erupting volcano. Angered she shoved violently passed Naydeen, yanking Ratchet in close behind her.

“Run!” Kirraley cried.

They dropped their bags to the ground, Ratchet’s guitar case enlarging the heap on the floor.
Ratchet was a little ahead of Kirraley. She stumbled on the stairs, her steps faltered from her extreme fear. Kirraley darted after her. A scream fled from her mouth as Richard’s bony fingers wrapped sternly around her arm. He yanked her back against his chest. Kirraley’s scream pierced Ratchet’s concentration. She tripped on the fifth step and fell. Her chin crashed hard against the floor, her ankles landing harshly against the ground, her palms smacking against the carpet roughly.

She hauled herself to her feet.

Breathing heavily, she whirled around to look at the stairs. Her red bandanna slipped down onto her forehead more, her bangs crisscrossing orange across her eyes. She could see Kirraley lurching violently backwards, screams imploding from her mouth as Richard roughly yanked her towards the bedroom. Kirraley’s fingers anchored onto the door frame, tugging on it as she twisted in his grip. Her fear had swallowed her fighting knowledge whole. She pulled against him, desperate to break away.

She managed to hold onto the door frame with both hands. In a quick movement she shoved her elbows back hard into his stomach.

His grip faltered. She tugged herself forward and raced for the doorway. Naydeen crossed in front of her, barring her exit. Kirraley kneed her hard in the stomach and dropped her elbow against the crease in Naydeen’s right arm.
Naydeen collapsed against one side of the doorway.

Kirraley ran. She tossed herself at the stairs.

Ratchet was running up the stairs to regroup with her. She stopped at her side, linking her arm with Kirraley’s as they rapidly stumbled down the steps.
One of them tripped but together they managed to stay on their feet, quickly regaining their balance.

Richard and Naydeen lumbered after them.

Ratchet and Kirraley didn’t dare look back. They padded quickly across the living room floor and darted for the front door. Their footsteps seemed to echo their fear around them as they made their way down the tiled hallway. They tripped recklessly over the shoes left flopped in the hallway, dead set on getting out of there as fast as possible.
They made it to the front door.

Ratchet bolted a little bit ahead, her hand instantly reaching for the door knob.
She turned it sharply to the side and shoved.

“Damn it!” She hollered.

“What?” Kirraley cried, her heart panicking in her chest.

“It’s locked!” Ratchet yelled, engulfed by the rage her fear was caging her in.

Her fingers fumbled on the locks, trembling greatly from her trepidation.

A simultaneous cry fled from both of their lungs as Kirraley was slammed hard against Ratchet’s back. Ratchet’s face hit the metal of the door.

Richard enveloped Kirraley in the folds of his arms, wrapping both arms tightly around her in a way that pinned her arms to her chest. She struggled in his grasp, flailing, trying to cry for help. The pressure on her chest made it hard for her to breathe, impossible for her to scream.

He roughly tugged her backwards through the hallway, dragging her towards the stairs, right back where she came from. As he pulled her back his arms kept bashing harder against her chest, winding her. She was gasping for air by the time they reached the foot of the stairs. He twisted so that his one arm was around her waist and his other hand was interlocked in her hair.

He yanked on her hair, pulling her backwards up the stairs.

She yelped breathlessly, weakly, with each tug.

Ratchet, on the other hand, was firmly grabbed by Naydeen who yanked her back away from the metal door.

A long string of blood dripped down from Ratchet’s nose and spattered against the white tiles. She felt slightly dazed from hitting her head against the door, the rush of swelling and bruising expanding across her face.

Naydeen began to pull her backwards through the hallway.

Something seized up inside of Ratchet, the dizziness prohibiting her ability to fight back. She didn’t even start fighting against Naydeen’s grasp until they reached the stairs.

Kirraley had just been dragged into the bedroom, still unable to suck a deep, satisfying breath into her lungs. Richard twisted her in his grip and flung her down onto the bed.
Kirraley gasped heavily, vocal chords quivering in her throat as she fought for full breaths. Richard turned to her then, pinning her down to the end of the bed by her shoulders. She squirmed, trying to get a vantage point in which she could strike him.

She tried to kick him back but the short distance between them made it impossible.
He lurched forward, climbing up on her. She squealed and tried to retreat away from him.

He let her pull herself back further down on the bed a little before flipping himself to dig his knees into her stomach.

The breath was knocked completely out of her. Her stomach reverberated with the tingling and swelling sensation of being bruised. It felt like her ribs were about to collapse down around her.

Richard leaned in close to her so that there was a very short distance between their faces. She thrashed harder, turning her head swiftly away, desperate and determined to break free.
He grabbed her face in between his hands so quickly with such force that his palms slapped her skin with a perceptible noise.

She brought her hands up rapidly, as if it were a kneejerk reaction, and boxed him on both sides of the head, bringing the heels of her palms against both of his ears.
He cried out and yanked his hands away, placing them over his ears which thrummed with great pain.
Blood slowly ran from them, slipping between his fingers.

The adrenaline coursing thickly through her veins, Kirraley rocked on her back with her legs touching then lurched forwards, pushing her feet against his chest, knocking Richard to the ground and launching herself up onto her feet.

Ratchet was shoved violently into the room at that moment. Naydeen loomed over her and whipped out a switchblade Ratchet’s eyes widened. She began to crawl backwards along the floor, terror striking her to silence.

Kirraley froze for a moment, feeling utterly trapped.

She had to save Ratchet as best as she could! They both had to get out of there together! Where were the police anyway? Shouldn’t they be here by now?

Ratchet let out a high-pitched, piercing scream that tapered off into shrill rawness as Naydeen dove at her with the knife.

Kirraley sprang forward, putting her hands on Richard’s back and propelling herself forwards.

She darted towards Naydeen and locked her arms around Naydeen’s neck, tugging back on her sharply, fighting to haul her off of Ratchet. She pulled her back. Both of them stumbled backwards, the knife dropping to the floor.

Naydeen turned on her heels, facing Kirraley with pure, unbridled hatred clearly screaming in her eyes. She turned her hands into fists, throwing a punch for Kirraley’s face. Kirraley shot her arm up, blocking Naydeen’s punch with an arm bar and then continued to fluidly drop her arm down on Naydeen’s, knocking it limply to her side.

Ratchet sprang to her feet behind Naydeen and rushed towards her, grabbing a fistful of her hair and tugging her towards the ground.

At that precise moment Richard’s hands seized Kirraley’s neck from behind.
She fought hard against him, grabbing at his hands, trying to wrench his fingers off of her throat. Common sense and fighting instinct claimed her then.

She jabbed him as hard as she could, swinging her arm back, with her elbow into his chest, painfully close to his sternum. He doubled over slightly. She then grabbed his arm and, summoning all of her strength, managed to tear it off her neck. She whirled around and kicked him straight across the face. He slumped over to one side, doubled over, placing his hands against his cheek. Blood transferred on to his fingers. She rushed to get away from him, sprinting in long strides towards the other side of the bed, further away from Ratchet and Naydeen. If she could get away from Richard, hike herself onto the bed and then fling over in their directions…if she angled it right perhaps she could knock Naydeen clear off of
Ratchet and they’d be home free.

It was a struggle, punching and kicking and clawing and biting and fighting one another for the use of a knife.

Kirraley had no clue who was winning.

She ducked around the corner of the bed, getting to the side where it was just carpet next to a large window covered by blinds and heavy grey drapes.

Richard attacked her then.

He grabbed her and threw her. A scream split the air as she crashed into a bedside table. The lamp overhead fell to the floor, just missing Kirraley’s head, its glass lamp shade shattering on the ground. Richard picked up the lamp in his hands. Part of the glass lamp shade was still attached, its broken glass sticking out like sharp teeth, partially exposing the bare light bulb.

He swung it at her, not in full force. He didn’t want to kill her yet, he hadn’t gotten what he wanted from her at all. And he was dying to get it.

The lamp cracked against her cheek, knocking her over to lay flat on her side with a cry. She could feel the light bulb seer against her skin and its weight crush against her face with a crack.

Thick blood began to run from the wound, tracking down her cheek. Richard fell to the floor, his pant-covered knees grinding against the glass. It snapped beneath his weight as he crawled towards her.

Kirraley’s eyelid twitched, part of the glass having sliced lightly down upon it. He grasped her by the throat and leaned forward. With lightless eyes he leaned his face towards hers and licked the blood running down her cheek with his broad tongue, licking up and down the side of her face. She winced, cringing backwards, against the sting it placed against the wound and the feeling of his sadistic saliva. He made the blood running down her cheek paint her skin in streaky madness. Then he pushed her hard against the night table.

She whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut. A thick drop of red blood dewed behind her closed left eyelid.

He straddled his legs over her kneecaps, which were brought up to almost chest level. He placed his hands on her shoulders and shoved her down, her head smacking against the table.

He would get what he wanted from her, even on the floor, even on this “bed” of broken glass. He would…and then he would eternally silence her.

She cried out a whimper.

A high pitched scream filled the air that made her heart stop dead in her chest.
Richard bit her lower lip, ran his hands down the front of her body, slowly started sliding them up her shirt.

Tears ran, tears mixed with blood, from Kirraley’s eyes.

Why hadn’t he just bashed in her skull with that damned lamp! She didn’t want to die like
this; she didn’t want this to happen to her before she died! Why hadn’t she preformed more of her martial arts training against him, why hadn’t she paralyzed him or something first.

Now both she and Ratchet were going to die.

There was another scream.

Richard’s probing flingers slid up her back.

She began to whimper harder, the tears falling faster.

Another scream, than a gargling noise.

He threw his body harder upon her.

“Just finish her now!” Naydeen’s cry filled the air.

He drew a knife up over Kirraley’s neck.

Just a few more minutes and then he would kill her. He liked to make them bleed while he
got what he wanted from them. He stabbed her hard in the shoulder. She cried out. He dove down for a kiss.

The window exploded.

Kirraley looked up in shock, trying to shield her eyes.

There, in the falling rain of glass window, stood a…an angel?

Light seemed to pour out of his chest and then it blasted outwards and engulfed the entire room in white.