Status: I'm using this as my NaNo this year so hopefully many updates will come out of it! :3

Facade

Chapter Two - Part 1

I woke to the sound of music coming from down the hallway. It wasn't what I would normally listen to, there was way too much screaming. My natural assumption was that it was Riley’s but with how everything had been turning out so far I wouldn’t have been too surprised if it ended up being Joey’s. Beth’s…would be pushing it. I closed my eyes again to try and get back to sleep but it was no use, I was awake now. Cursing Riley to the fiery depths of hell as I checked my phone and saw it was only eight in the morning, I quickly pulled some clothes on and brushed out my hair from the bun it had been in all night.

Reluctant to go downstairs and face people at such an early time in the morning, or to face people at all really, I hung around reading an old magazine for a while as a delaying tactic. It was something from my past life, now all the articles seemed superficial and stupid. Despite this, the magazine was still finished too quickly for my liking. I knew I’d eventually have to face them so in the end I decided to just get it over with. I was going to be seeing a lot of them in the coming months so I should just suck it up and get used to it already. Deep breaths, and I managed to get myself out of the door.

When I got down there though, there was no one around. Only a hastily scrawled note left on the table was there to greet me when I started my ravenous search for breakfast and people (but mainly breakfast):

‘Rachel,

We’ve gone to town to do some grocery shopping, we’ll be back before 12. Feel free to get around and explore the village if you want. Just be back by half one, that’s lunch time.

Have fun,
Joey’


“Who the hell goes shopping at 8 in the morning?” I asked out loud, unable to help myself.

“My mum and dad, obviously.” Riley’s voice behind me made me jump, I hadn’t heard him sneak up on me. Placing a hand on my heart, I swivelled around, glaring at him.

“You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that, you know.” He rolled his eyes at me and crossed his arms so that he looked very stereotypical as he leant against the doorframe. I dug my fingers into my palms to stop myself from making a stupid comment.

“Oh, and why is that?” I really had the urge to punch the smirk right off of his face but that wouldn’t be a good start to settling down with the family so I dug my nails in harder instead. Any second now and I’d be drawing blood, the skin was so easily breakable because of the amount of times I’d drawn blood in the past. I’d probably be left with permanent scars.

“Because one of these days someone’ll turn around and be so scared that they’ll beat the shit out of you,” I said sweetly, smiling as innocently as I could manage. He snorted.

“ I’ll keep that in mind. Though I think I just wont creep up on someone that’s psychopathic and I think I’ll be good,” he smirked. I decided to ignore him and carried on the search for something to eat; I was so hungry it felt like my stomach was eating itself. “There’s nothing to eat in the house, stupid. Why do you think they went grocery shopping?”

“Oh I don’t know…Maybe to stock up on douche bag tablets for you?” It wasn't my best comeback, I have to admit but it still made his eyes widen a little. I guess he didn’t expect it, coming from me. Most people never do, but I like that. I always tried to do the opposite of what people expected but then it got complicated and I ended up doing what was easiest.

“Nice comeback, did you come up with that all by yourself?” The patronising tone of his voice made me want to punch him for the second time in the space of not even three minutes. He must have been going for some sort of new record. My palms were burning and the pain managed to calm me down a little.

“Oh, bite me.” I couldn’t be bothered to stand and argue, mainly because I felt like my stomach would soon turn on other organs inside my body and I’d probably die soon if I didn’t eat, but also because it tired me out. In a typically dramatic fashion, I stormed out, making sure to push him on the way. Quick as I could move in my weakened state, I grabbed my keys and purse from my room and headed out of the door. Riley didn’t stop me but I wasn't expecting him to anyway.

As it was late when I arrived at the village and therefore dark, it was hard to remember the route we’d come to get back to the car park and my car, but seeing as the village was small it didn’t take that much effort to find it. The day was colder than the one before though, and so I found myself wishing I’d thought to bring a jacket and blaming Riley for my own forgetfulness.

When I got to the car park mine was easy to locate as it was the only one in the whole thing. The words stood out easily and I knew something was wrong straight away. Something was written on my car in bright orange lettering. I was too far away to make out what it read though, so I half walked, half ran to where it was parked.

When I was very little, back in the good days, my mother was taking me for a walk in the forest when we happened across the body of a dead deer. It had obviously been there for a while as the smell was sickening. My mother tried to drag me away but as much as she pleaded for me to come, I couldn’t move. I was just staring transfixed at the deer. My mind was desperately trying to comprehend what I was seeing in front of me but no matter how hard I tried, it just wouldn’t sink in. Sometimes still even now, I dream about it.

That was how I felt as I stood in front of the car. My eyes read the words ‘leave and never come back, your father is a murderer! Get as far away as you can, stay away! Your father is a murderer! Murderer!’ but my brain was slow to understand what these words meant, as if wanting to protect me from the trauma of knowing what those words meant would cause. It took a while before any sort of realisation dawned on me and then I suddenly felt faint and had to sit down.

In. Out. Focus on your breathing. In. Out. Putting all of my efforts into keeping my breathing steady was all that was keeping me from getting into my car, words and all, and getting the hell out of there as fast as the crappy car could manage. I kept my eyes firmly trained on the pavement underneath me, I didn’t trust myself to look back at my car again, I had no idea what I would do. Pushing the words from my mind was difficult but I couldn’t think right then, I needed to be calm before I worked out what I was going to do about it. I’m not sure how long I stayed like that, counting the tiny pieces of gravel on the floor and taking deep breaths, but it was a while. When I finally felt calm enough and brave enough to have a look at the words again, it seemed as if forever had passed.

I’d almost managed to convince myself I imagined the words, but when I looked up, they were still there. Reaching over whilst still sitting down, I ran a hand over the nearest letter to find the orange rubbed off on my hand. Whoever had done this had at least saved me from a repainting job, at least. My legs seemed unsteady as I stood, and a sick feeling had settled in the pit of my stomach, but I was okay to look at the words. The day-glo orange hand writing was in block capitals, so there would be no chance of me finding out who did it using handwriting comparison. I took pictures of the car from all angles though, just in case.

“Leave and never come back…You’re father is a-“ the word stuck in my throat. I couldn’t bear to think of Joey doing something like that. I didn’t know him at all but he didn’t seem like the murdering type. Plus he was my flesh and blood… It gave me the creeps just thinking about it.

The car almost seemed as if it was mocking me, I couldn’t bear to stand and look at it any longer. My legs couldn’t carry me away from there quick enough, and soon I was sprinting. I still wasn't totally sure on the route back to the house but after a small period of confusion I found a familiar road and remembered where I was supposed to go. A small part of me was glad of the exertion from the run. When I was younger I ran as a way of releasing pent up frustration but as I got older there never seemed to be any time. It was all I could do to attempt to keep on top of cleaning the house as well as my school work. All that time and energy spent, and it hardly made a difference at all.

I didn’t bother knocking as I pushed open the door, it was meant to be my house too so I guess it would be okay for me to start treating it like my own. The shock of the door slam must have attracted Riley’s attention because less than a minute later he was running down the stairs to see what the problem was. He grabbed my shoulder as I walked past but I just shook it off. I didn’t want to deal with him right then…What if he knew? Disgust coursed through me as the thought occurred to me. I headed into the kitchen on the pretence of looking for something to eat but the sickness in my stomach was still strong and I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep anything down.

Riley followed me but I did my best to ignore him. He watched silently as I opened and re-opened cupboard almost hysterically before I realised I was just repeating what I’d done exactly before I came out. Wondering if he thought I was stupid or crazy didn’t help the situation, and in the end there was nothing else I could do but to sit at the table and put my head in my hands. Not that I was expecting him to, but Riley made no move to come and comfort me.

“What’s up with you?” I didn’t answer, I wasn't sure if I was ready to tell anyone what had happened to me just yet and if I had to tell anyone Riley would be way, way down on the list of people I would tell (plus a small part of me was sure I’d throw up the second I opened my mouth). Footsteps came towards me, then the chair next to me was scraped back. I didn’t have to look to know he was sitting next to me, probably laughing at the sight of me like this. I wasn’t sure whether I shouldn’t be laughing myself, it was all so surreal. “Oh giving me the silent treatment are you? I’m so hurt I forgot to cry.”

The snort that erupted from me then was not at all ladylike but it helped to diffuse some of the tension in the room. He laughed then, the first time I’d heard it. It wasn’t an unpleasant sound, if you liked the sound of donkey’s being hacked to death.

“Dear God, you sound like a chorus of dying cats,” for a second I forgot about the incidents of the past hour and grinned at him. Surprisingly, he grinned back, but quickly stopped as if remembering he should be smiling at me.

“I’d rather sound like a dead animal than look like one, Rachel.”

“According to Joey we’re the spitting image of each other.”

We looked at each other for a second, neither one of us willing to give in to the other, but eventually to my surprise it’s Riley who leans back in his chair and casually pops his feet up on the table.

“Are you going to tell me what was up with you just a second ago?” I considered shaking my head, washing the words off and trying to forget about it but quickly pushed that thought aside. Curiosity was burning through me like a wildfire, I had to know why someone would write that on my car. With a small sigh I pull the picture up on my phone and hand it to Riley.

He looked at it for a second before his hand tensed up. He was gripping the phone so hard that his knuckles went white and I had to resist the urge to ask him for my phone back. It was only a small, cheap thing and I was worried that it would break, then I’d have no way of contacting Gran. He was silent for ages, and I was too nervous to break the silence – the expression on his face made it look like he might kill me. Eventually he spoke.

“About six months ago… A girl was killed in the village,” he mumbled, and shock coursed through me. The fact that a murder happened so recently made it seem even more real, as if it was something I thought I dreamt about but suddenly discovered it had actually happened. “She was well liked, didn’t really have any enemies. Dad was the prime suspect, simply because he was the last person to see her alive. He didn’t kill her, but the other message on the car is right. You shouldn’t stick around here.”

I wanted to ask more about the murder but it seems too touchy. Instead I asked about his last comment.

“Why can’t I stay?” I leant closer towards him as if to hug him, but I was really just trying to get my phone. When he saw what I wanted he dropped it in my hand and stood up suddenly.

“Just trust me, this isn’t the nicest place in the world. You’ll be happier if you leave.” What, and go back to the place with the drugs and the parties and the endless numb feeling? No thank you, I’d rather take my chances in the village, I thought as I flicked through the photos on my phone.

“Any chance you want to elaborate on that?” I asked, not really hopeful of getting a response. I was right, he was already gone.
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Woo! No excuse as to why this is so late, seeing as it was already pre written. College has been time consuming, I guess. Two more parts are pre written :)

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