A Descent into Darkness

A New Plan

Rachel seems to realize something is wrong by our expressions.

"What?" she asks before looking down at the glass and then back at us. Then she seems to feel something and drops the glass.

"What did you give me?" she asks.

Well, we didn't give it to you, you drank it uninvited. Though we did leave it sitting out and did plan on giving it to you.

"No, it's not what you think," Veronica sputters, an ironic echo of myself earlier.

"You... you drugged me," Rachel is clearly feeling lightheaded.

"You drank that glass that was just sitting out," Veronica says. "We weren't going to give it to you. It's just my Mom's sleeping pills."

Rachel clearly doesn't believe her and is trying to get to the door.

"Whoa," I jump up and hold her back.

"Let me go," she pants, getting even weaker, even using me to hold herself up.

"Just sleep it off," I say. "Sleep it off, and then you're free to go."

Rachel struggles to move but only succeeds in slamming her leg into the coffee table.

I ease her over to the couch and sit her down. "You'll be okay," I tell her.

But her eyes are wide with fear, though they're clearly getting heavier and heavier. I'm starting to think it's the way I say it. No one I knock out believes me in the moment when I tell them they'll be fine. And with that, she loses consciousness.

Syed looks at me. "What do we do now, Ted Bundy? Tie her up? If we do let her go to turn herself in after this, the cops could have questions about the marks on her."

"I don't think we'll have to tie her up," I reply. "I just want to confront Erin one more time and see if she can explain her stake in this. And if she lies or can't explain it away, we can refocus our efforts on her going forward and when Rachel wakes up and we let her go to the cops. If Rachel tries to finger us, it will be our word against hers. Still would be better if we can convince her to keep quiet."

"I'm sorry, why do you have to do that now?" Veronica asks. She gestures toward Rachel. "Shouldn't we play it smart, let her wake up and go turn herself in, and then worry about what to do with Erin?"

"I do want to talk to her before Rachel gets to the police station," I say. "Who knows what kind of connections her father has. Once Rachel's gone in and given her story, she could cover her tracks."

"You better go talk to her quickly, though," Veronica says. "My parents are coming home in just over three hours. Whatever we're gonna do, we gotta do before then. They may believe Rachel's just fallen asleep, but I really don't want her here when they get home, if we can avoid it."

"You think he should go alone?" Syed asks Veronica before turning to me. "No offence, Nate, but if Erin had some devious motive here, she could be more dangerous than we realize. You want one of us to come with you?"

"I'll be fine, you guys babysit Rachel. Let her know when she wakes up that this was a mistake." I keep my tone calm, but I now worry that he and Veronica may have put too much faith in me here. I hadn't planned for the possibility that someone else may also be at fault for what happened to Liza.

Veronica looks down at Rachel. "Well, like I said, if you are going to talk to Erin, do it quick. We can't leave her like this for long."

"Um, hate to bring up the obvious flaw in this plan," Syed interjects. "But to talk to Erin quickly, we have to know where she is and have her be willing to talk."