In a Forest, Under a Tree Where Many Plans Were Made

Chapter Thirteen

🌲Poison Ivy🌲

Summer had a nightmare. In it, she was wrapped in vines, and she was writhing around, trying to get out. But thorns were cutting into her skin, and the more she struggled the more entangled she became.

She woke sweating. She didn't know why, but she felt that this dream was going to somehow be significant to what the day would hold.

Summer wanted to see Ivy for some reason, but she didn't know where she lived. Summer sighed: she'd just have to wander about town and hope she would see her.

But it was apparently not to be.

Sharell had gone out early that morning, saying she had to meet someone. Summer had asked who, but Sharell had only waved her hand, vaguely saying something about an 'old friend'. Summer thought perhaps Roux, but something kept nagging at her, saying something more sinister was happening.

Anyway, Sharell had come back about five minutes ago, and had a very long shower and was now continuously washing her hands at random times, chuckling and sometimes muttering 'out damn spot' then giggling again.

Summer was standing at the door, watching, while Sharell was muttering: "Fie my lord fie, a soldier and afraid? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would've thought the old man to have so much blood in him...."

Sharell blushed after Summer had cleared her throat, yet, the blush was fake, made by biting the inside of her cheeks. The inside of her mouth often tasted like blood, as Sharell had to fake blush a lot.

"Um... I was just reciting some Macbeth. It's a guilty pleasure or something, I don't know. I just love the play."

Summer thought this ironic.

"I like it too. What part were you reciting just now?" she asked, trying for polite conversation.

"That scene where Lady Macbeth was sleep-walking, and the doctors were watching. She'd gone mad."

Summer thought of Sharell of a bit of a Lady Macbeth, but minus the remorse.

"Yeah, I know it. Anyway, I was thinking about going for a walk, maybe buy a few things."

"Oh, I was going to make us all a real nice breakfast, to celebrate-" she stopped suddenly. Sharell had made a mistake, the fault of her unexplainable joy.

"Celebrate? Celebrate what?" asked Summer skeptically.

"Oh, uh... Nothing, I didn't mean to say that, I have no idea why I did. Anyway, what I was TRYING to say, is that I was gonna make us a great breakfast, then we were gonna go down to see Roux."

Summer was, to use the modern term, in some deep shit.

Roux would hardly remember Summer, therefore making Sharell suspicious, and in the process making her a possible 'new target'.

It seemed she was going to have to go with it though, and make up some faux story, like speaking to someone else, who she thought said 'Roux' instead of their name. It probably wouldn't work, at least not for long, but it beats the alternative.

So they arrived. Roux squealed as Sharell opened the door, chirping a light-hearted "Hey Roux!!".

"Roux, this is Jack, and I think you've already met Summer...?"

So this was it. Summer opened her mouth to say something, but Roux got there first.

"Oh, HEY Summer! I gave you directions to Shars house remember! Oh gosh, great to see you!"

So Roux DID remember Summer, most likely because of her temporarily living with Sharell. Roux was like a fan was to a famous pop-star. Sharell was less of a friend than an idol.

"Oh, Shar, you'll never believe what I heard about Ivy..." gossiped Roux. Summers ears pricked up.

"So, do you remember where she lives?" Sharell replied quickly with the address. A little too quickly, for someone who supposedly has nothing to do with her.

"Oh yeah. What a dump, perfect for a rat like her." Sharell said, and Roux giggled.

"Anyway, they're saying since she hasn't got a job, cuz she's a lazy ass, she can't afford rent anymore! Ha, her mother and father aren't providing for her anymore! Anyway, she's getting evicted! She'll be out on the streets, probably selling her body like the whore she is. Gosh, she definitely is getting what's coming to her!"

Sharell laughed a little too long. What did she know?

"Um... Guys, mind if I... Step out? I forgot my necklace, back at your place Sharell. I don't feel right not wearing it."

Summer had in fact, slipped the necklace off while they were talking and had hidden it in the folds of her dress.

Sharell nodded absently, and Jack gave her a look. With his eyes, he said:

"Are you going to see Ivy?"

And with Summers eyes, she said

"Yes".

And out she walked.

***

Summer had the address to Ivy's house burned into her mind. She walked quickly, keeping her head down and not attracting attention, but the usually busy streets were pretty quiet, except for the occasional shopper.

It felt like something had happened.

Summer knocked on Ivy's door.

"Ivy! Ivy, open up, it's me! Ivy?"

The door had swung open. It had been unlocked.

So unlike Ivy: would she not try and keep any intruders out, she seemed the careful type. Slowly, Summer walked through the hall, and in through a door which was half open, and revealed part of a single bed. The bedroom. The bed seemed to be old, creaky, but there was a carving on the end of some vines, (ivy?) which seemed quite beautiful.

But what Summer saw when she opened the door fully was far from beautiful.

Ivy lay on the bed, entangled, choked by poison Ivy, with sharp thorns sticking into her skin everywhere, bleeding her, and bloating her, making her look like something that should be inflated, yet pressure on certain parts had deflated it.

Her eyes were gouged out with knives, which lay next to her, and her square glasses had been smashed, and the shards used on her face.

Her body was bruised, from not just the ivy biting into her, cutting off circulation to her limbs, but from punches, which seemed to have been very hard, and full of hatred.

Summers eyes widened as they raked down her body, and she vomited when she got to the legs.

They were also tangled in ivy, bent at an unnatural angle, and had been cut at so ferociously, that you could see the bone.

Summer backed out of the room, unable to take her eyes away from Ivy's once pretty big brown eyes, now a messy goop on the end of a knife. She started to cry, and was tripping over herself to get out when something caught her eye, right next to Ivy's mauled a bloodied face.

A note.

Though it sickened Summer to do so, she moved forward to pick up the paper. She tried to keep her eyes away from Ivy's empty eye sockets, but the closer she got, the more injuries she saw.

She saw her spine, sticking out of her back, which explained the extreme drooping of the head. She saw a wound at her throat, exposing her oesophagus. Summer gathered all her courage, and grabbed the note, then went to read it.

All it said, was

"Looks like I've won sweetheart."