Heavy Rain

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I sat in Chemistry class and watched as Melissa strutted in the room swaying her hips ‘sexily’ with her heels clicking on the floor loudly. As she was making a move to sit in her seat, I called her name and waved with an overly innocent smile on my face. She rolled her eyes and sat down, making me smirk that my plan had worked out.

“AAAAH!” She squealed and jumped up looking at her chair to find the ketchup that I had put there. Everybody including me burst into fits of laughter, making her growl in anger as she looked at me, knowing for sure that I was the culprit.

“You!” She spat angrily, glaring in my way and gaining other peoples’ attentions. If looks could kill, I would have been six feet under. Of course she looked murderously angry. If I had ketchup all over my ass looking as if I had a feminine ‘accident’, I would have been fuming.

“Me?” I asked with an innocent tone and batted my eyelashes, faking a look of genuine confusion on my face as I furrowed my eyebrows.

“Yes, you!” She screamed in my face and I covered my ears from the squeakiness of her voice. “I know that you are responsible for this!” People from the class had gathered around us by now watching us intently and waiting for the catfight to come.

“Listen, you creep. Don’t accuse me of doing something when you have no proof!” I shot her a smug smile when she just glared at me with no comeback forming in that peanut-sized brain of hers. She humphed and turned to walk away. Everybody laughed when they got a glimpse of her ketchup-covered butt. I couldn’t help myself either- I burst out laughing and joined the people making fun of her. I wasn’t usually a bitch, but she was the one who asked for it in the first place anyways.

I thought back to how Lunch time passed- Ashton was avoiding me and Alexia like the plague. When we had tried to sit with him, he made an excuse of having to go and do ‘something’, but I knew better than to believe him.

The rest of the day passed excruciatingly slowly, and I was about to rip my hair out every time I looked at my sluggishly-ticking watch. Today, I had to tutor Ashton, and I was looking forward to that, because I really missed him.

When the last bell rang, I was really grateful that the torture had finished and I was free to go. I intended to directly go to the library, but someone had other plans for me. As I was pacing to the library, I was tackled from behind. The force of the push made us both tumble down, me getting all the impact of the hit with a thud, being the one under. I whimpered as pain spread through my injured shoulder. I rolled over groaning and pushed the person from above me, noticing that it was none other than Melissa.

“I would punch the shit out of you right now, but I have other plans,” I said trying my hardest to remain calm. She smirked at me and twirled a strand of her midnight black hair on her finger.

“Too afraid to fight back?” She asked with a smug smile on her face. I knew what her plan was- she was trying to tick off my patience, and it was working. I smirked back at her as I walked menacingly slowly towards her not giving her the satisfaction that my fist was itching to feel her nose breaking.

“You wish! At least I have something to do in my life right now, unlike you. So I don’t want to lower my standards just to ‘fight’ you,” I replied and turned on my heel to walk away, but she grabbed my hair and yanked my back harshly making me screech. I snarled at her and punched her in the face and walked away back to the library.

When I reached the library, I saw that Ashton was already there, sleeping with his head on the table. I sneaked up behind him careful not to make any sound that might have woken him up and then said:

“Eww, dude! You’re drooling!” I whisper-yelled in his ear. He jumped out of his seat and wiped his mouth with the back of his sleep and glared at me when he found it dry.

“Okay, let’s start,” I said while snorting and he rolled his eyes at me muttering "how feminine" under his breath but sat down and prepared his books nonetheless.

******

“Come on, let’s go,” I said and got up as soon as we finished with the tutoring lesson.

“Um, actually I have something to do right now,” he said and scratched his neck.

“Okay, then, I’ll drive you there,” I offered him but he seemed really desperate to get out of the situation as shook his head.

“I’ll go there myself,” he mumbled and I nodded my head. I went out of the library and hid behind the wall there as quietly as I could and pressed my back against it. When I heard the library doors open and some tapping of footsteps, I peeked outside and saw Ashton walking. When he was a safe distance away from me, I tiptoed behind him and started following him.

And that was how I spent the next fifteen minutes- following Ashton in the town. I was having a hard time remembering my way and how to get back; we were passing in foreign alleys in an empty part of town.

He finally stopped, and I hid behind a trash can pinching my nose from the horrible smell of it. I peeked from the side, but he turned and looked around confused, so I forced my head back. When he turned back, I glanced at what he was doing, and saw him picking up a recorder from the ground. Near the recorder was a little glass container with blue liquid inside, and he held it up as well, inspecting it. What the hell was he up to?

He turned the recorder on, and a rough and strident voice started talking from the other side.

“Ashton, you have failed the last task. You must thank the lord that you didn’t die. Try to succeed this one, for the time is ticking and Hannah will die soon. Inside that container is poison that will kill you in a matter of sixty minutes. You have to drink that, and when you do, Hannah’s location will be sent to your phone. You will find her and get to say goodbye before you die. You can either drink it and have the whole address sent to you once and for all, or be a coward and complete the puzzle the hard way.”

My eyes widened and my jaw dropped open. What the heck was going on?! Ashton looked between the container in his hand and the recorder, and then lowered his head and gazed at the floor lost in thought. A few minutes later, he popped the lid of the container open and lifted it to his lips, making me jump from behind the garbage can and push him to the side while screaming, “Ashton, no!” The container fell from his hands and the blue liquid spilled on the floor, the debris of the now broken glass shattering everywhere around us.

He looked at me with a horrified expression on his face and looked at the spilled poison on the floor, as I gaped at him ordering him to explain with my eyes.

“What the hell are you doing here?!” He queried in a penetrating tone, making me cower from how livid he was.

“Saving your ass from dying in an hour!” I said, sounding way more audacious than I actually felt, but then regretted it as soon as he glared at me.

“It’s none of your business!” He barked. Wow, I think this is the longest conversation that we’ve had so far!

“Yes, it is! I can help you! Who is Hannah?” I asked. He looked at me, and hesitated before he started explaining...

His past will be explained in the next chapter!