The Return

Chapter Forty Seven

Scarlett

Wednesday May 21st 2018.

She had a knife curled around her fingers.

White and baby blue curtains and the stench of bleach and antiseptic. Her eyes swept the room, so far withdrawn from the puddle of ketchup. No, not ketchup, stew, like the one Jenna-Sue, made with all the chunks, yet runny enough to stain walls and carpets and naked torsos.

The damn thing splattered on the couch and pooled on the floor by her feet.

It was a hoax. They invited half of Lincoln Lane to a party in the front yard. The screaming and laughing and pointing were memories even therapy couldn't save her from. She blacked out soon after the cluster of students got enough pictures to flood their social media. 

She could still hear Farida's helpless shriek...

Piss ran down her legs.

She was no better than her father.

"Good, you're awake." Robert Lawler said scribbling something down on a clipboard. He flashed a light in her eye. "You were involved in a kidnapping."

So, it wasn't a drunken nightmare.

"The three kids involved had been apprehended."

It didn't change the fact that pictures were circulating of her beaten and bruised naked body. Whatever was left of her social media presence was dead. She could see the memes now.

"We ran some tests and we found DNA indicating signs of sexual assault." It wasn't news to her. He looked unsure. "You have to report this, Miss. Leighton,"

She had a dull ache in her chest.

She waited patiently, long after Farida's deep guttural scream pierced her bones. She didn't want to leave her only form of defense wedged in Farida's arm, though she didn't think she had the strength to get it out...

"You have been placed under observation, though it's a precaution; we want to be sure you weren't infected with an STI and our head nurse already administered emergency contraceptives upon your arrival and you're responding nicely." Never mind that she underwent enough physical and mental abuse to cause irreparable damage. "Your mother was here a little earlier, she will be back after her shift." He added.

...She rounded the corner from the foosball table, pressed flush against the walls. She let out a raucous scream when she ran directly into a hard chest for the second time that night. And unlike the first time, it wasn't Lucas's cold empty eyes glaring down at her. It was Malcolm. And as if filled with a flicker of regret, he walked her to the front door, right into the sea of bodies...