A Condemned Haven

Chapter 32

Being happy was overrated, or at least that must have been what the universe was trying to tell her. As soon as she walked into her house, she could feel the heaviness in the air. Something had happened since she'd been gone in the past few hours. As she walked into the living room, she saw her parents sitting on the couch. Her father was impatiently shaking his leg with his hands clasped. He looked livid. A glass of dark liquid was sitting on the table in front of them, probably whiskey, her father's drink of choice. Her mother sat there looking a little frightened and hastily glancing between her father and the floor.

"What happened?" Her mother was the first to look at her, while her father stared at the ground.

"The police visited my house again for the millionth time since you came back. They were looking for you." Her father spoke gruffy, sounding vaguely like a threat.

"About what?"

"Another kid died today. Aidan Whitham. His parents are good friends of ours. They called very distraught and threatened to sue us. They wanted to bring you in for questioning but considering me and your mother had no clue where you were, we couldn't exactly tell them anything."

"I was down the street at Jacks." He stood up quickly with rage plain as day.

"I don't care where you were. I don't care who you whore around with, but you are a representation of this family and you are ruining it. You come back into this house with no regard for me or your mother, thinking you can do whatever you please. You are a child and you will abide by my rules. You will not leave this house unless we tell you to." He was screaming at her now and the veins on his head were popping out. It was Clarkes turn to get angry. How dare he think that he could control her life. She didn't do anything wrong and she wasn't going to sit here and act like she did.

"You can't control me. I went to a friend's house today. I'm sorry that kid died, but I didn't do it. I have an alibi so stop treating me like I'm guilty. As for calling me a whore, you are way out of line. Jack and I are friends and you will not accuse me of things that I am not doing."

Her father very calmly picked up his drink and drained the rest of the liquid. When his arm suddenly slung it at her she wasn't ready. It barely missed her head and crashed into the wall behind her. Her mother didn't say anything, just sat there silently. Clarke could feel herself trembling. She willed it to stop, but the fear was rooted deeply in her soul. Her father was scaring her half to death.

"Get the hell out of my house right now, before I don't miss the next time." He didn't need to tell her twice. She was angry enough that she was scared she would throw something back and make things worse.

She stormed out the door, realizing she had left her keys in the house. She couldn't drive so where was she supposed to go? It was dark out now and considering there was someone going around and murdering people, she didn't want to be walking around. The last time she did that she ended up with a bat in the back. She could hear her parents yelling inside and she figured that the battle to get her keys from inside just wasn't worth it. She could go to Jack's, but she had just saw him. They had such a good day together she didn't want to ruin it with this. There was really only one other place she could go, and while it would be a little weird, it was better than hanging around outside her house. As she walked up to James' door, she wasn't sure if this was too weird or not. She had been across the street her entire life, but he was always a grade below her, so she never really knew him. As soon as she knocked on the door, she heard footsteps. James opened the door looking at his phone and when he looked up, he was a little shocked that Clarke was there.

"Uh hey."

"Hey, my dad kind of temporarily kicked me out of the house and you live across the street. I know it's weird, but my keys are in the house and I don't exactly want to go get them."