The Secret of Darkcliff

Chapter Eight: 7 Hours

7:56am (Vicki's P.O.V)

The sunlight floods my room when I open my eyes. I sit up in bed and pull back the covers. My hair is a mess and my eyes are still red from crying. I don't remember falling asleep after we came back. My father must have came into my room to check in on me and tucked me in.

I quickly climb out of bed and out of my room. I run down the tiny hallway, my bare feet making low creaking noises on the wooden floor. I rush into my fathers room only to find it empty. He must have already left for work. He couldn't afford to be late after what happened last night.

Disappointed, I walk back into my room to change into fresh clothes. I choose my favorite black jeans with a white crop top and a sweater to match. It was always cold in Darkcliff, even in the summer. I combed my hair and fixed my make-up before going downstairs.

After making breakfast, I grabbed my bag and my longboard and left the house. I had to go back to school eventually. My father would know that I skipped again and I don't want to worry him even more.

I pass Jackson's house and his empty porch. I can't believe that old hag gave up her son like that. I can't believe that she ripped apart somebody's vocal chords. I don't know whether or not to believe Solent. Would he lie about something like that?

I don't trust him and that's final. I don't even trust my father. I know that he's trying to protect our family but I don't trust him to tell me the truth unless my life depends on it.

I approach the school building, picking up speed on my longboard. I stare at the cold, brick building in dismay. What awaited me inside?

"Watch where you're going on that thing!" a guy's voice made me snap back into reality.

I quickly put my foot down on the pavement to stop my board and tripped forward from the speed. I groaned in pain when my knees hit the hard ground below me. My board slowly slid down the street as I looked over my bleeding knees. If my jeans weren't ripped already, now they were torn.

The guy and his friends walked past me and snickered. Why couldn't the facility kidnap these assholes instead of those innocent children? I slowly got up to my feet and gasped at the pain my knees were causing me. Where was my board?

I looked around and finally spotted it underneath a car. I ran towards the white van and laid down on the ground to reach for it. I stretched my hand out but it was too far away. I slowly crawl under the van, inching towards it.

That's when I hear the engine start. Panicked, I grab my board and crawl out of there before I'm driven over. The car takes off and I stare after it, sitting on the street with my board pressed against my chest. "HRB" is printed in blue letters on the back of the van. The image brings back memories from last night. Sandra.

What were the men from the facility doing at my school? I get up to my feet again and walk towards the school. My day is off to a great start. I scrapped both my knees and was almost driven over by the facility's van.

As soon as I enter the hallways, I hear the latest gossip.

"OMG! Did you hear? Bruce Woxell broke up with Victoria Middleton!".

"Bruce is single?!?!?".

"Ahhhhh! Maybe now I can make a move on him!".

"Why did he break up with her?".

Oh girls, he's all yours.

"Yo, that Victoria chick is hot".

"Bruce told me that she spends all of her time in the forest on the other side of the island, like a fucking creep".

"What does she do there?".

"He said he thinks she fingers herself to his picture or something".

I gasp in disgust. I knew that Bruce was a perverted, horny teenage guy but I didn't realize just how far he was willing to take it.

"Why can't she just do that at home?".

"Her mother is the town's drunk and people say that she beats her".

I can't listen to all this crap anymore. How can people assume so many terrible things without knowing shit about me or my life? The people in Darkcliff really are stupid. Stupid and blind.

7 hours later...

The entire day passed with me being bullied and gossiped about, while Bruce was viewed as the hero. The most popular guy in school, single again. All the girls wouldn't stop gossiping about him. All the guys wouldn't stop gossiping about me.

No one wanted to hear my side of the story. No one gave a shit. Solent is right. If I tried to tell everyone the truth about the facility, no one would even listen. And if they did hear me, they would simply laugh.

I've had enough of it. The entire day sucked! I was tired of being tormented verbally and physically by my classmates. I was tired of the facility fucking everything up. I was tired of Darkcliff in general. The idea of living here made me sick to my very stomach.

With no where else to go, I found myself on my longboard riding down the road to the forest. I was so used to it by now that I was doing it unknowingly, out of habit. Out of instinct. Tears ran down my cheeks and the wind kept wiping them away for me.

I don't even care if Solent sees me on the cameras. I don't care if he takes me inside and conducts his sick tests on me. Anything is better than life out here, in the town. I'd give anything to see Jackson right now. To hug him. To save him. All I can do, to pay him a visit, is sit in the forest and stare at the facility. Imagining which room he was in. What kind of pain they were causing him at that very moment.

That powerless feeling made me sob even harder. I pounded at the ground with my foot, urging the board to go faster and faster.

Suddenly the board stops, probably hitting a rock or something. I fly backwards and the board, free of my weight, speeds forward. I fall on the pavement and yelp in pain. It feels as if someone just hit my spine with a baseball bat. The pain in my head is even worse. I grab my head with both of my hands and feel something moist.

Bringing my hand back to my face, I see the blood that stained my fingers red. The blood is the last thing I see, before my vision slowly becomes a dark and quiet void.

***

"Daddy!" I rush into my father's bedroom.

"Victoria?" he replies.

"I can't find Jack! He's not at his home, he didn't come to school and he wasn't at the playground!" I say.

"Honey......." he starts.

"Mommy wouldn't even let me wait for him at the playground. She went to a liquor store and drove us home" I continue.

"Victoria, honey.......Jack isn't the only one that's gone. Besides him, 5 other kids are missing" he finishes.

"Well........when is he coming back?" I ask.

My father puts a hand up to his face and then looks up blinking a couple of times. He won't look at me.

"Daddy?" I say.

"He's not coming back, peach. None of them are" he answers and breaks into tears.

***

My eyes snap open and I'm blinded by the bright light. It takes my eyes a while to adjust and once they do, I see the room that I'm in.

It's a white, bright room. Am I dead? I look up at the ceiling and see that it's made of glass. Like a huge mirror. I can see my reflection. I'm strapped to a white bed, wearing a tight black jumpsuit. There's a black tattoo on the left side of my neck.

The number 147 along with, what looks like, a barcode. I tug at the restraints around my wrists but they're too tight. So are the ones around my ankles. Suddenly, the door to the room opens and an elderly lady walks inside. She walks up to the bed with a black clipboard in her hands.

"Welcome to the Fears Department..........Test Subject #147".