The Incredible Adventures of Aqua Girl

Chapter 3 - Detective Cass

"Get a move on, Cascade!" My mother called from the front door. I stopped scrolling through the latest news reports on my phone, grabbed my swim bag and scrambled out of my room.

"You can't wear flip flops! It's raining outside!" Mom protested, pointing at my current choice of footwear.

"And? My feet get wet at the pool. I don't have time for shoes!" I replied, locking my phone and shoving it in my pocket. Mom gave me a look that read 'you're such a lazy child', before grabbing her car keys.

"Fine. Just get in the car."

After half an hour of honking the horn at rush hour traffic, and a lot of swearing on my mother's behalf, we finally pulled into the parking lot at the pool. 

"See ya later!" I called, swinging my legs out of the car.

"I'll be waiting in the car when it finishes. Where's Rachael?" Mom replied, knowing Rachael was normally stood in the lobby waiting for me by now. I grabbed my bag from the car.

"She said she was busy..." I muttered, causing my Mom to give me a weird look.

"Well, see you later."

I slammed the car door and rushed through the rain to the lobby, where some of my other teammates were gathering. I waved at them before strutting into the lobby. Knowing I was a little bit late, I quickly changed and met everyone at the poolside.

"Good evening everyone! Today we'll be working on freestyle and butterfly strokes!" The coach boomed.

The whole team groaned.

"Jeez, that sucked." A girl from my team complained, whilst we all took a shower after practice. I had to admit, my arm muscles were aching. That's why everyone hates butterfly.

"Yeah." I agreed with the girl next to me, who, I will admit, I did not know the name of.

"Hey, isn't that girl normally watching you? Where is she tonight?"

"Rachael? Yeah...she said she was busy...but I'm not convinced." I replied, washing my hair free of conditioner.

"Sounds suspicious." The girl exclaimed, turning off her shower and squeezing her hair. "Well, see ya tomorrow."

"Hmm." I replied, lost in thought.

Maybe I should do some digging. 

Tonight.

Whether that counted as being a stalker or not, I knew when my best friend was up to something.

"Good night, Cass." I heard my Mom call from outside my bedroom. I sucked in my breath, leaning against the door. I heard her shuffle into her own bedroom with Rufus, before the door closed. A few seconds, the light switch was turned off. Time to fly into action. Literally. Being careful to not cause much noise, I padded over to the windowsill and unlocked it. Oh yeah, I was already in my supersuit.

I was prepared.

Slowly and carefully, I lifted the window up and lifted myself out and onto the windowsill. To be honest, I was surprised this windowsill was still intact, with all the standing that had been going on on it.

Blaze Boy.

Anyway. I closed the window silently behind me and stood up, embracing the night air. Bad idea. It was fricking freezing. Before I had time to think about heading back into my warm and cosy bedroom, I adjusted my mask on my face and took off into the starry sky, zooming the short distance to Rachael's house. Whilst I flew over the few streets between our homes, I scanned the evening rush for anything odd. I didn't want to be fighting anyone tonight. Luckily, all seemed well. The pavements were mostly empty except for dog walkers and a few other civilians, and the roads were still a little busy from rush hour, but all was calm and well.

The way it should be.

Soon, Rachael's house was in view. A blue, three-storey townhouse on a hill in the suburbs. The usual San Fran house. Unlike me, Rachael had an older brother, Frank. But he was much older than Rachael, and had moved out to go to college elsewhere. Rachael's mother was a nurse in the hospital downtown, and her father worked in one of the tall buildings in the city, doing boring desk stuff. I didn't really know, to be honest. All I knew was that her house was basically my second home, and her family were my second family. I decided to land in her garden and then climb the drainpipes to see into her room. It was the most discreet plan of action, instead of blasting my water jets everywhere. I took a slow approach into her small garden, but that didn't really work. I landed with a smack on the wooden decking.

"Shoot!" I mumbled under my breath, standing up and rubbing my ribcage where I had hit the ground. Yeah, I still needed to work on my landing skills. After I recollected myself, I looked up at Rachael's house. Pitch black.

Well, that was expected at 11:30 at night.

Feeling my way through the darkness, I found the drainpipe and looked up, cursing at Rachael for having a bedroom on the third floor. How inconsiderate. After awkwardly and quietly shuffling up the drainpipe, praying to whatever God there was for it not to break and fall, I finally reached the third storey.

Only to find Rachael's bedroom window wide open.

And Rach not inside.

"What the..." I muttered, checking her floral and pink bedroom for any signs of life. Nothing. Now that was weird.

That's when I heard a voice from the roof.

"Ah!"

It sounded awfully like Rachael.

Curious, I grabbed onto the drainpipe again and shuffled up to the roof, heaving my body over the edge and onto the damp tiles. Thank God it still wasn't raining. I looked up from where I was laying on the roof and saw Rachael, standing infront of me looking shocked. I looked down at where I was putting my feet, not wanting to slip over, and stood up.

She was gone.

Panicking that she had slipped and fallen from the rooftop, I scrambled over to where she was standing and peaked over the edge, my heart racing.

Nothing. Just the simple front steps of her house. No blood, no body.

I was shocked, and I didn't know what to do. What would you do if you saw you best friend on a roof one second, and the next second she was gone, heh?

Suddenly, I heard a cough from behind me.

A/N: Hello everyone! How are you all doing? What's Rachael up to, heh? Apologies for the fairly slow updates, I've got a heck of a lot of school work and revision atm, so I'm updating whenever I have the free time!