CHAPTER SIX
song: somebody's watching me — rockwell
THANKFULLY, THE CONVERSATION Rachel had with her family at dinner time was a lot calmer than the one they had before. Her dad came home from work in a good mood and it felt like no one wanted to ruin that so Joanna and Imogen didn't bring up their discussion with Rachel to the table. But he would find out eventually, which scared her. Her mother was bad, but her dad was so much worse. The punishments, the way he talked to them, his inability to empathize... Rachel didn't remember a time where she wasn't terrified of him. Of her own father.
She knew he didn't like them. He had never wanted to have girls even though he took a special interest in Imogen as she grew up due to how talented she was in every aspect. Rachel saw right through her older sister. The effort and thought behind her every move to impress him and her mother. It certainly worked for her. But never for Rachel. Or Grace. Or little Sarah.
Now that he finally got a son, he seemed to be happier.
After cleaning the table, she went back upstairs with Grace. They had a strict timetable so they had to get ready for bed in twenty minutes after dinner.
As Rachel put on her pajamas and Grace combed her hair for the fifth time in the past few hours, she heard a pebble hit their room's window.
They looked at each other, confused.
"Are you expecting someone?" Rachel questioned.
"Uh-uh" Grace shook her head "Are you?"
"Nope."
She opened the window and looked down just to see Amy standing in the darkness of their garden with a big smile on her face. "It's Amy" Rachel said to Grace, who was the only one who knew about their friendship. Then, she lowered her voice to talk to the girl "What are you doing here?"
"Come down." Amy gestured, speaking in the same whispery voice "I have to show you something."
"What— Now?" Rachel frowned.
"Yeah, come on." Amy rushed her.
Rachel turned to Grace "Will you snitch on me if I leave?"
Grace scoffed, raising her eyebrows "That'd be Imogen, not me. Go and have fun doing whatever it is that you do. Just don't come home late."
Rachel nodded giving her sister a smile. She quickly took her pajama's shorts off and put on her mom jeans. She didn't even bother to take the upper part off, she just messily slid her sweater over her head before putting her boots on and climbing out the window.
It was a little high considering her room was on the second floor, but she had always managed to come down without a scratch. She usually would hold on to the roof and the few stones that protruded from her house facade.
Finally, she made it to the ground. Amy ran towards her car, which was parked a couple houses down, followed by Rachel. Once they were inside with the doors locked, Rachel decided to ask "What do you want to show me?"
"It's actually a place" The brunette responded "But I'll keep it a surprise."
It wasn't the first time she had sneaked out with Amy, they used to do it a lot during summer, when they became friends. They would always smoke joints together at some random place, like the forest or next to the gas station. But that time felt different. Amy had never turned up wanting to show Rachel something in such a mysterious way. Even less a location. And that mystery intrigued her.
Rachel realized they had reached the outskirts of town right before Amy parked her car again in an empty street next to the forest entry.
"So... the forest? That's it?" Rachel frowned with disappointment.
"No, dummy. But we have to continue on foot from this point forward." She explained, getting out of her car.
"Oh, God. How far is it?" Rachel complained, rolling her eyes lazily as she got out the car as well.
"Patience is a virtue, you know?" Amy laughed "Follow me."
Rachel walked behind Amy, almost dragging her feet. Her brunette friend insisted on hiding in the shadows of the night so that no other car could see them around the area. Rachel thought it was odd but decided not to question Amy's ideas since there was usually a good reason behind them.
They finally arrived to the mysterious place. A secluded house in the middle of nowhere. It was big. Specially the garden, which was full of trees and bushes. Rachel felt uneasy at the sight of it. It seemed like a regular family home, she could tell by the several kid toys displayed on the garden grass right at the end of the porch stairs. But it was the fact that they were in the outskirts of town, next to the forest. Not a good place for small children to be around.
"Awesome." said Rachel sarcastically "Beautiful house. Are you planning on buying it or something?"
"Very funny." Amy rolled her eyes with a smile "It's the Parker's home."
Rachel stopped in her tracks and gave Amy a weird look "What? That's some creepy ass stalker behavior."
"Shut up, Ray" Amy responded as she continued to walk, entering their lawn. Thankfully it was too dark for them to be seen "Don't tell me you weren't curious about where they live."
"Um... No?" She said with a confused look on her face.
"Whatever." Amy shrugged, like it wasn't a big deal.
The brunette started moving between the bushes and Rachel had no other choice but to follow her. The lights inside the house were on so they had to be careful and move in silence to not get caught while spying on them.
It felt as if Amy knew where she was going. As if she'd done it before.
As they approached the back of the house, music could be heard blasting from one of the rooms upstairs. Rachel recognized the song playing immediately. It was 'Master Of Puppets' by Metallica. Amy had introduced Rachel to that type of music and she loved it, but she couldn't listen to it regularly since her parents would freak out about it.
They hunkered down behind the bushes. When they finally got full view of the window the music was coming from, they saw Kai Parker roaming around his room, which was filled with posters. Shirtless. His silver necklaces dangled against his bare chest while he smoked a cigarette and shook his head to the rhythm of the song. He seemed to be putting some of his clothes away.
"I love men." Amy said quietly with a smirk "Shirtless men, specifically."
Rachel looked briefly at her friend but she couldn't get her eyes off Kai's back muscles. She hated the way she found him attractive, but tried to justify it in her head saying that she was just a teenage girl.
"He's an asshole." She muttered.
"A hot one, though." Amy raised her eyebrows.
Rachel rolled her eyes "Can we go?" she huffed exasperatedly. "What are we even doing here, anyways?"
"Observing." Amy shrugged.
"No shit" Rachel gaped her mouth open ironically.
"Stop being a bitch." The brunette let out a loud breath. "You said he was playing with your head, right? Like when he disappeared. Well, me being the incredible genius that I am, I thought, maybe Ray-Ray and I can find out how he's doing it... But Amy, how? You may ask." Then she pointed to the window with her thumb "Spying on him. Obviously."
Rachel wished to rip her own ears off just from listening to Amy's reasoning as to why they were there. On one hand, it kinda made sense. But on the other hand, what they were doing was simply unhinged.
"I'm not wasting my time on this" Rachel responded in a whisper "I'm going home."
Rachel tried to leave the bushes but was quickly pulled down again by Amy. Just as she was about to complain, her friend covered her mouth with her hand, gaining a confused look from the blonde. Amy signaled at the window with her head. When she removed her hand from Rachel's mouth, the blonde turned to look at it.
Kai was leaning out the window, the cigarette still between his lips, and he had furrowed eyebrows as he looked around. After a couple of seconds, he shrugged and continued to put his clothes away.
"That was close." Amy sighed with relief. "You think he saw us?"
Rachel felt like her heart had skipped a beat for a moment "We should go. Now."
Amy looked more convinced this time. But just before they even moved, they heard someone knocking at Kai's door. He rolled his eyes but ignored the knocking as he put his cigarette out. Then, the person on the other side decided to step in on their own. It was Josette.
"Why would you knock if you're gonna do what you want anyways?" Kai complained. "Get out."
Josette sighed. She had a tired and defeated look on her face "Kai, I'm trying to sleep. And I've been trying for the past thirty minutes and your music is making my head hurt!"
"Oh, poor thing." He put his hands on the side of his face as he gaped this mouth sarcastically.
"I'm not here to argue, okay? I'm tired, we've got school tomorrow— So please, turn it off." She responded, rubbing her eyes.
Kai went up to his stereo and turned the volume up with a smirk "Sorry, I can't hear you!"
He continued to shake his head, but this time exaggeratedly just to piss his sister off. Rachel and Amy could see the frustrated look on Josette's face.
"Kai!" She tried to shout over the music but it was pointless "Kai, stop!"
He continued to ignore her.
"I told you he's an ass." said Rachel to Amy. The brunette just shrugged in response.
Then, both friends saw how Josette lazily raised her hand and flicked it, making the music stop to the movement. Rachel and Amy shared a confused look.
"What the fuck did just happen?" Amy yelled in a whisper.
"I don't know." Rachel replied.
It was hard to get a clear picture from the bushes so Rachel thought that maybe it was just a coincidence.
Kai's expression changed and he snapped his head to look at Josette, clearly annoyed. Without saying a word, he went up to the stereo again but even though he pushed the buttons repeatedly, no music was coming out of it anymore. "Turn it back on." He demanded.
Josette shook her head.
"Turn it on!" He yelled, getting closer to her.
Josette, who stood in place not caring about his brother's threatening behavior, shook her head again "No."
"You're really gonna to make me do this, aren't you?" said Kai, narrowing his eyes.
Her stern look turned into a panicking one "Don't." Josette pleaded "Not again. Kai, please—"
Kai grabbed her arm which made her utter a yelp. Rachel and Amy couldn't see what he was doing to her exactly since his body was on the way, but by Josette expression, she seemed to be in pain. She went week at the knees, slowly bending under his touch until he finally let go. A satisfied smile on his face.
"That felt good." He sighed.
"You can't keep getting away with this." Josette replied breathless, caressing her arm "You've done it twice today. Twice!"
"You could've saved yourself this one but decided to be annoying instead." He shrugged with a cheeky smile.
She let out a loud breath "Dad's gonna know about it. I'm done."
Kai bit his tongue and clenched his jaw as Josette turned around to get out the room. "Okay, I'm sorry." He said through his teeth. It was obvious that his apology wasn't genuine and Josette knew that.
She turned to face him again. "You're lucky I'm not snitching on you, so don't— Don't do it again." She waited for an answer, she needed to be reassured that he wasn't going to do that anymore "Kai?"
"Fine. Whatever." He huffed.
"Good." She nodded slowly, reaching for the door handle. "One more thing," She said before opening the door "Leave that girl alone."
He frowned. "What girl?"
"You know exactly what I'm talking about. I know what you've been doing these past few days. Enough." She made a short pause "Good night, Kai."
Josette left the room without waiting for his answer, closing the door behind her.
Kai rolled his eyes once his sister was gone as he walked up to his nightstand, from where he grabbed another cigarette.
Rachel couldn't help but wonder if the girl Josette had referred to was herself. Did she know about the mind games he had been playing with Rachel? They were siblings after all, she had to know.
Like Amy could read her mind, she said "Was she talking about you?"
"I'm not sure." She answered.
They watched Kai walk towards his window, where he put his cigarette between his lips to lit. He inhaled the smoke with ease. Rachel was mesmerized by his hand movements, remembering what they felt like grabbing hers that same evening. They were soft despite their coarse appearance. She also remembered the coldness of his rings.
Rachel wasn't sure of what they were doing there still, there was just something about the energy that radiated off him as he calmly smoked. There was something so pulling about it. About his chest, his hair, his arms, his hands, his necklaces...
He lazily moved the fingers from his free hand in a wave-like motion.
"Rachel." She heard someone call her name from behind her.
Confused, she turned around but no one was there.
"Did you say something?" Rachel whispered to Amy. The brunette shook her head no "I thought— I thought I heard someone."
Her attention shifted back to Kai who had a smirk on his face. But he seemed to be clueless about them spying on him. She saw him wriggle his fingers again.
And then she heard the voice once more "Rachel."
"Okay, stop it. It's not funny" complained the blonde.
"What are you talking about?" Amy frowned.
Rachel looked at her as if it was obvious "You keep saying my name."
"No? I haven't opened my mouth for a while." Amy gave her a weird look "Plus, I haven't heard anything. Maybe you're just tired."
Rachel wondered if that was the case after the events of the past days were she had supposedly been hallucinating things. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, how little she was eating, the stress of starting the new school year, the sorrow of not having Mary Anne around...
Or maybe it was him doing whatever he was doing to her.
"Yeah." She responded, not very convinced "Maybe that's it."
• • •
The next day, Rachel thought it was weird the way Mr. Rogers and Mrs. Miller were oblivious about her and Kai's escape the day before. She was terrified of putting a single foot on the school building, thinking she was going to get in trouble as soon as they saw her appear. But nothing happened. Mr. Rogers was still the same charismatic man and Mrs. Miller the same bitter woman they'd always been.
As weird as she thought that was, she wasn't going to complain. She was sure Kai was behind all of that— he just seemed to be everywhere lately. Everywhere she was at least.
She looked at the empty seat next to her in Spanish class. Ever since Mary Anne died, people refused to seat next to Rachel and she couldn't comprehend why. Maybe they believed the accusations and were scared that she might've murdered her best friend. Or maybe they just didn't really know how to start a conversation with her— probably thinking she was utterly depressed and unable to crack a joke. It was kinda true, but Rachel still hopped people wouldn't think that way.
As she reviewed what they had learned the previous year, someone sat next to her. She got excited for a second— but the excitement went away as soon as she saw Kai Parker occupying the empty seat.
She lazily rolled her eyes when she saw his smirk. He knew how much it pissed her off being so close to each other.
"I didn't know you took Spanish." He said, leaning back on his chair.
"I didn't know you took Spanish." She repeated back to him.
"Good thing we take it together, isn't it?" He waited for her response but she never replied, she kept looking down at her notebook "So," Kai sighed "How'd you sleep?"
She snapped her head back at him. "Excuse me?" Rachel acted as if she hadn't heard the question, but damn sure she did. But it caught her too off guard. She admitted to herself that she was a little paranoid about Kai knowing what her and Amy were doing the night before.
"I asked... How'd you sleep? You've got crazy dark circles." He added. That stupid smile would not erase from his face.
She instinctively brought her hand to her face and touched her eye bags, stretching them out slightly as if that would solve the problem. "I slept well. Anything else you want to comment about my appearance?" She huffed.
Kai thought for a second "Not particularly today." He shrugged.
"Dick." She mumbled, clenching her jaw.
He pointed to his ear as he leaned closer to her like he hadn't heard her "Sorry, what was that?" Kai grinned.
Rachel pushed him away with her right hand "Can you not?" She said, annoyed "I told you to stay away from me yesterday."
"Really?" He acted confused for a second "I must have completely missed that with all of your yapping."
Her mouth opened at his response "Fuck off." Rachel made a face and turned her focus back on her work.
Kai stared at her as she went through the pages of her notebook, to which Rachel rolled her eyes. She raised her hand with the palm open, covering her face from his gaze. He smiled with satisfaction, even though she couldn't see his expression. Rachel didn't knew it yet but their story had just started taking a different turn. And Kai was going to make sure that everything happened accordingly to his plans.