The Road To Discovery
‘Hello?!?!?’ Audrey typed into the message box and hit send, trying to get an answer from a very unresponsive Jake. He had been radio silent for two days, no one could get ahold of him, not even Brooke, not that she was trying that hard. Audrey was, she had sent a total of 109 messages to Jake, and he hadn’t even read any of them. She had acted like she wasn’t that worried, and she had told no one that she had been the last to see him, she just let them think that Brooke was the last one to see him at the pool. It was probably just making things harder, but if they knew that Jake stopped by her house that late at night, they’d get suspicious.
“Uh, earth to Audrey.” Noah said, and Audrey snapped out of her thoughts to see Noah waving his hand in front of her face, obviously trying to get her attention. She looked up, acknowledging his presence with a small, forced smile, but she only got a troubled frown in return. He let his hand drop by his side, and he sat down in the chair beside her, in the back of History classroom. “You okay? You seem.. Off.” Noah said, trying to read her expression, and Audrey just sighed, she should’ve known Noah would notice something, they’ve been friends too long for him not to.
“Just… lost in thought I guess.” She said, and it wasn’t a lie, she just wasn’t telling him exactly what she was thinking about at that time. Noah didn’t seem satisfied, he just kept staring at her with a frown on his usually cheerful face. She probably looked really bad when he came in, now that she thought about it, she was sitting alone, at the back of an empty History classroom, when school had ended over twenty minutes ago.
“Is this about what happened at the theater yesterday? Jake said you were upset really upset about it.” Noah didn’t realize exactly how much his sentence pissed off Audrey, not at him, but at Jake. She had thought that he wouldn’t tell anyone about that, but maybe he didn’t know how upset she was. He had promised her on the ride to her house from Kieran’s that he wouldn’t tell anyone, especially Noah.
“Yeah, I guess it freaked me a little.” She admitted, getting a small smile from Noah for the first time in this entire exchange, she didn’t know why he was smiling, but she assumed that it was because she had actually been relatively honest about how she was feeling for once. “But I kicked ass.” She added, getting a laugh from Noah this time, and, oddly enough, she found herself laughing along with him.
“I’ll second that.” He said, and Audrey smiled, genuinely this time, Noah always knew how to do that, make her smile when she felt like absolute shit. In that moment, she was tempted to tell him everything, because he could make her feel better, and he wouldn’t judge her for what she had done… right? “Do you want a ride home?” He offered, and she found herself nodding, since she had gotten a ride from him this morning as well, so she would have to go with him, or she would have to walk home, and it wasn’t exactly close. She stood up, grabbing her bag off the floor as she did, Noah flashed her one more concerned look, before grabbing his stuff and standing up too.
“Did you see Jake in any of your classes?” She asked out of the blue they exited the classroom into a deserted hallway, she figured that it couldn’t hurt to ask, after all, she could just say she was asking for Brooke. She pulled the strap of her bag over her head and rested it on her shoulder, then turned her head back to Noah, who was still mentally checking each classroom for the presence of ‘The Jake’.
“Not in any of mine.” He said, shaking his head. Audrey wasn’t disappointed, she had been expecting that, she hadn’t seen him either, and they had most of the same classes, but where he had Psych, she had Filmography. Not that she was to interested in it anymore, it just reminded her of what she did with Piper, and make her want to cut out of guilt. “Hey, hey, Audrey! Are you sure you’re okay? That’s the second time you’ve zoned out on me in the last ten minutes.” Audrey sighed, because she knew the answer, no, no she was not okay, she had done all of this to them and the guilt was to much her to bear.
“Yeah, I just have a lot on my mind today.” She said instead, but this time, Noah didn’t believe it, and she could see it in his face, so she decided to change the topic as quickly as she could, but there was something she need to talk to him about, so maybe she could pin her weird behavior on that. “This happened, But it’s probably just that girl from the theater, Haley, or whatever.” She said, sighing and pulling out her phone, she unlocked it quickly before opening up the texts from the infamous ‘Unknown’ and handing it to Noah. His brow furrowed as he scrolled through the text messages about ‘Consequences’.
“We should go to the police.” He said matter-of-factly and started to jog down the hallway, but she put her hand on his shoulder, successfully stopping him in his tracks. She really didn’t want to go the police, it would all feel so real then, and she probably have a hard time convincing herself that this was just Haley’s antics, since her conviction was already shaky to begin with. “Audrey, this is serious, let me go.” He said sternly, but that never worked on her, she knew he wouldn’t actually do anything to her, so she was even more ballsy than usual around him.
“It’s just a prank, and I only told you because you wanted to know what was wrong, don’t blow this out of proportion, Noah.” She pleaded, keeping a tight, and maybe a little painful, grip on his shoulder so that he wouldn’t just bolt on her and go to the police anyway. His expression softened at the tone of her voice, and he turned back around to face her, confused as to why she looked so panicked.
“Okay I’ll let it go.” He said, handing Audrey back her phone, which she quickly pocketed, and looked back up at Noah gratefully. He still looked worried, and it made her feel guilty, since all he wanted to do was help, and she was just rejecting him at every turn. But she was also slightly confused, it wasn’t like him to just drop things like this so quickly. “Only if you promise that you’ll tell me if you get anymore texts.” Ah, there it is she thought, and she knew it would be useless to fight against him when he was this worried, so she just nodded, and he patted her on the back awkwardly, flashing her a wide, toothy smile, and continuing down the hallway.
“Oh, by the way, I have something to tell you.” Noah chirped, and Audrey looked at him with an eyebrow raised, but also a small smile on her face, grateful that he changed the subject. Noah gave a strange look and started walking with a tiny skip in in step. “We have another lead on Piper’s accomplice!” He said, and luckily he was looking forward, and couldn’t see Audrey’s face completely drop, but by the time he turned around to look at her, she had fake interest on her face to cover up the fear.
“Show me.” She said, and almost cringed at how demanding her voice sounded, although Noah didn’t seem to notice, in fact, he seemed elated. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, clicking through something that she couldn’t see, then pointed the screen towards her. She noticed that it was in the comment section of his podcast, but he hand was too shaky for her to read the tiny text, so she gently grabbed onto his hand to steady it, and read a comment by ‘EddieKruger’ saying that he knew who Pipers accomplice was. “He’s probably just bullshitting you.” She said, amazed that someone as smart as Noah would fall for something so obvious.
“Actually, no, Piper stayed at a Motel called ‘Crescent Palms’ sometimes while she was here, he’s a Clerk there!” He cheered, whilst Audrey’s heart dropped in her chest, she remember going to the Crescent Palms with Piper, a lot, since that’s where they usually met up. She knew that she had to stop him from going, or stop that clerk from spilling his guts. “I have an interview scheduled with him for later today, wanna come and film it?” He asked, and Audrey had to accept, it was the only way she could stop him from figuring out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Noah just didn’t know when to give up, even now, as he raised his hand up for her to fist-bump, not knowing that he was slowly torturing her. Of course, she couldn’t say anything, because if she did, he might find out that she brought Piper here. She couldn’t even tell him about the son of bitch that had been calling and texting her, telling him was not an option anymore, and honestly, she had thought about actually telling him if she got anymore texts, but now, now it was out of the question. This person knew, they knew everything, they knew everything about her and Piper, hell, they had copies of all the letters she had written to her. If she told about the new texts she received now, It would lead to him asking the questions that she had been dreading since that night at the dock.
“Wouldn’t miss it.” She said, bumping her fist against his, and suppressing a cringe due to the fact she could hear how uneasy she was in her own voice, so much that she wondered how didn’t suspect anything, and just keep smiling that goofy contagious smile of his. But even with him looking like a dork, she couldn’t bring herself to smile, she didn’t know what exactly was in that storage unit, but she was completely sure that she didn’t want him to find out what it was.
“Hey, wanna go grab some food? We could go to the grindhouse or something.” He suggested, making it clear that he was he hungry, and probably thirsty too, who wouldn’t be after interviewing someone for half an hour without a drink. Audrey thought about it, she didn’t want to seem suspicious, but at the same time, she wanted to get to that storage as soon as she could, since she had no idea what could be in there, it might be difficult to get rid of.
“Nah dude.” She said, and a look of confusion crossed his face, he must’ve been expecting her to accept, after all, she had no reason to refuse, other than the unit, which he could never know she was going to before him. “I gotta jet, my dad wants me to clean up the house before Wendy comes over, and he’s to lazy to get off his ass and do it himself.” She spat, since he dad had actually asked her to do that earlier, she responded by making the house a bigger mess than it had already been, but leaving her room pristine, so it would seem like her dad was a slob
“Okay well, see you later.” Noah said, pulling her into a quick hug, and then heading off towards his car, which was parked outside the entrance of the Motel. She watched him jump into his car, and waved to him one last time as he reversed his car, then drove off into the darkness of the night. She waited until she couldn’t see his car, even faintly, before trudging her way towards her own, she really didn’t want him to see her not going home like she said she was. If he did, he would start untangling her string of lies, and she couldn’t have that, that couldn’t happen, of all people, she couldn’t lose him.
She walked slowly to her car, careful to not let herself walk past any windows and get seen by Eddie, because he would probably call the cops. When she reached her car, she didn’t go start to the driver's seat, instead, she went around back, and popped the trunk open. It was a mess back there, towels, old grocery bags, some books, and various tools that she would trouble explaining. She dug through the mess until she found what she was looking for, bolt cutters, they were only in here because she had rescued some poor dog that chain to an abandoned building and just left there. She pulled it out, mentally noted to clean out the trunk, and shut the trunk with a ‘clunk.’.
~~~~~~~~~
Audrey felt like she couldn’t move, like she couldn’t breathe as she stared at the lifeless body of a person she had grown to care deeply for. She ended up dropping her flashlight, which keep shining on him even after it hit the ground, due to it landing in a very unfortunate position, one that highlighted the gaping whole in his body. Her hand was clapped over her mouth, partly out of shock, and partly because she felt like she was gonna vomit. She was startled back to his senses by her phone ringing loudly, she quickly answered it so that no one would hear it ring, and didn’t bother checking the caller ID, she knew who it was.
“How- how could you do this to Jake?!” She asked, feeling salty tears form in her eyes, but she didn’t let them spill over, not since she knew that asshole was watching her every move. Her breathing was erratic, and she was trying to steady it to keep from hyperventilating, knowing it would be bad if someone came over and saw that she was having a panic attack next to dead body. It was bad enough that she had broken in.
“What are you gonna do? Call the police? Oh wait, you can’t” They spat through the phone, and Audrey would’ve made some creative retort, but she was emotionally destroyed. The one person she could confide in about what she was doing, was now dead, and it was entirely her fault. And if everyone ever found out, they would all believe it as well, she may have well murdered Jake. “Oh, or… are you going to have an appointment with that pretty razor again? Do you think you’ll finally actually kill yourself, huh, killer?”
“Is that what this is about, you found out that Jake could help me, so you just killed him?” She asked through gritted teeth, and crouched down by his body, closing his eyes so she didn’t have to look at them any longer. That’s when she noticed the small pieces of paper pinned to his chest, each containing their own word. When she put it all together ‘Cut, just like your arms, Audrey’ that made her subconsciously touch the small part of her wrist that was exposed, and tracing along the horizontal lines that felt all too familiar.
“Maybe, Killer. I guess you’ll just have to find out. Oh, and you should get out of there soon, It’d be a shame if Noah found out so early in our little game.” The killer taunted, laughing maliciously, and ending the phone call before she had time to respond to the snide comment. She shoved her phone in her back pocket, picked up up her fallen flashlight, and taking a deep, yet shaky breath. Slowly, she reached towards him, and took even one off, pin by pin, trying to choke back tears. She was going to need to come up with some bullshit excuse as to why she was going to be so out of it tomorrow, at least she would have time to think up something.
~~~~~~~~~~~
She didn’t want to do this, but it would make her feel better, or at least feel like she was evening out the score. When they had taunted her about the cutting, she had promised to herself that she wouldn’t to do, but her she was, holding a razor over the blue veins of her wrist, with tears streaming down her face. Everything had just hit her so hard when she got back, Jake’s death just felt so surreal at the storage unit, but as she was disposing of the paper and the pins, the fact that she would never be able to laugh at his stupid, arrogant jokes again.
The worst part was, she would have to sit around and listen to Brooke worry over Jake, knowing that he his corpse was somewhere, sitting in the clutches of the asshole that had slaughtered him. To make matters even worse, Noah was going to discover his body tomorrow, when he opened up the unit, maybe she could delay that for as long as possible. But she doubted it, because Noah was a very persistent person, and he wouldn’t let anything get the way of him uncovering another secret. Sometimes, she wished he wouldn’t, because slowly, he was coming closer to finding out one of her secrets, maybe both.
Her eyes focused back on the razor that was placed on her wrist, right above her veins. She hadn’t cut around the wrist as often as the rest of her arms, but when things got bad, like now, she found herself cutting deep into her already heavily scarred arm. For a moment, she wondered how if this was how Rachel felt when she did it, she didn’t want this to be her one connection to Rachel. But sadly, if she was willing to admit it, it was, since she barely ever used her camera anymore. She felt tears run down her cheeks as she recalled the last time she had found a new cut on Rachel’s arm.
“Sh, It’s okay, Rachel, I’m here, with you, I’m never gonna leave, I promise you, I’ll never leave you. I’ll never want to.” She whispered into her ear, while gently stroking her long blonde hair. Audrey was sitting on their spot on the balcony, with Rachel’s head in her lap, and Rachel was crying, she was quiet at times, but other times she let out loud sobs and clung tightly to Audrey. She was facing away from her, clutching her wrists to her chest, while Audrey was holding her tightly in her arms, trying to calm her.
“I-I’m s-sorry.” Rachel choked out, trying to make sure that Audrey didn’t hate her, and Audrey wasn’t shocked at her words, she had said them almost every time, but it still hurt to know that Rachel thought she had to apologize. Audrey leaned down a little, planting a long, lingering kiss on Rachel’s shaky head, and raking her fingers through her hair gently.
“No, no, shh, baby, you have nothing to be sorry for.” Audrey muttered, and starting rocking Rachel slowly to the sound of crickets chirping in the otherwise silent night. Rachel tried to respond, but all that came out of her mouth was another sob, and she turned so that her face was pressed into Audrey’s thigh, so that her tears were soaked up into the abrasive cloth of her dark jeans.
That wasn’t was this was, Rachel hadn’t deserved it, Rachel was an innocent soul who had been treated like she was garbage for being different. Audrey, on the other hand, Audrey knew that she deserved this, all of this, she had gotten so many people killed, and caused everyone else so much pain. She was the reason Emma now had PTSD, and that doesn’t just go away, she’s stuck with that forever. It was her fault that Kieran had lost his dad, not long after he had lost his mom and his step-dad. Then there was Noah, poor, sweet, lovable Noah, who hadn’t done anything wrong his entire life. He had never hurt her, quite the opposite actually, he was constantly there for her, when Emma left, when her mom got sick, when Rachel died, whenever Nina outed her. And she and she had hurt him, she had gotten her girlfriend killed, and then she had the audacity to comfort him after Riley’s passing, if only she’d known.
With newfound guilt running through her system, she dug the blade into her arm yet again.