Stalker 101 (Book 1)

// 12 //

"Please don't make me go today! I promise I'll be quiet until my lessons, please mom!" I plead with mother. She pushes her dyed blonde hair behind her ears and heavily sighs.

"Acacia, it doesn't work like that. Your father and I pay a lot of money for you to have this experience," I throw my hands down on the granite counter and groan.

"Well, you don't have to anymore! I can just go to public schools, like Mare!" My mother's nose scrunches in disgust at Mare's name.

"Marissa is a prime example of why you will continue to go to Muriel's. Her parents should consider sending her,"

"HE is perfectly fine, mom. Please, call him Mare now," I whine and my mother shoots me a look full of sharp daggers.

"You are going to thank me for the day you see what's wrong with this conversation," The tension was starting to grow between us as neither of us says a word. A shrill ringing disturbs the silence and my mother points at me.

"This is not over."

//

Tears roll down my face as I walk down the dark sidewalk. How could they just leave me at that party like that? I didn't know anyone there in the first place. Kane never should have invited me along. If I had known that there was alcohol, I wouldn't have walked in that house. I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact Mare would leave with Kane like that. I knew Kane just wanted to get in his pants and I also knew that Kane wouldn't be too happy when he finds out Mare wasn't the man he thought.

I hear another car pass by me and lift my head to watch it roll by. It looked so much like dad's car, but then again, I thought every car that had passed by was dad's car. The car comes to a screeching stop and the red tail lights light up. I catch the license plate number clearly now and my eyes widen.

"Shit," I whisper and quickly whip around, power walking away from my dad's car. Not tonight, please not tonight. Maybe he didn't see me, maybe he was just concerned he saw some girl walking and was going to help her out.

"Acacia Grace!" Just my luck. I turn around and see my dad's dark hair blowing past him. He pulls me into a hug and I feel the tears I didn't know were there slip from eyes.

"Hi, dad,"

//

"Greg, of course, I want what's best for her! No, you listen to me! We never should have let her go to public school! I'm overreacting? Our daughter has a fucking bloody nose, Greg! Don't you dare bring up high school right now, that isn't the point. Of course, I remember what happened to me!" My mother catches my eye from the doorway and slams the office door shut with her foot. I sigh and back over to my room, slamming the door and sliding down the wood to sit on the floor.

I touch the tissue stuck in my nose and wince as my finger connects with the sore part. I had no regrets from punching that guy. Well, maybe a small regret but he deserved it for picking on Mare. At least Kane came when I needed him the most. Right when I was on the ground, to be exact. I hear the sweet sounds of violins and look over at my phone. Mare was calling.

"Hey there, cowgirl. Quite a showdown today, huh?" I giggle at my best friend and flip the hair off my shoulder.

"Well, partner sure looks like it," Mare laughs a hearty laugh and moves the hair from his forehead to reveal the cotton padding. The black eye was already a nasty purple but the bloody lip had just turned plump.

"So I guess it turns out Patrick Levanski can fight after all," Mare shrugs his shoulders and I smirk.

"Yeah, yeah well it also turns out Kane Borecraft can kickass too," I hum and a light red spreads across Mare's chest.

"He's so great. I just wish your parents could see how great he is," I sigh and shrug my own shoulders.

"My parents haven't even warmed up to me yet, I doubt they ever will warm up to anyone but themselves."

//

"Because I fucking said so, Bianica! This isn't the right way and you know it," My eyes shoot open and the killer headache from the morning before hits me. I groan and lift my head off the pillow and look around the dark room.

"I don't care if it isn't right, it's the only way! What do you expect us to do, huh? Tell everyone the truth? What about Acacia? She can never know the truth!" I throw my feet of the bed and they land on the carpet with a soft thump. The noise from downstairs stops and the whole house is cast in an eery silence. I get down on my knees and press my ear next to the vent, intently listening in.

"Listen, I don't like this any more than you do, but she can't know about my mother's house. I've tried to erase that town from my life and I won't let it taint hers."

//

All there was is darkness. Darkness and silence. Silence and darkness. Time seemed to dissipate in that room, just like my will to live slowly was. Not that I intently had one, to begin with.

It took me screaming until I lost my voice before I realized Jase wasn't coming back. It took until I felt the sliminess between my skin and the straps to realize I was completely tied down. It took me almost pulling my arms out of their sockets and pulling the muscle in my legs to realize the chair was very much not going to move. It took my head singing five lullabies until I could fall asleep. Then, I would wake up and repeat.

There was a dripping noise that came from the back, but only occasionally. When I first woke up for the fourth time, the hunger in my stomach was the first to reveal itself. My throat was impossibly dry and the crusty feel of the dried blood from my wrists taunted me. I just wanted a little bit more, but I knew deep down that I didn't want to die that way. No matter how thirsty I was. The dripping then began from behind me. It was taunting me, begging for me to find it. I knew I wouldn't be able to. So, I started my whole trial again and started to scream.

I tried to wrap my head around what happened. I disobeyed my mother's last wish and came to her hometown. I met Mrs.Lean and finally found someone I could trust besides Mare. Hell, I didn't even trust Kane that much. I had a feeling Mrs.Lean was one of the reasons mom didn't want me to come here. I just wish I knew why. I mean, there's no way Jase was the reason she didn't want me to come here; he even said that he didn't know me until I came to town all those months ago.

Mom and Mrs.Lean had to have had some fight for my mom to never want me to come here. Maybe high school? Mom left Cranston at the fresh age of eighteen, so it had to have been in high school or middle school. My mind starts to lead in a different direction, things just weren't adding up. Why didn't dad tell me any of this? I always went to him for everything and he would always tell me what I wanted to know. Yet, he would never tell me why mom left her hometown. Only that she left when she was eighteen and never wanted to come back.

I was starting to accept my fate. I was going to die down here, no one but Jase and Mrs.Lean would know where I was. I doubt she would tell anyone the truth about what happened to me. I would be another body on that table outside. I would just be another doll for him dress up and bury in the yard. I didn't want to be another person he buried and forgot about. I wanted to be someone he would never forget. And there was only one way I could do that. I needed to be exactly what he wanted me to be. I needed to be his doll.