Chapter 8

Aria’s POV

I lay awake in my bed, thinking over my interactions today at school and afterwards at home. The static shock I feel whenever I come in contact with these boys, the bullying from the Barbie doll at school, my “mother’s” abusive presence, was my life always like this? I felt like I was missing something.

Suddenly, I heard the front door slamming shut, startling me.

“Aria! Oh Aria! You little slut! The neighbor said she saw a guy crawling out your bedroom window!”

“Shit…” I hissed while looking back and forth in my room, trying to figure out where to hide. With urgency, I hopped up out of bed and ran for my closet, shutting myself inside.

Boom!

The bedroom door banged against the wall with the force of my mother, and I could hear her shoes padding against the hardwood floors. “You can’t hide from me, whore.”

Shivers wracked my body as I tried to tuck myself into the deepest recesses of my closet but before I knew it, the door opened with an eerie creek and my mother stood in the doorway, her pale face ghastly in the moonlight. A sickening smile crept on her face as she tsk’d. “You shouldn’t have hidden from me.” Her hand shot out and slapped me across the cheek, a burning sensation bloomed on my face from the force behind her slap.

“Please…” I begged, unsure what I was asking for. All I knew was I was scared shitless of this beast in front of me.

“Poor little Aria, a waste of space slut, good for nothing, I should’ve never kept you.” She spat vehemently, winding herself up further. “I thought about it all day and there’s no way you have amnesia; you’re still the same pathetic girl who can’t keep her legs closed. What a pity that you lied to me. I don’t know how you fooled the doctor and everyone else, but you can’t fool me little girl.”

“I can’t remember fucking anything! You think this is some sick game I’m playing!” I yelled back after finding my inner strength.

“You pathetic fool, you dare talk back to me?” She charged at me and knocked me over into boxes that were in the back of the closet.

“Ahh!” I cried out when I heard a sickening crack somewhere in my arm.

“Leave me alone!” I screamed at the top of my lungs as I blindly reached forward and shoved her as hard as I could.

“Aria!” She shouted as she fell and landed backwards on the floor. I stayed in the pile of boxes for several minutes before I braved moving forward. Passed out, I still didn’t want to go anywhere near the woman.

As I looked down, I saw a dark pool of blood spreading from underneath her head while her vacant eyes stared up at me.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck… what am I going to do?”

Hyperventilating, I lunged for my phone on the nightstand and called the only person I could think of, Zach.

“Aria? Are you okay?” He answered gruffly.

“Zach. Please. I need you to come over immediately, I’m sorry, I didn’t know who else to call.” I spoke quickly and quietly.

“Okay babe, I’ll be right there. Give me five minutes.” He hung up and I let my phone drop on the ground in disbelief.

Is she dead?

Five minutes passed deathly slow when finally, there was a tap on my bedroom window.

Tap tap tap

I rushed over and opened it up to let Zach in. “Babe, what’s going…oh my fucking God.” His eyes settled on the figure laying motionless on my bedroom floor.

“Well fuck, I need to call the other two.” He muttered before pulling me into a huge hug.

“It’ll be okay, don’t worry babe.” He whispered into my hair.

Sobs wracked my body as the weight of what happened settled. “Zach, they’re going to lock me up.”

“I’ll take care of everything. We will.” He promised.

“Hello, earth to Aria?” Fingers snapped in my face as I stood staring blankly at the floor where my mother had lain. Her body was now gone and the blood scrubbed clean like nothing happened.

“Zach, how do you guys know to do this?” I asked the boys.

They stood around my room and looked at each other with grim expressions. “Aria, I can’t tell you. I would if I could.” Zach finally answered.

“This is bullshit.” I muttered.

“Hey, is that anyway to thank us for saving you?” Finn’s teasing fell flat from the severity of the situation.

Marcus merely stood in the corner and scowled out the window without saying a word but right now I felt like I preferred his reaction compared to the other two.

“Babe, we should get out of here, I think you should come to my house tonight, are you okay with that?” Zach asked me.

I slowly nodded, I didn’t want to stay in this room where there had been a dead body.

He grabbed my hand gently and pulled me from where my feet were glued to the ground. “I’ll call you guys later, thank you for your help.” Zach called out to the other two as we left the room.

I blindly followed him out to his car and the whole drive to his house was a blur. We pulled up to a small red brick house and Zach pulled into the driveway. “Home sweet home.” He said softly. We both sat in the car silent for a long time before Zach sighed and got out of the car.

Things can’t get worse from here, right?