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Rachel’s dad, who was not Rachel’s dad at all, drove her back to her old house. This seemed like a normal enough place to have a conversation about the future, and Rachel wasn’t worried until she and her father had passed the main gate and were on the path, when she looked up and saw her father, sitting at the kitchen table.
She balked, because her father was behind her? Rachel spun, and found she was right. He was behind her. And in the window? Her mind faltered. This did not feel like a normal hallucination, and yet?
Maybe she was madder than she had ever thought? Or… twins? Her father, the one standing behind her, put one hand on her back and urged her gently into the house. Rachel didn’t fight against that, because she hoped that once she got inside there would only be one father… As soon as she took her eyes off the father at the kitchen table she started to doubt herself. It was probably a trick of the light, a reflection, something…
Rachel hurried nervously through the front door, heading for the kitchen to find out. Sitting on the stairs, like she’d been banished there, was Indigo. She smiled at Rachel, and said “Good luck.”
Rachel regarded her with apprehension. “What does that mean?”
Indigo smiled a little wider and shrugged, extending her arms up in an exaggerated I’m sure I don’t know gesture. Rachel frowned, and turned toward the kitchen.
And there he was… her father, real and solid and sitting at the table. He had a little more stubble than he’d had since he first met Imogene, and he looked angry but beaten. Furious but lost. It was an alien combination of expressions on his face.
Had Indigo been banished to sit on the stairs, or was she sitting there like a guard dog? Harley certainly looked like he’d been recently admonished, told to sit down, stay.
She heard a footstep behind her and turned. Where her other-father had been a moment ago, now Imogene stood. The light was doing something funny around her, like her skin was glowing, like she wasn’t quite real. Rachel pressed her fingers against her eyes, not trusting them.
“What’s going on?” Rachel asked, as Imogene closed the kitchen door behind her, shutting Indigo out.
“Why don’t you answer your phone?” Harley raised his head from where he’d been staring at his hands. “I have been trying to call you.”
Rachel opened her mouth as she searched for an excuse that wasn’t I threw that phone out the window.
“You tried to contact her?” Imogene demanded. “Why? To protect her? To shelter her so she never has to deal with consequences?”
Panic shot through Rachel’s stomach. Consequences. She was afraid of that word. Indigo must have told them she was seeing things, they must be here to do an intervention. Or send her back to hospital… Rachel swore, the words escaping her mouth before she knew it.
“Watch your language,” Imogene snapped, as Harley pushed himself up from the table. He was taller than Imogene, when he was standing. For one childish moment Rachel wanted to run and hide behind him, but she squashed that urge.
“Yes, to protect her!” Harley yelled, pushing a chair aside and coming at Imogene. “She’s my child, of course I’m going to protect her from your anal over-reactions!”
“Over reaction!” Imogene slapped him, the SMACK of her hand against his face rang out sharp in the hollow kitchen. Rachel jumped backwards in shock. Harley didn’t look beaten any more, just angry. He grabbed Imogene’s arms, his hands swallowing them up as he shook her.
“Don’t you DARE hit me!” he bellowed, his face right up against Imogene’s. “Don’t you DARE tell me what to do with MY daughter and don’t you DARE hit me unless YOU’RE ready to take a punch yourself!”
Rachel kept going backwards, till she put the table between herself and the fighting adults. Part of her was routing for her father, part of her was scared of him. Part of her wanted to see Imogene finally shut up, part of her wanted to leave and never come back.
Imogene was screaming abuse back at Harley when the kitchen door burst open, bouncing hard off the wall and slamming shut under its own force as Indigo pelted into the room. “GET YOUR FILTHY FUCKING HANDS OFF MY MOTHER!” She put herself directly between her mother and step-father, straightening her arms so quickly it pushed them both away from each other. “DON’T YOU TOUCH HER! DON’T YOU EVER, EVER TOUCH HER OR I WILL MURDER YOU!”
“Indigo!” Imogene snapped, straightening her shirt. She was shaken, angry, but she didn’t want her fifteen year old daughter fighting her battles for her. This had happened before – Imogene had poor taste in men – and after last time things got violent, with Indigo’s real father, Imogene had sworn to herself to keep her daughter out of marital fights. “Indigo-Hope! You leave him alone!”
“Leave HIM alone?” Indigo spun around, facing her mother with eyes shot with black. “Leave HIM? He’s the one ruining this family! He’s the one who bought her into this house!” She shot a glare at Rachel, who was backed into the corner of the kitchen, frozen in place.
“Yes! Leave him! You behave yourself, Indigo-Hope! You remember your control!”
Indigo barked a short laugh. “Fuck off about control, mum!”
“What the hell is wrong with your eyes?” Harley asked, not knowing when to shut up. Indigo turned back toward him and snarled.
“There is nothing wrong with my eyes!”
“Daddy! She’s a monster! Be careful!” Rachel had found her voice.
“A monster!” Imogene turned on Rachel, stomping toward her. Rachel pushed herself even further back into the bench as Imogene continued to yell. “My daughter is not the one acting like a monster! My daughter isn’t a liar, isn’t a thief! My daughter isn’t completely out of control!”
“I’m not!” Rachel squeaked, trying to slide away from Imogene. It was useless to protest though: she was a liar, she was a thief... Her step-mother grabbed her by the wrist, raising her voice to even an even higher, more desperate level.
“Sneaking round behind my back! Stealing from me! Stealing my money, you stupid girl! You think credit card statements lie? I have given you a home - a better home than you have had in your life, and you repay me by stealing from me! I already have one problem child to deal with, I don’t need another! I didn’t sign up for this, you know!”
There was a crash from behind Imogene as Indigo picked up a chair and threw it against the wall. “Problem child?” she demanded, wreathed in fury. “I’m your problem child!?”
“Not now, Indigo!” Imogene turned – and dropped Rachel’s wrist in shock as she saw it: behind Indigo, Harley’s body had collapsed motionless onto the floor.
Imogene looked at her daughter, panicked. “What did you do to Harley?”
“Relax,” Indigo said, folding her arms. “He’s sleeping.”
The way she said it freaked Rachel out and she darted her father collapsed on the floor. “What did you do to him?” she shrieked at Indigo. “What did you do?” She lashed out at Indigo but the younger girl caught her wrist midair, and bent her arm back.
“I can make her sleep too,” she said to her mother, as Rachel screamed in pain.
“No!” Imogene cried. “No! I don’t want her to sleep. I want her out of this house! She’s a liar and a thief and I’ve already called the police!”
“What? No!” Rachel yelled, trying to pull away from Indigo’s grip, but it was impossible. “Make them take her away! She hurt my dad! She’d hurting me!”
“She’s my daughter,” Imogene had one hand against the wall, bracing herself. She had a lioness look about her. “And I will look after my own. You are not my own and you are a problem to this household.”
“F-fine! You want me to go I’ll go! But you have to let me!” She pulled so hard against Indigo’s grip she thought her shoulder might pull right out of its socket. With a small smile, Indigo let her go, and she hit the polished floor with a thump that cracked her tail bone.
Hit by a wave of nauseating pain, Rachel curled to her side.
“I’m not letting you run away,” Imogene sneered, her heels clicking against the tiled floor as she stood over Rachel. “I’m not letting you get away with it. You’ll face up to what you’ve done like an adult. Indigo, take Harley upstairs.”
“Ugh,” Indigo rolled her eyes. She looked at Harley’s body in disgust, as Rachel pulled herself up to sit – but sitting hurt – so she used an ornamental table to pull herself to her feet instead, cradling her throbbing wrist in her hand.
Indigo picked up Harley’s legs, a look of displeasure on her face, but not one of strain. It seemed that she could drag a man much larger than she was with no more effort than one might carry a bag of dog shit. She dragged him out of the kitchen, and began to climb the stairs.
“Be careful of his head!” Imogene called after her; there was no reply from Indigo, just another thump of a head against a stair.
Rachel felt almost positive she was hallucinating at least some of this.
“I want you to go and sit at the kitchen table until the police arrive,” Imogene told her, closing the kitchen door with a gentle click.
Rachel shook her head, frozen in place. She couldn’t just sit here and wait to be arrested, she had to run. If she could get back to Danny, or Zoe, they’d hide her. She could live as a fugitive as long as she had them.
But her dad – she had to rescue her dad from these people.
Shaking, Rachel sat at the table as she was instructed, and Imogene set to straightening up the kitchen. Rachel’s hands were shaking as she pulled her phone from her pocket. It was still on silent from her exam, and she’d missed multiple calls from Zoe. Did that mean Zoe was looking for her? Hope blossomed in Rachel’s chest. She began to text, her hands under the table, when Imogene spotted her and snatched the phone from her hands.
“NO!” Rachel yelled. “No that’s MINE!”
“It’s nothing compared to what you owe me,” Imogene growled, slipping the phone into her own pocket. It sat snug against her tight jeans, an obvious bulge. They were not jeans meant for carrying anything.
“I’m sorry!” Rachel insisted. “I’m sorry, I’ll – I’ll find a way to pay you back. I’ll leave and I’ll never come back.”
“Sit back down,” Imogene ordered, and, shaken, Rachel did.
“Please,” she said. “Please let me and my dad go. Please don’t call the police on us. We’ll go.”
“Shut up,” Imogene said, resting her hands lightly against the table. Rachel pulled her own hands closer to her body, away from her step-mother. “There’s nothing you can say to change my decision.”
“Please.” Tears were jabbing at Rachel’s eyes, guilt festering in her stomach. She slipped her hands under the table, pressing the hard points of her fingertips into her stomach. “Please I’m sorry.” I wasn’t in my right mind, wasn’t thinking, didn’t think I’d get caught… She squeezed her eyes shut, tight, like the darkness could swallow her up and take her someplace safe.
Imogene picked up the chair that Indigo had thrown, and tucked it neatly back into place at the table. She continued to tidy, till all appeared as if nothing had happened at all.
She balked, because her father was behind her? Rachel spun, and found she was right. He was behind her. And in the window? Her mind faltered. This did not feel like a normal hallucination, and yet?
Maybe she was madder than she had ever thought? Or… twins? Her father, the one standing behind her, put one hand on her back and urged her gently into the house. Rachel didn’t fight against that, because she hoped that once she got inside there would only be one father… As soon as she took her eyes off the father at the kitchen table she started to doubt herself. It was probably a trick of the light, a reflection, something…
Rachel hurried nervously through the front door, heading for the kitchen to find out. Sitting on the stairs, like she’d been banished there, was Indigo. She smiled at Rachel, and said “Good luck.”
Rachel regarded her with apprehension. “What does that mean?”
Indigo smiled a little wider and shrugged, extending her arms up in an exaggerated I’m sure I don’t know gesture. Rachel frowned, and turned toward the kitchen.
And there he was… her father, real and solid and sitting at the table. He had a little more stubble than he’d had since he first met Imogene, and he looked angry but beaten. Furious but lost. It was an alien combination of expressions on his face.
Had Indigo been banished to sit on the stairs, or was she sitting there like a guard dog? Harley certainly looked like he’d been recently admonished, told to sit down, stay.
She heard a footstep behind her and turned. Where her other-father had been a moment ago, now Imogene stood. The light was doing something funny around her, like her skin was glowing, like she wasn’t quite real. Rachel pressed her fingers against her eyes, not trusting them.
“What’s going on?” Rachel asked, as Imogene closed the kitchen door behind her, shutting Indigo out.
“Why don’t you answer your phone?” Harley raised his head from where he’d been staring at his hands. “I have been trying to call you.”
Rachel opened her mouth as she searched for an excuse that wasn’t I threw that phone out the window.
“You tried to contact her?” Imogene demanded. “Why? To protect her? To shelter her so she never has to deal with consequences?”
Panic shot through Rachel’s stomach. Consequences. She was afraid of that word. Indigo must have told them she was seeing things, they must be here to do an intervention. Or send her back to hospital… Rachel swore, the words escaping her mouth before she knew it.
“Watch your language,” Imogene snapped, as Harley pushed himself up from the table. He was taller than Imogene, when he was standing. For one childish moment Rachel wanted to run and hide behind him, but she squashed that urge.
“Yes, to protect her!” Harley yelled, pushing a chair aside and coming at Imogene. “She’s my child, of course I’m going to protect her from your anal over-reactions!”
“Over reaction!” Imogene slapped him, the SMACK of her hand against his face rang out sharp in the hollow kitchen. Rachel jumped backwards in shock. Harley didn’t look beaten any more, just angry. He grabbed Imogene’s arms, his hands swallowing them up as he shook her.
“Don’t you DARE hit me!” he bellowed, his face right up against Imogene’s. “Don’t you DARE tell me what to do with MY daughter and don’t you DARE hit me unless YOU’RE ready to take a punch yourself!”
Rachel kept going backwards, till she put the table between herself and the fighting adults. Part of her was routing for her father, part of her was scared of him. Part of her wanted to see Imogene finally shut up, part of her wanted to leave and never come back.
Imogene was screaming abuse back at Harley when the kitchen door burst open, bouncing hard off the wall and slamming shut under its own force as Indigo pelted into the room. “GET YOUR FILTHY FUCKING HANDS OFF MY MOTHER!” She put herself directly between her mother and step-father, straightening her arms so quickly it pushed them both away from each other. “DON’T YOU TOUCH HER! DON’T YOU EVER, EVER TOUCH HER OR I WILL MURDER YOU!”
“Indigo!” Imogene snapped, straightening her shirt. She was shaken, angry, but she didn’t want her fifteen year old daughter fighting her battles for her. This had happened before – Imogene had poor taste in men – and after last time things got violent, with Indigo’s real father, Imogene had sworn to herself to keep her daughter out of marital fights. “Indigo-Hope! You leave him alone!”
“Leave HIM alone?” Indigo spun around, facing her mother with eyes shot with black. “Leave HIM? He’s the one ruining this family! He’s the one who bought her into this house!” She shot a glare at Rachel, who was backed into the corner of the kitchen, frozen in place.
“Yes! Leave him! You behave yourself, Indigo-Hope! You remember your control!”
Indigo barked a short laugh. “Fuck off about control, mum!”
“What the hell is wrong with your eyes?” Harley asked, not knowing when to shut up. Indigo turned back toward him and snarled.
“There is nothing wrong with my eyes!”
“Daddy! She’s a monster! Be careful!” Rachel had found her voice.
“A monster!” Imogene turned on Rachel, stomping toward her. Rachel pushed herself even further back into the bench as Imogene continued to yell. “My daughter is not the one acting like a monster! My daughter isn’t a liar, isn’t a thief! My daughter isn’t completely out of control!”
“I’m not!” Rachel squeaked, trying to slide away from Imogene. It was useless to protest though: she was a liar, she was a thief... Her step-mother grabbed her by the wrist, raising her voice to even an even higher, more desperate level.
“Sneaking round behind my back! Stealing from me! Stealing my money, you stupid girl! You think credit card statements lie? I have given you a home - a better home than you have had in your life, and you repay me by stealing from me! I already have one problem child to deal with, I don’t need another! I didn’t sign up for this, you know!”
There was a crash from behind Imogene as Indigo picked up a chair and threw it against the wall. “Problem child?” she demanded, wreathed in fury. “I’m your problem child!?”
“Not now, Indigo!” Imogene turned – and dropped Rachel’s wrist in shock as she saw it: behind Indigo, Harley’s body had collapsed motionless onto the floor.
Imogene looked at her daughter, panicked. “What did you do to Harley?”
“Relax,” Indigo said, folding her arms. “He’s sleeping.”
The way she said it freaked Rachel out and she darted her father collapsed on the floor. “What did you do to him?” she shrieked at Indigo. “What did you do?” She lashed out at Indigo but the younger girl caught her wrist midair, and bent her arm back.
“I can make her sleep too,” she said to her mother, as Rachel screamed in pain.
“No!” Imogene cried. “No! I don’t want her to sleep. I want her out of this house! She’s a liar and a thief and I’ve already called the police!”
“What? No!” Rachel yelled, trying to pull away from Indigo’s grip, but it was impossible. “Make them take her away! She hurt my dad! She’d hurting me!”
“She’s my daughter,” Imogene had one hand against the wall, bracing herself. She had a lioness look about her. “And I will look after my own. You are not my own and you are a problem to this household.”
“F-fine! You want me to go I’ll go! But you have to let me!” She pulled so hard against Indigo’s grip she thought her shoulder might pull right out of its socket. With a small smile, Indigo let her go, and she hit the polished floor with a thump that cracked her tail bone.
Hit by a wave of nauseating pain, Rachel curled to her side.
“I’m not letting you run away,” Imogene sneered, her heels clicking against the tiled floor as she stood over Rachel. “I’m not letting you get away with it. You’ll face up to what you’ve done like an adult. Indigo, take Harley upstairs.”
“Ugh,” Indigo rolled her eyes. She looked at Harley’s body in disgust, as Rachel pulled herself up to sit – but sitting hurt – so she used an ornamental table to pull herself to her feet instead, cradling her throbbing wrist in her hand.
Indigo picked up Harley’s legs, a look of displeasure on her face, but not one of strain. It seemed that she could drag a man much larger than she was with no more effort than one might carry a bag of dog shit. She dragged him out of the kitchen, and began to climb the stairs.
“Be careful of his head!” Imogene called after her; there was no reply from Indigo, just another thump of a head against a stair.
Rachel felt almost positive she was hallucinating at least some of this.
“I want you to go and sit at the kitchen table until the police arrive,” Imogene told her, closing the kitchen door with a gentle click.
Rachel shook her head, frozen in place. She couldn’t just sit here and wait to be arrested, she had to run. If she could get back to Danny, or Zoe, they’d hide her. She could live as a fugitive as long as she had them.
But her dad – she had to rescue her dad from these people.
Shaking, Rachel sat at the table as she was instructed, and Imogene set to straightening up the kitchen. Rachel’s hands were shaking as she pulled her phone from her pocket. It was still on silent from her exam, and she’d missed multiple calls from Zoe. Did that mean Zoe was looking for her? Hope blossomed in Rachel’s chest. She began to text, her hands under the table, when Imogene spotted her and snatched the phone from her hands.
“NO!” Rachel yelled. “No that’s MINE!”
“It’s nothing compared to what you owe me,” Imogene growled, slipping the phone into her own pocket. It sat snug against her tight jeans, an obvious bulge. They were not jeans meant for carrying anything.
“I’m sorry!” Rachel insisted. “I’m sorry, I’ll – I’ll find a way to pay you back. I’ll leave and I’ll never come back.”
“Sit back down,” Imogene ordered, and, shaken, Rachel did.
“Please,” she said. “Please let me and my dad go. Please don’t call the police on us. We’ll go.”
“Shut up,” Imogene said, resting her hands lightly against the table. Rachel pulled her own hands closer to her body, away from her step-mother. “There’s nothing you can say to change my decision.”
“Please.” Tears were jabbing at Rachel’s eyes, guilt festering in her stomach. She slipped her hands under the table, pressing the hard points of her fingertips into her stomach. “Please I’m sorry.” I wasn’t in my right mind, wasn’t thinking, didn’t think I’d get caught… She squeezed her eyes shut, tight, like the darkness could swallow her up and take her someplace safe.
Imogene picked up the chair that Indigo had thrown, and tucked it neatly back into place at the table. She continued to tidy, till all appeared as if nothing had happened at all.
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