No Happily Ever After (The Fairytale Diaries #1) (13 page)

Part V
III

Adrift

Chapter 26

J
ennifer Tide came from a family comprised of a busy, widower father, his beloved mother who lived with them, and five older sisters.  Their dad was a powerful man who was rarely home as he worked, and traveled for work almost all the time.  His mother had moved in years back when their own mother had passed away.  And four of her sisters were grown and out of the house, leaving only she and her sister Adrian behind.

The family of women was one of traditions, strange though they may be.  Grandmother's rule was that each girl must wait until age fifteen to start dating. At age fifteen, Grandmother gave the birds and the bees talk to each girl, and then took her to pierce her ears before bestowing upon her much more freedom to explore the world.  Jennifer hadn't been crazy about the ear piercing idea, but it was just a thing that they all did.  Like some sort of symbolic rite of passage.

Jennifer had loved Eric Prince long before turning fifteen.  She'd had grandiose visions of a new world with him upon her fifteenth birthday.  But the day had come and gone, and she remained just as invisible to him as always.  She did absolutely everything she could to make him aware of her affections, to no avail.  His girlfriend, Stella, was undoubtedly a nice girl and Jennifer certainly didn't want to be known as a boyfriend thief, or to hurt Stella's feelings.  But she felt that Eric would soon realize they were meant to be and that Stella would understand.

However, year fifteen came and went and by the time Jennifer turned sixteen, she was despondent over being ignored and passed over by Eric.

When she discussed the matter with her older sisters, they had a wide variety of advice that ranged from decent, to really
really
bad.

Adrian's advice was to just grow up and date somebody else.

"Just be yourself, love," said her sister Amanda.

"Why don't you sleep with him?" her sister Maggie had advised. 

"How 'bout you spread rumors about that girl he goes with?" said her sister Tammy.

"Just bother him until he notices you!" her sister Elizabeth recommended.

Sometimes the advice and observations of her sisters made her wonder what sort of people she was related to.

In the end, there wasn't really anything that Jennifer could do to win Eric's affections.  He was devoted to his girlfriend Stella, and seemed not to notice Jennifer was even on the planet.  So, Jennifer pined away growing progressively more down and depressed over time.

Which is why, when she found out that Eric and Stella were missing, she completely came undone.

***

Jennifer's family didn't send her back to school when classes resumed in the days following the murder of the Rampion's and the subsequent disappearance of two more Faraway teens.  For one thing, her grandmother was terrified to send her out of the house.  And, the poor girl was absolutely despondent.

She was so upset that her father stayed home from work, and all her sisters returned home to try and give her comfort.  Everybody had comforting things to say, but Jennifer could not be consoled.  In truth, the family worried in whispers that she could not be left alone for fear of suicide.  They'd had no idea how deep her feelings for Eric really were.

On day two of the Tide family's bedside vigil, her grandmother entered her bedroom clutching an envelope.

"Look, Jennifer," grandmother said cheerily.  "A letter's come for you!  Would you like to read it?"

Jennifer answered by rolling over in bed and ignoring her.

Grandmother took a seat on the bed next to her and put her hands on Jennifer's shoulder.  She gently pulled her granddaughter back to face her.  "Please, darling," Grandmother whispered.  "Just read it.  It may make you feel better!"  Jennifer continued to be unresponsive.  "Please," Grandmother said again, tears pooling in her eyes.  "Come back to us, Jennifer."

Her grandmother's worry and sadness finally broke through Jennifer's cloud of depression.  She took the envelope and studied it for a moment.  It was addressed to her, without any return address.  Her curiosity was piqued.  For the first time in several days, Jennifer recalled that she was alive.  She tore open the envelope and withdrew a single sheet of lined notebook paper.

Jennifer gasped, and after reading the short note, she met her grandmother's eyes.

"What is it, dear?" Grandmother asked.

"My friend, Zoe.  I need to go see her," Jennifer answered, throwing back her covers and lurching out of bed.

Chapter 27

J
ennifer's father agreed to drive her to the juvenile detention center where Zoe Locke was housed.  Naturally, he found it odd and perhaps a bit troublesome that Jennifer wanted to visit an apparent juvenile delinquent.  But, he was so glad to see her spring back to life, that he didn't question it, nor did her require her to show him what the letter had said.  He simply waited for her to get dressed, and then they set out together into the snowy, grey day.

Mr. Tide escorted her inside and spoke with a person at the front desk.  The guard signed Jennifer in, gave her a brief pat down, and then instructed Mr. Tide to wait in the reception area.  The guard opened a doorway to bring Jennifer back.  Once inside, the door swung shut with a bang, and then a metal gate slid over it with a cold clank and click.  Jennifer startled at the unsettling sound of it.

Soon, she found herself seated at a table across from Zoe Locke.  Despite the fact that her classmate had been locked up for several weeks, and she wore a drab grey jumpsuit, Jennifer thought she still looked quite pretty with her shining, golden hair.  But her wide blue eyes looked shadowy and haunted.

"Zoe!" Jennifer exclaimed quietly.  "Are you OK?"

Zoe shook her head.  "I'm not OK, Jennifer," she whispered.  "Not OK at all.  And neither are our classmates, I can pretty much guarantee it."

Tears sparkled in Jennifer's eyes.  "What do you mean?" she asked with a trembling voice.

Zoe leaned in close as she could to Jennifer without drawing attention.  "Jennifer, everybody here thinks I'm nuts.  Everybody.  Or they think I'm lying to try and get myself out of trouble. But I swear, I SWEAR that I'm not.  Will you
please
believe me?"

Jennifer repeated the text of Zoe's letter in her head for the hundredth time.  She stared into Zoe's eyes.  She hardly knew Zoe at all.  And of course, it was pretty well known fact the girl was a thief. 

But this was the absolute first that Jennifer had heard of anybody knowing a single thing about the disappearances.

"Yes, Zoe.  I will believe you."

Zoe closed her eyes for a moment, as though attempting to compose herself.  When they opened again, she looked Jennifer squarely in the eyes.  "Jennifer, when I broke into the Bar family's house, the night that I got caught…  I accidentally found something very, very disturbing."

Jennifer's heart began to accelerate.  The Bar's?  She had not expected to hear this at all.  But then Benjamin Bar popped her into her mind, in all his infinite strangeness.  He was spectacularly good looking, rich, and popular by default because of his mother's well-loved status in the school. 

And yet, now that she thought about it, nobody really liked Benjamin.  There was just something odd about the guy.  She didn't know what Zoe was about to say, but, it already had a ring of truth to it.

"What was it?" Jennifer asked.

"They…  They came home unexpectedly.  I found out later that the game I thought they'd been going to got canceled and they'd simply turned straight around and come back home."  Zoe dragged a great, ragged breath and then continued.  "So, I had to hide.  It was dark, and their house is huge.  Like, a mansion.  I was all turned around.  Somehow I ended up in the basement."

Zoe stopped as though unable to go on.  Jennifer saw a look of fright pass over Zoe's face.  She dared to reach over and pat Zoe's hand.

"It's OK," Jennifer encouraged.  "I'm here.  I believe you, Zoe.  Please go on."

"Jennifer, it's them.  The Bar's.  They're the killers.  They have a
torture chamber
in their basement."

The wind rushed out of Jennifer and she sat back in her chair.

"There wasn't anybody in it then," Zoe rushed to continue.  "But there was blood.  And cages.  And…  And…  It was the scariest thing I've ever seen.  Then, when people started disappearing, it made me think my breaking into their house…  Triggered something."

"We need to go to the police!" Jennifer exclaimed.

Zoe vehemently shook her head.  "I've talked and talked and TALKED to police, Jennifer.  They won't listen."

"Then what do we do?"

Zoe leaned close once more, leveling a piercing gaze on Jennifer.  "You have to get me out of here."

***

Though Mr. Bar was commonly thought of as the richest man in Faraway, Jennifer's father was certainly no slouch.  Mr. Tide was so authoritative in his day to day life, Jennifer thought of him almost like a king.

And a king can make things happen.

As soon as she and her father were in the car, she pleaded with him to get her friend Zoe out of lock up.  Mr. Tide was baffled, as he'd never heard Jennifer mention this girl before.  But, he trusted his daughter, and he saw a desperate pleading on her face. He agreed to do what he could to help.

He made some phone calls and found out that the only reason Zoe had not been released with probation was that her mother refused to take her back.  He did a little more digging and found that Zoe's mother wasn't an exemplary parent, and that Zoe had no previous history of any sort of tomfoolery.  Plus, she was still recovering from a broken leg she'd sustained the night of her apprehension.  Mr. Tide saw a picture of a neglected child who'd made a mistake as a cry for attention.  His lawyer was able to pull some strings, draw up some paperwork, and get Mr. Tide appointed Zoe's guardian.

By sunset, Zoe Locke was released from juvenile detention on Mr. Tide's recognizance.