As Eve parked her car in front of the house whose address matched the newspaper ad they’d called for the deal, she wasted no time to get things situated before jumping out.  Grabbing the bag of supplies, she threw the car door open and jumped out.  Her feet hit the cold ground and sent a shiver up her spine, slowly halting her progress.  After shaking her head for a moment, she pulled herself together, threw her keys into her pocket, shut the door and dashed towards the house.

As she ran up the steps to the porch, her feet were aching, worn out from constantly pushing on the pedals in the car.  As she got up she stopped and quickly rubbed them, trying to calm down the pain.  Looking in front of her, she noticed that the front door was sitting there, wide open.  Rachel, or her roommate, or someone had left the door open.  Anyone could’ve just walked right into the house, had they wanted to.  This gave Eve a nervous feeling.  Worried for her daughter, she began dashing again, running into the house. 

As she came in, she softly closed the door behind her.  Taking a look around, she was hoping that she’d be able to find wherever Rachel was when she’d called her.  Nothing had really been said as to where, in the house, that she was, but only that her friend was hurt and had some cut wounds.  Rachel was probably too upset about whatever had happened to think enough to tell her details like that.  She started to walk around the house, but didn’t need to look very long.  Within moments of shutting the door, she heard muffled talking coming from the other side of the house.

Carrying her bag of supplies, Eve quickly made her way through the kitchen, past a hall, and into what looked like a bedroom.  She looked around as the talking became louder and less muffled.  To the side of the room was a small door, leading to another room.  She heard two voices coming from the room.  One of them was, without a doubt, Rachel, and was whimpering.  The other sounded weak and faint.  It must’ve been her roommate, the one who had gotten injured.

She slowly walked over towards the room and stood in the doorway.  Her eyes widened when she saw the contents of the bathroom she’d just discovered.  There was a trail of blood all the way across the room.  It passed by a pile of what looked like puke, and what she had come for was lying inside the bathtub itself.  She looked in and saw Rachel, in tears, holding onto someone covered in a blanket. 

Samantha, in her weakened state, could feel the washcloth falling off her head as she looked past the bathtub and thought she could see someone in the doorway.  It was a tall woman with long, brown hair.  She looked at her, with a confused look on her face.  She was experiencing a lot of pain from Rachel’s hug, her cut wounds pushing against her, but she mustered out a small response as she looked at the tall woman.

“H-hi…”

Eve was shocked at the sight of everything.  She never imagined her daughter’s first day in a new house would end up like this.  She was in a bathtub, hugging on her new roommate and crying, with blood and puke all over the floor.  The place looked like some sort of crime scene.  Eve’s hands started to shake at the sight of everything.  Despite being trained to handle things like blood, seeing it associated with her one and only daughter pierced her spirit.  It brought a tear to her eyes, and she finally called out to her.

“R-Rachel?!”

In the midst of her tears, Rachel heard her mother’s voice.  Her head jolted up and turned to see a very shocked Eve, standing in the doorway to the bathroom.  Tears were running down Rachel’s face as her jaw dropped and she started smiling, overjoyed to see her mother.  She immediately started shaking, making Samantha shake in the process. “M-Mama!?”  So overjoyed, she dropped Samantha and jumped out of the bathtub, not realizing that Samantha’s head had fallen and hit the bathtub, knocking her out. 

Rachel flew into Eve’s arms and her face pushed into her bosom as she cried and whimpered into her mother’s arms.  Eve, realizing how distraught she was now, squeezed Rachel into her bosom and started rubbing her hair.  Kissing the top of her head, Eve started whispering to Rachel.  “There, there, Rachel.  I’m here and am not going to let anything bad happen.  Now, please stop crying, okay?”

Rachel, still whimpering, nodded her head, slightly pushing against her mother’s breasts.  Eve smiled down at her as he crying started to fade.  Giving her a moment to calm down, Eve started looking around the room.  It was a complete mess.  She feared for what may have happened in here.  Feeling Rachel’s sniffles becoming less and less frequent, she pulled her away from her bosom.  As she did so, she looked down and saw a bruise on Rachel’s arm.  Her shocked attitude had just gotten worse at seeing not only her roommate injured, but a bruise on Rachel as well.

Crouching down slightly, she looked her daughter in the eye.  Their gaze met and each of them had tears in their eyes from the situation.  Taking her hand, Eve brushed away some of the hair that was in Rachel’s face and started whispering to her again.  “Rachel, it’s okay.  Tell Mommy what happened.”

Rachel was sniffling and trying hard not to cry.  She didn’t want to do anything else at the moment, but she knew she had to calm down.  Her mother’s words had always pierced her entire being.  Eve was caring and gentle, and she always knew what was best for Rachel.  She let out a small whimpered cry, and then began to explain what had happened to her mother.

“I…I was down in the..the kitchen...washing some d-dishes.  I was…getting ready to leave to…take a walk.  I’d told…told Samantha to look at the decorations in…in my room while I was taking care of things.  Before I left, I…I heard a noise.  I heard…a lot of noises…like someone or something being…thrown around the house.  I…came back to the bedroom, worried about her…and I heard her…she was screaming.”

Rachel was slowly getting calmer as she spoke; pushing away her tears and sniffles.  Eve listened, not saying a word, trying to register what may have happened as Rachel continued.

“She…was screaming at someone to get away from her…I was so scared.  I called in to her, but the door was locked.  She just kept screaming, telling someone to go away.  I…didn’t know what to do, so I started throwing myself into the door.  It..hurt my arm, but I finally was able to bust my way through.  I found the room…I found the room like this, with blood and puke all over the floor…Samantha was curled up in the bathtub.  She looked….terrified.  Her fingertips were dripping with blood…her blouse had been ripped open and there were puncture wounds in her stomach…”

Eve was starting to get a strange feeling about the explanation that her daughter was giving her.  Apparently, this “Samantha” had been locked in the bathroom, kicking and screaming, and somehow, got blood on her fingers and had a ripped blouse and puncture wounds in her stomach.  She looked around for a moment and noticed that the bathroom had no windows.  How could someone have come in here, hurt the girl, and left, locking her inside without passing Rachel as it happened?

“I…I was so scared, but I wanted to help her.  I looked through her medicine cabinet, and applied some medicine and bandages to her cut wounds, but she was…in bad shape.  Her breathing was all wrong…she was almost wheezing as she breathed, and it scared me.  I…I don’t want to lose her, Mom!  She’s…she’s done so much for me today.  I can’t bear to lose her!”

At this point, Rachel had worked herself back to tears and jumped into Eve’s bosom again.  Eve softly held her there for a moment, and was still in awe, confused as to how this even could have happened.  If Samantha had been screaming with Rachel just outside the door, how could she have gotten hurt like that by someone else?  Could it be possible that…she did it to herself?

Eve quickly shook her head, trying to focus.  She softly kissed Rachel on the head again and began to walk her into the bedroom.  Sitting down on the bed closest to the bathroom, she pulled Rachel off and laid her onto the bed.  She sat behind her for a moment, stroking her hair.  She smiled down at her and whispered to her once more.

“Rachel…I promise that you’re not going to lose your new friend.  I’m going to go in and see how bad she is, and get her some medicine to take care of her.  You just stay in here and rest, okay?  You’ve been through a lot today, sweetie, and you need to rest.”

Rachel slowly nodded and whimpered out a short response.  “O-okay…Mom.”

Eve smiled and lowered her head, kissing Rachel on the cheek.  “That’s my girl” she whispered as she got up and headed towards the bathroom, planning to take care of Samantha…