Rachel has sped up her walking as she exited the bedroom with the now-empty tray of food.  She’d still wanted to get herself walking outside, so she had to think of that little ‘check out my decorations’ excuse quickly.  She felt a little bad for lying to Samantha about it, but it seemed like she wanted Rachel to stay in bed.  Going out of her way to make her a big breakfast, she was definitely dedicated and had grown attached to her in such a short amount of time.  Having her stay and look at her decorations may have been for the best, otherwise she might not have been able to leave and get out the door by herself.

She made it to the kitchen, where she saw a big sink, the perfect place to wash the tray and dishes within it.  Setting her ‘luggage’ to the side, she grabbed a bottle of Dishwashing Soap, plugged the sink, and started drawing water.  Pouring some soup down into the running water, the sink quickly filled up with soft, bubbly water.  After the sink was about half-full, she turned the water off and started looking around for a towel and washcloth. 

It took her a couple minutes, but she found some drawers on the side of the counter, where she found hot pads, towels, and washcloths in.  Grabbing a small washcloth and a normal-looking towel, she walked back over to the sink.  Pulling her sleeves up, she dumped the dishes into the water and smiled.  “Samantha’s not the only one who can do nice things for others,” she said as she began scrubbing the dishes.

 After she’d gotten everything cleaned off, Rachel set the clean dishes on the counter and began to walk towards the front door.  Although she could have put the dishes away herself, she wanted Samantha to be able to come downstairs and see what she did for her.  The poor girl had done almost nothing but offer to help or do little favors for Rachel ever since she stepped in the door, and she wanted Samantha to know that she could do nice things for her as well.

As she made her way to the front door, she slowly reached for the doorknob.  She gripped it with her hand for a moment and began to turn it.  In mid-turn, however, she stopped herself, thinking she’d heard a noise from the other side of the house.  Turning her head, she slightly closed her eyes in the confusion of the sound.  It almost sounded like a door shutting, but it was gone as quickly as it had started.  She stood by the door for a moment, hoping to hear the sound again. 

After a few minutes, she’d heard nothing.  Dismissing it as her imagination, as she had thought the banging noises had been from the night before; she shrugged her shoulders and began to prepare to head outside.  Turning the doorknob the rest of the way, she slowly pulled the door open.  As it opened, a cool breeze flew into the house, blowing against Rachel’s hair, sending a shiver up her spine.  She closed the door, trying to adjust to the breeze that she’d just felt when she heard something else in the house.

She stared in the same direction she had before, trying to hear what it was and, unlike the last sound, it repeated itself time and time again.  She heard a pounding sound, like something was being thrown against the walls of a room in the distance.  She slowly started walking back towards the kitchen, trying to figure out what the noise was.  As she made it to the kitchen, she started hearing another sound, paired with the pounding.

[b]“W-why?  Why are you making me do this!?”[/b]

“S-Samantha!?” asked Rachel, gasping as she heard her friend screaming in the distance.  Her body went ice cold as she heard the pounding noises and the almost-muffled screams.  She couldn’t know for certain, but the voice definitely sounded like Samantha.  Dropping everything that was on her mind, she sprinted through the house, set on getting back to the bedroom.  If it really was Samantha screaming, she could’ve been in some sort of trouble.  Rachel had to see if she was alright.

As she made it back into the bedroom,   the pounding noises had stopped, but Samantha’s screaming had not.  He heard it as she entered the room and called out for her.  Looking around, it sounded like it had come from a door on Samantha’s side of the room.  Rushing over to the door, Rachel quickly grabbed the knob and tried to turn it to get into the room.  As she tried, though, she found that it was locked.  She yanked and turned on it, but it wouldn’t budge at all.

Out of frustration, Rachel started pounding on the door itself.  She called through the door, trying to get Samantha’s attention, assuming that’s where she was.

“Samantha!?  Are you in there?  Are you okay?”

As her voice and poundings went into the room, it was returned with negativity.  As soon as she’d finished her statement, she heard Samantha screaming back at her, her voice sounding truly frightened.  She screamed at Rachel, telling her that she wasn’t real, and that she wouldn’t be able to hurt Samantha or a “her” she talked about.  Rachel continued calling into the room, but got no response after that.

After a moment, she heard a grunt, as if Samantha had hurt herself and then heard wheezing and coughing.  Rachel kept calling in, starting to sweat out of being worried for the girl.  There was obviously something wrong with her, but she couldn’t get in to see her and try to help.  When she realized that she wouldn’t be getting Samantha to open the door herself, she slowly backed away from the door, preparing her arm on the side for a secondary plan.

“Samantha!  It’s me, Rachel!  I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but I’m coming in to get you, okay!?  Please stay away from the door!”

Rachel threw herself into the door, trying to force it open.  She grunted as the door slightly shifted, but didn’t open with her first try.  Afterwards, she tried several more attempts, throwing herself into it time and time again.  She was starting to bruise her arm, but her mind was only set on getting inside and helping her new friend.  She was in trouble, and she’d helped her so much in the day they’d known each other.  She couldn’t let her be alone in whatever was happening to her.  She had to help her.

With one final, rushing blow, the door broke and swung open.  Rachel fell to the tile floor as she went through; breathing heavily from the energy it had taken to get the door open.  Within moments, she’d started to push herself up when she noticed vomit and blood all over the floor in front of her.  She nearly screamed when she saw it and tried to look around for Samantha. 

Hearing a scream in front of her, she saw a shadow behind the bathtub’s curtain.  Quickly getting to her feet and coming up to the bathtub, she yanked the curtain right off it’s support and threw it behind her.  Within the empty bathtub sat a crying Samantha.  Her head was buried in her knees, weeping.  Rachel quickly climbed into the bathtub with her and tried to touch her.

As soon as her hand touched her leg, Samantha screamed and started flailing around again.  Quickly getting her arms on top of her, Rachel grabbed Samantha and started yelling down to her, trying to get her to stop and look at her.

“Samantha!  Samantha, it’s me!  It’s Rachel!  Samantha, look at me!  I’m not here to hurt you!  I’m your friend!”

Within a minute or so, Samantha’s brain had processed what had been said to her and opened her eyes.  She looked up and saw Rachel’s face, red and sweaty, full of concern for her.  She was shaking a little and let out a whimpered “R-rachel…?”

Rachel smiled at seeing Samantha calming down, but her happiness was quickly ended when she saw the rest of the girl’s body.  Her fingernails were dripping with blood and her blouse looked like it had been ripped open.  Rachel slowly moved the ripped blouse up a little and saw 4 cuts on the girl’s stomach, each with fresh blood dripping from them.  “Oh, my god…”

Rachel immediately left the bathtub and started digging through the cabinet in the bathroom.  She threw bottles and bottles out into the room before finally finding a small first-aid kit.  She ran back to the bathtub and grabbed onto Samantha’s legs.  Slowly pulled them down, she got the girl into a laying position and started to wipe off the four wounds on her stomach.

“R-rachel…?” repeated Samantha, her voice getting weaker.  Her body was shivering as it lay in the tub.

As she applied medicine and a bandage to the wounds, she looked at Samantha and reached to her face with her hand.  Touching her cheek, she looked into the girl’s eyes.  Realizing that she was shivering and couldn’t be moved because of the injury, she ran into the bedroom and yanked the sheet off her own bed.  Quickly coming back, she covered Samantha up with the blanket and then kneeled herself down, next to the tub.

The girl had been watching her the entire time, tears running down her face.  Rachel reached over and brushed her hair back.  Bringing her face down to Samantha’s she began to whisper to her.  “Don’t worry, Samantha.  I patched you up, so you’re going to be fine.  No one is going to come and hurt you.  Not while I’m here, by your side.”

Samantha smiled up at Rachel as she finally lost consciousness from the loss of blood and the episode she’d just had.  Rachel quickly checked her pulse when her eyes shut, afraid that she’d gotten worse, but sighed when she felt her steady heartbeat.  She sat there with Samantha for hours, waiting for her to wake up, wondering how all of this happened in the first place…