Deep Water and Deep Shit

Vivian was at this point, low key panicking. She had been like this almost all week now, ever since Jane told her the truth of what she did. They were an organized robbery gang.

Jane was part of an organized robbery gang, and had been trying to get Vivian to join one way or another. Now she was part of it, and she immediately regretted it.

They had started out small on the first day.

“Rob the wallet off some rich folks, they are so wealthy, they won’t even notice it’s gone,” Jaqueline had promised. That hadn’t been too bad or too much of an ask. She was even paired with Jane.

They had targeted an upscale shopping district, with Jaqueline dressing them up in the right looking clothing so as to blend in. Between her and Jane, they had nabbed six wallets.

The praise she got, it was… intoxicating. It filled a void that had been with her since New Year’s Day, she felt validated. Then, came the nightmares.

They had felt like she was drowning, way in over her head. It was on the third day after joining the gang that she finally realized what had been going on.

“Oh fuck,” she had said to herself.” What did I do?”

She knew she somehow needed to get out of this. She needed help, and only one person was left who could provide said help.

Tok, Tok, Tok

“Haley, are you’re here,” Vivian asked that night as she opened the door to her older sister’s room. It was empty.

“Shit,” was the only thing Vivian could say.

No one was there who could provide help.

Elsewhere

Haley Bailey poured herself another cup of coffee from a thermus as she watched the Donovan household from the tree’s. It was cold. Not her proudest moment, but she needed to know.

Her investigation had led her to Mark Donovan. She had been here on and off for two days now, and boy had it been fruitful.

On the very first day, she had gotten sight through an open window of Mark carrying a naked Phoebe Page in his arms, completely holding the same pose as he did so. This was a sight that didn’t make any sense. The last Haley had heard, Phoebe had dropped out of school to go on a cross country road trip with her friends four months ago. Yet her she was, with no clothes, in Mark’s house, for some reason being carried by him, and not resisting in the slightest.

Then she saw him do the same with another girl she did not recognize, a short curly haired brunette. She like Phoebe did not resist as Mark carried her up the stairs, stiffly holding her pose.

“Why didn’t either of them fight back?” Haley thought to herself. “Unless they want to be there?”

But why lie about going on a trip. More to that point, where was her friends Gabriella and Dawn since they went with her? Unless they were part of it too!

Haley had so many questions. And ones that definitely couldn’t be answered from a distance.

She needed to get closer. She needed to get into Mark’s house.

It was time to go in.