Bad Taste (Part I) // Colby Brock

147 - Rebecca

My mouth dropped when I saw her on the bed. I thought she'd stopped. I thought she'd stopped this a long time ago. She told me she had, she told dad, she told Angela. She seemed so much different. I had believed her wholeheartedly when she'd said it, because I trusted her.

But there she was, Mrs Woods, my mother, lying on the bed in front of me with blood trailing down her neck from a wound I had seen too many times in my life.

My heart stopped in my chest, my whole body frozen in the doorway of this room. I should have done something. I should have screamed or yelled or something. But I couldn't bring words to mind, let alone speak them. She'd lied to all of us just so she could continue to get another high without anybody knowing.

How long had this been going on? A year? Two? She'd supposedly been clean for about three... was she ever clean?

Why was I standing here doing nothing about it?

My blood boiling, I stomped into the room and shut the door behind myself. Angela had said that every room was soundproof, so I knew that I could do or say anything that I wanted now. However, nothing came still.

I didn't have time to waste.

It was difficult to ignore the traitor lying on the bed as I started searching drawers and tables. There was a desk that looked promising, but it only held sketches of buildings and people; nothing that mattered to me. Besides the self-portrait he'd done of himself. I thought maybe he would have signed it with his own name, but the signature in the corner clearly said River. He was damn proud of his nickname.

My eyes drifted to the bedside table with a lock. Oh. Oh. There was bound to be something in there. The only problem was, Mother was lying right next to it and facing it. Could I get that close to a bitch like her? To a liar and a cheater? I didn't think I could... until I remembered why I was doing this: we were killing this bastard once and for all.

Oh hell yeah. I was down for that.

Mother shuffled around as I knelt next to the bed, working the lock on the bedside table. Luckily for me, I was a very troubled teenager, so I'd learned several skills—including lock picking. It didn't take me very long to have the padlock open, then it was only a matter of pulling out the drawer.

I saw a set of keys and what looked to be a ticket of some kind inside. I narrowed my eyes, reading the words. No, it was some sort of... certificate? There was a symbol in the corner that I vaguely recognised but couldn't put my finger on. I didn't have time to dwell. So I took the paper and shoved it into my pocket, rummaging around the drawer some more at the same time.

There were mostly more sketches, these ones of women in certain positions. I accidentally found both Angela and Mother making me cringe before I just turned the whole pile over. Apparently, that was the best thing I could have done, because underneath it was a wallet. I grabbed it, about to open it up when I heard the door handle turning.

My heart stopped in my chest and I froze in place, my head turned towards the door. I waited for someone to come in, but, strangely, no one did. I couldn't hear anything outside, so I couldn't tell if there was a reason for the random grabbing of the door or not.

After about a minute, I had the wallet in my pocket, the drawer shut, and the padlock back on. From here, it looked like everything was normal. River would only find out that it wasn't when he actually needed any of these items, which I couldn't imagine he would at least until I was gone.

I hoped Angela still had him distracted as I hurried up to the door. Mother was still dead asleep on the bed, her chest rising and falling slowly to confirm that she was alive to me. I made a promise to myself that I would tell Dad; that I would tell Angela. They had to know, and I wasn't going to keep something like this from them.

Although, the more I thought about it, the more it hurt. How could she do this to me? To the family? She'd seemed so sincere and so sweet lately, but now? She just seemed like a total bitch to me. She'd faked it all for so long and didn't care for Dad enough to even tell him. Poor Dad. Maybe he wasn't the same as he used to be, but he still loved her, deep down. He'd be heartbroken to hear this news.

Realising I had to get downstairs, I snapped back to reality and slid through the door. Nobody came out of their room or up the stairs to confront me, and when I got to the main hallway leading outside, I noticed Angela was still expertly distracting now almost the entire room of vampires. She didn't look at me, but I knew she knew I was there because she directed their attention in the opposite direction the moment I was in their sights.

She was good at this—I could tell if that was bad or good. I wanted it to be good, but I knew it wasn't. Angela was good at this because she'd come here for a high frequently up until she met Aryia. That wasn't a good thing at all.

Nevertheless, the mission was complete. Now for getting home without blowing our cover or getting chased...

Or having a breakdown.