Willowcreek; Within The Roots

Part Nineteen ─ The Man and His Beast

Home was no longer a peaceful place.

The last month of her life was hell on earth, and there was nothing that Alice could do to make it better.

Through fear of losing the people she loved, Alice withdrew again. Not just from Cassia and her mother, but from Loch, as well.

She wished she could explain to him why, but it wasn't safe. Arren had threatened him and she did not want to risk him taking his anger out on Loch. She'd never be able to live with herself if he got hurt because of her own stupidity.

She wanted, so badly, to go to Clarke and tell him all about what Arren had done, however, she wasn't entirely sure how well that would work for her. What if Clarke already knew? But if he did, did that mean he also knew about Arren's involvement with Lucille's disappearance?

No, he couldn't have. Clarke had looked so defeated when talking about not knowing where she was. He couldn't know that his brother had done something to her.

That being said, she wasn't sure she could trust either of them, regardless.

The only option she saw was to aid, somehow, in their mission.

"Why is she ignoring me?" Loch asked Cash, pushing her to give him answers. Alice had been distant and she had stopped meeting him at the reading nook over lunch. She'd stopped inviting him over to her house and found every reason in the book to cancel their dates.

Had she grown tired of him already? Loch wasn't the most outgoing guy in school, he knew that, but Allie had always enjoyed their time spent together. She'd said so herself. She'd insisted that she'd much prefer to sit and read, than go bowling or to the movies. He had also preferred that. He loved spending his evenings, on the phone to her, reading whatever book he had picked up that day.

"I don't know, Loch, but whatever the reason, you're not the only one," snapped Cash, pushing him away from her locker and hurrying away to the toilets.

Every attempt that he'd made to get through to Allie hadn't worked. Loch had called her, he'd gone to the house itself, but he was constantly told that Allie was 'unwell'.

After about two weeks of trying and trying, and getting the same answer, Loch figured that unwell was a cover for her just not wanting to see him. His older sister had told him that girls came up with all sorts of excuses to get out of seeing guys. But he hadn't expected Allie to be like that.

It hurt to think she was calling things off with him so coldly, that their time together hadn't meant as much to her as it did to him. He didn't want it to be over. He couldn't accept it being over.

His decision to go out to the manor late in the evening of December 24th─the night before Christmas─became one of the worst decisions he'd ever made. The weather was awful. The snow was falling heavily, the visibility was next to nonexistent, which made driving up Mathis Road, unlit and unshoveled, extremely dangerous.

However, he only got halfway to the manor before he had to come to a screeching halt. He almost hit someone with his car. They appeared out of nowhere, almost blending in perfectly with the snowscape ahead of him. After a few wipes with his windshield wipers, he noticed the stark black hair and immediately knew who it was.

"Alice!" he shouted from the window of his car, nearly falling as he hurried to get out. When he got closer, the reason she blended so well with the white backdrop was because she was dressed in a white nightgown. And only that nightgown.

Alice made no indication that she'd seen the car or that she saw Loch in front of her, she stood frozen to the spot, staring ahead with glassy eyes and her mouth moving, whispering something under her breath. Her exposed arms were covered in bruises, varying between dark purple, almost black, to yellowish green. There was a prominent bruise around her neck, as well, and it looked fresh.