CHAPTER FIFTEEN
[15]

song: save a prayer by duran duran

"THERE'S ONLY SO MUCH WE CAN DO AFTER IT'S BEEN THREE WEEKS." George shrugs, shoveling another forkful of spaghetti into his mouth. "We've gathered no evidence. And it's costing us a lot of money to keep the investigation up and running."

"I can't even imagine the show Heather Silvey will put on if you close the investigation." Susan scoffs.

There she goes again, paying no mind to the fact that Heather Silvey's daughter was mauled to death— but instead mocking her for being dramatic about it. Daisy rolls her eyes as she scoots her food around on her plate with her fork. "Well what would you do, Mom?" Daisy speaks up for the first time since the family sat down.

"What are you talking about?" Susan raises her eyebrows, a hint of impatience in her voice as she realizes that Daisy was about to start another unnecessary argument.

"If you found me in the woods with a slit throat and a bashed in head— you'd probably cause a fuss if the police shut down investigation on it, right?" Daisy spoke in one breath.

George quietly inserts another comment. "We haven't shut down investigation yet we just—"

"Don't say that." Susan shakes her head. "I don't like thinking about it."

Daisy shrugs. "Well it happened to Jenna. Could happen to me too." She glances to her sister. "Or Allison." She glances for George's son. "Or Michael." She gasps dramatically as she turns back to her mother.

"What could happen?" Michael questions softly, looking up at Daisy who sat beside him.

Daisy turns back to Michael. "There's a psycho murderer on the loose that's cutting people's throats open—"

"Daisy!" Susan shouts, causing her and Michael to both turn to Susan. "He's seven." Susan says. George inhales deeply, clearly uncomfortable.

"Great job, you asshole." Allison says.

Daisy found pleasure in the chaos she had caused, it brought her some sort of entertainment— so she kept it going. "Speaking of assholes— what were you and Richard up to last night? The walls are quite thin around here." Daisy says, in a sarcastic tone. Allison's eyes widen, her mouth gapping open in disbelief. 

"What is she talking about?" Susan questions.

"Yeah Allison, what am I talking about?" Daisy turns to face her sister with a raised eyebrow.

George cleared his throat. "At least there's only been one." He desperately tried to change the topic, but it just ended up sounding out of place. "Only one murder." He inhales sharply. "That's good news."

Unfortunately, it worked. Susan relaxed and turned to face her boyfriend, and Daisy earned a kick from under the table from Allison. "I hope it stays that way." Susan nods, returning to eating her dinner. "I just feel sick thinking about it. She was about to go to college and—"

"Jenna Silvey was a piece of shit." Daisy interrupted. "She had it coming."

"Daisy Hendrix I really hope you're not being serious." Susan shook her head.

She shrugged again, leaning back in her seat at the dining table. "Let's not forget she almost sent me to the hospital that night. And not only that— she terrorized Jen all throughout middle school for being Chinese. And I'm pretty sure she started a rumor last year that Rebecca Ferrel gave herpes to the basketball team."

Susan looked at her daughter with shocked eyes. "And you think that equates to being murdered?"

"Yes." Daisy says immediately after.

Susan remained in disbelief, slowing turning to face George who was watching Daisy cautiously. "Daisy, these are very serious accusations." George says, in a concerned tone.

"I didn't fucking murder her I just think she had it coming." She shrugs.

"I didn't say that." George shook his head.

"Do I need to start taking you to therapy again?" Susan questions.

Daisy scoffs, cracking her knuckles frustratedly. "Jesus christ, no."

"Try rehab." Allison adds, Daisy almost forgot she was there.

"Suck my dick." Daisy snaps, leaning forward in her seat quickly and getting in Allison's face.

"Daisy Hendrix, leave this table now." Susan says sternly, loud enough for Daisy to jump a bit at her tone.

Daisy pulls away from Allison, before pushing her chair out of the way of the table and storming away. As she reached the bottom of the staircase, she glanced over at the mirror that was sat above a decorative table, her face still smoldering underneath a stony expression. Her rages felt pointless to her, although she'd never admit it.

She slammed her bedroom door shut, as if to make a point to her family downstairs that she was still pissed off. Her room shook a bit at the force, a single poster fluttering off the wall.

Daisy didn't care to pin it back up, she just charged over to her dresser, almost taring the drawer from the socket as she didn't even realize how much stronger she was when she was pissed off.

She grabbed her walkman from the drawer. She began to insert a new tape, when she heard something tap the window.

Daisy looks up, still fidgeting with the cassette player as she eyed the window, blinds shut. She shook it off, knowing it was probably just the tree outside her window that's branches knocked when it was windy. But it wasn't windy.

Something else hit the window and she slammed her walkman down, charging towards it and shoving the blinds open. Daisy looked around at the night sky. Her eyes fell to Kai's window, blinds open, lights off, he was nowhere to be seen.

Then she watched as a small pebble hit her window again, and her eyes trailed down to where it came from. Kai stood below her window, ready to throw another pebble to catch her attention, but stopping when he realized she saw him.

"Jesus." She mumbles, unlocking her window and pushing it open. Daisy leans out, eyeing Kai. He wore a big leather jacket over a black shirt, black jeans and giant black boots. "Going to a funeral?" She asks.

Kai scoffs. "Says you."

Daisy smiles faintly. She then caught glance of the pentagram necklace that hung around his neck, and a small silver dangly earring in his ear. "What are you doing?" She asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Are you busy?" He asks, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets.

Daisy glances behind her at her empty room, then back to Kai. "Just self-loathing." She shrugs.

"Come on." He nods his head towards the outdoors.

Daisy inhales deeply. "My mom's pissed at me right now, I—"

"You think my parents know I'm out here right now?" Kai raised an eyebrow. "Windows are made for sneaking out."

"That's not what windows are for." Daisy responds bluntly.

Kai rolls his eyes. "It'll be fun." He says in a sing-songy voice.

She clenches her jaw and examines him as she thinks. "What, you think we get one slushee together and now we're best friends?" Daisy questions.

Kai huffs frustratedly, waiting a second before speaking again. "Do you trust me?"

Kai had given Daisy every reason to not trust him. But his words almost brought her a sense of comfort. The fact that he was even asking her made her feel like she did. "Not really." She responds, keeping up her front.

"Fine." Kai puts his hands up in surrender. "I'll just go have fun by myself."

Daisy weighed her options as Kai began to slowly walk off. She could either stay locked inside her room for the rest of the night, or potentially get herself into deeper shit with him. She shook her head in disbelief with herself as she began to climb out onto her roof.