Victor and Xari's final day of lounging inside the house came to a peaceful end Sunday night.
The next day—Xari was awake an hour or so earlier than usual, wearing her new backpack, the sleek black jacket he'd bought for her, and the studded leather bracelet to match, beaming away and excitedly awaiting her first trip to school.
On the drive, Victor rehearsed everything with her twice over, then gave her a brief run-down of how high schools generally worked. By the time he was finished, he had been sitting with her in the parking lot for almost twenty minutes, and he finally allowed her to go.
He sat in the driver seat, tapping the steering wheel and watching anxiously as Xari marched across the pavement, vanishing into the crowd of teenagers as they all flooded into the school.
He stayed put for a while, even after everyone was inside the school and the expansive walkway was empty. About half an hour later, he finally shifted gears and drove away. He didn't like the two of them being separated, given their unique situation—but if they truly intended to live normal lives, then it was simply something he'd have to grow accustomed to.
Xari's day—contrary to Victor's—was filled with new wonders, excitement and joy she never remembered knowing before now.
Passing by the lockers and the doorways, she observed the glass case filled with sports and cheerleader trophies, marveling at them before moving on to the classrooms, peeking into each one.
Then—she finally found her way to a teacher, who took her to the principal's office, where she obtained her class schedule for the year.
Her homeroom was in a class taught by someone named Ben Sadler, and she shyly asked another student for directions before arriving in the correct classroom.
Xari strolled inside behind a group of other teens, peering around at the classroom and seeing many posters of historical significance, a few of them framed and quite worn, as they were from decades ago.
At the front of the class was the teacher—Ben Sadler, slender and average, short black hair and a caustic, knowing sort of expression on his face, wearing a dark blue button-up and lecturing a few young boys about some stunt they'd pulled in the class last week. Once he was done, he shooed them away, and everyone in the room began sinking into their seats.
Xari glimpsed around, spotting an empty seat and quickly claiming it before allowing her backpack to slide off her shoulder. The seating arrangements had everyone in groups of two, as the classroom had tables rather than desks, and each one was big enough for two students each.
Xari glanced to the side, only just realizing the seat beside her was occupied by a rather beautiful young woman. She had long thick hair, brunet and smooth, coasting down her shoulders in waves, her skin flawless and her face decorated with just the right amount of eyeliner, mascara, and ruby red lipstick. Her eyes were focused directly forward, and Xari found herself staring, ogling the paint on her face and feeling another touch of fascination.
Finally—the girl snapped her head around, shooting Xari a snarling look. "𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵?"
Xari took back, gulping and motioning gently to the girl's face. "I'm just looking at your…"
"It's called makeup," the girl chided coldly, flipping her hair to the side and scanning Xari up and down. "Ughk. And you should 𝘵𝘳𝘺 it sometime."
Xari frowned, facing away and slowly hanging her head.
"Jess," Ben Sadler called from up front, seeming to spot the brief altercation straight off. "Are you harassing our new student? Already? I know you're an expert on harassment, but that's gotta be a 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘥 for you."
Many of the other students snickered at hearing this, including Xari.
The mean girl—Jess—cocked her head and held her nose high, scoffing and folding her arms.
"Speaking of… Ms. Carrington," Ben said kindly, his voice light, giving Xari a polite little nod. "Would you like to come up here and tell us a bit about yourself?"
It took Xari a moment to realize he was addressing her—and she swallowed a sharp breath, seeing that everyone else had turned to face her now, all of them eyeballing her.
Slowly, she reached her feet, moving to the front of the classroom and feeling nervous.
The two boys in the back—one with stringy brown hair, mostly combed to one side and styled high, the other with messy sandy hairs tenting over his eyes—leaned forward on their table, each of them examining the new student from afar.
Jess's cold hazel eyes rested on Xari intently as well.
Xari stood before them all, feeling another surge of anxiety, wondering what she should say.
"Um…" she murmured. "My… my name's Xari. I… um… I was in a… bad accident a long time ago. I was in a hospital for a long time, and… now I'm… finally back in the regular world."
Jess let out a loud scoff. "Are you 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦, space case?"
A few others sniggered at her remark.
"I thought I was space case!" the sandy-haired boy cackled from the back.
"You are, freak!" Jess yelled, whipping around and frowning at him. "Go back to your stupid loony bin!"
"Jess," Ben said warningly, raising his brows at her. "Be quiet. Xari, continue."
Xari gulped and cleared her throat, feeling truly at a loss for words.
"I don't… I don't really know," she resolved. "I don't remember that far back…"
She turned her head and met the teacher's eyes, seeing that Ben had a troubled look about him now. He leaned slightly closer, lowering his voice and speaking to her in a hushed tone.
"Memory loss from an injury?" he whispered.
Xari nodded.
"Oh." Ben took back, nodding with understanding. "All right… go ahead and sit down."
Xari felt immense relief as she headed back to her chair, scooting gently away from Jess and avoiding her eyes.
For the remainder of class, Ben lectured everyone about a certain tribe of Native Americans—as this was evidently what they'd been learning about this week—and once the history class was over, the bell rang, and everyone stood up to leave.
Xari reached her feet and slid one of her backpack straps on—then nearly tripped backward, her foot catching the leg of her chair, as Jess had shoved past her rather forcefully, shoulder-ramming her aside.
Jess sauntered off as if she'd done nothing wrong, and Xari sighed, readjusting her backpack before preparing to leave behind the crowd.
"Xari," Ben said, approaching her from behind. "You have a minute?"
Xari turned to him, the door swinging shut as the final student departed, leaving the two of them alone in the middle of the classroom.
"I'm sorry if this is out of line, but I feel the need to ask… just to ease the whole process throughout the year," Ben explained, pressing his fingertips together. "Is there anything that gets in the way of you remembering what you're taught? Exactly… how severe is this memory loss? I'm only asking so we can make sure you're able to do your assignments and learn the material like everyone else."
Xari hesitated, managing a shrug and nervously twirling her bangs around. "I don't think it's… like that. I can't remember a long time ago… but… with stuff that's happening right now, I don't really have a problem."
Ben's expression seemed to change just the slightest bit, his polite smile waning—and his eyes were fixed onto her forehead.
Xari only just realized she was revealing her scar, so she quickly lowered her hand, allowing her hairs to tent over the unsightly mark once again.
Ben then met her eyes, now looking perturbed.
"That… that's just from the accident," Xari tried to explain.
Ben's eyes narrowed. "Car accident?"
Xari nodded.
"A burn mark from a car accident," Ben uttered skeptically. "M'kay. Looks a bit like a cigarette burn to me. I hope nobody's putting their cigarettes out on you."
"What?" Xari barked, making a strange face. "Nooo… my dad doesn't do that anymore."
Ben's mouth drifted agape.
"I mean… smoking," Xari clarified, swatting the air. "He doesn't smoke anymore. Not usually. Not unless he's really, really stressed out."
Ben stared at her, seeming troubled. "Okay…"
"Thanks," Xari said, turning to leave. "Seeya later, Mr. Sadler."
Ben gave her a wave, now wearing a thoughtful grimace as he watched her go.
Xari ventured out to the hallway, digging the folded paper from her pocket and rereading the locker number that the principal had written down for her. She moved past groups of other students, scanning along the lockers and searching for the correct one, though she doubted she would find it before the next class began.
And further down this hallway—the brown-haired boy and his sandy-haired friend were loitering by the large window, one leaning coolly against it while the other paced to and fro.
"Duuude—she's a bitch!" the sandy-haired boy declared, spinning around while he paced. "Why do you even like her?"
The brown-haired boy—slender and slacked back against the glass, hand pocketed in his black leather jacket, his face now harboring a pair of stylish sunglasses—slid the lollipop from his mouth, using it to gesture to his friend.
"Cheerleader," the boy said, his voice much calmer than his friend's. "Head cheerleader, perfect ten, and leader of the little popular girls' clique. That's why."
The sandy-haired boy—his eyes somewhat wild—stopped and cocked his head, holding up three fingers and listing off everything his friend had said, only colorfully reworded.
"Stuck-up bitch," he said, counting off one finger. "Probably been used more than a blow-up doll." He counted off the second finger. "And she leads a whole 𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘬 of even 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 evil ego bitches." He lowered the last finger. "Where are the good points? What am I missing?"
"Dude… if you don't see why I wanna hook up with a perfect ten, I don't know what to tell ya," the brown-haired boy replied with a laugh, shaking his head. "But that party's tonight. Kinda need to figure it out soon."
Xari wandered closer, slowing her pace and observing them.
"Okay… okay," the sandy-haired boy sighed, digging his fingers into his temples. "If you really wanna get her to go out with you… then just show up to the party with somebody else. She's a cunt, so… y'know… being a cunt to her is all she's gonna understand."
"You're saying make her jealous," the brown-hair boy surmised, glancing past his friend and spotting Xari. "M'kay. Check out my luck."
Then, the brown-haired boy pushed off the window, swaggering up to Xari and making her halt in her stead.
The first thing she noticed was his hair—dark and stringy, and most of it combed over to one side, almost similar to the way Victor's was, only rising high rather than hanging low. Her heart gave a nervous jump as he slowed to a stop in front of her.
"So… hey. My name's Nathan," he introduced himself, waving at her with the lollipop and offering his free hand. "And… that freak behind me, that's my buddy, Sully. Nice to meetcha."
"Oh… okay. Nice to meet you too," Xari flushed, briefly returning his handshake.
"Yeah, so… since you're new here, I figured I could nip a couple problems in the bud for both of us," Nathan said. "Because, ah… you're super cute, and I don't have a date for tonight, so… you wanna go to a party with us tonight? You'll make some friends, and I'll have a super cute date with me. Win-win, right?"
Xari felt her cheeks burning, fighting the urge to reveal a childlike smile. "Y… yeah, that'd be awesome. I'll go."
"Cool," Nathan smirked, a sly, captivating sort of half-smile, his eyes big and brown, though not half as wild as Sully's. "You wanna meet us in the back parking lot after school? We can just hang out until party time."
Xari hesitated for a second, pondering on this. Victor agreed to let her walk home from school in the afternoons, and he would certainly notice if she came home hours late—but she'd never made new friends or been to a party before.
"Yeah… we can do that," Xari agreed. "Thanks."
"Thank you," Nathan smiled charmingly, rejoining Sully and waving her off. "Seeya then."
As Nathan and Sully walked off—Xari beamed away, spinning on her heel and gleefully meandering down the hall from where she came, forgetting entirely about her unpleasant experiences earlier on.
-----
Victor busied himself with a long list of housework while Xari was away at school.
For hours on end—he cleaned everything spotless, he organized all the recently-purchased foods in the fridge and the cabinets, and he gathered all their dirty laundry for a trip to the laundromat.
When he got back home hours later, the late afternoon was setting in, and he dragged two massive trash bags of laundry out of the DeLorean, hoisting them over his shoulders and trekking up the three concrete stairs, lugging it all to his front door.
When he unlocked the door and stepped inside, he expected to hear Xari shuffling around in the kitchen—as she often liked to cook this time of day—but he heard nothing, the entire house still.
Victor sighed and plopped the bags down on the couch, glimpsing up at the clock and seeing that it was nearly six in the evening. He glared at it, inhaling a deep, troubled breath, knowing for certain that Xari should've been home almost two hours ago.
He scoured the house, just to be sure—but in both bedrooms, both bathrooms, the kitchen, the den, and the basement, there was no Xari to be found.
"Son of a…" Victor wandered back into the living room, running a hand down his face and glancing around, suddenly growing restless. "Day damn one. There's a fucking problem on 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘯 𝘰𝘯𝘦…"
Perhaps he shouldn't have let her walk home from the school—but honestly, the school was only about a mile away, and the route was easy. In this peaceful nook of Wisconsin, it wasn't likely that she'd face danger on that short walk.
And even if she did—her reaction to the danger would most assuredly help to fend it off.
Victor stared down at the scar on his hand, curling it into a fist.
Just when he was about to break into a brisk stride—a distant ringing caught his ear, and he whipped around, staring down the hallway as his eyes landed on the phone.
Leo's old landline was perched up on the wall of the hallway, ringing loudly.
Victor approached it and swiftly answered the call. "Speak."
"Hey… Victor," Xari's timid voice met his ear.
Victor's jaw twitched. "Where are you?"
Xari was standing on a sidewalk at a payphone, Nathan and Sully lingering at the nearby curb and trading conversation with each other. She glimpsed over at her companions for a second before adjusting her grasp on the phone.
"At a payphone," Xari informed. "I told you I could use one…"
"Yeah, okay… why aren't you home?"
"Because… I… I made some friends, and they invited me to a party tonight, so… I'll be late getting home, okay? Love you. Seeya."
"Don't—hey—𝘟𝘢𝘳𝘪," Victor snapped warningly. "Hey—you can't go to a party with people you've only known for a fucking day. Xari. Xari! Answer me! 𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘱 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘦!"
Moments later, the dial tone echoed from the phone.
Victor slowly lowered it, glaring into it as if the object had deeply wronged him.
"She hung up on me," he murmured.
He stood stick still for a long while, mentally assessing his every option.
He couldn't very well drag her home—as he had no clue where she was—but he couldn't simply stay put, either.
So, Victor resolved to wait.
If she didn't decide to come home right now—as she should—then he'd be forced to go looking for her.
But—as time passed, and as Victor sat on the couch, glaring vacantly into the TV and giving numerous impatient glances to the clock—the door behind him never opened, and Xari never came home.
"Son of a bitch!"
He exploded all the sudden and rocketed to his feet—storming past the clock that now showed it was nine at night.
Victor busted out of the house, the sky entirely dark now, his overcoat shifting in his wake as he slid down the slope at the edge of his yard—and he landed on the sidewalk just beside the DeLorean, staring at it as his mouth drifted open.
The back tire of the car was deflated, the metal center of the wheel resting on the concrete atop flattened rubber.
"Nooo… not now," Victor growled, smacking the car and shaking his head. "I can't have a fucking flat right now…!"
He spun around and fidgeted, cursing and swearing, pacing up and down the sidewalk and combing his stringy black hairs aside, his mind racing and searching for new solutions.
Then—he skidded to a stop, gazing over the wooden fence along the side of his property, where he was just able to see the window of the neighbor's kitchen, the lights powered on, just the faintest hint of movement visible inside.
Victor swallowed, breaking into another stride and speed-walking around the fence. He headed up the neighbor's slightly sloped driveway, marching past her pickup truck and leaping briskly onto her porch.
"Hey—nosy girl! Hey!" Victor yelled at the door—bashing his fist against it and positively pummeling the door with his knuckles. "Heeey—open up! I need to borrow your car! It's an emergency! Open up! Open open open open op—!"
His words abandoned him at once—as the door flung open, and a large blade shot out toward him in a second flat.
Victor jumped—reeling back and reaching for his side, freezing just when he met the neighbor's gaze. Then, he paused, observing her closely.
Crystal stood in the doorway now, her beautiful face twisted up with anger, her body covered by a large salmon apron, holding a large butcher's knife that she'd presumably been using in her kitchen moments ago. Though now—she held the knife out at Victor, glaring into him and awaiting an explanation.
"What the fuck is your problem, asshole?!" Crystal snarled. "Why're you bashing my freaking door down?!"
Victor slowly lowered his hand, careful not to move the side of his overcoat, keeping his pistol hidden from sight.
He sighed, cleared his throat, and straightened up.
"Sorry," he said, his voice lowering to its usual rasp. "My daughter's missing, and my car's got a flat. I need to go and find her. So… I need to borrow your truck."
Crystal stared at him for several seconds, seeming to search every inch of his visage for any hint of deceit.
Then, she lowered the knife, folding her arms as her expression softened into a calmer, though more caustic one.
"I'm not about to just give my keys to a stranger," she said tonelessly.
Victor felt a spark of agitation inside, opening his mouth to reply—
"But," Crystal added, raising her hand and giving him a look. "I wouldn't be opposed to driving you around and helping you look for her."
Victor's mouth hung agape for a second. Then, he gulped and nodded.
Crystal returned the nod, stepped back into her house, and powered off her stove before returning to the porch. She and Victor marched down the concrete path toward the driveway, climbing into her pickup truck.
Victor leaned against the passenger window, sighing deeply while Crystal started the engine, slowly backing down the driveway before turning and cruising down the road, driving through the neighborhood beneath the night sky.
The two were quiet for a few minutes, Victor scanning every house they passed, searching for any hint of teenagers, bright lights, or blaring music—but thus far, he saw no signs of a party anywhere.
Crystal stole a glimpse of him as she drove, slowing and turning toward the next block. "So… are you gonna elaborate on this situation, or…?"
Victor didn't reply right away. He let out another heavy exhalation, straightening up in his seat and giving her a glance.
"It's just her first day in town… around a bunch of people she doesn't know," Victor said shortly. "I don't want her out in the nightlife on day damn one."
Crystal nodded as she listened. "How old is she?"
"Eighteen."
"What… really? Okay… well, then… I think it's possible you might be overreacting a little bit. She's legally an adult, right? If she wants to go to a party, then why not just let her go? Girl's gotta live a little."
Victor swallowed an irritated groan, gnawing his bottom lip and fighting the growing wave of anger that festered deep inside.
"You don't understand," he mumbled, facing the window again.
Crystal gave him another once-over. "What don't I understand? I mean… I totally could be missing something here, I just don't know what it is. Explain it to me."
Victor rested his face on his knuckles, watching every single house to pass by.
"We were both in a… in an accident," he uttered. "And, the whole ordeal was… traumatizing. It was for both of us… but more so her. She ended up institutionalized in a… in a hospital… for quite a while. She hasn't been out in the world in a long damn time. She's not adjusted to it. So… no… she 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 need to be 𝘰𝘶𝘵 right now."
Crystal fell deathly silent for nearly a full minute, gazing deadpan into the road ahead.
"Sorry," she eventually replied. "That's… yeah… that definitely makes more sense, then…"
Victor said nothing, glaring distantly out at the night and pondering deeply on the issue at hand.
Of course—he hadn't told her the whole truth, and he couldn't tell her such a thing even if the information wasn't dangerous to share.
Much of it was simply unbelievable, the types of things you'd only see in movies, and he knew for certain nobody would believe him even if he could tell them.
In the time shortly after the terrible experiment in the Institute, Victor and Xari had both retaliated on instinct, a knee-jerk reaction out of a simple instinct to survive—and the ordeal became, quite literally, explosive.
On that day, the two of them had managed to accomplish things—by accident—that no other human being could ever do or believe.
It was something he couldn't explain that day, something he still couldn't even now—but he knew for certain it came as a result of whatever bizarre experiment Harold Manson had performed on them.
And—if Xari was exposed to the wrong sort of stimuli at some wild party tonight, then she might just react with drastic and unexplainable terror, just like she had the first time.
Victor released a deep, stressful sigh.
"So fucking much for playing normal…"
-----
Xari followed Nathan and Sully to a neighborhood beyond her own—one with bigger houses all around, and the loudest and most occupied house was the one on the corner.
Throughout much of their time together, Xari hadn't spoken much; it seemed Nathan and Sully had a deep history and a long list of inside jokes with one another, and she never knew what to say about any of them. So, throughout a lot of the afternoon and into the evening, she simply didn't speak.
Only when they arrived at the party—a loud, neon-lit crowd inside the house of fellow high schoolers—did either of them begin to show her any real attention.
Nathan and Sully escorted Xari across the dancing crowd in the enormous living room, beneath numerous colors of lights and past several jocks taking turns chugging from a beer bong. The three of them emerged at the edge of the kitchen, which was complete with a long bar-like counter, countless snacks, alcohols, and bowls of punch covering the majority of its surface.
Nathan and Sully began pouring shot after shot of vodka, downing the first few in a matter of minutes. They offered some to Xari, but after giving the bottle a brief whiff, she politely declined.
"Awww—c'mon!" Sully grinned, nudging an empty shot glass into her arm. "You're all shy and reserved and shit—loosen up! Join the party! Be free!"
Xari gave him an odd look. "Free?"
"Yeees—that's the feeling you get at a party," Sully knew. "That's what parties are for."
"Mhm. He's right," Nathan nodded in agreement, holding a full shot glass and leaning against the bar. "And that's what parties have always been for since they were invented in the sixteen-hundreds."
Xari stared at him. "Really…?"
"I'unno. No idea. Let's drink," Nathan replied with a shrug, clinking his glass to Sully's before they both swallowed their sixth shots.
Xari breathed out a laugh, snickering at his odd whimsy and glancing around her obnoxious environment. Many of the jocks were now carrying the beer bong outside—as the owner of the house had evidently ordered them to do so—and another crowd was beginning to form around it in the front yard.
"So like… where'd you come from?" Sully wondered, tilting his head at her. "We hardly ever get new people in Linbourne. You gotta have a good story."
"Not as good as yours, loony-toon," Nathan cackled, mixing his seventh shot with fruit punch and taking a sip.
"Everyone—fucking—𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴 I came from a koo-koo hut," Sully yammered dramatically, cocking his head and gesturing weirdly toward Nathan. "And no—body—𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘴 anymore! I wanna hear something new! I wanna hear Xari's story!"
"Mhm. Well… she kinda told us the brunt of it in Sadler's class today, and it wasn't a happy story," Nathan mumbled into his drink, shooting his friend a serious sort of look. "So maybe she doesn't wanna talk about it, shit-bird."
"Nate," Sully muttered, suddenly seeming intense, holding up the vodka bottle and gazing deeply into it. "Where'd the worm go?"
Nathan blinked, staring at the bottle, then at their two shot glasses.
"Oooh… fuck," he sighed.
"There it is!" a girl's voice joined in.
The three of them turned—seeing Jess on the other side of the bar, accompanied by two of her snobby friends from school. Jess was smiling coldly, pointing at Xari while her two followers giggled smugly at her.
"Oooh, sorry," Jess said with fake pity, tilting her head at Xari. "God… you're just so ugly, I could've 𝘴𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘯 you were the worm."
Xari's chest began to ache, frowning as a sense of gloom began to take the place of whatever fun she might've been having.
Nathan and Sully traded faces, then turned to Jess and her followers.
"At least Xari's hair doesn't look like a rat's nest," Sully snarked.
"Umm—I only speak to 𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘦 people," Jess said snobbishly, raising a hand firmly to Sully's face. "Butt out, wasteoid."
"Hey. Do we have a problem, or what?" Nathan asked, leaning fully on the bar and perking his brow at Jess. "Your little pep squad said you wanted me to ask you out—but when I did, you shot my ass down in flames. So what's your damage now? Huh? You just like playing mind games?"
"You don't just give up after 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘺," Jess complained, eyeing him pensively and flipping her hair back. "You're supposed to ask more than once, Nate. Everybody knows that. What kind of man are you?"
"I guess not the groveling kind," Nathan replied smoothly, smacking the surface of the bar once. "And I guess I have my answer—because that right there, that's a mind game. You're just 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 of mind games."
"And shit," Sully quipped with a laugh. "Mind games and shit—oooh, Jess, that's what you're freaking 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 of!"
Nathan chuckled and gave him a high-five.
Xari's eyes shifted between Nathan and Sully, flashing a sly little smile.
Jess leaned slowly closer to Nathan, glaring daggers into him.
"If I were you," she hissed angrily. "I'd be less worried about mind games… and more worried about that 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 you just drank."
Nathan's smile began to fade.
Xari frowned—and then, Jess's predatory eyes landed directly on her.
"And you," Jess glowered, leaning fully over the punch bowl, her sparkly white dress hovering dangerously close to the red liquid. "You just better watch your back, you ugly little loser."
Xari's heart jolted, her expression hardening as her anger shot up in an instant, her forehead beginning to ache.
Then, everyone gasped and jumped—as a piercing shattering noise erupted in the middle of them all, the punch bowl abruptly exploding into a million pieces as the red liquid splattered across Jess's face and dress, thoroughly drenching her and spotting her wavy hair with glass shards.