Chapter 4 - THE CAR

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There were certain things Ada had previously known about the house and the property surrounding it. Bits and pieces of information that she'd managed to pull out of the doctor through sheer willful insistence.

So she was already aware, for example, that Dr. Kizua's house stood alone, nestled at the very top of a hill. But she also knew that there were other houses further down the road. Only houses, nothing else. When she'd asked if other people lived in them, the doctor had remained silent, refusing to budge.

Why the doctor had decided to draw the line at that one, seemingly innocuous detail, Ada had no idea.

Regardless, she had always suspected that the answer to that question was no.

It made the most sense. After all, visits were few and far between, and they always came to the house by car. Gardners and other cleaning staff arrived late and left early, or didn't come at all for days on end. And she'd never found any evidence that pointed to the existence of other people nearby.

So the suspicion had always been there. But actually getting to confirm this with her very own eyes, was a different experience altogether.

There really was nothing.

The streets were desolate, not even the vague silhouette of someone moving behind the glass walls and windows of any of these two-story houses. Not the splash of someone diving into the pool that each one of them seemed to have in their backyards. Not the rumbling sound of lawnmowers trimming the vast gardens. No talking, no laughter or yelling. No barks, cries or chirps from pets or other animals. Nothing.

The houses were empty.

The only sounds that filled this ghost town were the girl's own hurried footsteps and heavy breathing as they scurried along, Kassia still pulling Ada along by the hand, despite the sweat building up between their clasped palms.

Every now and then they would stop. Kassia would pull her under the shade of a tree or push her up against a wall, whispering at her to stay low, narrowed eyes trained on what looked like a surveillance camera. They'd both wait with bated breaths for it to gradually swivel to another angle, before dashing across the street or turning a corner.

Ada wondered if the cameras were even real. Why would there be surveillance in an empty neighbourhood? And why were all these houses empty in the first place?

These questions gnawed at her. Even more than the suffocating heat, they wore her down, the anxious knot in her stomach growing tighter and heavier the further down the hill they went.

"Where is he?" Kassia hissed after they turned yet another corner, only to be greeted by more nothing. "He said he'd be close."

Ada bit her lip, looking down at their clasped hands. She was just about to open her mouth to voice her concerns, when she suddenly felt herself being yanked forward.

"There he is!"

Kassia dragged her all the way to the start of what looked like a beaten track. A big, black SUV was parked right there on the side of the path, hidden under the shade of an acacia tree.

All of Ada's muscles tensed up.

Immediately, she took a step back, trying to pull Kassia with her. But the older girl had already let go of her hand, rushing towards the car. Before Ada could stop her or cry out for her, the dark tinted windows of the SUV rolled down and someone popped their head out. A young man, with dark brown skin, strong features and a stylised, short, curly afro.

"Fuck, finally!" he yelled out the car window, his gestures wide and aggressive as he glared at an approaching Kassia. "What took you so long, fart face!"

The older girl didn't seemed fazed at all by the boy's hostile behaviour. Getting on her tiptoes, she stepped right up to the window, pulled him by the neck and kissed him square on the cheek with an audible smack of her lips.

"Thanks for waiting, love," she cooed, batting her eyelashes.

It was clear, by her tone alone and the barely contained laughter, that the older girl was mocking him. But somehow, that intimate gesture still made something hot and bitter coil up tight at the bottom of Ada's stomach, her grip tightening on the hem of her damp shirt.

"Ew, get your fucking germs off me!" the boy groaned, slapping away Kassia's hands while whipping his cheek. "I almost drove off, you know. This car isn't exactly what you would call inconspicuous."

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"Whatever. You would never drive off without me."

"Pfft, wanna test me?" the boy scoffed, pierced lips pulling up into a smirk while both hands gripped the steering wheel, "I could still drive off."

The car's engine roared to life. It revved up a few times, the front of the jeep jerking forward on the beaten track, almost like a warning.

Kassia's own smug smile dropped like a rock.

"Don't you dare, you bastard!" she shouted, taking a step back only to aim a high, hard and very loud kick to the driver-side door with the heels of her sandals. "Open this goddam door or I'll personally make sure to put a dent on it."

"Wow, wow, hey!" The boy fumbled in his haste to turn off the engine, hands shooting out of the window to grab the girl's ankle and push her foot away. "Okay, fine, just stop!"

Kassia stumbled for a bit, but did back off, lowering her leg. The frown on her face, however, did not subside. Crossing her arms, she coked one hip to the side and raised an eyebrow at the boy, as if expecting something.

The boy groaned, sinking into his seat and brushing a hand down his face, before shooting her a side-glance.

"Common," he said, nodding his head towards the spot beside him, a much softer smile tugging at his lips. "Get your lovely buttocks on this seat, then."

Just like that, Kassia's cold glare shifted back to the smug smile she had on earlier, only somehow even more pleased this time.

"Thank you," she chirped up at him with a short curtsy, before sauntering over to the passenger side.

It was seeing the older girl open the door and hop into the SUV that jolted Ada back into action. The sudden fear of being left behind outweighed any reservations she had about the boy, and it pushed her forward. Stepping out of the shade, she rushed towards the car.

"Testy today, huh?" she heard the guy taunt Kassia, before those eyes suddenly whipped over to her. In a split second, the grin on his lips vanished, leaving nothing behind but a blank, taut expression. "Who the fuck is that?"

The sheer intensity of that gaze made Ada freeze on the stop, just mere steps away from the front end of the car. On pure instinct, she held her breath, arms wrapped tight around her midriff.

"Don't worry," Kassia was quick to interject, the relaxed smile on her face clashing with their tense standoff. "That's my friend, Ada."

The girl in question perked up at the mention of her name, but stayed put, unsure of what to do. She thought about waving her hand as a greeting, but the boy's unrelenting scowl made her think twice.

Noticing this, Kassia pressed on, leaning in to grip the boy's shoulder while bringing a finger to her lips, winking at him in a knowing way, "You can trust her, she's cool. Honest."

It was an odd gesture, its meaning lost on Ada. It didn't seem to work too well on the guy either. He did look away from her, but only to turn that steely gaze on Kassia instead.

After a beat or two, with the boy refusing to budge an inch, Kassia's smile fell from her lips altogether. Glaring back just as intensely, she opened the door on her side and made a threatening gesture to hop off the seat and out of the car.

"I'm not leaving without her," she said, both her voice and gaze as unyielding as stone.

Another tense couple of seconds ticked by between Kassia and the boy.

Then, finally, the guy sighed and looked away.

"Fine," he groaned.

Ada nearly jumped when those dark eyes landed back on her. But all he did was beckon her over, jerking his thumb towards the back seat with an almost bored expression.

"Jump in, new kid," he shouted, voice growing taut as he added, "before anyone spots our asses."

Kassia beamed at Ada, also motioning at her to hop on.

Ada relaxed and stepped forward reflexively at Kassia's gesture, but then stopped. Wringing her hands, she threw one last look behind her.

She could still kind of see it from here. Dr. Kizua's house, nestled on the side of the hill, near the very top, overlooking everything. It looked so small from where she stood. Just another house.

Harmless. Insignificant even.

For a brief second, Ada marvelled at the fact that she was actually here, on this side, able to look at the house that she'd spent every waking day of her life in, from this much of a distance.

"Come on, Ada!"

Kassia's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

With one last nervous glance over her shoulder, Ada turned back to the beaten path and rushed towards the side of the car. The door to the back seat had already swung open, so she just hauled herself up and plopped onto the cushioned black seat. She watched, amazed, as the door swung shut on its own.

She heard a giggle. When she turned her eyes forward, Kassia was looking at her, chin resting on the arm she'd draped over the back of her own seat, a knowing grin on those plump lips.

"Ada, this is Gabriel," she introduced, jabbing her finger into the boy's cheek, who just slapped it away with an annoyed click of his tongue. Unfazed, Kassia then motioned back at her. "Gabriel, this is Ada."

Right then, Ada made the mistake of looking up at the rear-view mirror. She caught Gabriel's hardened eyes, cold and sharp, like a knife sinking into her flesh, and had to immediately look away, her wide eyes falling to her lap.

"There, now you know each other." Kassia smacked Gabriel's leg, getting a yelp out of the boy. "Stop glaring at her."

"Whatever," he scoffed, though he did look away, cursing under his breath as he fastened his seatbelt and motioned for the two girls to do the same. "This is the last time I give you a ride, but-face."

Kassia relaxed into her seat with a satisfied smile. Propping her feet up on the SUV's dashboard, she glanced back at Ada, shooting her a cheeky wink before loudly replying. "That's what you always say."

"Yeah, well, this time I mean it."

"Sure you do."

Gabriel frowned and clicked his tongue, slapping her feet off the dashboard and quickly dusting the dirt off with a mumbled, "can't keep anything clean with you around," before finally starting the car.

With one last rev of the engine, they were off. Making a sharp U-turn, Gabriel drove them down the beaten path, his movements careful but confident. The car remained eerily quiet and steady as they made their way down, then slowly through a broken fence and onto the main road outside the house complex, where they eventually picked up speed.

Ada twisted her body to look through the rear window, watching as the hill and Dr. Kizua's house faded back into the horizon.