It Started With a Murder

Chapter Eight

Adrian:

I sit in my room, staring blankly at my science book, I seriously couldn’t give a damn about nuclear fission. Sighing, I’m about to make up some ‘facts’, hopefully something that sounds scientific, when my father barges in.

“What you doin’?” He grunts at me, storming over to my desk.

“Homework.” I say, quietly, without turning to look at him.

Father snatches the science book from me, “What the hell is it?” He asks, slamming it back down onto my desk.

“Science.” I say, wondering if my father is more stupid than I gave him credit for.

“Don’t you dare get cheeky with me.” He shouts, slamming his fists into my chair.

I splutter, “I just answered your question!”

“You had a tone in your voice, you always have a tone in your voice!” Father snaps, his leering face only inches from my own.

I clench and unclench my jaw before hissing, “Sorry.” 

“I don’t believe you.” My father says, a cold, sharp glint in his malicious eyes.

“What?” I say, my voice turning cold.

“Apologise again, and mean it this time.” He says, a hint of a challenge in his brutal face.

I breath heavily, “Sorry.” I say, slowly and clearly, trying to keep all of my hatred from my voice.

Father stays silent for a moment, I look at him, study his sagging neck, his watery eyes and deep frown lines that are like a tapestry of anger, marked upon his ugly, aggressive face.

“Not good enough.” He whispers, then I’m on the floor.

My breath catches in my throat and my head throbs from the piercing contact it’s just had with the floor. I watched father walk from the room without giving me a second glance. As my brain begins to process thoughts again, I realise he must have pushed my chair, that must be why I’m on the floor.

I pull myself to my feet and, in a fit of anger, throw my science book across the room, allowing it to crash against my bedside table.

Standing still for a few moments, my temper slowly calms down enough to keep my breathing in check. I walk to my bedside table and begin picking up all the paper from my science book, placing it all in one pile. I reach under the bed to grab the last few pieces of paper, I feel the glossy front of a picture.

I pull it out from under the bed and look at it, it’s a photo of me with Annabelle lying in my lap. I remember throwing it under my bed now, it was the night that we broke up. It used to sit on my bed side table. A new batch of anger wells up inside me, anger towards her murderer, anger towards every single person who thinks I would've hurt a single hair on the head of the beautiful Belle. So much anger.

“Adrian.” Father bellows from downstairs, “Get down here now.”

I stand up and storm downstairs, completely ignoring my father, I notice my mother cowering in a corner, she does nothing to help me. Without even looking for my father, I slip some shoes on and pull the front door open.

To my surprise, Cathie’s standing outside, her hand poised, ready to knock on the door. She jumps back as I pull the door open.

“Adrian…” Her voice trails away when she sees the expression on my face. She pauses for a fraction of a second before grabbing my wrist and pulling me quickly away from my house.

Five minutes later I find myself walking through a small patch of woods, which I don’t recognise. I break the silence that started when we began walking, “Where are we?”

Cathie glances back at me, “We’re in the firewater woods.” She smiles as a look of complete ignorance crosses my face, “Barely anyone knows about this place, let alone comes here. I think it’s beautiful but there are a few unpleasant rumours circulating about this area.”

I nod, knowing far to much about unpleasant rumours, “Where are we going?”

“Just this place I go to sometimes. It’s nice there, I think you might like it.” Cathie says, her voice only just audible over the sound of the leaves blowing in the wind, beneath our feet.

Cathie stops, so quickly, I almost run into her. Turning to face me, she smiles, “Close your eyes.”

“What!?” I say, backing away slightly, only restrained by her hold on my wrist.

“The place I’m about to show you, it’s far more amazing if it comes as a surprise.” She says, for the first time I see something in her eyes other than hate or pain and I just can’t refuse her, not anything.

So I close my eyes.

Cathie leads me carefully for about twenty feet before stopping, “Are we here?” I ask, feeling a slight tingling inside of me, I almost feel excited to see what kind of place could create such a sparkle in Cathie’s cold eyes.

“Yes.” Cathie whispers, I can hear the smile in her voice. “Open your eyes.”

I do as she says, having to hold back a gasp when I see the view spread out in front of me. We’re up high, on a ledge above the rest of town, the park is spread out below us with rows of houses, lit up in the dying twilight, sitting behind it.

I glance round at Cathie, who is staring proudly around at the view, “How do you like it?”

I smile to myself, then shrug, “It’s alright, I suppose.”

Cathie drags her eyes away from the view to give me a withering look. Looking at my face, she realises that I’m joking and her eyes soften slightly. She hits me, jokingly on the arm, “You’re an idiot.”

“Your not the only person to think that.” I say, my mood slowly dropping again.

Cathie’s eyes begin to lose that magic sparkle, a sparkle that makes her almost bearable to talk to, I realise that her mood's dropped along with mine. “Who is it you argue with?” She asks, all joking gone from her voice.

I don’t answer, I just stare out at the view, wishing I could stay here forever. After another minute of silence Cathie releases my wrist, which I regret, I somehow feel as if I could suddenly float away now, without her to anchor me to the ground. Of course, that’s stupid though, I can anchor myself to the ground perfectly fine, I don’t need help from a Lenora twin.

Cathie drops herself to the ground, her legs gently swinging off the side of the ledge, her eyes gaining a faraway look as she gazes at the sky, “I know what family problems are like and I know how it feels to constantly feel like your not good enough, like you should be someone else. And like you’re the only one that can see that you really are trying to be the best person you can be.” She pauses, then begins to speak slowly, "Sometimes famlilies can be a pain and sometimes it's easy to wonder why we bother staying with these people that make our lives hell. But I can promise you, whatever your problem is, it won't last forever." She pauses again, then smiles sadly, "And I don't really think your an idiot."

I look down at the Lenora twin, wondering how she could possibly know how I feel, wondering how she knew exactly what to say. I get the feeling that she's been through pain as well, but I don’t ask her because I don’t want to know her pain, I already have enough of my own.

Instead I sit next to her, watching the remaining light sink into an inky, blue night.