Repaying Her Blood

Chapter ten: Her diary

Marissa

"I'm sorry for being a pretty crappy sister."

I sat in front of my parents, staring blankly at the white cardboard box that contained my dead sister's things in it.

My parents thought it would be the perfect time to bring up the box that held my beloved sister's stuff. They told me that they had found the box a while ago. It was tucked under her bed and away from any peeping eyes.

"We discovered something in there, Mari," my dad commented, stroking my mum's hand comfortingly.

"What did you find?" I asked, keeping my eyes on the box that sat in the middle of the table.

"Her diary," he uttered out, rifling through the box to pick out a tattered notebook. "We haven't read anything yet as we both thought it would be best to do it with you, kiddo."

"But she was your daughter," I said, staring at my parents in disbelief.

"And she was your twin, Marissa. Don't ever forget that," my mum affirmed. "We’ve gotten through this as a family so now we are going to do this as a family."

"Ok, Mum." I nodded, biting my lip.

My dad slowly turned the first page of the notebook and began reading. He chuckled at a few sentences and shook his head once he got to the end of the page.

"Apart from tripping over in the canteen, everything's fine," he informed us, turning the page and handing it over to my mum.

"That sounds like our Lorna." My mum grinned, her eyes watering a little.

She then began reading a few pages and her reaction didn't change at all. It was like Lorna was still here and we stole her diary for the fun of it.

"Everything seems to be going well. I don't understand...?" My mum trailed off, her glossy eyes flickering quickly down the page in shock.

"What's wrong honey?" My dad questioned. "Honey?"

"I-I think she was being bullied, Adam," my mum whispered, tears dripping down her cheeks. "How could we not see this?"

"What for?" I vocalised angrily.

"It doesn't say why. It just says how she thinks everyone hates her," my mum mumbled, rubbing her head. "I think I need to sleep. I'm...sorry."

"No it's ok, darling. Just get some rest, yeah?" My dad said, holding onto her hand tightly and placing a brief kiss on her temple.

My mum silently got up and left the room, leaving my dad and I alone with Lorna's things.

"Nevermind you not noticing that. How did I not know?" I exclaimed, my face expressing confusion. "Why didn't I see what was happening, Dad?"

"I don't know, sweetheart. Maybe her bullies were more of the cowardly type," he suggested.

"Y-You mean she could have been a victim of cyber bullying?" I stammered, darting my eyes to my dad in shock.

"It's a possibility. I'm not certain though because there are many ways to hurt someone anonymously." He sighed dejectedly, picking up her notebook and dropping it into the box.

"Why now, dad? Why are we just uncovering this now?" I replied hoarsely, swallowing the ache I felt in my chest.

"Because your mother and I can just about say her name without sobbing like babies," he told me. "It's been a year and I think it's the right time to find out what truly happened."

After that, we both stayed at the table in silence. My dad and I sat there, saying absolutely nothing. The silence was comfortable and it never became awkward because we knew what I was going to do next.

Reaching over to the box, I huffed as I gently picked up the book and brought it to my chest.

"Sweetie, you don't have to do this," my dad suddenly spoke, twiddling his thumbs.

"I have to find out who bullied her. When I read all of this, I'm going to pick out all of the names and put them into a list." I shrugged, going over to my dad to place a kiss on his cheek. "I want to avenge her in some way."

"Well I'm saying this now, don't get too caught up in it. This really is for the police to sort out. But I trust you," he remarked, tapping my nose before standing up.

"I won't disappoint you, Dad," I responded, watching him leave the room with slumped shoulders.

†

Elijah Wood
Nicola White
Madeline Clark
Andrew Forbes
Isaac Bennet
Jordan Peters

Those were some of the names mentioned in her notebook. I was mentioned, Miles and Gracie too, but I was more focused on the names I didn’t know as well.

The first name to appear plenty of times was Elijah Wood. He was part of Jordan's group. My sister could have easily caught their eye, since she was very sociable. She tried to speak to every single person in our school so that was why finding out who bullied her was difficult.

Nicola White and her posse could have bullied her too. They were into gossiping and spreading rumours around school. I wouldn't be surprised if I found out she was the leading cause of it.

Madeline Clark was one of my sister's close friends until she started acting weirdly around her. Sometimes she would escape early at lunch time and make up excuses to not walk with my sister to school. She could have been sending Lorna horrible messages, which may have been why I hadn't seen her struggling with cyber bullying at the time.
Also, Madeline did end up moving to a different school after Lorna's death. Either her death was hard on Madeline or her constant bullying went too far and had her moving across the town to get away.

Andrew Forbes, another guy in Jordan's group, was a heartthrob. He could have somehow broken Lorna's heart and wouldn't have even known because he was too oblivious like that.

Isaac Bennet, known mostly for his decorative art work on the school's walls. He would always, in the end, spend time scrubbing it off after school. Isaac would draw rude drawings of people he didn't particularly like.

Lorna could have been one of his inspirations as she sometimes would pester Isaac in class or at lunchtime. People knew about his lovely drawings each day and would look out for them around the school. Maybe Lorna took one of his drawings to heart and decided she couldn't come back from it. My sister was quite sensitive.

Last but not least, Jordan Peters. Even though he didn't approve of bullying now, he may have hopped on the bullying train then with Elijah. I felt bad for putting his name down because we did have that heart-to- heart conversation in the Cinema.
However, now wasn’t the time for me to fall for his tricks and start to trust him.
My sister was dead- nobody was innocent.

Not until I had proof.