Amid the Roar - Sequel to M.A.L.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

“What am I doing here?”

The man in the mirror asked himself that over and over. His hands raked through his mahogany hair, his intense light blues eyes bulged out of their sockets. Time ticked away where he would register the lack of sleep darkening his features and in the next second he deemed himself fine. But he was becoming angrier. The loss of his Annabel Lee drove him further into his darker side. The man was no stranger to creating violence but his remorse was waning.

“My Annabel Lee,” he whispered hoarsely. “What have you done to me?”

His fingers trailed the drawing he created from memory over her long dark hair, secretive eyes and pouting lips. The drawing was crude in quality since Charlie had never been an artist. His bottom lip quivered anyway. This was his memory. This was the girl he would not stop to find. The sketch looked up to him with an expression begging him to find her; she wanted to be his again.

It truly looked nothing like her.

Charlie swore and left the bathroom. He resumed his spot at the window in the apartment he was renting. The building was old and crumbling but it had a rustic charm. That was not the reason why Charlie picked the place. He chose it since it was a block from where he saw his love for the first time. He could see that very sidewalk if he pressed the side of his face to the window, feeling the cold air outside biting back at him through the thin glass. He had no leads other than that spot. Every day he would look out of his window, hoping to catch a glimpse of her face.

Little did he know, Gabrielle passed the apartment many times.

Driving by outside, the girl was being taken to school. She eyed up the red brick building and sneered. Gabrielle used to babysit her mother’s friend’s daughter there and the kid was a brat. She rolled her eyes. Today barely started and she was already over it. The volume of the music blasting from her ear buds was turned up and her hood pulled farther over her face.

It was hard for the girl to return to school. Everyone asked where she had been, if they were brave enough to confront her. Rumors spread like a wildfire with the help of her gasoline. She refused to say anything. Gabrielle would stare poisonously at anyone who so much as brought up her disappearance and none of her friends even had the nerve to speak to her again. At one point, she had to shove one of the popular girls into a locker just so she could pass and get to her next class. Her silence was her gasoline.

Lunch came quickly enough. It was a blessed reprieve from the tortures of school work, just not a relief from her classmates. Gabrielle heaved herself through the lunch line, taking the pint of watery chocolate milk and the dry, tasteless thing trying to call itself a burger. It was nothing she wanted to stomach but at least eating would distract her from reciprocating their stares.

Choosing a seat on the far side of the lunch room, Gabrielle sat with her back to the wall and her feet on the chair opposite her. She wasn’t afraid of what people thought. The past was hers to deal with and she’d do that when she was ready. Picking up the processed burger, Gabrielle did miss one thing about her time away; better food. She smirked from the very slight happiness of then and began to gnaw reluctantly on the bun. At least Charlie could cook.

Suddenly, a shadow blocked the light coming from the white, cloudy day outside. It was a rather tall man with broad shoulders and a scowl proving how much he loved working with the delinquent kids she called fellow students.

“What?”

The security guard raised an eyebrow at her condescending tone by sighed. He was only a messenger for the moment and he couldn’t take her to the security office for her offensive behavior. It was tempting, but she had bigger issues to take care of.

“You’re mother called,” he told her. “There’s been a family incident.”

~*~

Her head rested on her fist as she watched the courthouse tv. The news channel was reporting a story relevant to her life though she couldn’t hear it over the busy-bodies clicking their shoes over the linoleum floors. The volume was also at the lowest possible setting other than mute so Gabrielle had to read the black and white words scrolling over the bottom of the screen, out of sync with the live reporter.

… a man murdered by his wife. Police were told Joanna Majors had come home today from grocery shopping to find her son being beaten by Andrew Thomson Majors, a man she married only months ago. Though their marriage was perfect to others, their home life was far from sweet. Joanna confessed to the murder over the 911 call and is now in custody. Sources say her…

Gabrielle’s attention was shifted back to her parents who were finally walking out of the child services office. They were accompanied by a woman in a grey business with her hair tied back too tightly and a weary-eyed Jason. He was dressed in clothing obviously given to him from the police. Grey sweat pants, a large navy blue t-shirt. The worst part was the red stains Gabrielle saw poking out from his shirt’s neckline. He was nervous but blank. Gabrielle reasoned people got that way from watching their mothers kill their stepfathers.

“It’s okay,” Mrs. Harris said. She embraced her nephew though he was too numb to hold her back. “Everything is going to be alright now.”

Gabrielle’s dad hugged him next before it was her turn. The cousins exchanged brief glances. Jason’s eyes were worn down by crying. His skin was pale, his hands shaking. Jason sniffed back the tears he was having a hard time bottling up. Gabrielle took his hand in hers.

“You’ll get through this,” she whispered. Her parents went to talk a bit longer with the counselor and they were left to themselves. Gabrielle stepped closer and hugged Jason tighter than necessary. “Trust me, you’re stronger than me and I survived. You can do it too.”

Her words held double meaning. She survived her kidnapping; he would survive his mother’s protective violence. The only thing Gabrielle forgot to realize is her cousin wouldn’t brush her words off as easily as everyone else would have. He was smarter.

Jason gasped at the realization: she remembered.

.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Not the greatest chapter but something that butterfly affects the rest of the story. This will be udated faster now that WT is over. Stay insane <3