Mirror of Graves

Chapter Fifteen

Anna.

Sunday morning came in a blur, the weather was chilly, with a little bit of sun, but slow nonetheless. I barely slept, and he had sat down with us all through out the night. Yet just a night before he was trying to kill her. Things were weird, he was much calmer and peaceful than how mother had described him on the night of the attack.

I pushed the side door open and walked out. My head was a bit hot, and I needed to think. The four walls and deranged woman were slowly killing me from inside.

I made my way down the steps towards the chairs that sat permanently outside. I took the furthest seat from the pool. I placed my cup of cooling coffee by the side table and adjusted my scarf around my body. I had already taken my seat when I saw him there, he was sitting down by the pool on the exact spot he was pulled out from. He looked at me and surprisingly he was dry, well except for the red eyes.

I walked towards him afraid that he would drag me down the pool. He looked up. "May I?" He nodded. I sat down with him but didn't put my legs in the water as he did. We sat there for few minutes before he spoke.

"I used to think mother didn't care. She never saw me whenever I came around." He wore the same clothes he had worn even on that day he fell in. " But you did, and so did Eli and James. And when I stared playing with the both of them and even with you, and she would hear you all speaking or even calling my name then she would take you away from me and call father. They would both get scared and search around for me. Things got different Anna, they put away my toys and never noticed me even when I sat at the table. Mother stopped telling me stories, well she told you only. She never remembered my birthday neither did she talk about me. I got so sad and thought they didn't care."

I swallowed, was this how death was like, how the dead felt, how he had felt?

"But then again, they never saw me, which I often wondered. Sometimes I would tag along as they went out, people would look at me and stare, and I would always ask if they were like me, but then they wouldn't push me or scream or ran away when they heard the name Owen." A small smile tugged at his lips.

"I met grandpa the older day, he was walking down the street to grab grandma some flowers, he said it was his favourite part of the day." He held my hands, and they were not cold, but a bit warm.

"I miss you, Anna. You have grown so much, so big. Sometimes I wonder how life would have been, had fate been different." I smile cried. "I wonder the same."

We fell silent for a while. "But you never forgot me, you always had my picture and sometimes you would see me other times you wouldn't." I nodded, he nodded to.

"Owen why did you do it?" He looked up at me.

"Eli and James?" I nodded, he looked at the water. "I was lonely, and angry and sad. I wanted mom and dad to feel the same way. I wanted someone to play with. At night Eli would sleep and so would James, and I would sit in their rooms for them to wake up, but then they did, and they had to go to school or do this or that. I had missed all that and wanted to have my own siblings close to me and not far." He splashed some water.

"I tried it with you, you know, many times but for some reason you just didn't sleep you always woke up and ran around for mother and father to see you. Eli followed me to the top of the roof, and we jumped together, and James he said he didn't want to go, and I got mad at him so while he slept, we brought him up. But mother found out and started screaming then you came and saved him, then it was at that moment she saw us. Had she not seen James walk he would have been with us."

"But you attacked her, she said you both did, and tried pulling James down the stairs." He shrugged. "That we did, but Anna," I looked at his small eyes. "That man was not father; he would never lay a hand on mother." I nodded and looked down at my fingers, wow! That was a lot coming from a thirty-one-year-old trapped forever in a seven-year old's body.

"I remember seeing that." He pointed at the water that moved in waves. "That had been what I was trying to get. It was at the bottom so far and the water seemed to deep, but I tried getting it then when I came back up, I was pushed back down and held in such manner till I couldn't come out again." I was on my feet in a moment.

"Owen what are you saying?" He looked at me as he stood. "Isn't it obvious?" I shook my head.

"I was pushed in. I was drowned."

***

The talk with Owen left me restless, and I couldn't stop pacing around the living room, the object sat on the table. "Oh gosh."

I stood up and sat down again, this was becoming too much. I couldn't handle it all, well at least not alone, but who could I tell? Mother was shocked after yesterday's events were explained to her and Ainsley had more matters filled to the brim on his plate.

Was this why she was coming here? Was that why she was attacking us? And who could have drowned Owen? It didn't make sense, none at all. Then the other question, who dropped it there, and how come no one had found it? But Owen did.

That day had been a thanksgiving party and there were tons of people, who could have? He claimed he didn't see the person, and that was years back, seventeen years to be exact. But then this, how? when? Why?

I eyed the car keys on the table, I knew my next stop. I grabbed them and opened the door.