Fading Away ✅

Chapter Twenty-five

Blaze's POV

She thinks I hate her

Her whimpers and words resonate through my head
I can always remember clearly the day she was brought home from the hospital

I was eleven

Dad came home alone

I remember wondering where Mum was

I remember Dad's red-rimmed eyes crying when he broke the news
The dreadful news that Mum had died

I remember thinking Dad was playing a sick joke that she was going to come back from the hospital, that she was going to tuck me up in bed no matter how I told her I was old enough to go up to bed on my own but...

She never did

I never saw her again

The only thing I got

Was a look like of Mum

Reminding me constantly of her death

I chose to blame Mum's death on her. That night after Dad's words, I had staggered  to my room and I had cried

Since then, I began to harbor a dislike for her because her arrival led to Mum's death and that dislike got worse when I turned thirteen
Dad had sent me to his bedroom to get a file from his drawers and in one of his drawers, I found the medical file which contained the information on the cause of Mum's death

In the file, it said Mum had died due to a Caesarian operation performed during which she bled a lot. It made my dislike for her worsen and Dad and I's relationship grew weak. Everything we argued centered on her

On Ellie

But I can't hate her

I can never do it because I grew up and I realized it wasn't her fault

I know it isn't her fault; it'll just take time for me to accept it

Or maybe, I'm not being honest with myself
And the truth as I'm realizing is that when I accept it, there'll be no one to blame Mum's death on

Wilsa told me they had gone out for ice cream before she left.
The only noise filling the house is coming from the television

There is a dance show playing and I had increased the volume to the highest to stop myself from thinking
It isn't working

The light indicator on the plastic kettle switches off and with my hand on the handle the kitchen door suddenly opens. Instinct causes me to quickly look over to it and I yank the kettle out of the base which causes the boiling hot water to spill on my wrist

I hiss out loud and Ellie stares at me curiously. Covering the blister with a dishcloth, I look over to Ellie who pushes a highstool towards the sink, climbs on it, and stretches her hand upward to the shelf

The shelf isn't on a high level but I still wander around to see if she needs help
She successfully lifts a plate from the rack and in a second, the whole stack of glass plates comes tumbling down
The sound is ear-shattering

They fall around her breaking into many pieces and she wraps get arms around her head. Rushing to get, I snatch a plate that almost drops on her

She lets out a whimper when the noises end
and when I move towards her, she flinches, a frightened look on her face
Backing away from me, she stumbles on the edge of the stool

She starts sobbing and the door barges open at the same time.

Ellie runs to Belle wrapping her arms around her.
Belle stares around the kitchen giving me a quizzical look but she doesn't utter a word.