The Broken Fade

Chapter Six- The Glass Breaks

Hazel slammed the door close, her North Star bag dangling on her right shoulder. She heard the 'clinkings' of shattered glass as she peeked over he shoulder at the kitchen. Her mum was sweeping some more shattered glass on scattered all over the kitchen floor. Again. Every night the glass shatters. Hazel felt her heart aching, but she could easily hide that tension and confused daze on her face. 

"Mum?" She slowly approached to the kitchen door.

"GET AWAY!" Her mum screamed, a calm, quiet expression immediately transformed into a ferocious, uncontrollable and wild look as she looked up at Hazel. 

Hazel bit her lip as she slowly stepped backwards, and headed upstairs.

She gripped the door knob tightly as she tried her best to shut it quietly. She angrily flung her school bag to the ground, revealing an unfix-able, broken zip as a pile of books and crumpled papers flew out of the bag's tummy. 

Boiling, full of madness and rage, she stomped across her room and grabbed a green picture frame, a portrait of her family. She threw it towards the window as it flew out of it, and there was a thump as the picture frame slammed into the ground. Fragments of the smashed glass window lay  all over the floor and her bed. Fuming, Hazel was worse than a bull in a china shop. She could break anything apart with her bare hands and she didn't care who or what came into her way. 

She still remembered the day he ran away. The devil. The reason why her life had had an additional increase to imperfection compared to every other being. Maybe she hadn't the worst fate, but she had seen and felt the worst that fate had given to her. So much that she felt like exploding. Too much for her too keep it inside. Just like too much air in a balloon. 

Why did things had to turn the other way? The wrong direction? The misleading, why?

He was a loving brother, had dimples on both ends of his cheeks since he was a little, cuddly baby. Scary how such a lovable and adorable, tiny little baby would turn into a miscreated, loathsome and disgraceful person. 

There was the slamming of the front door, Hazel grabbed a sharp piece of shattered glass and gripped it tightly, just in case that drunkard would try to harm her. So much of an alchoholic dad and runaway brother. 

                                                                                          *

"Dinner at the pizzeria? Sounds good." Emma smacked her lips at the thought of pizza. She missed pizza, even if it was just a few days ago her girls had a sleepover at her crib and ordered pizza to celebrate the return of Cath's all-time crush, or source of admiration, Tristan Bryant. 

She could say pizza was her current addiction.

"Alright, I'll phone the rest and-" 

"I'll call up Hazel and ask her if she's okay and fine to join us tonight," Emma cut short Krissy's sentence.

"Right!" Krissy replied, in a bright tone. 

As soon as Krissy hung up, Emma dialed Hazel's number and endlessly waited for her to pick up. Realizing that Hazel had probably switched her phone to silence mode (as she usually did when they were dark clouds circling her thoughts), she decided to try calling her right after she gave Elmo some fish biscuits she brought from the pet store next to Supermart. 

"Elmo," Emma called sweetly and softly, to find Elmo curled up on the kitchen chair, purring and deeply asleep.

She smiled and dropped the idea of feeding him. 

 Emma picked her IPhone up, and once again, dialed Hazel's number. Doop-doop, doop-doop...She waited patiently for someone to pick up the phone. 

After what seemed like eternity to her, Emma was about to give up when someone picked up at the end of the line. Emma listened curiously, waiting for Hazel's voice. Instead, she heard the swift sound of running footsteps, pap-pap-pap-pap, as if someone immediately wore them without bothering to look at them, and she could hear the sharp panting for breath. 

Something seemed and felt wrong. Emma felt a sudden pinch, followed by a dreadful and bad feeling.

"Hazel?!" Emma spoke loudly through the phone, making sure she was heard.

She heard the sound of something falling to the hard ground, and the sound of clashing.

What was Hazel doing? Running to the edge of glory? So careless that she would let her one month-old Samsung Galaxy fall to the ground, just like that?

Something was DEFINITELY wrong. The line disconnected, as if someone purposely hung it up.

"That's it," Heart beating faster than a rocket, Emma's numb and trembling fingers dialed Krissy's number.

"Hey, this is Krissy! Sorry, but I'm unavailable at the moment! Could you please try and-" "UGHH!" Emma swore and dialed Cath's number. Please pick up, pick up, pick up, PICK UP!! Her heart was racing and she felt dizzy. 

"Hello? Cath speaking." Relief gushed through Emma's veins as she immediately and hectically explained the situation, and her certainty that something happened in Hazel's household.

Without replying, Cath had hung up. Since the two, and Aurel too, lived in the same small neighbourhood, it wasn't a surprise if you find them at your doorstep in less than a minute when you urgently call them to call over. 

Exclaiming for breath, with beads of sweat on their foreheads, Cath and Aurel, leaning on each others' shoulders, arrived at Emma's doorstep and were frenziedly ringing the doorbell and knocking on the front door. Emma flung open the door, giving them a fright of their lives, as the three set off on their mountain bikes to Hazel's house, which was located at the edge of the neighbourhood. If they could cover a kilometre in three to five minutes, they could at least make a difference.

They reached Hazel's bungalow home just accurately according to their estimation, to their disappointment, the Land Rover wasn't in sight. Hazel must've left to somewhere else. 

"Where the heck are you? :/ " Cath impatiently texted her, a dreadful feeling welling up inside. 

Emma parked her sedan as they cautiously entered the house after examining the door, which was left open when the house came into their sight.  There were fragments of glass scattered all over the ground. Without taking of their shoes, they tiptoed onto the safest spots with the least shattered glass pieces, when suddenly,  Mrs. Tony, Hazel's mother in her early forties, appeared out of a corner, her eyes were reddish, her nose, redder than red lipstick. There was a broom in her hand, in the other, was a trickle of blood slowly flowing down her hands and fingers, Revealing a cut that was considered minor yet deep. 

"Mrs. Tony!" Cath gasped at horror, she couldn't stand seeing too much blood. Emma rushed to Hazel's mother, who was horror stricken, not by them, but by something-someone else. 

"G-G-Get away! Please! Leave our family affairs alone! LEAVE MY DAUGHTER ALONE!" Mrs. Tony wailed hysterically. She looked as if she had been under a lot of pressure, pushed over her limits, and she sounded as if she wanted everything upon and about her to end. She seemed agitated, distraught and berserk in many ways. 

Cath, Aurel and Emma never felt this terrified. They stayed rooted at their spots and watched Mrs. Tony hysterically throwing tantrums, screaming to herself and banging the wall.

"MRS. TONY!" Emma tried to demand an answer, but Mrs. Tony was nothing like her old self.