The Psycho Is Innocent | ꪜ

Bonus Chapter: Dead

Four years ago

ARIEL CAMPBELL WAS only thirteen years old when her life was turned upside down. No one expected the traumatic events that played out that day would leave one beloved child dead and the other checked into a mental institute. No one knew the true events of that day except for Ariel Campbell herself.

          It was nine in the night, Janet and Harry had stepped out to have a romantic dinner, leaving Ariel and Adele to the care of their older brother Adrien. Ariel stepped out of her room, hair pulled into a messy bun, adorned in nothing but her ruffled pyjamas. She padded down the stairs and navigated her way through the foyer leading into the kitchen.

          Once she was there, Ariel retrieved a packet of popcorn and shoved it into the microwave. Prior to tonight, she had promised Adele that the two would have their own sleepover under their makeshift indoor tent with blankets strung up on every end of the room. She planned to use her projector and find an image of the starry sky to give them more of an outdoor experience.

         From a young age, Ariel had always been doting over Adele. She was like Ariel's doll: a doll she needed to protect. Her sister had a big mouth for someone small, but that's all there was to it. She couldn't stand up for herself, fight against bullies or face her fears, leaving her to everyone's mercy. Ariel had caught onto Adele's slight anti-social problems from a very young age so she made it her duty to help her sister where she couldn't help herself.

          And that burning need to protect her only grew stronger with age. Once the popcorn was done popping, Ariel emptied it into a glass bowl. She retrieved two glasses from the cupboard and filled them with soda. Ariel placed everything down onto a tray once she was done and began to make her way back up the stairs towards her room where Adele waited patiently. She sauntered past Adrien's room and halted in her footsteps as an assault of marijuana wafted from the crack in the door.

         The smell shrouded every inch of her senses and Ariel fought to keep the bile that slithered up her throat at bay. Once she made it into the room, she slammed the door shut and carefully climbed into their unstable tent. "Something smells good!" Adele moaned as her eyes travelled to the bowl of popcorn. "Yeah, drowns out the smell of that god awful marijuana stench from Rien's room." Ariel scoffed in disgust as she placed the tray down between them.

          "We should probably tell mom and dad about it," Adele mumbled. Ariel hadn't expected any less from her sister. She was the least bit surprised that Adele would rather resort to simply notifying her parents of Adrien's ramped drug abuse instead of using such information to her advantage. Ariel smirked as she caressed Adele's cheek, "oh my sweet naive little sister, he'll just reign hell down onto us if we do that. Don't fight fire with fire, you'll get burnt. Fight fire with a fire extinguisher, and you put them out for good."

          Adele didn't understand what Ariel meant by that. She turned towards the laptop and ignored it, "what are we watching?" Ariel inquired as she retracted her hand from her sister's face. "I wanna watch a Disney movie. Hmm, maybe we should watch the princess diaries." Adele exclaimed as she typed in the name of the movie into the search bar. Ariel leaned back and examined her. "Whatever you want, Adele."

          For the rest of the night, they watched both parts one and two but by the time they were moving on to a different movie, Adele had fallen fast asleep. Ariel's eyes burnt through her sister's flesh. She hovered her hand over her face for a few seconds before brushing a strand of her hair away, "sleep tight," Ariel muttered before she gathered up all their dirty dishes. Once she had done that, she climbed out of the room and back into the hallway. Unlike before, the powerful stench of marijuana had drifted into the air and was now masked by an even more awful smell which was his cologne and air freshener.