TRIGGER WARNING: there's a pretty deep story that focuses on murder so if you're sensitive to that don't read this chapter please.
"Quin!" Heather yelled for the fifth time, as she pounded on the door. She knew Quin would be in there, but she enjoyed playing this game everyday even though they declared themselves as now "neutral friends." After another knock, she finally answered, snickering as always.
"You know how much time this wastes everyday?" Heather said, walking past her and sitting down on the floor. She didn't reply, because Heather was already rambling on and on about her plans. She opened her backpack up and pulled out her now beaten up notebook she had been using for plans for about four months.
"Any new ideas?" Heather asked, glancing around the room. Lisa, Mark, and Quin all had a blank expression on their faces. Heather sighed and looked outside, hoping Cecilia would be making her way up soon. Usually she had more ideas than the other three. Heather was trying to think highly of them but her fathers words of how illiterate and uncaring they were kept coming back to the front of her head.
"Heather listen I'm sorry to break it to you but we've been trying for months. There's nothing more we could do to help them unless you can confront your dad." Quin said, as she'd been saying for a week now. Heather always told her that was ridiculous.
"He doesn't even think of me as his daughter, I'm more of an assistant if anything. He wouldn't take that sort of bullshit from an assistant so why should he take it from me?" Heather reasoned.
"God, I can't believe you're still defending him! You know, you have a lot of nerve-" Quin's rant was irrupted by Cecilia knocking on the door, late as usual. She directed Mark to answer it.
"Cecilia, what a pleasure to see you made some time in your tight schedule to visit us." Mark said sarcastically, she just rolled her eyes and came in the room.
"Finally, someone with some ideas!" Heather said, becoming hopeful again. Cecilia didn't look as bright as usual though, she just seemed annoyed and tired.
"I only came today because I have to finally tell you that I agree with what Quin has been saying. There's just nothing left to do without confrontation." Cecilia said, grabbing Heather's notebook. She looked through the plans they scribbled down, each getting more and more illogical.
"We can't talk to my dad. He'll actually kill me." Heather said.
"Huh, you know now that you mention it killing does give me a good idea." Mark said, smirking. Everyone else found it pretty funny, except Heather.
"It's really hard to believe you're here for vandalism sometimes." Heather said, sighing as she crouched into the corner with the notebook. She scribbled circles in the remaining pages, realizing they'd be useless now anyways.
"You know, I could talk to your dad. Maybe I could at least have him release the meeting ban." Cecilia suggested.
"No, please don't! He'll suspect I sent you, he's already suspicious." Heather said, Cecilia mumbled okay. Cecilia continued to think of what to do, but concluded that could be the only option.
"I have to go, are we meeting tomorrow?" Cecilia asked.
"Yeah we might as well, see you tomorrow C." Quinn said, smiling as Cecilia left. Cecilia snuck around until she was able to leave without guards seeing her. They probably wouldn't think much of it but it was best to be safe. Cecilia hoped Heather would stay up there as long as usual, so she could talk to her father without Heather catching her.
Cecilia went up to the mansion and knocked. She was exhausted from walking, her leg throbbing with pain. She wished her leg could just be the same, but she knew that was impossible. As the doctors said, she's lucky to even have the leg.
"Hello Cecilia, nice to see you. How can I help you?" He asked, she started to get nervous.
"Um yes, I was just stopping over to ask a favour of you. It'd really make me feel a lot better if you could remove the ban you put on the locals? Like, I just think putting a harsh ban like that on them isn't fair when all their crimes are just assumptions." She said, smiling brightly. Her mother always told her that the smile she had could get her anything she wanted.
"Such a little lady, always caring about everyone. Those aren't assumptions, you're living proof." He told her. She hated that he called her a "little lady" but just ignored that.
"I know, but I really just feel that's harsh to do. It'd make me feel so much better, as a victim, to see the ban released. I also don't even think it's fair to have any of them with their parents, I really do believe their abuse stories." Cecilia said.
"Abuse stories? How do you even abuse children? They're property until they're eighteen. You can't abuse property." He said, Cecilia felt very angry. But she had to keep her cool, knowing that blowing up would only get the door slammed in her face.
"I'm going to have to respectfully disagree. If you think they're property until the age of eighteen, maybe you could lift the ban when they turn eighteen?" Cecilia asked, he shook his head no. She tried to think how she could manipulate him, but nothing came to mind. Until, the very basic trick about lying about "knowing what someone did" came to mind. That only worked on her siblings, but it was all she had left.
"I know what you did. With this knowledge, well, you know what I could do. So I'd suggest listening." Cecilia said, beginning to try to look more serious. His face tensed up.
"Nobody would believe you, there's no proof." He said.
"There's no proof the locals committed any crime, yet the state believed you. Why wouldn't they believe me?" She stated, suddenly being pulled inside by her wrist.
"If you tell anyone about her I can have you killed." He said, suddenly growing more scary than before. She had no idea what she had gotten into now, but she couldn't back down even if she was scared. She needed to distract him for a moment so she could record the audio of the conversation, if he said anything suspicious, so she could hold it against him.
"Is that Heather?" She said, pointing to a window out back. He looked over, and she whipped her phone out to record and shoved it back into her maroon jackets pocket. She couldn't help to think how dumb he was.
"Oh, just a deer I guess. What were we saying? Oh yeah, about what you did." She said, trying to recreate the devious smile of his. She must have succeeded, because he grew more and more angry and nervous.
"Do you know how long I'd be locked up?" He pleaded, she shook her head no.
"Don't tell me you're so dumb you don't know how long you're in jail for murder." He said, looking done. She felt a shiver go through her body, but she shook her head no again even if it wasn't true.
"I'd be in jail for life, dumbass!" He yelled at her, making her cower back a bit.
"Maybe if I heard your side of the story I could not hold it against you." Cecilia said, plotting how she could get out of this. He shook his head yes, and invited her to sit down with him. She didn't like the idea of even sitting near him, but she decided to accept.
(another tw if you're sensitive don't read)
"It wasn't my fault. I promise, it really wasn't. I came home and I was drunk. Heather was just born, and don't tell her but she was unplanned. I'd been so angry when I found out my wife was pregnant, I was going out and getting drunk every night. I hate kids, I always have and I always will. My wife had become so invested in Heather, I was tired of waiting around for attention. I fooled around with some other women, including her sister. Apparently her sister slipped up and my wife knew. That night when I got back, she blew up on me. We started fighting, one of those shoving and screaming into each other's faces fights. I shoved too hard, she tipped over the railing and fell down. She broke a leg, probably. All I know was she was weak and helpless, her life was in my hands at this point. I decided I wanted this to end, our marriage and our everything. I took a knife from the kitchen and ended it. I called in my boys and I guess the disposal of her is self explanatory. That's the pain that kids caused me. That's why I round up the bad ones and make sure they're hidden away so they won't cause anyone pain anymore. Do you understand?" He said. She felt sick, absolutely repulsed and wanted to cry. She didn't answer for a bit, knowing that she was growing suspicious. She feared for her life, but she knew if she just acted one more time it'd get her out of this mess.
"I totally do. I can't believe I even thought they deserved freedom, you made me realize. I'm sorry, I won't mention anything. I didn't know the full story but now that I do I will definitely side with you. Your secret is safe with me, don't worry." She said, smiling brightly again. He looked very relieved.
"I'm glad your agreeing now. I'll keep the secret of yours safe too, your parents won't know anything about this conversation. We're doing each other both a favour, right?" He said, smiling too.
"Yes, of course! Thank you. I'll see myself out now." Cecilia said, not waiting for his goodbye to get up and leave. She wanted to go back to the prison and talk to the others, but she knew Heather couldn't handle that news right now. She decided she'd play sick tomorrow, since she never missed school anyways, to bring the audio to the death defiers.
"Hello honey, you're a bit late." Her mother said, as Cecilia walked inside. She apologized, but her mother looked concerned for other reasons.
"You look like you just saw a ghost, are you feeling alright?" She asked.
"I'm feeling a little under the weather actually. I'll lay down for awhile before dinner." Cecilia said, her mother agreed. As Cecilia walked into her room, her mother began preparing soup for her.
Cecilia didn't know what to do in the mean time, she wanted to tell her mom everything and just cry. Her friends were all talking on Skype, but she couldn't join. She decided to just zone out on the television until dinner.
This chapter was pretty hard to write but obviously needed to continue the story. I hope you all had a nice thanksgiving, even though it's over now. I'm completely dreading school, so much. I actually wanna fake sick so badly tomorrow but I've missed so many days already. Bye for now.