|| Chapter Twenty Two ||
The softness of my mattress didn't even register while I laid back on it, my mind was elsewhere as I continued my blank stare at the ceiling, the white paint as the background to my mind going anywhere else. Despite my wandering mind, my attention wasn't completely drawn away from the questions and cautious looks in my direction floating through the room.
"You don't have to answer. We can just change subjects..." Bunny trailed off as the played with the hem of her white blouse.
I may be off in a world far from here, but if there was one thing I learnt growing up as a Spawn, always have one foot in and out of the door. On the one hand, allow your mind to wander away from what is happening – find an escape, but on the other hand, or foot, be one hundred percent aware of your surroundings.
Sometimes having a split stance is the only thing keeping me sane.
"Good idea, I don't want her to get all worked up and then strangle two girls again." Mouse snickered slightly, it was obvious that the thought dawned on her that I had strangled two girls, one in each hand, and there were two girls – aside from me – in this room.
A relapse of events if I snap.
"Again?" Bunny shrieked in a whisper, well – a quieter whisper considering their already hushed tones, as if talking about it was the tick to the time bomb, the longer and louder they talked about it, the faster the seconds ticked away and the lesser time they have before the bomb goes off.
But I'm fine.
"Yeah, it was scary. But awesome in a strange sort of way." Mouse twirled a curl around her index finger in thought "She choked out Pearl and Honour in the hallway during lunch the other day... No one could do anything to stop her, I mean, she was seriously angry I thought that Pearl and Honour were goners!" Mouse replied.
Groaning aloud over their annoying whispers pulling both feet back into the one room, my mind no longer able to wander off as it was too invested into their conversation. "I'm right here, you do know that right?" I hiss snapping my head to the one side to look at both girls.
Nodding furiously the blonde and brunette had their hands up in the air in surrender, the light spark of fear registering in their eyes making me kind of upset.
They should be used to my outbursts by now... Why are they acting so... Timid?
"S-sorry." Bunny stuttered, stuttering is Mouse's thing... "We are just curious. Um-yeah."
Propping myself up on my elbow I watched them, I knew what made these girls tick and I knew all of the girl's tell signs, their lies – if told – were clear as day, just as their nervousness and readiness to pounce for the door at a moment's notice as if there were a deadly animal in front of them waiting to prey on its next meal.
"What is it you want to know exactly?" I sit upright, straightening my spine. My words coming out with a void of emotion. This was strictly business – sort of.
"We want to know everything." Bunny tried to sound confident but her tone wavered on her 'e's "From the start please."
Bunny nodded to affirm her so called confidence before Mouse's eyes and smile grew as she piped in her thoughts "Tell us everything, right from when you were a baby. I've always wondered what you were like as a kid. OH! Can we learn about your siblings too?"
I grew silent, blankly looking at the black screen of my television I tossed up whether to tell them or not. It was less than one week ago that I had bashed myself up over telling Stephanie Drew in my counselling sessions.
Yet here I am, faced with telling more people something I wasn't even supposed to breathe air over, a subject I shouldn't have even thought about telling people.
It had to be a no... A strong affirmative NO from me, I told Dion I wouldn't.
But then again I said I had to tell them something, just not everything... So... Brief overview?
I think that could be done.
So it's agreed then.
Once I'd come to a decision I shuffled back on the bed and leaned against the headboard, the cool paint touching my skin due to the open back of my singlet. "Okay." I say to the girls making their ears peak in interest.
"Really?" Mouse whispers and clutches my hand, which I quickly slap away, I don't need that 'ooey-gooey' comfort females give to one another.
"Just take your time, you don't have to tell us every detail. But you can trust us. I promise" Bunny nods and follows Mouse's lead, both sitting at the foot of the bed comfortably.
"You want to know about my childhood, okay." Getting up from my bed I move to the seating by the window I reached into the bag sitting there and pulled out a brand new packet of cigarettes and a lighter. "Follow me." I ordered the girls and took them out downstairs to the seating area by the pool.
"Born into the world, immediately I was granted three friends, two of which shared a womb with me and the third was Dion. From my first breath in his direction apparently we had a connection. Only just learning how to crawl and he could pick me out from my sisters, the bond growing every day because his mother and mine were best friends – over all the time and gossiping like schoolgirls.
We were attached from the hip whenever we were around one another despite the age difference, I mean, we did everything together; he was my teacher. He helped teach me to walk, talk... Kick a ball... All the kid's things so many people awe over the first time a kid can do it by themselves.
My two sisters are Mina and Nova, Nova being older and Mina, younger. We never really saw eye to eye, me bearing the rebellious streak my sisters never quite got the grasp of, but copied me regardless. If one was in trouble, we were all in trouble.
My brothers, technically I have six but after a certain... Let's call it a disagreement... I don't talk to two of them and all association has been cut off from them. Angelo, who is eighteen turning nineteen, and Brayden who would have just turned twenty around two weeks ago. They don't talk to me. Jaxon is twenty-two, Mateo is twenty-three, uh-Steffan is, jeez, twenty-five, twenty-six now? The eldest is Asher and he's twenty-eight. Most of them have kids now... Breeding like Rabbits with full custody.
I grew up in a large family house, close to the beach in Australia's eastern coastal regions. We were all extremely close when we were kids, despite the eleven years difference between the eldest and youngest, we spent every free day together; Dion and a few others included. All up there was about twenty, every day, we would be out and about, getting ice-cream, going to the park, to the movies, or the beach... We were one huge, happy family.
But at eight my brothers slowly started peeling off and moving out, starting their own lives like they should. So then it was just Dion and me taking on the world because as soon as one moved out, we all seemed to be too busy for one another, no longer having the 'time' for every day outings.
I was a troublesome kid, Dion and I had the rebellious streak as you know, I mean, I would always start fights at school, quickly I became extremely good at theft and fighting. Take the first day of kindergarten for example. I show up being a triplet and hanging out with the only Spanish guy in our class, so this guy made fun of my sisters and I. I punched him and sent him to the floor. Then Dion being Dion stepped in and soon that kid was sent home with a broken arm before the first bell had rung and Dion and I, along with my tag-on sisters, were in the Principals office.
D had always, always, been there for me just like I was for him. We helped each other deal with our home lives while helping each other deal with the anger issues, the rebellious streak. We had made this friend in the third grade, I would have been seven at the time and being the kid with anger issues that no one wanted to go near, making friends was a big deal so everything was all so new and exciting...
Dion had met Charlie when he was playing football, seeming as it was a legal way to vent pent up anger by releasing endorphin's in your brain or something sciency like that... Charlie, at the time, was in the fifth grade so he was so much older, so much more 'awesome' and 'cooler' than us third graders... Made us feel so much more sophisticated and mature then the nose-pickers in our year. Plus, Charlie and his friends actually liked the anger in us. So I never thought that this fifth grader in particular would ruin my life."
Just like in Steph's office I had gone through a few cigarettes as the story went on, I made them swear that they would never tell anyone anything of what I was to tell them and I knew, simply by that shimmer of fear and curiosity in their eyes that they knew I meant business when I said I would 'hunt them down' if they told another soul.
"Through the underground legions of Australia, in The Beaches, where I lived, there is a group; this group is dangerous and feared... Classified as a gang; They're called the Devils..." I went on and told them all about the four groups of The Devils; Trap, Reap, Kill, Devils Allegiance. I told them about Charlie ad George (Mister Devil), all about my initiation and the Spawns, even about all the drugs...
But the one thing I liked about my story telling, is I made it out by only skimming on the details but to the girls, it made them think they knew so much about everything. But they hardly knew the first chapter of the story, they knew – hardly anything really.
Turning around I lifted all of my hair and tugged it to the side, thus revealing the upside-down cross branded into the back of my neck, it was down my spine starting by my hair line and ending half way down my neck, the arms of the cross however came out into Devils Angel wings with horns at the tip of each wing, it was obviously made to be the right way up and branded but since we were Spawn of the Devil, you can't have the 'cross' upright can you?
"What is that?" Bunny asked leaning in to take a closer look at my scar.
"Did that get branded into your neck? Oh my gosh that looks like it would have hurt!" Mouse squeaked, as she spoke I dropped my hair and turned to face them. Putting the finished cigarette out on my arm, creating yet another burn mark, I just chuckled.
"I didn't even know I had it done for a few months... Was higher than a kite when I had it done. It's the sijil for the Spawns... Dion has one too." I paused to questioning whether to light up again, but my mind all of a sudden rejected the idea and was strangely repulsed by the idea of smoking. So I placed them on the table and leaned back into my chair. "I told you how my brothers started moving out, one by one each year.
My Dad was always overseas working, and when I was five, the bastard never ended up coming back. My so called 'mother' grew sour and left one day just after my sixth birthday; I think that was also a factor pushing me towards the Devils... Mum came back at least once a week to swap out her clothes and sleep in her own bed for once, but even that stopped before I turned thirteen. Although the cow still found time to hang out with Dion's Ma and pretend like everything was normal and that she cared."
I felt my blood boil as a sudden surge raged through me, I wanted to punch holes through double brick walls, I wanted to beat someone bloody, I wanted to inflict pain on something and just last out. I'd said too much and it was showing.
Slamming my hand down onto the table I watched Bunny and Mouse flinch majorly as I shot back from my seat sending it scattering backwards and onto the ground beneath it with a 'bang' making my dramatic stance seem that much more... Dominating.
"There!" I said loudly "I've told you. You happy now? Can you drop it and leave me the hell alone!" With that I left the two girls sitting at the table wriggling in fear. But just before I hit the range where the bubbling of blood in my system drained out the noise of the outside world I heard them whisper;
"I think we took it too far..."
"We should have dropped it when we had the chance..."