Holy shit how long has it been since I uploaded?? Sorry about the lack of activity here guys. I've been having some family problems recently and i had to take some time off to focus on myself. I'm not gonna promise anything because i know that I most likely won't follow through with it😅. Anyways please enjoy the chapter!!!
"What are you waiting for?" the man asks. "Move!" He roughly pushes me forward and I lose my footing, falling face first on to the hard concrete. My cheek scrapes the ground and blood leaks out on my already bloody shirt.
Instead of helping me up, the man only scowls at me and angrily tells me to get up. His partner doesn't say anything. He only looks ahead when I look at him sadly. I stand up with difficulty. Mostly due to the handcuffs tightly placed on my wrists. Once I'm up we continue walking towards the big white building. Even though my back is to the cars, I can still see the bright blue and red lights from the many police cars behind us. I know they're just waiting for me to mess up. To try to run so they can shoot me and not have to worry about me anymore.
My dad told me that police use guns to protect us. I never once thought that the cops would have to protect anyone from me.
We walk inside the building and a tall man with a long white coat walks towards us. He smiles down at me and I want to run away from him.
"Is this her?" He asks. The mean officer nods and pushes me towards the man. He smiles down at me kindly. "It's nice to meet you Adeline."
We stand in silence as the main waits for me to say something back to him.
"Is she mute?" He asks looking worried.
"No, her brothers said that she can talk. She just hasn't said a word since we brought her into custody."
"I see," the man hums. He puts his hand on my shoulder and squeezes slightly. I watch the two men exchange nervously. Where am I?
"Careful, she's a feisty one. The little bitch almost bit my finger off," he grunts.
Without thinking, I make a biting motion and smirk at him. The officer doesn't think it's very funny and raises his fist to punch me. Before he can though, the man in the white coat stops him from hitting me. When the officer glares at him, he only smiles.
"I'm sorry Officer, but I'd rather you wouldn't attack my patient."
Something about his tone scares me. It is meant to sound friendly but I can tell that he's dead serious. The officer grunts but lowers his hand. "Now then," the man says. "I will handle things from here. You gentleman may leave."
As soon as the words leave his mouth a large bald man in a white uniform walks towards us. He doesn't say anything as he takes my arm and begins to drag me away. I look at the officers helplessly. Where am I going? Who are these people? I try to voice my questions but they refuse to leave. I begin to panic and start to cry silently. The bald man doesn't pay me any attention as he throws me into a plain white room. There's only a bed, a desk, and a single window that shows the bright full moon. It is the only thing that lights up the dark room. I sit in a far corner sobbing in my hands. I want my mommy and daddy back. I want Alex and Jason back. I wanna go home.
As I sit there crying, I can only think one thing. I didn't do it. I didn't kill my parents. I just have to wait for Alex and Jason to come get me and I can tell them what happened. I just have to wait for them. I know they'll come soon.
Right?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I stare intensely at Alex.
I can't wrap my head around the fact that he wants to tell me about our parents. Sure they have mentioned them a few times while I've been here, but the way Alex says it sounds so serious, scares me a little.
I'll never admit that though.
Alex clears his throat and looks at me. "Our parents loved you," he begins. "You were their only daughter, and you were everything to them. Mom was the sweetest woman I've ever known. She was kind and caring. And dad," he chuckles. "He was so funny. His jokes were terrible but the way he said them could make anyone laugh. He didn't try to force me and Jason into sports like most dads would. He accepted us for who we are. Him and mom loved each other with all their hearts. We were the perfect little family..."
I'm not very good at reading emotions, but even I can tell that it hurts Alex to talk about our parents like this. I don't remember them much and he's way older than me. He's spent more time with them than I have, meaning he knows them better. But I don't feel anything as he tells me these things. I should be sad. I should be breaking down in tears from hearing how much my dead parents loved me. But no matter how hard I try, I can't seem seem to feel a single emotion. I feel empty as I sit there listening to him. He doesn't notice the empty look that I give him, too wrapped up in his own silly emotions. He only continues to talk.
"You were their little ray of sunshine," he chuckles again. "Mom would sing to you whenever you cried or were sad. Dad would tell you funny stories. Every summer we would go down to a beach house and spend the week there. We had s'mores on the beach and listen to music. Things were perfect back then. But now-"
"Now they're dead," a voice says. We both turn our heads and see Jason standing in the doorway of our room. He looks tired and worn out. He has dark bags under his eyes, his shirt is unbuttoned at the top, and his tie has become undone.
Jason walks into the room, and looks strangely, menacing. "They're gone now and there's nothing we can do about that. You know that." He squints his eyes harshly at Alex, who shrinks back slightly.
Jason takes his eyes off of Alex and stares at me. I don't back away like Alex though, and match my stare to his. After a few moments of silence Jason speaks. "They did love us. But now it's time to move on. We can't dwell on the past anymore."
Without another word he turns around and leaves just as suddenly as he came. I look at Alex who breathes a quiet sigh of relief. He notices me looking at him and smiles. "Don't worry about him, he's just a bit cranky whenever he comes home from work."
I don't believe him. Something about that interaction didn't feel like sudden crankiness. The guards back at the asylum are cranky. But that interaction felt much more...sinister.
I stand up, about to leave the room when Alex grabs my arm. I try yank it away from him, not liking the sudden feeling of him touching me. However, his grip is tight and he refuses to let me go. He squeezes slightly and I wince. Without thinking, I use my other arm and scratch him viciously. He yelps and lets go of my wrist.
I glare harshly at him. Taking out my notebook and pen, I write something down quickly and show it to him."Never touch me again."
Alex looks at me and his stare makes me feel slightly guilty. His bright blue eyes look so full of water. They're like an ocean, only the waves are too much for me to handle and they will eventually drown me. Alex sighs, then begins speaking so quietly that I can barely hear him. "Please be careful Adeline." Once the words are out, he leaves the room, not even glancing back at me. Part of me wants Alex to stay in the room with me. I don't want him to leave, just as I didn't want him to leave 3 years ago. But he doesn't come back.
I sit on the floor for hours, not doing anything in particular. Just...sitting there. Jason tried to call me down for dinner about twenty minutes ago but I don't move from the store. After awhile he gives up and leaves me alone in my room. I glance at the clock on my bedside table to see that it's almost 11 at night. Soon Jason and Alex come upstairs talking about nothing that could interest me. Just sports and girls and stuff like that. A door closes and footsteps cross the hallway, stopping in front of my door. Jason walks inside and joins me on the floor. "Not hungry?"
I shake my head, refusing to look at him.
"Addy," he sighs. I give him a blank stare. He watches me intently. His eyes give away so many emotions, he looks like he wants to say something, but he's just quiet. Instead he just stands up. His pale hand reaches down to touch my hair and I flinch away. I crawl towards the bed, sitting at the end of it, staring at him. Even in the darkness of the room I can see the few tears that sneak out of his eyes and down his cheeks. He quickly wipes it away, turning around without a word. His tall form leaves the room.
The next day Jace comes over for another session together. He teaches me basic math that I already know and when I finish that we work on reading. I struggle a little with some big words and he helps me sound them out. We sit reading for about an hour when Jace stops our session for a small break. He looks at me and I stop reading my book about the turtle and the hare.
"Hey Adeline," he asks and I look at him, letting him know to continue. "Is there any other way that you talk to people, other than writing?"
I shake my head. "Honestly, you'd think that a doctor would try to come up with a way for you to communicate," he mumbles angrily. After taking a deep breath he returns back to his happy state and gives me a gentle smile. "Well then would you like to learn sign language?" My head cocks to the side in confusion. I've never heard of sign language before. I know what language means and I know that a sign in something that you write. Isn't what I'm doing already sign language?
Almost as if he knows what I'm thinking, Jace chuckles. "Sign language is a way that people talk to you when you can't use your voice or when you can't hear. You use your fingers, hands and facial expression to make different words. Most people do it when they're deaf or mute like you." I nod, taking in all of the information that he tells me. "If you'd like I can even teach it to your brothers. I know it could help you all communicate better, and that way you won't have to spend as much time writing things out."
It's silent as I think about Jace's offer. I couldn't care less about what my brothers think and I have no desire to communicate with them anyway. But learning sign language sounds like a lot of fun. I nod excitedly and Jace smiles. For the rest of our session Jace teaches me sign language, showing me all of the letters of the alphabet, how to form small words, and even how to sign whole sentences. He compliments how much of a quick learner I am and my cheeks heat up. I've never heard someone say how good I was at something. If Dr.Sullivan ever complemented me, then it would be about how much of a good experiment that I was. Something tells me that isn't much of a compliment.
At the end of our session together Jace gathers his things and promises me that he'll teach my brothers sign language too. Just before he leaves the house his phone dings. He takes a look at it and then looks at me.
"Jason said that you're supposed to take some type of medicine?" I shrug and he goes into the kitchen, getting a bottle of pills from the cabinet. He gets a glass of water then hands me the pill. Without even looking at the pill, I snatch it from his hand and take it effortlessly. I just wanna get it over with. The medicine leaves a sour taste in my mouth and I grimace. Jace seems surprised with my sudden change in mood and puts a hand on my shoulder. "Adeline, what's wrong?" I shake his hand off my shoulder, choosing not to answer his question. He gave me that stupid medicine when I thought that he would be different from my brothers. Jace sighs and pats my hair. I glare up at him but he only smiles.
"I'm always here for you Adeline." His words surprise me and I can't help but stare up at him. I never imagined receiving this much kindness from someone who was a total stranger. Henry A showed me kindness to but he works in the asylum and I'm assuming that he's known about me for a while. Jace practically just met me but he treats me like...like a little sister. He waves to me as he heads out the door and I watch him leave the house.
Both Alex and Jason left the house earlier to do their own things and now I'm here by myself. I sit in the living room practicing the phrases that Jace taught me, scowling whenever I mess up on something. After a while though I get bored and wander around the house looking for something to do. My mind goes back to the folder in that unoccupied room and I make my way upstairs. Silently opening the door, I creep my way into the empty room. The air is thick and stuffy, almost suffocating me as I walk inside. I get down on the floor and look under the bed for the small black box. It takes me a few seconds, but eventually I find the box and take it from under the bed. Surprisingly, the key still rests inside of the keyhole. Alex must have forgotten to put it back in the closet from last time.
I fumble with the lock and soon I hear a quiet but definite "click".
Slowly, I open the box and look at the dozens of cream colored folders that rest inside of it. My curiosity is through the roof as I open the first folder I see. A picture of two people, a man and a woman, rests inside the folder. The man looks to be very tall. He has short jet black hair and a small beard. He wears a black suit and tie with a white button-up shirt underneath. The woman next to him wears a pretty white dress. Her brown hair is tied up in a bun and she holds dozens of different colored flowers in her hands. I turn the photo around and look at the cursive handwriting on the back.
Annalise and Eric Mathews. Married May 10, 1980. Congratulations, you will forever be in our hearts.
-H,A
As I read the note the connection finally clicks in my mind. I notice the resemblance between the twins and the people in the photo, and more importantly, I take note of the name. Mathews.
These people are my parents. I take a close at the people that I had forgotten. I try to remember any moments that I had with them but other than my mother kissing small scrapes that I got on my body, nothing pops up. I put the photo down and look through the rest of the folders. There is a birth certificate of me, Jason, and Alex, our social security cards, and a the death certificate of our parents. The word murder seems to jump off the page at me, almost as if it's reminding me of what I've done.
A tan colored folder catches my attention and I pick it up gently. It is surprisingly small with barely any papers in it. I open the folder, looking at the papers inside of it. A picture of me when I was younger is the first thing I see. I'm holding a small white bear in my hands, looking at the camera sadly. My black hair is almost covering my face and you can barely see my eyes. There are small splotches of blood on my hands and on my clothes. I move the picture to the side and look at another paper inside of the folder. This one is different. It doesn't look like it was typed out. The cursive handwriting is sloppy. It looks like someone was writing this in a hurry, barely even eligible to me. I sit on the bed and begin to read.
"I can't believe they're gone. I...I don't even know what to write on here. My brother said that writing everything out would help me feel better but it doesn't help at all! No matter what I do, I can still here their screams. I can still see mom crying to see her baby. I still remember the look on dad's face when he saw me. And Addy, oh god Addy. I hope that she's okay. I hope that they treat her nicely in the asylum. I didn't..."
I didn't fucking mean to kill them! I didn't mean to blame her for it! I just got so fucking angry!"
The note falls from my hand onto the floor. My heart is going a mile a minute and I can feel my breath quickening. I grip my chest tightly, trying to slow down my fast heart rate. It feels like everything is closing in on me and without even wanting to, tears well up in my eyes.
I...I didn't kill my parents?
The sound of the door opening and closing downstairs makes me jump. I get down off the bed and put down the papers. As soon as my feet touch the floor, my head begins to pound. I clutch it tightly, groaning. Footsteps make their way up and I try my best to move towards the door but my body refuses to move. I feel like I'm numb. When I look up towards the doorway, there is a tall and lean figure standing there. My vision is blurry to the point that I can't even tell who it is. The only thing that I can properly make out is short black hair. My legs fail me and I fall to the floor.
The person walks towards me and lifts my head up gently. I can barely recognize their face. It looks like it was erased with an eraser, leaving only a few features. When they speak their voice sounds like it is rough and scratchy.
"You're lucky that he didn't find you reading this."
My eyes grow heavy and soon all I see is darkness.