Chapter 28
"Hello Cat," Alex says.
"You leave them alone Alex, don't you dare hurt them." I feel tears building in my eyes.
"Well, you and Harry have killed anyone ever important to me so why not do it to you too? It only seems fair." He says.
"No, please don't hurt them. They have no part of this." I say about to break down.
"And my son had no part of this either, yet he's dead."
"Look I'm sorry about your son but please don't take it out on my parents." I say.
"Let me think about that," He says then after a moment speaks. "You shouldn't have killed Jake and half of my men. So, say goodbye to your family darling."
"No!" I scream and the line goes dead.
I wake up painting and sweating. I hear fast footsteps come to my room and the door swings open.
"Caleb I don't want to relive it again! I don't want to feel this pain!" I yell starting to cry. "Why am I crying? I'm sick of crying.'' I say whipping my tears as they roll down my cheeks, "I just want them back. I just want to say hello to them, I just want to hear their voice, I just want a chance to say goodbye to them. I just want to say I love them!"
Caleb walks, over to me and sits on the edge of my bed, "I wish I could do that to my mother too," He says, "I watched my father kill her. And instead of all this pain you're feeling, all I felt was rage towards my father. It wasn't right."
"I'd rather feel rage then to have this pain!" I say running my hand through my hair.
"Trust me, you don't want to feel that rage, it shuts you down, and all you can think about are ways to torture that person. It's not right in the mind."
"But it just hurts too much." I say shaking my head.
"But you'll be okay." Caleb says.
"No, I'm not! I've lost too many important people in my life! First Shailene my younger sister, then Jake my friend, then Charlie, my best friend, and my mom and dad! It will never be okay!" I scream and tears just keep falling.
Just like Harry said, in the beginning the feeling is bad, and then it fades off for a while. Then it crawls you're way back under your skin and doesn't go away.
"You think that but this is just a breaking point in your life that you'll overcome. Like you did with Shailene's death I assume."
"But I never did overcome her death." I say.
"You weren't like this 24/7 were you?"
"In the beginning but then I stopped because I needed to be a role model for her even if she is dead. So I sucked it up and got over myself."
"Are you being a strong role model for your sister now?"
"No."
"This is just a bump in the rode for you Cat. You'll be okay even if you think you won't." He tells me, "Get some sleep, we have to leave in a couple of hours."
He gets up and exits my room.
I think the person I miss the most is Charlie. Sure, I miss mom and dad a lot but Charlie and I had a special bond no other two people could share.
He was my best friend and my brother. He was the jock that was over protective of his sister at school. The Jock with a heart as people would call him. He was the nicest person you could ever meet. He cared about school, sports, family. He was the best brother anyone could have. Now all I can do is regret not trying to get his forgiveness sooner.
"Charlie, I miss you and I'm sorry. I love you." Was all I could say without starting to cry again.
"Are you sure you want to go in there?" Elijah asked when we approached the house.
"Someone's has to take care of the bodies.” I say walking up the steps. The door was cracked open from Alex as I suspected. I opened it more and walked in.
A disgusting smell hit me with in seconds. It smelled like someone was rotten and blood. I put my hand over my nose so I wouldn't smell it.
I looked at the walls seeing there was blood smeared with a hand print. I walked further into the house, to the kitchen in living room.
What scared me half to death was that there were two bodies on the couch. They we're sitting up and looked like they were alive but they were like statues. They had their back to me but I knew who they were.
I decided not to go and look at them because if I do I'll break at the sight of my dead parents.
The thought that came to mind was where Charlie was. I decided to look around the rest of my house for him. I went back to the entree room, past Elijah, Rebekah, and Caleb and went down the stairs to the basement.
I went straight to his room. Like the front door, the door was cracked. The same stench from upstairs was coming from his room. I knew I was going to regret opening the door but I did anyway.
I almost scream at the sight. There was blood everywhere. He was pinned up against the wall with a sword mom and dad had got him for Christmas time year. His head hung down and his arms and legs dangled off of the ground.
My curiosity stopped me from having a meltdown when I looked at the thing next to him; a piece of paper was tapped to the wall.
I walked over to it trying to ignore the sight of my lifeless brother. I recognized the hand writing straight away.
Dear Cat,
I'm hiding in the closet right now not wanting to face the man who is upstairs killing mom and dad. While hiding down here knowing my death awaits me, all I could think about was you, my beautiful sister. I want you to know I love you. The man upstairs was saying that he shared an acquaintance and then I heard him say your name. Whatever you have gotten yourself into I hope you'll get out of it and be safe. I want you to know that mom and dad said that they forgave you even though they didn't say it directly to your face. I know that all you wanted was your forgiveness from us, you got it. We don't blame you for what happened. You two just happened to be in the wrong place, wrong time. Thinking about Shailene's death made me think back; to see you were as broken as the rest of us were. I can't imagine how you are right now. Speaking for the three of us, please know that we love you and we want the best for you. We don't want you to be sad over this. Know that we will be reunited with Shailene and we will be watching over you. We want you to be happy. Look to your friends if you need guidance. I'm sure Harry will help you cope with this and try to make you feel better. If you miss us, you just need to think of us and we’ll be there. I want you to know that you will be okay. You are the strongest girl I have ever come to know. You are beautiful, you are brave and I love you. Mom and dad love you too. As much as it hurts me to say this, goodbye, I love you Cat.
-Charlie
I cry silently reading the letter that's until I faintly hear Elijah's conversation with Rebekah and Caleb.
"We need a cover story for this. We can't exactly say a serial killer came her and killed almost an entire family and just leave the daughter." Elijah says.
"He's right, if police find out about this, they'll take Cat in and her blood will be tested of course. They'll find out that you're her real father and put you in prison. They'd find Annabelle and they boys and take them too. That girl will have no one if they do." Rebekah adds.
"Then what do we do?" Caleb asks, "What’s a good enough story to make up for slicing her parents and then piecing them together as if they never were sliced. And who knows what Alex did to her brother. How do we come up with a cover story to hid this?"
I glance once more at my lifeless brother before heading up the stairs. They start throwing questions at me about my brother but I ignore them and walk into the kitchen, they follow shortly behind me.
I go to the cupboards and search for what I was looking for.
"Are you looking for something Cat?" Rebekah asks.
I check the last cupboard and pull out the box of matches. "You don't think I heard you guys saying you need a believable cover story? Well, I have one; we burn the house." I grab my dad bottle of liquor and pour it as I walk around.
"Cat you don't want to do that, you grew up in this house." Elijah says.
"What's here for me in this house but bad memories? Everyone that I have loved, lived in this house; Mom, Dad, Charlie, and Shailene. And they are dead. What's the point of having this house if it's just a burden on my chest? My dad's not going to be here to drink this liquor, Charlie isn't going to be here to use that stove anymore, my mom’s not going to be here to clean up the house and take care of if, and Shailene isn't here to play in the play set in the backyard. So what's the point of keeping this house? Besides like Caleb said, what other cover story can hide what Alex has done? I mean Charlie is down stairs pinned up against the wall with a sword mom and dad gave him for Christmas and then we have my mom and dad as if they are puzzle pieces."
"Well, find a different cover story. You don't need to burn down your house!" Rebekah yelled.
"This house is filled with bad memories with Rebekah! Ones that I don't want to remember! And all of those good memories of this house are fading away! It's time for me to start over! And the only way to do that is get rid of the things that are holding me back and here we are standing in it." I yell.
"Let her do it." Caleb said.
"What? Cat do not do anything. Caleb we need to talk about this." Elijah says calmly.
"What's there to talk about? You wanted me to help her so here I am helping her." Caleb said to Elijah.
"This is not helping her. This will only make matters worse."
"You don't care about her feelings. You just want her to pay attention to you. And with you siding with her, she'll give you the attention you want." Rebekah says.
"That is not my intentions, sister. I want her to have what she wants and if this is what she wants she can have it."
"Right, I forgot you need to play the role of the father," Rebekah says sarcastically, "Well if you knew how to be a real father then you would be saying no, don't do it. Let's be honest, you don't know how to be a father. The only person who could properly be a father here is Elijah. What do you even know about being a father because right now you're not acting like one?"
"You may think that I don't want to be a father or I don't know how to be a father but I do. I plan on being a father that is nothing like the father that we had to have. I plan on being the best father this girl could ever have in her life, and right now she needs one. Ever since I was a child and even know I've been against adults abusing children verbally and physically and from experience, I will never be that father nor do I want to be. You may think that I care nothing about this girl but I do! I spent my teen years dreaming what it would be like to have a child of my own and now her she is. It's a fresh start for me and if this is what she wants - to have a fresh start in life - and this is the way to do it then I say we let her. As her father I don't want her to have this sad burden for the rest of her life. And if this could solve it then let her do it!" Caleb responded to Rebekah.
I almost didn't hear Caleb's response because I was too busy covering the rest of the house with alcohol.
"Then I believe it's up to Cat to make her own decision." Elijah says.
With no hesitation I reply, "I would move before you guys burn with the house."
Caleb, Rebekah and Elijah stand behind me before I start to light the match. I slid the stick against the match and a fire starts on it. I stare at the fire between my fingers before tossing the lit match to the far corner of the room. It takes a second for the flame to catch on to the curtain. Then the fire makes it way to the dinner table.
The four of us walk out of the house as it burns to the ground, along with childhood memories and my family burning along with everything else.