Chapter Nine
|Alone|

Unedited

Elizabeth was standing in the far corner of the room in which she was never welcome. It was her mother's room. In the darkness, no one could've noticed her presence.

She looked at her mother, sleeping peacefully. The moonlight coming from the window had cast an angelic look on her face. She looked happy and contented.

Elizabeth smiled at her mother. She took her in with her eyes, her each and every feature.

In the business of looking at her mother, she didn't saw the shadow that had silently crept inside. It was standing right behind her, its fangs looming over her body.

It came closer, slowly touching Elizabeth's face with its long sharp razor-like fingers. It slowly brought its fingers from her cheek to her jaw. Surprisingly, Elizabeth didn't feel any pain not a drop of blood left her face even though those sharp claws were scratching her face.

Elizabeth was still busy looking at her mother. All of a sudden, Edna's face contorted in pain. She screamed and thrashed in pain. Red liquid started to ooze from her cheeks.

She cried in pain, unable to open her eyes. Elizabeth tried to run towards her mother, but something was stopping her from moving.

She turned around to look at the person. A gasp escaped her lips. Before she could've seen its face, it brought its razor-sharp claws to her heart...

Elizabeth stood up from her sleeping position immediately. She was breathing heavily. She looked around her bed for something. Finally, she reached the glass of water kept on the bedside table.

She picked it up. Her fingers were trembling. She was hiccuping badly. She tried to hold onto the glass but the glass slipped from her trembling hands.

The water spilled on the bed, splashing everywhere from the blanket to the mattress and finally on Elizabeth's nightgown.

She got off the bed, throwing the blanket on the floor and peeling off the bedsheet from the bed to stop it from soaking in the mattress.

She muttered a string of curses as she looked down at her now completely wet nightgown which was dripping water on the floor.

Picking up the bedsheet and mattress simultaneously she went to the bathroom to throw them in the laundry bin.

Getting out, she picked up the towel from her closet and once again entered the pink titled bathroom that smelled strongly of roses.

Flicking on the light she placed the towel on the hanger. The bathroom looked neat except for the now occupied laundry bin.

Elizabeth went to the sink. Washing her hands with soap she picked up her toothbrush and started brushing her teeth which smelled like bad cheese to her.

Sliding open the faded white curtain that separated the bathtub and the other part of the bathroom, she entered inside.

The sound of the shower water splashing against the tiled floor was gently followed by silence from the other side.

The cool water seemed to calm Elizabeth down. Her body relaxed as she stood there enjoying the coldness of the liquid bringing her cells back to life.

After a good ten minutes passed, she closed the shower. Picking up her towel from the glancing metal, she draped it across herself.

She reached her hand to slide the curtain away. She felt her hands freeze on their own accord. Condensed away in the air, the smell of fresh cold water was now replaced by the strong scent of iron.

A deep shudder tickled down Elizabeth's spine, making her tremble. She was so busy in her mind that she had not noticed the now red curtain in front of her eyes.

Muffling her scream with her hands, she stared with horror at the curtain, her eyes opened wide. The message was written on the other side but that didn't stop Elizabeth from understanding it.

She snatched away the curtain with her hands. The metal made a clanking sound as it fell on the cold bathroom floor.

A knock on the door disturbed her before she could've done anything. Immediately letting go of the curtain, she went out of the bathroom to open the for to her room.

Standing in front of her was none other than her mother, a frown gracing her pale face.

Elizabeth looked at her mother, waiting for her mother to say something.

"What are you going in there? I just heard a sound. Is something wrong?" she asked.

Pursing her lips into a thin line for a few seconds, she finally let a smile replace it.

"Nothing mother. I just accidentally stumbled upon something and the toothbrush holder fell off."

Her voice was confident and completely at ease. Edna nodded slightly as she left for the kitchen.

Elizabeth's bright smile morphed into a deep and dismal frown as she looked at Edna's retreating figure.

Careful not to make a sound, she closed the door silently. She quickly ran to the bathroom, the quiet melodious shuffle of her feet contrasting with the pink of her room.

She entered the bathroom, her feet a bare whisper against the tiled floor.

She bent down, her long dark hair cascading on her shoulder following curiously till their tips touched the tiled floor.

She picked up the blood-stained curtain with her fingernails, not wanting to get any of that on her skin.

Deciding to dispose of it later, she threw the curtain in the dustbin. She went where the metal rod had fallen and adjusted it back to its place.

With much effort, the task was finally done. As she stood in front of the basin connected with a mirror, the sound of her hands rubbing together forcefully didn't fail to film the air.

She was trying to get rid of the scent of iron from her fingers. Once she was done she started spraying some air freshener to bring the bathroom back to normal.

She slowly closed the bathroom door on her way out. Realizing it was now time for breakfast, she hurriedly picked up a pair of clothes and changed into them.

She left her hair uncombed since she didn't want to deal with mother's anger at her pointless delay.

Seating herself on the dining table, she came face to face with her mother. A smile was settled upon her mother's face as she put down the plates on the table.

Seeing her mother's smile, Elizabeth's own face lit like a bright Christmas tree.

The breakfast went by quietly, with none of them uttering a single word. But it was clear that Edna was having a good day today, which indirectly turned Elizabeth's mood cheerful.

Elizabeth left for school. As she entered high school, she felt a pang in her chest.

No, she needed to focus. She was doing it for a greater cause.

Soon enough, she found Annie. Pairing up together, they both went to their Literature class. There was not much to tell nor was there something to listen. It was all a blur, the events that were happening.

The day felt like a roller coaster moving on the speed of an airplane. Elizabeth barely noticed anything interesting as she sucked her pencil deeply, lost in her thoughts.

The day was coming to an end or at least the school was. As predicted, the loud high pitched sound of the bell resonated in the classroom. Students got up from their seats as they hurriedly filed out of their classes, happy that they were now able to go home.

The school was in a way of speaking, pure and utter torture. The studies were sickening, the kids were obnoxious and the teachers were horrid. Apart from the huge area of it covered, there was nothing more endearing than that in the entire school. And so it was nauseating.

Elizabeth slowly got up from her seat, unusually eager to get out of the suffocating building that was spreading its claws delicately on her neck, trying to wait for the right time to strike to choke her to death.

Annie met with her as they got out of the sacred grounds. To be honest, it was the people who called them sacred. To Elizabeth, they looked covered in red whenever she saw them. That's why they were called sacred. It is often the sacred thing that is red.

Love is red, anger is red and more important than anything, blood is red. And that's exactly what she saw, blood. Blood of her friends and many other innocent girls. If someone were to say from an outsider's point, her own crimson red stained the area.

Annie left Elizabeth home as Elizabeth kept toying around with the seatbelt all the way home, long lost in her own poisonous thoughts.

Elizabeth walked the steep pavement as she walked to her house. She bent down, her long hair cascading down her face as she picked up the key hidden beneath the plant pot which smelled freshly of mud and roses.

Unlocking the door, her hand touched the doorknob with her lean but little fingers when she heard it. The utter desolate and gut-wrenching silence from the other side. The idea of opening the door itself felt unwelcoming.

Deep down, she knew something was utterly wrong when she had touched the doorknob and felt the cold metal harassing her skin.

The silence was daring, completely unusual. It was never this silent in the house. Her mother was always doing something whether it be cooking or chatting with Celeste, her mother's best friend who often visited the house.

Elizabeth wondered why Celeste had not come to meet her mother for a month. It was quite unusual for her to not visit but then again, it was plainly Celeste's choice.

Suddenly out of nowhere, the thick yet fragile glass of silence shattered into pieces as she heard a loud thud as if something had fallen on the ground.

Elizabeth turned the doorknob. Opening the door wide she was met by the sudden blow of wind coming from the open windows of the other side of the house. Her hair covered her vision. She turned them behind and looked at the scenario laid in front of her.

She nearly collapsed as she looked at the two persons sitting on the red floor in front of her, the bright light from outside illuminating their faces.

She ran towards the twitching body that was lying on the crimson floor. Fresh blood was oozing out from the big hole in the person's stomach where the knife had assaulted her body.

Her eyes then moved towards the person sitting against her, a person she would never be able to call her own. She averted her eyes from the person as a wave of hate passed through her body, screaming for revenge.

A pool of blood was starting to form around the half-dead body of the woman that lay there on the cold dead floor, the warmth of the woman's blood emanating the frostbitten floor.

Elizabeth slowly, with shaking fingers, touched those twitching fingers of the woman as she herself tried to stop the escaping tears from her betraying eyes.

Elizabeth's whole body was trembling, the sound of her labored breaths sounder than the gushing wind that flew in through the open windows.

Her uncontrollable tears turned into sobs, resonating through the room. Short and suffocated her breath was, as she held those hands which were starting to lose their warmth.

"Mother," she whispered, her voice cracking in between. "Stay awake."

Her mother let out a tired sigh. Her lips that were held together a second ago with the strong pull of her teeth were now released and were spilling blood. The knife in her stomach was more prominent than ever.

"It is time for me to leave, " she barely managed to speak as she coughed some blood on the already crimson floor.

"No mother. Please don't go. I'm begging you. Stay awake. I'm going to call the ambulance. Just don't close your eyes."

Before Elizabeth could've stood up, she felt soft fingers wrap around her hand, holding her back from leaving.

"No. I'm afraid I don't have much time. So let me tell you something."

"No mother, no, " Elizabeth said, crying.

"Elizabeth, my dear, all I was trying to do was to protect you from the monster that your father is but I didn't realize that between protecting you from him I had become one too...I love you, at least you know now that your mother wasn't always a monster.", Edna said as her eyes started losing light.

"Please don't go. Mother, please don't leave me."

"I'm glad that I now have no guilt. Let me go, my dear."

With that, Edna's eyes fluttered closed, never to be opened once again.

With bloodshot eyes, she looked up at the man sitting in front of her. A flame was dancing in her eyes, ready to burn down the man who had killed her mother.

It was crystal clear that Maxin Montgomery was not and will never be her father. For a father is a person who cares about both his wife and child. In Elizabeth's eyes, Maxin Montgomery had failed the test.

"Elizabeth my love, let me explain. I didn't want to do this. Your mother forced me. She denied me to have you back. I tried, I honestly did. But your mother was so stubborn, she pushed me out.

You know, the only thing I ever wanted was a child to take care of. Your mother did wrong and she knew it. Maybe this was her punishment. She is gone now and can't be brought back. Come with me, your father. Elizabeth, please come with me. I promise I won't ever hurt you."

He extended an arm towards Elizabeth, wishing for her to hold it.

Elizabeth nodded in denial, her eyes still watery. Maxon's features turned angry in a matter of seconds as he stared at Elizabeth's rheumy blue eyes.

Letting out a deep irritated sigh, he launched himself at Elizabeth. Elizabeth shrieked loudly as he put his steely grip on her left hand, his nails digging into her soft red flesh. Her voice was hoarse, so the scream felt nothing but a bare whisper in the chilly wind that draped their town in a curtain of heavenly beauty.

He dragged her towards the open window, possibly planning to escape from there. Elizabeth screamed louder, her voice sounding a bit more prominent this time.

Before Maxon's hand could have reached her mouth to silence her, his whole body retracted wildly as the small metal body passed through his back, penetrating deep within till it touched his chest.

His grip loosened on Elizabeth's arm as he fell on the ground. Yet another pool of blood was starting to form in the room.

Elizabeth turned around to look at the person who fired the gun. Being drained of any energy left inside her body, her movements were slow.

Standing a few feet away was none other than the Detective that she failed to understand completely.

Elizabeth's vision was turning blurry by the seconds. She saw the Detective run towards her. She felt those hands grabbing her and making her sit on the sofa. The touch was gone, but she soon felt it again as those hands made her drink water.

"Elizabeth, stay awake. I'm calling the team and the ambulance. Just don't close your eyes," said Detective Mary as she held Elizabeth with one hand and the phone in the other.

In a matter of seconds, the place was a blur of energy. Aura, that's what she had learned. The auras of humans never died, so maybe her mom's aura was there somewhere, mixed with a hundred others that were occupying the house at that very moment.

Her eyes were closing, not due to weakness or hunger. She was far behind human desires and pain. She wanted to close her eyes for she needed to think. She needed to think that her mother was here and for that she needed not to look at the people filing in.

Before her eyes could've closed, Detective Ricosta touched her cheeks. She looked at him, the pain still visible in her eyes.

"I'm sorry about your mother. It's not okay, I know. Everything will not be okay, but at least everything is not pure chaos. The department believes that Maxon Montgomery was behind the murder. They are closing the case now. You don't have to worry now. You're safe."

With that, he left as he was called by the forensics team.

Annie soon arrived. She came running through the door, going straight towards Elizabeth. She held Elizabeth in a hug as Elizabeth cried against her clothes.

She kept patting Elizabeth, hoping for her to get okay, hoping to see her normal once again. But then again, it wasn't her decision to make. It was Elizabeth's.

She mourned to herself as she looked at Elizabeth's desolate collapsing psyche. She didn't know what was going to happen now but one thing she did knew.

Elizabeth was going to fall.

2854 words

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Question Time

Q.1 Elizabeth thinks about the school having sacred blood. Why?

Q.2 Maxon lovers are shocked. He didn't turn out to be so nice, now did he? What are your thoughts about him?

Q.3 Edna is dead. Can you feel or believe it?

Q.4 Which part of the chapter did you like the most? Any special reason for liking it?