||Mkay, I'm posting the first half of this chapter in this post, and the second in the next. It's only a total of 3838 words, so... Not too bad to post in two segments.||
I strode along the road with my head held somewhat low, defending my eyes against the onslaught of rain that persisted in pouring down upon my shoulders. It was heavy and unrelenting as it drenched me straight through my clothes.
It was nearly impossible to see, though it didn't take long for me to decide that I didn't care; I couldn't very well stay at that 'home' while knowing the truth about what would soon be happening to me.
After all the choices made by my father, there was only one, now, that I could honestly say I was ashamed of.
No, it wasn't when he was foolish and had a small affair with his coworker. It wasn't when he was too drunk to hide it any longer from my mother and I, and it wasn't when he was arrested for verbally assaulting the marriage counselor.
But, now knowing about it, I could quite truthfully remain firm in my belief that my father's most shameful act was selling my life to save his own.
I, for the first time in my life, despised having the same blood run through my veins.
“Elyssa,” my father rasped as he lay dying in his bed. “I'm so sorry.” He squeezed my hand gently, his eyes shining with tears as he attempted to catch enough breath to speak to me. His voice, soft and weak, brought a chill down my spine.
“What are you sorry for, Daddy?” I inquired, my face streaked with tears already; I'd known for a little while that my father had very little time left – apparently we had already reached the end of the road.
Richard Smith shook his head minutely as his breathing became somewhat labored. “I wrote you a letter... And I included a copy of the contract with it... I am so, so sorry, my darling,” he repeated before a coughing fit overtook him, and the at-home health care nurse rushed into the room, gently moving me aside.
He remained alive for another twenty-four hours, with his wife and daughter alternating with one another beside his bed. Two days after his death was the funeral ceremony, where my boyfriend of three years held me as the tears wouldn't cease, and my mother stood beside us, my youngest aunt holding her tightly as they both wept.
It was hard to fathom that he was gone. My daddy, who I loved so much.
At the reading of the will the next morning, our lawyer handed a thick envelope to me. “Alongside the savings he's left to you, this is for you. He didn't tell me much, but just told me to let you know that it's to explain,” the lawyer had uttered softly, his tone expressing his sympathy for my loss.
I sat for two days without reading it. Mostly, I just stared at it and wondered when I would get up the nerve to finally read it, but other than that, I spent time with Lucas, my boyfriend.
When I finally decided it was okay, and the right time for me to read it had finally arrived, it caused the argument that ended my relationship with Lucas.
“Why don't you want me to be here when you read it?!” Lucas asked me after I'd asked him to leave. “You might need support, Elyssa!” I'd inwardly cringed; I was becoming tired of how he only used my full first name. No nicknames or pet names, just Elyssa.
“Damnit, Lucas!” I had shouted, directly in his face. “Why can't you just get that this is about me and my family! You're not a part of this family!”
Lucas's face adopted a hurt expression. He scooped up his backpack and left, not saying another word. He only looked back, once, as he drove away. I watched him go through my bedroom window. Oddly, I felt relief at his first absence since the loss of my father.
Slowly I removed Lucas's warm, white hoodie – often, it reminded me of a bunny rabbit, with its soft, white texture – and set it on my pillows, before sitting down on the floor, shuddering at it's cool temperature as I gently tore the envelope open.
“'My precious Elyssa,'” I read aloud quietly, wondering why on earth my father would be so formal, and with me of all people. I continued silently.
'You have every right to hate me – but I had no choice. You were five years old, nearly six... And I was attacked by a tall man. When I begged for mercy, he replied in a cold, smooth voice that it would cost me.
'I demanded to know how much, and he laughed in my face. “I don't want your money,” he told me cruelly. “You have a daughter, correct?” At that point, my voice was stuck, and I couldn't speak, so I merely nodded.
'”When you die, since I will be sparing your life now, she will be mine,” he whispered to me. With a snap of his fingers, a frail-looking piece of paper appeared, and a ballpoint pen alongside it in his outstretched palm. “Deal?”
'As soon as I touched the pen, a cut appeared on my palm, but instead of it bleeding everywhere, it seemed to serve as the pen's ink. When I wrote, it was in my own blood. I don't know what kind of voodoo that man possessed, but it was... Powerful...
'Any day now, he will be coming to claim what I promised him. But you must understand – if I hadn't have been permitted to live for as long as I have, I wouldn't have been able to save up enough for you and your mother to live off of... And now you both have your own accounts, full of savings.
'I am so sorry.
'I love you from the deepest part of my soul,
'Richard Smith.'
I was jolted out of the memory, and quickly, too, when a flash of lightning coaxed a shriek from between my lips, and I ducked, bringing my hands up to cover my face. “I hate this weather!” I uttered, my voice trembling as I uncovered my eyes and looked around.
“There's no way that the boat is leaving the island tonight,” I said while biting down on my bottom lip. “I really need to find a place to stay at until it passes.”
Conveniently, the Lanistter castle was lit up, then, and I cringed, recalling the rumors from school a couple years back.
I had just walked into the hallway, hoping that no one would bother me like they normally did, since somehow everyone knew each other's business and my family was no exception – and the rumor mill refused to stop turning in regards to the affair of my father.
Luckily, the hallway was void of people, and so I rushed along, glancing over my shoulder occasionally to make sure no one had stepped out of their classroom.
I had almost made it to the girls' lavatory when a gaggle of boys rounded the upcoming corner.
Using reflexes I hadn't known myself to possess, I dodged into the nearest cove, leaning heavily on the lockers beside me as I pressed against the cold metal.
“You know those freshman want to hang out with us, right? What should we make them do to prove,” he sneered when he said that word, the snotty tone leaking into his speech, “that they're worthy of our company?”
“You know that castle has vampires, Joe. Plus the women disappearing these past few months,” a second voice said, and I could hear an undertone of disapproval in his voice as he apparently continued a topic they must have broached before they skipped the current class.
“Please. It's abandoned, and run-down. I've been there myself,” Joe bragged, though I truly doubted that he had; not many locals had the gall to approach the Lanistter castle, let alone go inside, or even on the property.
A third voice chimed in, “But they won't know that! Come on, Victor, we really should just tell them that they have to sneak onto the property and bring us back a picture to prove it.” I heard a shuffling noise, and then a rattle.
The three boys laughed together, and Joe spoke once more, “You still have that ratty old Polaroid camera?” he asked. “Do you still have our pictures from when we went to the castle?”
So I was wrong, I thought, rolling my eyes. But they don't seem like the brave type to just go through with something.
“Ugh, yes, I do. We really should burn those, by the way, you guys. I never showed you mine, but there's a face in the background, and it wasn't a happy one, I can tell you that much.”
“No way! You've got to be kidding!” Victor erupted in laughter. “Are you sure it wasn't one of us?”
“Are you blond, Vic?” Silence followed, and the hair on my arms and the back of my neck stood on end. “I didn't think so,” the boy said solemnly. “And neither is Joe, here, so I suppose you're wrong. But I wonder what anyone was doing in the castle at all, let alone hiding out while we were sneaking around.”
“Who knows, and who cares?” Joe put in, and I could tell from his tone and the following silence, that the topic was closed. There was some more ruffling, and a slam that made me jump. I hadn't realized that they were at a locker, or so close by.
The bell rang, and I cursed inwardly before running back to class for my backpack.
I looked around some more, squinting as I attempted to see through the downpour of rain; I wasn't successful, but I didn't need to be able to see in order to know that the castle was the only place in the area.
It's not like I hadn't been born and raised on the island, after all.
Heaving a resigned sigh, I stood straighter, and began to trudge through the puddles in the road, hitching my duffle bag further up on my shoulder.
I was fully aware of the fact that the castle was, more likely than not, empty, but I needed to find shelter, or I would get pneumonia, or just drown in the torrential rains barraging the island.
When I reached the gate, I grumbled under my breath, entirely prepared to have to haul the iron thing open with all of my strength. I set down my bag, grabbed hold of the bars, and gave it a solid push.
) Would you, even if caught in a downpour, walk into a house that has a bad reputation while you're alone with two strange men? I wouldn't, I can guarantee that right now. I'd probably run away screaming. If there's a way for me to sleep somewhere on the ferry, even if it doesn't leave, then I'd go there. You're going to have to find something else, some other reason for her to go there. Maybe she gets hit by a car who doesn't see her in the rain and the car doesn't stop and she needs help and she staggers there. Maybe she fell into ditch when she lost her footing and she slit open her arm on -something- and needs assistance. Maybe . . . Maybe she got run over by a reindeer, but you know what I mean, right? If you wouldn't do it, don't make your character do it.