Love Bites

Picking up the pieces

Tasha's grandma patted her arm and silently left the room, closing the door to behind her. Finally alone Tasha's mind played out the previous few hours on a loop. She longed for her mum to appear and tell her that everything would be okay. To be swept up into her arms and held; safe and secure. Tasha heaved a sob, she doubted she would ever feel safe again. 

The police had interviewed her until the first vestiges of light had begun to dawn, when finally they had finished her grandma had been there. It had come as a shock to Tasha, who had for some reason, not considered having to leave her family home. Her grandma had calmly explained it all, that it would be best for her to stay with them for a while. So, with a police escort she had been given 10 minutes to pack a suitcase with everything she needed. Ten minutes to pack up her whole life. Numbly she had done just that and without a backwards glance had let her grandma lead her to the waiting car.

Tasha lay down on the bed, cradling a picture of her fractured family. Her tears fell unchecked, her heart clenching with pain and longing. It suddenly hit her that she was an orphan, her last thought was of her father's sorrow filled eyes before she finally succumbed to sleep.

Her dreams were dark and full of shadows that shifted and changed, when she woke it took her a moment to realise where she was and when her memory played the pain flared and lit anew. She wasn't sure if the pain would ever stop, not now, not after horror had tainted her life again. After lying in bed for what felt like hours Tasha rose, unable to take the fitful sleep any longer. She sat by the window and watched the world go by, something her parents would never get the chance to do again. The thought drew more tears and she wondered whether she would ever stop crying.

                                                                                                ***
Cassandra was sitting in a dusty armchair, leg curled beneath her, quietly reading near the fireplace when Cal entered. Without looking up she said "Another one Cal, really?"

"Yes really," Cal replied tersely. "Got a problem with it?"

Cassandra slowly lifted her head, an unreadable expression on her face, and merely shook her head.

"Good" Cal barked, anger flaring. That damn woman needed to remember her place. Cal shoved the woman forward towards Cassandra, and flung himself into another dust encased chair, pouting like a sullen teen.

"What's the issue?" Marcus sighed, sensing danger, sitting down on a forlorn looking rocking chair.

"I don't know," Cal huffed heavily. "I'm bored. Bored of doing the same old shit again and again."

"What? Her?" Marcus nodded towards the woman cowering in the middle of the floor. Cal sighed again he'd even lost the energy to play with his new toy.

"Keep her upstairs in room 4," Cal told Cassandra, then turned to Marcus "Coming for a bite to eat?"

Marcus grinned and in the blink of an eye he and Cal were gone. Cassandra looked at the woman and smiled warmly.

"Welcome to your new home, follow me."

                                                                                            ***

It had been a week, a whole week. Tasha couldn't understand how the world had just continued to turn without her parents. Everyone seemed to be just going about their normal lives. How? How could they when everything had changed so drastically? Her grandparents were trying to make it easier for her, give her the space she needed to grieve but even just being in their quiet, normal house made her want to scream and cry. She missed her parents, she missed her house and her room, she missed her life. Why couldn't anyone understand that?