Gargoyle: Kinswoman

Part 19

She returned to Isilia after few hours, when her body was beginning to scream against the cold seeping into her muscles. The older woman hadn't liked at all that she'd given the key back. There was no such law, she said, none that required her to return it should she pass it on. So either of them was lying to her, but at this point she was too tired to figure out, which one. Whatever the truth was, the reality was she didn't have it anymore and that's that.

Instead she had new set of bracelets still warming up in her palm, but the way she burst into triad of words when she heard about the first news, she didn't mention them to her at all. In the end she was asked to finish cleaning the stone rubble the next day and then leave. She did, but only because she had to get back to work and she had to trade the bracelets for money she could use to set Isilia's retirement up.

Which turned out to be a mistake, as on the day after she'd organized the daycare instead of the nosy neighbor, Robert showed up at her apartment.

"Where did you get the money?" was his first words, when she opened the door with a groggy head. It was already past midnight and she was feeling under the weather enough to climb into bed.

She froze on the spot, unable to say anything and only stared as he puffed up angrily and pressed past her into her apartment.

"I didn't -" invite you in, she wanted to say, but was cut off.

"I don't recall you having that kind of money, when we divorced! Have you been hiding out, hm? Playing the damsel in distress?"

She didn't dare to close the door, keeping one hand on it while her other kept searching her jacket pockets for something, before she remembered it was in the safety box in the small cavity she'd carved into the backside of her bed, right behind the pillow. Her hand fell next to her side and fisted into hopeless sinking feeling.

"I-I didn't have it then." She protested, holding on to the door handle now as if it was her only safety net. The corridor was thin enough to echo in the neighboring apartments and she hoped someone would wake up to the fuss and call the police.

"Then how can you suddenly afford to support her? She was quit delighted to call me and smear it under my nose."

Damn woman! "Which one?" She asked instead.

"What?"

"Your mother or the neighbor?"

"That is – what you're suggesting is preposterous! She's my half sister!"

She nearly swooned back in shock, when the walls suddenly sank lower into her periphery. She'd been surrounded by them the whole time? Why didn't Isilia say anything?

"Did Isilia know?" She asked, slowly forcing her limbs to move and let go of the handle. She had to get him out of her apartment somehow.

"Of course!"

"Then you're both a bit of a failure, huh?" She pressed down the urge to laugh, knowing the words she'd uttered were dangerous enough.

"Why should we if someone so willingly takes it over? Mom always said she didn't bother us with her up-keep, and voila! There you were! All ready and eager the moment she handed over your divorce papers!"

She wasn't sure if what he'd said was true, but her head was already swimming with her blood pressure skyrocketing.

"But you were angry and..."

"Of course I was! Wouldn't you be if your own mother tries to play god in your life?"

Oh yeah, she would be.

"Now, according to her, you found something on her land and kept it secret from her. She's angry enough to call cops on you, unless you return what you stole from her!"

Her right side of body started to throb, sending painful rays of pain throughout the core of her, but she ignored it. Her head felt worse.

"I didn't steal anything." Her voice sounded weak even to her own ears, but she couldn't muster anything stronger, not when he was staring straight at her.

"Oh? Are you selling my gifts then?"

She shook her head. He'd gotten everything back through the divorce settlement. She could be sure of that, because all she took from their house was set of clothes, personal documents and her toothbrush. Everything else she left where they'd fallen while she packed.

"Very naughty!" He shook his head and took a step closer. She took a step backwards, but hit the cloths rack.

"Well?" He demanded, as if he'd given her time to reconsider her answer.

"I didn't take anything!" She repeated, tears welling up under her eyes. She gulped, hard.

Sharp pain made her cheek first go ice cold, then fire up from the nerve endings as the hit registered in her brain.

"Well?" His voice rose and she could see through the now free-falling tears that his eyes had widened and he was expecting some kind of an answer.

She shook her head silently and prepared for the next slap. She wasn't disappointed, it landed on the back of her head, but instead of pushing his fingers through her hair like he usually did, he pulled back, hovering far enough that if she wanted to lash out, she wouldn't be able to.

She was stunned on the threshold. She knew if she tried to go past him to where her gun was, it would corner her and she would have to turn her back to Robert, which wasn't gonna happen as far as she was concerned. If she ran on the stairs, he could easily push her over the railing without any problem before any of her neighbors would react. Just because they heard didn't mean any of them would physically intervene if things got that far.

She stepped back as he came forward, her hand sneaking back to the handle. If he came any closer, if she was fast enough, she could close it between them before he had time to react.

Instead he saw her through, the door was forcefully banged straight into her face and it sent her reeling backwards. She found herself falling through the soft metal of the handrail, listening Robert's sudden scream as he showed up above her, reaching his hand out to her as if trying to save her and then it all faded away into darkness.