The Dead Crime (Draft)

Chapter#20

She stood in the backyard facing the trees, her heart was still throbbing too fast that it felt like it might come out any minute. She knew she had done something she can't easily get away with. She had angered Kevin, and provoked him unknowingly. The thing she had told Emily never to do, she had done it and now she had to face the consequences she wasn't yet ready for.

"You know what you have done, right?" Kevin's deep terrific voice blew through her spines like cold wave. She didn't turn around and held her breath staying where she was. Kevin came closer to her, his voice sounding more terrifying and deep,
"And you know you have to pay for it, don't you?" He placed his hands gently on her shoulders and she quivered.
"You see that empty space over there." He spoke into her ears. She automatically moved her gaze towards an empty spot he had left for the last body to bury. "It looks so sad now, won't you fill it up for me?"
His voice was becoming ridiculously cringy but Camille tried to stay calm, not to show her emotions of terror. She was ok with that because she didn't mind getting killed in steed of literally anyone who was going to become his last target she had messed up with. But she was mistaken, it wasn't her he was talking about.
"You want your sister gone don't you? That's benefit for both of us. What to you think." Appeared like he was making a deal with her, passing a devilish grin. Camille didn't utter a sound and Kevin wasn't waiting for her to speak either, he went back inside leaving her in the backyard, adrenaline pumping through her blood. She gave out a shuddering breath almost losing her balance and regaining it by holding her knees and kicking her foot across the soil.

Camille didn't like it, it was true that she had wanted her sister gone but she knew it won't change anything even if she dies. She recalled her tear stained face begging her to run away with her, 'this is not fair, this isn't fair to her.' she thought to herself. 'No, I'll never let it happen. It's still not late. We can still run away.'
but it was too late...

Camille wanted to lay on her bed and close her eyes tight and wake up with everything being just a bad dream. Where Diana loved her just like her daughter Emily and Kevin wasn't a venom who enjoyed killing people, there would be no trees in the backyard....but of Lina? She didn't have much memories of her real mother, she didn't remember her face either. She had been too young and after she started hallucinating Diana as her mother, her previous memories had all washed away. She couldn't seem to think that she'll be back to the life with Lina when she wakes up from this nightmare. 'Maybe, she loves me more?' She starts thinking it might not be a bad idea to wish for having a happy family without Diana and Emily. She curled up in her blanket trying to forget everything that had happened today, though it wasn't that easy with those vivid and nerve wrecking words still banging in her ears.

                               *   *   *

Ethan crawled on the bed beside his mother who sat against the back of the bed curled up in a ball.

"Mom, what happened back there? Why are you shuddering? That guy you were with, he did something to you, didn't he?"

But Ella reamines silent, rubbing her hands across each other nervously.

"Mom please, I want to know. You can't keep me in the dark." He said, anxiety sparking in his hazel eyes. Ella sighed and straightened her pose, pushing her legs down the bed, Ethan followed her.

"He's a psychopath. He showed me blood of other victims of his before killing me. I don't know if I remember clearly but I saw him a lot during my university days." She paused to think of something then spoke after she recollected her memories, "Lina was her name, we used to be really great friends, but after she got married with him. I haven't been in contact with her."
Something clicked her mind just then and she stared searching through her drawer to look for her graduation photo. It didn't took much time because she had cherished it a lot and kept it near her reach. She showed it to Ethan, it was the same picture Camille had shown him with faces cut out. She pointed towards a young snow white face with brown eyes and gorgeous blonde hair,
"That's Lina." Ella told him. His eyes got stuck at her face. Her resemblance with Camille was so uncanny that Ethan was forced to conclude that she was her daughter. He had seen Diana when he went to her house before but he didn't even imagine that she can't be her mother.

Ethan wondered for a while trying to overlap all the pieces of puzzles he had collected so far. The first was that huge tree which Camille described as "evil hidden behind beauty." The second was that photo with faces cut out. If the last uncut face was Ella that meant that the killer had failed to murder her. Which so means that the faces crossed out were the people who were murderered by him. But what does Camille had to do with all this? Even though the puzzle got solved if Kevin and Lina had married in the past and bore Camille but he didn't want to admit it yet. He wanted to confirm it and make his theory wrong. Because if that was right, that means Camille is a murderer's daughter but that didn't matter to Ethan. What mattered was that she had known her father's dark secrets and had lived with a devil. He wanted to help her, he wanted to take her out of that house filled with horrors. He wanted to prove his feelings for her. He wanted to make her life a bright place to be in, a happy environment. But was it too much to wish for? Too much to to dream of? If he had just given up on her when she told him to get away from her and when she ignored him, would that have made him regret less? Would that have given his heart and mind some peace? Even after finding out the terrorising truth about her father he wasn't able to help her. He had failed to prove his love, he had failed his first. However if only he had gotten more chances. Would he have been able to do it without second failure? Could that have been possible?