Futures Entwined

Chapter VIII

April 19, 1940

My mother was Arabella. I am Helena the one good daughter of my mother Arabella Johnston. My mother did what she set out to do. My father, Andrew is dead. I will someday have to kill my brother Isaac and my sister Saraphina. They are the only reason I can go on some days. I wasn't able to do it. Not the first time I met them since the death of my mother. They found me, I'd been careless and they found me. I had managed to trap Saraphina's arm underneath a huge weight, I held a knife to Isaac's throat. I could see the terror in his eyes and hear the anguish in Saraphina's voice as she cried out their brother's name. I suddenly realised that I couldn't kill them. I couldn't. Not yet. I don't know what I will do, I can't become a murderer. I can't. I am not the same little girl my mother helped escape, I am not her. I don't have her courage, she killed my father to protect me and I don't know how I can do something she did and not fail. I came back to this house to find anything I could of my mother. I have loved no one in my fifteen years of life except her. I don't know why my father wanted her so badly but he destroyed her life and created mine. I am a Ninja, it is my duty to protect the people who my brother and sister will try to destroy. I don't have a choice. I never did. My mother knew that I would have no choice in what my future would hold but she did what she could to protect me. I shall honer her gift and go forward as best I can.

Helena

April 21, 1940

I have decided that I will write in my mother's diary and I will be as faithful in writing as I can and I will be the same type of writer as she was. I want to be as good a person as she was. She might have killed my father but she did it to protect me and everyone else in the world who would be a danger to Saraphina and Isaac's plan of world domination. I don't actually know that's what they plan to do but they probably want to continue my father's work. Today I searched my parent's house for anything that my mother wrote about or anything that could help me. I went to every place in this house that I could find. Some places were locked and I busted down the doors. Now I wish that I hadn't there were horrid things in there. I can't even describe what was in there. It was too horrible. I am not my mother. I can't do half the things she did. I am not Arabella Johnston. I am Helena Johnston-Martins. I plain girl. I have dull red hair and dark gray eyes. My mother was beautiful. She shone with light. I never have and I never will. I am nothing more than the daughter of an amazing girl. I am not the amazing one, she was. I will never be able to do what she did. I only want to be half the person she was and that will be enough. Unfortunately I am nowhere near halfway.

Helena

May 1, 1940

Today I went and found my grandparents. They are dead. They were murdered. The description my aunts and uncles gave me tell me that Saraphina and Isaac killed them. They are not human. Neither am I. We never will be. My Aunt Annabeth said that she knew that I must be who I said I was as I look just like Arabella. Annabeth said that they never knew that Arabella had had a daughter, I had to tell her that my mother had had another daughter and a son. I told her everything everything that I know about what I am and what my brother and sister are. She believed me and said that if she could do anything to help me, she would. As I was leaving Annabeth burst into tears, "She was my sister." She had sobbed. "I was so excited about her wedding that I never noticed how much she wanted to get away. I was such a horrible person and never once thought of her." I tried to comfort her but Annabeth continued to cry. "When that Monster told us she had died, we all did. We never questioned that she was gone. We believed everything he told us. I couldn't ever figure out why we did. We signed her death warrant and never did anything about it." I suddenly realised that she was right. I had let her die. I could have stopped her but I didn't. "It wasn't your fault." I told her. "It was mine." And I left and I didn't look back. Not once.

Helena

May 3, 1940

I have been training hard knowing that I will die when the last of my family is gone. When both Isaac and Saraphina are dead I will die too. I am connected to them the way Arabella was connected to Andrew. It kills me to know that my mother no longer had hope that things could get better and I don't have the same hope now either. We are both destined to die. There is no way out.

Helena

May 5, 1940

I went back to see Annabeth today. She didn't cry or seem upset and she wasn't cheerful either. Annabeth husband died a few months ago in an accident. She doesn't seem to miss him the way she misses Arabella. I don't even know his name. I finally asked her about Abbey and Hannah, the two of them had been my mother's best friends. Annabeth sighed, "They are both married and have many kids." She told me. "They are very sad though, they can tell something is missing. Even if they can't figure out what." When I left today I returned to my mother and father's house, once again as I have been staying here for days. I will never let this diary leave this house. It belongs here, where my mother suffered and where I have taken to haunting. I will never let the things my mother left behind leave this house while I am alive.

Helena

May 6, 1940

Today I went to visit Hannah. She opened the door and started to cry when she saw my face. "What's wrong?" I asked her. "You look like someone I used to know, someone I loved very much. Someone who is long gone and I miss terribly." She said, tears dripping down her face. "Who?" I ask. "My dear friend, Arabella Johnston-Martins." I took her hand and squeezed it. "Hannah, I am Helena. Daughter of your friend, Arabella Johnston." Hannah had cried harder and had believed me. I told her everything I'd told Annabeth. Hannah told me many things about my mother, I asked her about the times when my mother was happy. I wanted to know everything. She told me all she could, I thanked her and eventually I left. Tomorrow I shall visit Abbey. I can only hope that she will listen to me as Hannah and Annabeth have.

Helena

May 7, 1940

My visit with Abbey was different from my visits with Annabeth and Hannah. When she opened the door the moment she saw my face she slammed the door. I could hear little children asking what was wrong. Hannah's had been off with their father. Abbey had been terrified by my face. "Abbey," I called through the door. "Please, come out. I just want to talk to you. My name is Helena." At my last words she opened the door. "Helena?" She asked. "Not Arabella?" I shook my head. "No, please Abbey. Arabella was my mother." Abbey stared at me. "Arabella Johnston-Martins was , my mother. I am Helena Johnston-Martins." Abbey opened the door and gestured for me to come in, "You had better come in, I need to hear your story." I followed her in. Her children were all small, too small to understand what was going to be said. I told her my story as I had Annabeth and Hannah. She as they had believed me, "You look just like your mother." She whispered. Her children were so wonderful, I wish all children were this nice. My brother and sister were not. Abbey told me then how she was sure when she had opened the door it was her mother, Arabella returned to life. She said that she had been sure that Arabella's ghost had returned to haunt her for letting her die and marry that horrible man. "I was so sure she would be fine but she died, that horrible man killed her." I stared at her. "Abbey you know what happened to Arabella?" I asked. Abbey nodded, "I did. I always knew in a way that the others didn't. I knew the truth, she didn't die when he said she did, she died when he did and he killed her." I nodded. "I was right." Abbey whispered. "I never should have listened when everyone said that she would be fine. I knew that things wouldn't be alright and they weren't but I did nothing." I know exactly how she felt. "I can't believe that only you can kill those devils." Abbey whispered. "It's not fair." I shrugged. "Abbey, it's not so bad. I never have to expect the unexpected and I know how my story will ends, it has two endings. Neither good for me, one good for others." I told the truth. I have promised to visit Abbey, Hannah and Annabeth. They seem to actually care, I can't ever repay them for this.

Helena

May 10, 1940

Annabeth, Hannah and Abbey all came over today and saw the house and everything that my mother had lived with. They were horrified and demanded why I stayed here. I told them that I had nowhere else to go. They all offered to let me stay with them but I refused.

Helena