Haunted || Theo Raeken

07. Sisters

It had been two weeks since Vinnie Abbot lost her entire family to the supernatural world. For two weeks she had been unsuscefully trying to forget she was now an orphan, with no blood relatives alive. It was ironic how her mother insisted on Vinnie taking Abbot as her last name to keep it from extintion, but now all the Stewart were gone too. It didn't matter what last name she went with anymore because both would stop existing whenever she died.

Abbot had always been the thing that connected her to her mother, the thing only she shared with her. Vinnie always loved that, it made her feel as if some part of her mother lived inside of her. 

On the other hand, her father had always been there. His death had never even crossed her mind, but now that he was gone, she wondered whatever connected her to him anymore. Blood? Memories? It didn't matter. From then on, whenever people learned her name, they would all know her mother had been an Abbot, but no one would know what her father had been. No one would know she had a sister and that they had been related. No one would know the Stewart had been hers, and she had been theirs as well. For the first time, Lavinia Abbot hated her last name.

For the last two weeks, Liam could see the change his best friend went through. He couldn't blame her of course, she had lost everything she held dear. He understood, but that didn't make it any easier to witness. He had seen her go from a lively girl to a shell of the person she used to be. Her eyes didn't shine the way they used to, and her laughter had lost its intention. 

For the last two weeks, he had tried as hard as he could to nurse her back to health as if a ripped heart was something she could ever heal from. Vinnie hated the worry in his eyes every time she caught him looking at her. She knew he was just taking care of her, Lord knows she needed someone to do it,  but she would rather pour bleach on her eyes before admitting that. Lavinia was used to being a caretaker because she had always been one. It didn't matter she was the youngest of her family, if someone had an issue, they brought it to her. Someone had mocked Tracy? Vinnie beat the hell out of him the next day. Mason was failing a class? Vinnie stayed up until seven a.m. to finish his essay due the same day. 

She was a caretaker, she wasn't used to being taken care of. So what happens when you try to take care of one? They put up a front.

Anytime his attention was on her, she would put up an Oscar-worthy performance. Vinnie had lost her appetite, and anytime she found herself near food, nausea accentuated in her stomach. But she hid it from Liam, Lord knows he would worry himself to death, so whenever it was lunchtime or dinner, she would make an excuse and promise him she would eat later. For such a smart boy, he really was oblivious. In his eyes, she was still a mess but at least making some slow progress, but in reality, he couldn't be further from the truth.

Lavinia Abbot was slowly dying, it was just a matter of what would kill her first, the agonizing grief or the guilt.

After two weeks, Liam finally left her house. It wasn't that she didn't want him there, but the girl needed her space to lick her wounds, they would either heal or get worse. Vinnie knew Liam didn't mind staying with her, in fact, he preferred it. They were best friends after all, but she couldn't depend on him, she wouldn't allow herself to. She needed to deal with this on her own.  So, after a lengthy discussion where she lied to his face and told him she was getting better, he left, promising her he would stop by her house the next day after school.

Since the moment Liam stepped into her house, there hadn't been a moment of silence, due to the boy's inability to shut up. So naturally, she hadn't taken into consideration how hauntingly quiet the house would become the moment it was just her.

The sun had set hours ago, but she couldn't bring herself to move from her spot on the window seat in her room. Every corner of the house archived an old memory that she had no intention of relieving just yet, and to her luck, her room was the most peaceful one. Vinnie was curled up on the wide window beside her bed that faced the forest, as she counted the raindrops falling down the glass with a thick blanket around her shoulders. It had been raining for two weeks straight, with no sign of stopping any time soon. The weatherman had called it seasonal rain, even though it was summer.