The Keepers' Evil

Forty-Five: That hasn't stopped us before

Song- Chemtrails over the country club: Lana Del Rey

"That hasn't stopped us before."

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The kitchen's white tiles had once become marbled with a deep pink concoction of raspberry jam, only to be accompanied by the bells of my mother's laughter as her gentle finger swiped a small streak of the sugary syrup across my sister's nose. The small children that we were had thought this to be a game, returning the gesture to our mother's apron, the floor, the cupboards, as we tossed the spread towards each other to create the mess that we always called fun.

The kitchen's white tiles now remained spotless, only accompanied by the silence that reminded me just how far I had pushed my family apart. Ominis and Anne sat side by side, the table the only other witness to their small brushes of fingers against their mugs of steaming tea. Madeleine had cornered herself against the kitchen counters that lined the wall, the stare into her own mug a telling sign of her uncomfortableness in the presence of those who should've returned her smile.

"It concerns me, that you don't seem to quite understand how dangerous everything you do is, Madeleine," Anne broke the quietude, and it was somehow far more unsettling than just existing within the silence of our unspoken discomfort.

"You have two broken ribs which were never going to get better by traipsing through Azkaban. You could've let Ominis get Sebastian." I refused to let my eyes fall to Madeleine's because I knew what they would appear like; they would look angry, brimming with the violence that delicate eyes didn't deserve. So I didn't look at her, I didn't look anywhere other than those kitchen tiles that had seen too many memories.

"Broken ribs from what?" The question forced their eyes to mine even if I hadn't released mine from the captivity of the floor. Within every problem was the question, the one that solved it all, the one that explained everything, the one that didn't want to be answered.

I wasn't sure that the truth was kind, that it had been from an innocent trip, and it seemed that the reality of Madeleine's world would continue yet. We hadn't spoken of all I had seen in her mind, nor what she saw whilst the hurt within her distanced her from us, but I knew that the conversation was looming in the air as my sister spoke. It was going to catch me out, to attack me whilst I was down and vulnerable. The truth always did.

"Look, it's not a big deal, I'm fine, really." I was neither convinced nor reassured, and neither was my sister. I pulled my head's dead weight up at the people before us, at my sister who shook her head slowly, at Madeleine who's voice was as enthusiastically trying to prove her wellbeing as the slow gestures of her hands, at Ominis who sat silently to dig his nails into the ceramic mug in his hands.

"That's beside the point!" Anne's frustration was shown through her shout, and I understood the feeling when it came to Madeleine. She was reckless and everything she did involved an element of danger, but I had tried to stop that and it had only pushed her further towards death who was always as eager to find her as I was.

"Calm down, Anne. We need to talk about what happened, because that is what changes all of our lives."

Ominis- the voice of all and total reason.

I often prided myself on being observant, that I could figure out someone's motives based on their words. But when Ominis spoke and his hand moved to rest on Anne's fingers, I didn't notice what he truly had said, his warning before the truth.