After the Rain

Chapter Nine

     Sauli pulled up to a small house and cut the engine of his car. He looked over at Ellie sitting in the passenger side beside him, wearing a cute soft-pink dress that stopped just above her knees, her hair tied back in a pretty silver ribbon. In her lap sat a thick square object wrapped in purple giftwrap, a white ribbon tied neatly around it.
     "I don't want to do this anymore, Sauli," she said, staring down at her hands. She was still caught up in what happened with Tommy.
     "Oh, come on, honey. It'll be fun," he coaxed. "Besides, you were begging me all week to let you come. Why back out now?"
     "What if it happens again?" Ellie asked softly, twirling part of the present's ribbon around her finger.
     Sauli placed his hand on her back. "Ellie, it's going to be fine. It's just a birthday party. Lisa's a really good friend of mine. She'll make sure nothing will happen."
     Ellie took a deep breath. "Okay, Sauli..."
     He smiled. "Good girl. Smile, have fun. Try to make friends. Jarrett will be by later to pick you up."
      She gave a small smile and opened the passenger side door, climbing out onto the smooth concrete of the driveway. She walked up the narrow path that lead to the door as Sauli pulled away, and Ellie knocked lightly. A tall women, looking to be in about her late thirties with long blonde hair and very similar features to her brother, answered the door. She smiled at Ellie, her dark eyes warm---nothing like Tommy's had been.
     "You must be Ellie," she said. "Sauli's told me so much about you. The party's in the living room. I was just about to run to the store. Bridget's in there with a few friends."
     And with that, Lisa disappeared out the door. Ellie swallowed hard and walked slowly into the house, then into the living room.
     The room was large and dimly lit by strands of twinkling lights. Steamers were cast about the walls and ceilings. A large grand fireplace was embedded into the northern wall, a large flatscreen TV mounted above it. Beside the fireplace was a long glass table with an expensive-looking, bulky stero sat atop it.
     About six or seven kids sat around an oak coffee table, stacks of presents surrounding a three-tiered cake with white and pink frosting. Music played loudly and they all talked amongst the couch, as if completely oblivious to the fact that Ellie stood there. She walked in hesitantly, regretting Egbert asking Sauli, over to a girl with dark wavy hair who sat perched on the arm of a leather sofa, and she turned to look at Ellie.
     "Oh," she said, in an almost bored tone. "Hey."
     "Hi," Ellie said, and held out the gift she was clutching to the other girl and  forced a smile. "Happy bithday, Bridget."
     Bridget took the gift and merely glanced at it. "Oh, cool. A gift for me. Thanks." She tossed it aside onto the table with the others like Ellie had just handed her the previous day's newspaper that Bridgethad already read and was utterly uninterested. Ellie sighed inwardly and sat down.
     After a while, the conversation that had completely drifted around and hadn't included Ellie, the subject changed into Bridget opening her gifts. She picked up the one Ellie had brought and tore into the paper. Sauli had picked it out, a book by Edgar Allan Poe. Bridget looked up at Ellie in disgust as if she had just spit in her face.
     "What is this?"
     "A--A book by Edgar Allan Poe," Ellie stammered, feeling more dumb and out of place as each word left her mouth. Leave it to Sauli to choose the absolute last thing a girl would ever want, especially someone as snobby as Bridget. "Its supposed to be rare, and---"
     "Why would I want this pieceof trash? A book," She snorted in distate and tossed the book at Ellie. She looked down at it as it hit the floor, wishing Jarrett wouldcome and get her sooner. Though, thankfully, a boy changed the subject.
    But it didn't relieve Ellie's embarrassment any less.
     "Bridget's mom said you work with Sauli in the paranormal research department at the hospital," he said. "What do you do there?"
     "I--I just help with realsearch and other stuff..." Ellie's voice trailed off.
      "Research, huh?" Bridget scoffed. "Meaning, like, you're the one being researched?"
     "Show us what you can do!" Another kid piped in. "Show us your powers!"
     "They're n--not powers," she said, her hands trembling. She folded them neatly in her lap to ease the shaking.
     "C'mon, Ellie. Show us." A girl coaxed, and then they were all gawking at her, pestering and swarming her excitedly, watching her like a caged animal at the zoo.
     That's all she'd ever been in her life, wasn't it? Something for everyone to poke and prod at, taking notes and suffocating her.
     Ellie's chest began to constrict, and she started to move away as they drew closer.
     "We should, like, do something to her," Bridget suggested, and the others hooted in agreement.
      "You know what you do with witches?" Asked one of the boys, plucking one of the lit candles from the cake. "You burn them!"
     The boy held it to Ellie's arm. She flinched and yelled out in pain and surprise, grabbing at her arm where the searing pain throbbed. In a moment, two girls had Ellie by the arms and pinned against the wall while Bridget whaled away at Ellie's back with her fists. She cried and struggled to get away.
     A boy taller than her by a head and stronger than her picked her up by the shoulders and marched her down the hall, only stopping to toss her through a door and down several steps. With laughter and taunts of, "Have fun, witch!" Bridget shut the door as Ellie hit the bottom concrete step of Lisa's basement. The click if a lock turning echoed in the dark room.
     Ellie heard a ripping sound the moment she stopped rolling, and shakily got up to her feet. Looking down at her dress, she saw it was torn from the back of her knee, all the way up to the small of her back. Her entire back throbbed painfully where Bridget pounded it, but her side her more---likely from her tumble down the stairs. She made her way back up the stairs and Ellie tried the door, but it wouldn't budge.
     Tears rose and streaked down her cheek as she pounded on the door. "Let me out!" She sobbed, only to be ignored. She sat on the step, hugged her scraped, bleeding knees, and cried.
     The dull pain that was in the back of her head became more sharp and more insistent, and she moaned. She held her head, afraid of what would happen. The image of the living room replaced the dark, cold basement. The others laughed and talked as they cut into the cake. The stereo trembling caught Ellie's attention, and it sparked. Glasses flew across the room, shattering against the wall.
     They jumped at the sound and one girl swore in surpise. The table was next, shaking and then flipping, splattering them with frosting and bits of cake, presents scattering the floor. A perfume bottle inside a box shattered and leaked out onto the carpet.
     They all fled the room, taking refuge in the kitchen, and the doors locked with an audible click. Someone reached for the house phone, but it flew from its cradle before their fingers could merely brush it. The wooden chopping block holding kitchen knives toppled over on itself, sending the knives clattering loudly to the hard tiled floor.
     Bridget cried. "I'm sorry, Ellie! We're so sorry!"
     You better be, Ellie thought, and for once, was glad she couldn't control herself. TVs sparked, cabinet doors slammed open and closed, a blender turned on and whirred noisily. Chairs flew, plates shattered, windows broke. Then---
     Then the pain stopped. The destruction seized and the kids ran outside. Immediately, Ellie felt a sharp pang of guilt.
     She felt like she was gonna be sick. She'd done what she feard of happening. She let it happen. She was the witch everyone had accused her of being.
     Moments later, the door to the basement unlocked and opened, bright light steaming in. Ellir blinked a few times and squinted, seeing a very worried Jarrett.
     "Ellie?" He asked. "What happened?"
     Tears streaked her small face as she sobbed. "I'm so sorry, Jarrett! I'm so sorry! I wanna go home!"
     Jarrett picked her up from the basement step and carried her outside as she cried, the terrified voices of the kids being the only thing Ellie could hear.
     "She's evil!"
     "She's the devil! She tried to kill us!"
     "She'sa witch! A witch!"
     Jarrett sat Ellie in the passenger side of his battered red truck and got in himself, trying to soothe her as he drove off towards Sauli's home.