Chapter 6
Marko
I stood there staring at the space were my sister had just left. I had upset her big time, but why would she hit Harriet, who she kept calling Misty. My sister wasn't a violent person that I knew of but I wondered if I knew her at all. My mind wandered to the nights were Alena would come home clutching her side and sporting a purple eye, I just thought she was getting into fights, I mean, we have all seen bitch fits, and how nasty those goes. But the injuries were becoming a regular thing, and Alena wouldn't talk to mum or dad about it, they thought she was getting bullied. They tried to get me to talk to her, but she just told me to 'stop butting in' and to 'let her make her own mistakes'. I sat down on one of the seats and stared at the room, remembering the times where Alena and I would run up the spiral staircase that ran through the middle of the turret. I remembered the colourful Alena, before Lewis. Lewis. Anger was building up at the thought of him, I had my suspicions about the bruises, but I never got enough proof to do anything over than suspect him. Then the nightmares started. The high pitch screams, that would echo through our house, we would all wake to find the source of the noise was Alena, sweating and clammy with her sheets twisted around her. After months the nightmares didn't fade, I thought they got worse. Mum and Dad got used to the noise and slept through it. I couldn't though; as I always believed that the nightmares weren't her twisted imagination, but her memories. I would run in her room once the screaming started, and hold her head against my chest and try and calm her, and comfort her with words. Eventually the screaming would stop and the shaking would cease. And she would drift of into an exhausted sleep. Mum ended up taking her the doctors; she didn't make a sound of protest, which was odd. The doctors thought she was depressed so she got given drugs, but she didn't take them. The worst memory I had of her was when she came home with a bloody lead pipe, my mind took a step into the past, and into that night.
The telly was on, but I wasn't watching it. I was waiting for Alena to come home after her outing with Lewis, I didn't get what she saw in him, and if I got any ounce of proof that he was the fist behind her bruises he would be dead. I heard the crash of the front door and I sprinted off the couch to see Alena standing there. She looked the definition of terrible. Her glossy black her was in a matted wet mess, and looked like she had been dragged by it, her face was so white it looked transparent, I could see the blue veins under her skin, blood was pouring from her nose, and one of hers eyes was puffed up and closed. The other one was red, it was blood shot and her amber eyes were blazing with pain, hurt, anger and regret. Her jacket was torn in places to show cuts on her arms and hand shaped bruises, there were several footprints on her ribs, and her chest was wheezing in an out of time rhythm. Her jeans were torn and muddy. There was a rusted lead pipe clutched in her right hand dripping a red liquid from the end, was that, blood? I looked at her. She gave me a weak smile and collapsed in the hallway. I just caught her before she fell, she couldn't hold her weight. I lifted her with ease and placed her on the couch. She was shaking; I think in shock, she still had the blood stained pipe in her hands, "Is mum here" she croaked, she sounded like she smoked 50 a day, and her breath was wheezy. "No, Mums on a girls night out and Dads at the pub" I saw some of the tightness leave her shoulders, she didn't know that I had organised and persuaded them to go out of the house, as I knew that Alena would come home in a state, she always did, and it killed my parents to see her like that, without a clue about how to help. "Don't tell them, please Marko" I looked into her amber eyes that were shimmering from the tears that kept running down her face, I sighed. "Fine, but tell me what happened" she looked at me, I could tell she was working out the pros and cons of telling me the truth, but she shook her head, "Alena..."
"No" her voice was sharp and strong, and then she drifted off into a sleep, which she defiantly needed, I sighed again, shook my hair out of my way, and began to clean the house of any blood, I then began to inspect her, cleaning her wounds and such, I had just checked her stomach, were there was a fist shaped bruise implanted by her belly button, when I noticed that her jeans button was gone, and the thread was split, as if someone had torn the button off in the attempt to take of the jeans, had she been raped, by Lewis, no, but what about the pipe? She had no wounds that would bleed that much. But I knew there would always be a mark on Alena.
The memory stopped, I was back in the turret room, and the air was cold, I quickly exited the room and went to the nearest phone, after finding the number I wanted I pressed the call button, after a few rings someone answered,
"Hello" said the hesitant voice
"Hello, its Marko, Alena's brother"
"Oh, Hi err, is everything alright?"
"Well no, not really Alena's upset, and I was wondering if you and Billie could find her and cheer her up and the stuff girls normally do"
"Well, I will have to call Billie, and I reckon she will be in the field"
"Okay, well her coat is here, and you can take Brina with you, as well truthfully I can be bothered walking her and Ollie together"
"Marko, don't treat me like a fool and lie to me, why didn't you just say to take Brina with you as it makes Alena happy"
"Because, I don't know" I hated it when Arabelle did her emotion reading thing
"Boys" I could practically see the eye roll
"Er, I think I'm old enough to be called a man"
"I'm not particularly arsed about your age, if you still want to play with cars or trains inside then you are a boy, no question about it, well I'm going to have to ring Billie so bye!" and she hung up on me. I sighed while putting Brina's lead on and prayed to who ever was listening that Alena would find someone who loved her, and who would heal her. I then picked up the phone to ring Harriet to get some answers.
