A Sibling's Love

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

          Laura charged through the snow, ruining her dress and shoes, but she didn’t care. A tree branch caught her in the face, leaving a scrape that oozed warm blood above her brow, but she didn’t feel the pain. She just had to get to the garden. Once there, she could lose herself into her own sadness.

          Within moments, with Laura huffing and puffing, she made it to her favorite spot, a stone bench that sat under a beautiful apple tree, and beside a fairytale like water fountain. Laura collapsed on the bench and cried her little heart out.

          How could the world be so cruel? Why did everything happen to her? Why was everything that she deemed more important than her own life, ripped violently away from her? Why did all the people she loved get hurt?

          She had only known Bill for five short years, and yet she loved him almost as much as she loved her mother. Bill, in her mind, was her real father. He has been the only man that has loved her unconditionally.  He was the only man that really knew Laura. Bill was her and Melody’s savoir. What was she to do when he was gone?

          Laura curled into a tight ball and laid down in the snow and allowed the cold to envelope and seep into her as she allowed the tears fall. In all the tragic moments in her life, she would relive them all a million times over if that meant that Bill would live longer.

          The cold and shock of Bill’s sudden news caused her whole body to shake violently. So what if she froze to death? The pain would far less excruciating than watching Bill wither away slowly.

          Laura heard footsteps approaching, but she didn’t move. She didn’t want too. She just wanted to just disappear.

          “Oh Baby,” Daniel crooned as he picked Laura up and placed him into his lap and began to kiss her face, “I’m so sorry.”

          Laura just sat there like a statue. His sympathy didn’t warm her. Nothing would.

          “You’re getting cold,” Daniel said as he stood up and carried her like a baby, “here, let’s go and sit in that small house and get you out of the snow.”

          Why couldn’t Daniel just let her be? Why couldn’t he just let her be alone to wallow in her grief and sorrow?

          Daniel grunted as he trudged through the snow towards the guest house. With brute force, he kicked the door open while Laura sat limply in is arms. Laura had always used this house as her little fortress of solitude when she was younger. There was a kitchen, where she kept her assortments of chocolate and candy, a bathroom, a living room with a working T.V, and even a little bedroom that she had camped in whenever she wanted. All the walls were pristine white, and the floors were made of wood. She had many fond memories of this little cottage. This was the place that she bonded with Bill.

          Melody had gone out of town a few weeks after marrying Bill to run an errand of some kind. Laura wasn’t permitted to go with Melody, which made Laura very upset. She didn’t trust Bill yet, so she didn’t want to be alone with him and the servants in the oversized house, so she ran to the garden to just sit, daydream, read, and write her own poetry. It was then, that Laura found the guesthouse.

          She found the house empty, but locked. So she began to pick the lock of the door to get in. She had been so focused on trying to get the door open, that she didn’t hear Bill walk up behind her. He had sat there patiently as she picked the lock.

          When the lock finally clicked, Bill remarked, “That takes a lot of skill, patience, and intelligence. However, it would have been easier to just steal the key.”