Murderous Melody

Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

I was the first one to know. You see, Hayden was one of my best friends. She was a college student, a full growntwenty-one-year-old adult, but she had the mentality of a two-year-old. She would confide in me for everything, and I mean everything. She couldn't keep her damn mouth, nor legs shut. And I told her about herself.

"Oh Scarlett, I've nabbed the most wonderful man today." She was so excited that day that I just let it go. "Nice, what's his name?" I asked because I wanted to do a backup check on the guy before I let him anywhere near her again. "Ben Harmon, he's a psychologist with a heart of gold!" She squealed as she leaped backwards onto her neatly made bed. I loved seeing her happy, but I loved my mother loved even more. I stood up and pushed her body as far into the cushions as her head could go with my hands around her neck. "You nabbed who??" I screamed. My saliva just couldn't stay in my mouth.

Yeah, Hayden was known to be a bit of a homewrecker, but until now I never noticed. She tried to pry my hands off of her slowly closing air ways, only to have my grip tighten. I repeated myself. "You slept with who?? Who did you sleep with?" I finally let my fingers slip from her skin as she gasped for air. "Ben," She stopped to catch her breath. "Harmon". She repeated. "What's my name?" I asked her with a calm, misleading voice. "Scar-" She started, but I couldn't see anything but red. "Bitch, what's my name?" I got louder as time progressed. "Scarlett,"

But once again, I cut her off. "Harmon, Scarlett Harmon! Twin of Violet Harmon, daughter to Vivian and Ben Harmon!" I screeched, almost sounding like a banshee by this point. I heard a crash before her bedroom door busted open with Tikaani standing in the doorway, panting. That's when I noticed everything around us floating. Slowly I lowered my heartbeat by easing my breaths. He left the doorway and made his way to me. I lowered my hands from her shoulders. One around his neck, and one to his head, gently rubbing up and down as I lowered myself onto the floor beside him as I encased him in a hug. He always calmed me when I got too out of hand in the old days, now he has become a sort of safety switch. Something familiar to tear me away from the evil of the outsiders.

After that, I confronted my father. But of course, he denied any allegation against him. But I was persistent. I told my mother about the affair multiple times, but her answer was always, "Scar, can you please stop? You're making me uncomfortable." So I stopped telling her what I knew, but I never ceased in getting a confession from the other side. I told Violet and she gave me the perfect idea.

"Why don't you just video tape it? Or at least use a voice recorder?" She asked as she took in a puff of smoke. "You know, that has a ton of chemicals in it." I said as I plugged my nose when she blew it out. Yes, I knew about her smoking problem, who do you think got it for her? She looks like she's fourteen and doesn't have a driver's license, while I already have a fake identification card along with a driver's for other reasons. "Oh yeah? Then what about the chemicals in your weed?" Also, a reason why I don't tell and a reason for the fake ID.

"You know that my ganja is all natural." I said with a sing-song voice. Since I've been growing my own in the opening in the forest, I know that everything's natural with it. No pesticides that they spray on perfectly healthy fruits and veggies or other "ingredients" mixed in. I don't even wrap it in paper, I usually take a piece of a leaf from the Fatsia Japonica, Fiddle leaf fig, or I'll just take a whole leaf from Mom's Bird of Paradise plant so I won't be infected by the harmful chemicals of smoking regular paper. "Sure, but you know that you'll still get the same amount of lung cancer. Just like Grandma." Tilting her head back, she took another huge puff and letting it flow in the air above our heads. She looked over at me as I tried to keep in my hysterics in check. 

But once she cracked that half smile that I've grown to love so much, I just couldn't control myself. Since we've been together for an entire seventeen years, I cackled as hard and loud as I could. We've both met our granny, and we both hated her! She left Violet in a Walmart for someone to find her, only for our parents to call the cops and report a missing child. Our first time that we can remember she called Vi out immediately and asked her, "I left you behind because I didn't want you, and neither did your parents. Was that not obvious enough for you?" I was very taken aback, but Vi seemed to laugh it, and flip her off. I don't realy think that mine was a big deal compared to her being left at a Walmart as an infant, but she almost killed our grandmother for this.

I was always self-conscious growing up about how I looked and acted, due to years of being teased. Because of this, I've never really had a photograph taken of me because they would come out blurry due to me shyly ducking out of the camera's view point.

In the sixth grade, my photography teacher presents me with a candid picture of myself, no photoshop or any editing what-so-ever. I bawled my eyes out because it was the first time I had a picture showing me as what I considered "pretty" in a completely natural setting, and that made my mom to start sobbing, and my sister smile while teary-eyed. My family thought that it was very sweet, so for Mother's Day I presented the picture that Mom had gotten printed to a 20 by 30-inch portrait and framed to my grandmother. She seemed happy to finally have a picture of me. When we gave it to her, she smiled ear to ear, and hugged me tightly.

A few days later she was throwing a fit and I seemed to the target. She drove to the house just to express her anger. I don't remember much, mostly because she gave me a concussion by bashing my head against a wall. But I do remember her storming out of the room and my brain thinking that the worst of it had passed over. Next thing I know she comes in with the picture. Having broken the glass to get it out and saw there were tears in it already.

She pulled out a knife and with the most disgusted look that I've ever seen a human being give, she said, "Why would anyone in the world want a picture reminding them how ugly a person their granddaughter is?" She then stabbed into the picture and ripped it to shreds. Violet was in the other room with three of our mutual friends and walked in apron hearing Granny yelling about how ugly that I was.

After our grandmother left and friend's mothers picked them up, Violet tried and failed to bring up my self-esteem. I had gone back to my shy, unloving, socially detached self. And I had stayed that way until two weeks after my thirteenth birthday when Tikaani came to me and slowly helped build my confidence. That was one of the reasons that Mom let me keep Tikaani once my dad said that he could be let into the house. Because she saw that I was slowly starting to uncover the mirror in my bedroom and bathroom. But even though I'm fine with myself and body, I'll always shower with the lights off with music blaring. Not because, "I hate myself and want to distract myself from my terrifying thoughts" As Violet says, but because the dark calms me and I like to sing in the shower.

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I'm sorry that It's been a while, but here you go!