Killer Love

Chapter 5 "Good bye little Coral"

I slept very poorly that night; I couldn’t stop thinking about all the things Francis told me. Yet I still had a feeling something was very wrong, more was happening and Francis is hiding it. Is he trust worthy? I don’t know.  On the morning we didn’t have breakfast together. I walked in the kitchen and asked for my family and Agatha told me Gabriel hasn’t woken up witch that doesn’t surprise me after all he went through last night. My father left early and she hasn’t seen my mother. Rachel on the other hand asked for her breakfast and was to be announced when it was ready. I headed outside and saw Rachel sitting at the dinner table. She didn’t look up and she was starring at the wall blankly. “I DIDN’T DO IT. PLEASE DON’T TAKE ME WITH YOU!” Rachel screamed and threw herself in the floor and started bumping her head against it. She started pulling her hair and looked up “PLEASE, OH PLEASE DON’T TAKE ME.” She cried hysterically. I threw myself in floor and tried to calm her down but she pushed me away. “YOU” she pointed at me with her trembling hand. “Please forgive me” she bowed down to me and started kissing my feet. “I didn’t mean it. She was hurting him, she was hurting him” she cried and I didn’t understand why she was so disturbed.  Suddenly she threw a big scream!  The kitchen maids came out with Agatha on front.  “Get away from me demon, get away!” she said as she pushed me away again when I tried to help her. Francis came down running “What’s happening?” he asked looking at Rachel. When I was about to explain Rachel ran to Francis. “Please save me angel, save me.” She said with a distant look. “You’re my guardian, please save me”. Francis holds her and tried to calm her down and I must admit it got me feeling a little jealous. He looked at me with a preoccupied look. “Agatha” I said “Please take Rachel to her room. As for the other maids one of you make a soup for my cousin and go back to work”. I looked at Francis as he releases Rachel and leaves her with Agatha.  Agatha wraps her arms on Rachel and Rachel kept whispering things we couldn’t hear or understand. I sat on the table still in shock with what happened with Rachel. Francis grabbed my hand and sat next to me. “Listen” he whispered “Something is going on in this house as you can finally see. With Gabriel, with Rachel, with everybody.” He said as he releases my hand and lies back on the chair and closes his hazel eyes “I don’t quite get what Rachel was saying but she must’ve meant something. She asked for you forgiveness, the question is, Why is that horrible thing she did for you to forgive her? He said with a confused expression. “Maybe” he said writing his conclusions “Maybe she saw something, knows something or hopefully not… she did something.” He hesitated to say the last option because he knew I would worry. But who wouldn’t? “I don’t know what she could’ve done.” I said with a trembling voice. “Francis I never noticed things where that bad… but now they’re getting even worse. I’ve never seen Rachel like that.” I said as I began to cry. “Coral” he said lifting my head “You’re not alone in this, we’ll get to the bottom of this. I promise” His smile made me feel secured, he made me feel protected and I’ve never thought I would feel like this with a man and a man I hardly knew.  “Now” He said tapping my hand and looking at my eyes. “Shall we go for a walk? It will soothe you I promise” he always throws me that tentative smile that I simply cannot resist. “I nodded in agreement and we walked outside. I never noticed how beautiful the country side in Virginia looked in the morning.  I starred at the never ending horizon as I walked “Raphine Virginia, you’re beautiful” Francis said with a big smile. I looked over at him and smiled to “Where do you use to live Francis?” I asked with curiosity. “Well…” He said looking at me with a stiffed smile. “Promise me you won’t change your mind if I tell you” I looked at him confused and started to back off “Change my mind about what?”  He laughed nervously. “Look… I use to live in Richmond… I still have a house there witch my parents and brothers and sisters still live there… I was going to take you there so we could ask father anything about Uncle John’s strange behavior and for you to clear all your doubts if you had any.” I looked at him and raise an eyebrow “Why would I change my mind about that? Of course I’ll go!” I said cheerily but I could tell there was something else he wasn’t telling me. “Francis is there any more surprises?” I said tapping my foot against the ground and scowling him. “Come on! Spit it out!” I said annoyed. “Well… I might have promise to my father that we would spend the night there” he said in a squeaky tone. “Listen to me Francis Millington” I said as I grabbed him by his shirt collar “You will not make a fool out of me and most certainly confused me with an easy women” I said with a sharp tone “NO! Is not like that, my brothers and sisters miss me so much and well… I couldn’t say no” He said with a weak smile. “How on earth will we explain this to father?” He looked at me and said “Easy, your father asked me to come to try and be your friend. You haven’t been in the city since what happened. I’ll tell him that I’ll take you there to confront your fears.” he said with a victorious smile.  “Well captain know it all. How will we explain me spending the night there?” I looked at him with a small grinned. He looked at the ground and rubbed his chin thinking what little lie he will invent. “AHA” he said as he snapped his fingers. “We will go and not tell him about spending the night there and when it’s time to go we’ll call him and explain that our car broke down and there’s no way we could get back.” I looked at him and said “And if he volunteers to pick us up” He looked at me and smiled “We couldn’t possibly accept   his offer for it was too late” I looked at him and thought of every possibility and BAM! “And where would we be staying? I assure you that my father would not allow me to go to your parent’s house and you know that very well Francis. And if he insists on picking us up?” I felt bad putting him such a pressure but I need to make sure it would be a safe move because with all that I discover about my father I really don’t know if I could pay the same price if he discovers our little trick. “You really like things well planned don’t you?” he said and I could see he was getting annoyed. “Coral can’t you just stop worrying about every detail and just have a little fun?”  I looked around avoiding having any contact with his eyes and making him see how much of a sissy I was being.  He sighed “Please just follow my lead.” I agreed and follow him inside to talk with my father. We enter the house and as soon as we walked to the library we bumped in to Rachel. Surprisingly she was like her old self, dress with an expose cleavage and a dress so tight it was about to tear.  She smiled at Francis and like always wraps herself in his arm. She pressed her breast against his arm to see what she could get from him but instead he smiled and said “Feeling alright Rachel?” she looked at him and giggled shyly “Well yes, I’m feeling very good actually. I was hoping you and I can have a little chat.” She said winking at him “Privately of course” she said glancing at me but immediately fixed her glare to Francis. I was so mad at him for showing kindness and concern about Rachel that I cleared my throat “Well don’t let me disturb you in your little moment. I give you two some privacy so you can take care of business.” I said full of jealousy. “How kind of you Coral, thank you.” Rachel said victoriously as I walked out of the library and Francis didn’t say a word. I felt tears coming out but I simply wiped them and walked straight to my room. I heard Francis called me but I ignored him. “Stupid, you’re just plain old stupid. How did you allow yourself to be exposed like that” I said as I kept wiping the tears that where rolling down my cheeks.  When I was about to enter my room I was tempted to go in to Gabriel’s room. I haven’t seen or heard of him since last night.  So I decided to get a little peak, when I opened the door I saw my cousin laying in his bed. He was so pale and seemed too weak but he opened his eyes and smiled when he saw me. “Coral” he whispered warmly. “Gabriel, what have they done to you?” I whispered with tears falling. I ran to his bed and sat on his side and grabbed his hand. He was so cold, he looked up “I knew you wouldn’t forget your old cousin” he laughed. His back was so soar and in raw skin. “Oh, Gabriel!” I said falling in to my knees beside him still holding his hand. I couldn’t stop crying, how could I? My cousin was being tortured and I couldn’t do anything about it. How could I not notice this? How could I be so blind?  Gabriel rubbed his thumb against my cheek and smile “My little Coral” he said and I remembered when he first called me that. The day after the incident in the city he was sitting by my side and trying to relieve me from all the pain physically and mentally. I felt a knot on my throat because I could see he wasn’t alright.  He was weak, cold and pale; I started crying even louder but he soothed me with his gentle touch. “It’s alright Coral, don’t cry.” He said smiling with a little pain grunt that escaped his mouth. “How can I stop crying when you’re like this?” I said between sobs.  He raised my face with his index finger on my chin and looked directly in to my eyes “You need to escape from this hell and he will help you. I’m sorry I couldn’t for I needed to seek his forgiveness. I love you so much my little Coral and I’ll be watching you… always.” As he finished this sentence his eyes lost the light… he turned colder by the minute. “Gabriel” I whispered desperately … I felt the knot in my throat getting bigger, my cousin wasn’t breathing. “Gabriel, please don’t leave me” I screamed and someone covered my mouth. The person dragged me out of my cousin’s room and in to mine. It was Francis; he closed gently my room’s door and locked it.  I ran to him and started punching him in the chest “Let I go to my cousin, he needs me! We let him die, we didn’t save him” I felt to my knees and he fell in front of me holding tight against him. “Coral, I know is hard but you need to be strong for Gabriel.” He looked at me with sweet concerned eyes; he pushed the hair in my eyes back. “It’s going to be alright Coral… I promise.” He said as he rubbed my hair and hugged me. “What will they do with his body?” I asked trembling. “I don’t know but we’re going to find out.” He said as he was still holding me tight. “For now I need you to try and keep quite Coral if your father even notices that your sad he‘ll suspect something is definitely wrong.” I nodded in agreement and said “I’m not going to be   little Coral anymore; it’s time for me to confront things and my fears. I need to realize this world is twisted and is not as perfect as I thought it was.” Francis smiled at me “That’s my girl” as he gently kissed my cheek.  “We’ll talk to your father tomorrow for about the Richmond situation” he stood up holding me so I would to. He kept looking at my eyes and I couldn’t help but to do the same. He’s beautiful hazel eyes that made me escape the horrible situation I was in at least for a bit. He smiled at me warmly without retreating his gaze, he touched my face and took a step forward, and I felt his soft breathing and his warm breath in my lips and cheeks. Every inch of my body started to tremble and the blood started to rush to my face.  Then I remembered how jealous I was of Rachel and took a step back. He looked at me stunned “Coral is something wrong? “He said nervously “I’m sorry I thought you wanted it as much as I did… Damn I’m sorry. I messed up!”  I looked at him and smile but then turned around because I was too shy to say how I felt looking at him. “You were concerned about Rachel earlier, you even let her wrap herself in your arm and press those giant breasts of hers against you and you smiled all flirty and stuff…” I said with a childish tone. I felt him come closer to me; he turned me around and looked at me with a serious look… “I do not feed on different women; in fact I’ve never disrespected one not even. I swear on my grandmother’s grave. The only reason I aloud Rachel to be that close to me is that we cannot afford enemies on this house especially you. Rachel knows something that could help us discover why your father did what he did to Gabriel, may he rest in peace.” He said as he motioned me to look at him. “Coral, I came here because of you, not for John but for you.  Three years ago I’ve been devoted to you. To the girl who never quite saw me, but certainly I saw her… the girl that I’ve been devotedly in love with since three years ago.”  He looked at me with those eyes, those eyes that drive me crazy. God forbid what will happen here tonight if he keeps getting this close to me.  “Well I do not like her attitude towards you and I will not sit here and watch her” he grabbed me by the waist and pressed me against his body with a small grinned “I like that little frown you make when you’re jealous, the same one you made yesterday when your cousin wrapped herself in my arms like she always do.” He said with a self-confident that I’ve never seen in him but made him far more attractive than he was. I tried to release myself from his arms but he wouldn’t let me “I did not get jealous yesterday, it just bothers me that you smile at her so warmly when she’s not acting like a lady should.” He chuckled “Oh really? Well maybe you could teach her how to be a little more conservative and maybe I’ll consider her” I got so mad that I pushed him away finally releasing myself from him and gave him a hard slap that made my hand sting. He looked at me in shock as he rubbed his cheek and then gave me a smile. “So… I proved my point.” He said victoriously “You are jealous of you cousin” he said laughing softly but in pain. “This is the second time you slap me and I’m starting to think that you have an iron hand” he laughed and I chuckled. He then looked at me with that serious look at softly walked towards me. He pressed me one more time against him. His face was so close to mine and his lips where brushing against mine; oh how I love the smell of his breath! Finally his tender lips touched mine and that’s when I lost track of time. His hand brushed my hair and my arms where around his neck. He motioned me with his tongue to open my mouth and I did, nervously, but I did. Our tongues started to mingle together and our breathing got heavier. His arms where around by wait and I was wishing for him to never release me; I wished for him to kissed me until my last breath. I was in my perfect world but suddenly I was back in reality when I hear a hard knock on my door. “CORAL! Is time for dinner everybody is waiting for you. I’ll go fetch Francis and when I’m done you better be down there you irresponsible child!” My mother said with an angry voice. Francis looked at me and he saw how nervous I was. “Go to dinner” he whispered “Make sure your mom leave with you, so I can go to” and so I did. We had a silent dinner and didn’t have appetite thinking about my cousin’s death. Is he still lying dead in his bed or my father and the strange man that was there last night took care of him? Francis did notice my frustration and every time he caught my eyes smiled as to calm me down.  Is it safe to live in this house or should I listen to Gabriel and leave with Francis and escape the horrible faith that Gabriel had? Dear God, please send me a signal!