#ProudLife

/6/

The sky was a mixture of various shades of blue and Leia and Anthony's blueberry milkshakes reflected the creamy, pale colours of the sky.

They were sitting in a cosy booth at Ray's Diner as the cold Autumn wind blew outside.

It was all quiet at first but then Leia spoke up. "I know you're going through the same thing as I am, Ant."

She looked up into his eyes, "But the first thing we need to do right now, is to tell your father about this, he's the one who can help us with this and also, the legal proceedings have to be carried out too..."

Anthony's mind suddenly went blank, he was thinking about the morning when he had discovered proof of his mother's affair. Fighting back the rush of anger within him and said, "I'll speak to him today..." And then with a faint smile, he said "Raven will be there too...it'll help me tell it to him."

And Leia couldn't help but notice something else in his eyes when he spoke of the person who had helped him through his worst times, Raven.

~~~

That evening, Mr. Peterson arrived home to find his son and his son's friend sitting on the living room couch with grave expressions on their faces.

Anthony had finally made up his mind quite firmly to tell his dad all he knew.

Getting up from the couch, Anthony said "There's something really important that you need to know Dad. It's about mum..."

Half an hour later, Harold Peterson had a furrowed brow and his hand was resting upon his mouth which was open due to shock. "Son...this is- I didn't-"

He briefly closed his eyes and took several deep breaths trying to calm himself. The pain on his face evident, he said to his son "I had my suspicions all this time...somewhere at the back of my mind...I knew something was amiss..." He looked down at his lap, "I just never thought that Penelope and Clarissa, after all this time..."

Getting up, he said,"But thank you, son, for telling me all this. I shall have to speak to Smith, my lawyer...but first, I have a few words to say to your mother.."

Saying so, Mr. Peterson sighed and taking his phone out, walked out of the room.

"Thank God that happened...hope your dad will handle it now, Anthony." Raven said to their friend.

"You helped." Anthony said to them.

"Bullshit! No, I didn't, you nitwit." They laughed and had they seen the look on Anthony's face, they would have seen the creeping ivy of something other than friendship in his mind.

~~~

It was night time. The town of Applepond was asleep when Raven silently made their way to an address they had been texted.

It was midnight when they reached a warehouse with sloping windows. They turned off their phone, ran a hand through their fringe and entered the dark interior of the warehouse.

A single, dim light dangled from the ceiling underneath which a figure sat on a chair with their hands bound tightly to the chair and their eyes closed, almost in an eerie way.

"Mum!" Raven ran forward toward the chair and seeing no one around, kept the parcel they had been carrying which contained a single diamond ring with an engraving on it beside them.

They freed the figure sitting on the chair and shook her body. The figure did not move. Raven cried for their mum to get up but then suddenly noticed that her eyes weren't opening even when they lifted the eyelids and also that the face looked almost too hard to be a human's...

They realised. It was a wax figure. They let out a wail of anguish. Behind them, they heard a few several people entering the warehouse but did not have time to even get up before someone had clasped a hand over their mouth and gagged them.

~~~