Rest In Peace (sequel to After They Died)

8- Ellie

Claire called me just as I opened my mouth to answer. She's been really clingy since Rachel. I don't blame her I guess, but I'm hardly going to follow her actions.

She gave me an important 'chat' a week after everything had happened. She told me that I can always talk to her and she won't judge, that she cared about me like I was her real daughter. I've always liked Claire, Rachel did too. She just gets us, I guess it's because of all her qualifications and research into kids like us, the broken damaged ones. Rachel and I used to joke that we were like the faulty products in the shop. Nobody wants to 'buy' (adopt) us and we just sit here, gathering dust. It sounds really self pitying and sad when you think about it, but it's the bitter truth. Rachel liked saying things how they are. Everything was black and white to her, right or wrong, simple. We were anything but.

God, she was really funny thinking back. She was the kind of girl who would crack up over some rubbish pun, I guess that's why she fell for Freddie, the class clown. Too bad he changed.

Rachel said some really ridiculous things sometimes. Like, I would love to know what went through that crazy mind of hers. She had oddly vivid, surreal dreams with hilarious adventures that she would chuckle about over breakfast.

I remember first meeting her. I recognised her from the photos immediately. She obviously didn't recognise me. I loathed her. She was the one who stole my parents. The chosen. They told me it wasn't like that, that they loved us equally, it was just circumstance. What a pathetic excuse for dumping me in this place.

I fled the room when I first saw her. Tears flooded down my face uncontrollably. She had my parents all to herself. The selfish cow. I pummelled the cushions in my room, before sobbing into them. I was a mix between angry and sad. It was confusing. That girl didn't deserve Claire's help. She could be homeless for all I cared.

But after a while, I knew it wasn't her fault. Not really. She didn't choose the situation we were put in.

"Well?" Robert snaps me back to reality.
"I know you kidnapped and hurt my friend, leading to her suicide." I wait for his response, my heart pounding in my chest. Is he the one who took Rachel from me? After what feels like an eternity, he swallows. "You'd better keep your mouth shut. You clearly know full well what I'm capable of." I struggle to mask my shock.

He was the one? I'm sitting opposite the man who kidnapped and abused my sister. She's dead because of him. I have no family left because of him. It feels like I'm cursed. It's like god is sitting atop some fluffy clouds, peering down at me and poking at me like a bear in a cage, waiting for me to pounce, waiting for me to fall apart. How can people worship him when he does this to me? I grew up in care, knowing that my twin had been chosen over me by my own parents. Then, at fourteen, I become an orphan as my parents died in a terrorist attack. Then just over a year later, not long after Rachel found out that we were even related, she commits suicide. I can't say I blame her to be honest. She took the easy way out. I admit it, I desperately want to join her, what quality of life is this? But I can't do that to Claire. She'd beat herself up over it even more than she already is for Rachel's death alone.

I gulp back tears before nodding back at him solemnly. Not that I mean it, I'm going to get this man behind bars for the rest of his life. It's the least I can do for Rachel. But first I need evidence.