broken // branded sequel // heathers au

five

Elody's POV

Ezra went home a while later and when I sat down at the dinner table with my family, I felt uneasy. My mother looked at me as if she was worried about me.

"You know." I stated when she was staring at me for too long.

"What do I know?" My mother asked me. Her voice was nervous.

"Someone told you about my nightmares." I said, taking a bite of my dinner. It was steak, my father made it and I was surprised with how good it was.

My mother looked at my father and I knew. He told her about my nightmares.

"I'm worried about you." My father said.

"I don't care if you're worried. That's my business." I told him. "You had no right to tell her." I added, standing up from the table.

"Elody, please." Mom begged of me. I knew she wanted me to sit down. But I didn't.

"Sit down, Elody." Dad told me, an order I was supposed to follow without question.

"Fuck you." I said to him, slamming my chair against the table and turning to leave the room.

"Elody Elizabeth!" Mom shouted at me. I turned my head and saw my father seething beside her.

I shook my head and left the room. I had no desire to look at them. They all saw me differently than what I truly was.

I wasn't Elody now. Not even in Auden's eyes, she looked at me so sadly. I was Giselle 2.0, a chance for my parents to redeem themselves. Because god fucking forbid they actually treat Auden and I well. No, they have to spend every day trying to fix the fact that they killed Giselle.

After I blasted music for an hour and wrote in my diary the whole time, my mother came upstairs and knocked on my door. "Elody?" She asked, I could tell by her voice that she'd been crying.

I didn't say anything but she came into my room regardless. I tried my hardest to not look at her. But when I managed to take glance, I noticed that she looked pretty disheveled. Under the lights of my room, I could see a very faint bruise on her jaw.

"He hit you." I commented.

"What? No," She defended but I could tell she was lying. Just her voice gave it away. It got all high and pitchy.

"Why'd he do it, mom?" I asked her.

"Because of what you said." Mom said.

"That's a good reason." I told her sarcastically.

"Elody," Mom warned.

"What did you come in here for?" I asked her. She sat down on my bed beside me.

"I need to talk to you about your nightmares." She said quietly.

"I don't want to talk about it." I told her, shutting my diary before she could get a chance to read it.

"You don't have a choice." Mom insisted.

"Just because I'm having nightmares about her life doesn't mean I'm her." I told my mother, standing up away from her.

"Elody, please lower your voice." Mom begged me. I wasn't even being loud.

"You can't bring her back!" I shrieked. Something snapped inside of me. Something that had built for my entire life, through every bout of my mother's depression and always knowing Auden and I would never be enough because we weren't Giselle. My mother sputtered and started to cry.

Just as I said this, my bedroom door burst open. My father was there with angry eyes.

"What did you say to her?" He asked, his voice furious. I had never felt so scared in all my life.

"I told her that she can't bring Giselle back." I said, trying to remain calm as he got close to me. The pain in me chest was worsening with the fear I felt.

"She fucking knows that!" He screamed at me.

"Then why does she keep trying!?" I shouted in reply. "She doesn't want Auden and I. She wants Giselle and she can't have her because you killed her!" I shrieked.

My father sucked in a breath and all I saw was him raise his hand at me before I fell onto my bed and into my nightmares again.

"Heather wasn't the only person your mom and I..." Dad trailed off, clearing his throat and shaking his head. "There was two boys, Kurt Kelly and Ram Sweeney."

"But Kurt and Ram are the names of Ashlee and Lindsay's dads. Lindsay said they killed themselves because they were in love." I said, trying to figure out how this made sense.

"Wait what?" Dad asked, turning to look at my mom. "Did you know that Kurt and Ram were sperm donors to Heather Macaroni and Heather Puke?"

"Yes, but I figured you knew." Mom said, her eyes darting around the room in fear.

"Dammit Veronica!" Dad yelled, standing up as I flinched away from him. "Katie is going to tell Heather and Heather if I find anything!" He backed my mom up against the wall.

"That might not be true!" Mom argued, holding her arms up as if she was pleading innocence whilst my father paced around the room in anger. "Just lie to Katie! Tell her what the cops said years ago!"

"She'll just go to another PI!" She said she'll go to as many as it takes!" Dad shouted, shoving his hands into the pockets of his trench coat. Mom noticed this and instantly began to have trouble breathing. It made me unable to breathe too.

"Take your hands out of your pockets, please." Mom begged, slinking herself down to the floor. I backed up from him as well, copying what my mom did. Neither of us wanted to be anywhere near him at this moment. He was getting very angry.

"Why?" Dad asked. "You want me to hit you instead?" He questioned, forgetting about promises.

"I just don't want you to do anything crazy." Mom explained.

"Crazy?" Dad asked, before laughing hysterically for a moment. He pulled both his hands out of his pockets, the one with the revolver pointing above Mom's head.

"Bang." Heather said as a bullet escaped the barrel of the revolver. Mom held her head into her knees and began to cry in fear. I yelped as the bullet connected with the wall.

"I'll show you something crazy!" Dad yelled, chucking for a second as Mom kept her head down.

"Mama!" I shrieked in fear. My mom's head shot up quickly, her brown eyes taking in the sight before her. Her husband had his arm outstretched, the revolver in his hand and pointed at my stomach. I was beginning to sob, tears streaming down my face as I begged my father not to kill me.

"Put the gun down." Mom begged. "Babe, please put the gun down. Okay?"

"Shut up." Dad growled.

"Put down the goddamn gun, you're traumatizing her!" Mom screamed, forcing herself to stand up.

"I'm trying to think!" Dad shouted back.

"There isn't anything to think about, Jason! Put down the fucking gun!" Mom yelled.

"I told you not to call me that!" Dad grit his teeth in anger, pulling the trigger as he yanked his hand to his head.

"Bang!" Heather laughed loudly, as the ich lüge bullet collided with my heart.

I heard a scream as I took what must have been my sister's last breath. Then it all went dark.