broken // branded sequel // heathers au

six

Auden's POV

I heard fighting in Elody's room and while I wanted to go see what was happening, I was told to stay in my room my father after Elody's tantrum at the dinner table.

After a loud bang, I could hear my father's heavy footsteps storm out of Elody's room and someone smaller, my mother, run after him.

"Jason Dean, I swear to god if you ever do that shit to one of my children again!" My mother yelled.

"What'll you do, Veronica?" My father asked in his unsettlingly low voice.

"I'll kill you!" My mother shrieked. Her voice was shrill and I swear that I had never heard her so angry.

"Try it. Let's see how that goes." My father threatened in reply.

"Fine! Where's your stupid fucking gun?" My mother shouted at him. This is when I went into the hallway to break this spat up.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked. I really hoped my voice sounded brave. I was too scared of them both to get too close, so I stayed in my doorway.

"Your father hit Elody!" My mother informed me.

"You hit her?" I asked him, my head turning to face him.

"She needs discipline." My father argued. Mainly to my mother over me.

"It's hardly discipline if you knocked her out." My mother said.

"What!?" I shouted. "She's knocked out?" I asked my parents, lowering my voice again.

"Yes." My mother answered me.

"Then why aren't you in there trying to make sure she's okay?" I asked, trying my hardest to keep my voice steady.

"She's fine." My father told me. His voice was unnaturally calm.

"She could have a concussion!" I exclaimed. I shook my head. "I'm going to check on her." I said, going into Elody's room and looking at her.

Something about my sister looked different, and it wasn't the bruise forming on her cheek, she looked far too peaceful. She looked like she did when we napped as kids, when I would be too energetic to sleep. She would just pass out, her body going limp with sleep.

I don't know what it was but out of nowhere, I put my hand under her nose to see if she was alive.

She wasn't breathing.

Veronica's POV

All of a sudden, Auden shrieked at the top of her lungs for help. JD didn't go in there but I did, going into Elody's room and seeing a scary scene. Auden was kneeling by Elody, shaking her frantically.

"Wake up, Elody!" She was screaming.

"Auden, what's wrong?" I asked.

"She's not breathing! He fucking killed her!" Auden shouted at me.

"JD!" I called for my husband, panicking.

"Not again," Heather whispered to me. "First Giselle and now Elody. Soon Auden will be dead too. All because you let him be close enough to kill." She added.

"What?" He asked. I could see a glimmer of worry in his eyes. One that his voice was trying to hide.

"Elody isn't breathing!" I cried. I could feel something building inside of me, a dam about to burst. "Call 911!" I yelled at him.

He ran out of the room without another word and I could hear him go down the stairs.

"Auden, you have to move. I have to check for a pulse." I told my daughter who shifted only slightly to give me access to Elody's neck. I put my hand to her jaw and felt the smallest beats beneath my fingertips.

"Did you feel it?" Auden asked me. She was still crying and when she looked up at me, she looked so much younger than fifteen.

"I need to check her wrist." I said and Auden switched spots with me as I placed my fingers onto Elody's wrist. I was worried I wouldn't feel anything.

Thump, thump, thump.

I felt my breath leave my chest in a relieved sigh. I could hear people at the front door, JD letting them in and leading them into Elody's pink bedroom.

The EMTs laid her onto the floor of her bedroom and started to perform CPR. Auden ran into my arms and continued to cry into my shoulder. JD stood away from us, pointedly ignoring the nasty looks I shot his way.

After a few minutes of CPR, Elody took a small breath. Auden gasped but it didn't last.

"She's just pushing our breaths back out." An EMT explained, causing Auden to start crying again. "Get the gurney." She said to the other EMT, who did this.

One person could go in the ambulance with Elody. Unsurprisingly, Auden already had both of their purses on her arms and a jacket on as she got into the ambulance to ride with her twin.

This left JD and I to get in the car and follow them.

Auden's POV

"Everything's going to be okay." I kept telling Elody as I held her hand on the way to the hospital. I knew she wasn't awake and maybe she was dead, but I kept talking.

"Do you know how this happened?" The girl EMT asked me.

"No," I lied, looking back at Elody with teary eyes. I mentally told her I was sorry, that I didn't know what I was supposed to say.

"How old is she?" The EMT asked, doing medical things I didn't know to Elody.

"Fifteen, born on December 31st of 1999." I answered.

"Does she have any allergies?" The EMT questioned.

"No." I said. I knew this only because my mother had to go through allergy testing when we were rescued. Our father's refusal to give us medical care meant she had no idea what we were allergic to. We were both allergic to pollen, dogs and sensitive to dairy. But I knew that the EMT meant allergies to medicines.

"And who are you in relation to her?" The EMT asked.

"I'm her twin." I said, looking at Elody's peaceful face and feeling my eyes well up with tears. And despite how scared I felt, I couldn't stop thinking of how scared my mom was.

She already lost Giselle. If she lost Elody too, she'd be a wreck. I know that I couldn't lose Elody, it would kill me. I wondered in that moment if it would kill my mother. Maybe she'd be relieved. Elody's constant sadness bores her.

Maybe what Elody said was true. She doesn't want either of us, she wants Giselle.

But Giselle is gone. All she has is me and Elody. Unless you counted our father. But since he hit Elody and I could see a bruise on mom, I don't right now. We'd be better off without him.

He should be dead for what he did to Giselle. For what he did to my mother. For what he's going to do to me and Elody.

If he didn't accept the stupid plea deal for fifteen years, he would have been put on death row. And you know what?

He belongs there.

My father deserves to sit and rot away as the days tick down until he meets the electric chair. He deserves to worry over his own death as my mother worried over Giselle's.

Most importantly, he deserves to never be able to see my mother, Elody and me ever again. Otherwise, he'll just end up killing one of us too.