fifteen

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Elody's POV

I sat in my real room later that night, feeling the safety of my bed. Things were different now. I knew my mother didn't want to be here. Surprisingly, my father did. He wasn't staying for her. She was staying for him. That made me feel rather broken.

If she wanted us our whole lives, what had changed? Was it because our father was home again? She had missed out on him for fifteen years. Maybe it's not so surprising that she wanted him over us.

I decided to try and get some sleep, letting myself fall into the memories of my dead sister. I'd gotten quite used to it by now but that didn't make it less annoying. I seldom had real dreams anymore. It was always a random day in Giselle's life.

Giselle was young, probably around the age she was before she had to move to Sherwood. She was walking to a school alone, as our mother was called into work. It was only a few blocks and she had told Giselle that she'd be alright.

"We live in a safe area. If anyone tries to talk to you, I need you to run." Our mother told her in a voice filled with anxiety but Giselle nodded.

Our mother left for work an hour before Giselle was supposed to walk to school. Giselle sat in front of the TV, understanding that she could watch two episodes of whatever played on Nickelodeon before she had to leave the house. After walking outside and locking the door with the key on her necklace, she started the walk to school.

She didn't get very far before someone approached her. "Are you Giselle?" The man in black asked. Giselle started to bolt away before being grabbed by her arm and getting yanked back. "Relax, kid. I'm a friend of your mom. She got to work and was too worried to let you walk alone, so she asked me to come walk you."

"What's my mom's name?" Giselle asked.

"Veronica Sawyer. She works at the diner on 15th Street." The man explained his convoluted lie further, providing details a stranger would have no way of knowing.

"What's your name?" Giselle asked.

"JD." The man replied, blowing the smoke of his cigarette out of his nostrils as he smiled at his daughter, who had no idea that she was.

At some point past midnight, I woke up at the sound of a bang. My mother cursed and then I heard her gentle footsteps creek past my door. They were unbalanced and I could hear her holding against the walls. Even though I was still annoyed with her, I opened my door and saw her there.

I don't want to write what I saw. But I have to. I have to let all of this shit go.

I saw my mother in a robe, but nothing else, she was hardly holding it around herself. She looked like she had been in a horrible fight, which wasn't surprising. But what was surprising was that this fight was quiet, I didn't hear a damn thing. When my mother saw me, her eyes widened with fear.

"Elody," She mumbled my name. Her voice cracked when she spoke to me.

"What happened?" I asked, keeping my voice down.

"Your father happened." She replied, her voice freezing back up as she continued her way to the bathroom. I don't know why I followed her. Maybe it was because she seemed like she was having trouble standing. She didn't make an attempt to close the bathroom door but I did.

"What did he do?" I asked quietly.

I saw her eyes unfocus as she stepped into the shower with her robe still on. She reached her arm out and dropped her robe to the floor as the water started to rush through the shower head.

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