"RISE FROM THE ASHES" by Sarah Ryniker

STORY LAST UPDATED ON 17/08/2002

Rise from the Ashes Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Epilogue

CHAPTER FIVE

The pain was agonising as I woke up in the middle of the night. Roger was beside me, snoring away, which only seemed to add to it. I woke him up by shoving him to the floor. He was already half off the bed, anyway.
    "It's time, damn you! Get the hell up and get me to the hospital!" I screamed at him.
    Without a word he took me there, though he was still half-asleep and driving like he was completely asleep. I had to slap him fully awake several times there. I feared for my own life as he made his way, seemingly blindly, through the streets. I didn't fear hitting other cars or them hitting us, it was too early in the morning for any cars to be out. I feared running into buildings or off bridges.
    We hadn't bothered to wake anyone up. I felt that they truly didn't need to know, since they didn't really seem to care. Though I knew damn well that everyone, except maybe Gerald, would be excited were it to be Rachael giving birth. It would be as if baby Jesus was being born again. After all, nobody would believe that the innocent, virginal Rachael would ever do an unforgivable sin, such as have sex and not be married.
    My labour wasn't long at all. A full hour and a half before I pushed my son, whom I named Mitchell, into the world. I hadn't been able to even have any drugs to ease the pain, no epidural to numb me.
    They say a mother's love and amazement at the sight of their child is a wondrous thing. And it truly is. It was for even me. As I held the little baby in my arms and looked down into the tiny face, I realised that now I had someone who would forever be in my life and be with me. The thought made me hold baby Mitchell closer to me.
    Soon, life with my baby at home began. I hated how nice Rachael was to him and every time I walked into his nursery to see her playing with him, I wanted to yell and scream. Yet, I didn't. I kept my calm and my cool and pretended that I was happy, even going so far as to call her Auntie Rachael.
    I could see early on that Mitch looked to her as a second motherly figure. When he was a mere three months old, her hugging him close would hush him. And how Rachael loved to be a mother. It made me angry that she wanted so much for my child to be hers. I could see the secret yearning in her eyes as she looked upon him. She liked playing mommy to my son. But I think she somehow knew better than to admit that to me.
    As I began to ignore Roger more and more, I felt him slowly packing his things to leave me. When he finally did so in reality, I was happy, though I pretended otherwise. I didn't want him to be here anymore. I had no need for him. He was a horrible father figure for Mitch. He merely wanted sex from me, something I wasn't even giving him.
    Mitch was seven months old when my mother died. She never did become happy again after giving her child away. She had been unable to have anymore and I think that truly angered Gerald beyond words. I never did know what their relationship had been like, though. It must have been good, however, for he listened to her last dying wish, whether I liked it or not.
    When my divorce finalised six months after my mother's death, I was walking down the aisle again. Gerald was forcing me to marry him because my mother had begged him to. I was furious as I took each step towards him. The event was beautiful, but my heart was not in it. Rachael agreed with me on this. To see me as her stepmother angered her.
    Mitch was old enough to walk now, but I had refused to put him in the wedding. I hardly ever let Brendan see him, and I had refused to let him ever hold my child. He had been there to conceive our baby, but he would not be there to be part of his life, ever. Mitch would never know what it was like to be touched by his father.
    "I know you are not happy about this, Ella," Gerald told me after consummating our marriage. We had no honeymoon; it had all ended with the reception.
    "You know I am not, still I am married to you. I don't want to spend the rest of my life with you. I hate you," I spat viciously.
    "You'll never be happy, you know. You'll forever be pining after Brendan. And don't think I don't know about Mitch being Brendan's son. Only a fool would choose to see him as Roger's." I wanted to deny it and scream at him for his stupidity. Instead, I rolled over and forced myself into sleep.
    I continued over a time to watch everyone around me. I watched Michael happily marry Karen, but I knew damn well who and what he wanted. He lusted after his own blood, his own half-sister and cousin. His eyes wandered forever to Rachael.
    I watched Rachael with Mitch. And when everything clicked together a plan formed within my mind. Many did, but never did I go through with any of them. Until this one. Until I realised that nobody need know that it was me who made it all happen. But Rachael did want to be a mother, didn't she? I laughed at the thoughts playing through my mind. Yes, this was perfect.
    I sat in my room and wrote the little note out. I would make sure Karen wouldn't get it; she would surely stop my plan from becoming a reality. Though, it would certainly be humorous to watch Karen beat the hell out of Rachael.
    The letter read:

Dearest Michael,
    I have been in love with you for forever. I know that it is wrong, yet I dream of things. I dream of wicked and dirty things with you. I want, more than anything, for you to come to my room tonight. I want to feel your body forcefully on mine. Please, Michael. I promise you, nobody needs to know.
    Love,
    Rachael

How wicked it was to do this. How wicked and exciting. I couldn't help but smile as I walked to Michael and Karen's room. I placed the letter on Michael's desk and then went to go find him. I wanted everything to be perfect. I just hoped that he would go through with it.
    I walked into the dining room to see Michael there. Rachael was in her room, so her being here could not ruin my plan.
    I leaned down over Michael's shoulder and whispered in his ear so Karen could not hear. "I saw Rachael sneak into your room holding something. She looked very suspicious, so I would go check the room and make sure she didn't do anything bad."
    He got up and excused himself. When he came back into the dining room, I looked up to him, feigning worry. He looked down at me and shrugged, though I saw the light in his eyes.
    "I found nothing out of the unusual," he said as he sat back down to lunch with Karen. She ignored the whole thing. She often did when it came to him.
    That night I knew he had found the letter for sure. I heard the screams and cries for someone to help. I had drugged Gerald and Karen, so they wouldn't hear anything. I made sure that nobody would interfere.
    At the last minute I rushed down into Rachael's room. I thrust open the door in time to see Michael attempting to leave the room. When he saw me, his eyes widened.
    "Get out of here, you monster!" Rachael screamed, crying and holding herself on the floor. I fought the urge to smile.
    I rushed to her side and pulled her to me. I glared up at him. "How dare you? How could you do this to her?!" I screamed.
    I had made sure to find the letter and destroy it before coming here. So when he stuttered and tried to tell me that she had asked for it, he would have no proof. I wanted only to hurt them both, Rachael especially. But Michael being seen in such a mess was by far even better.
    I rose from the floor. "Don't try to leave, you sick pervert. I am going to wake up Gerald."
    I never thought Gerald would care as much as he did. Michael was beat until near death, Karen crying the whole time. Never once did Michael try to beg for forgiveness and never did he make accusations toward Rachael to Gerald. He knew better than that. There wasn't a soul on earth that would believe him.
    When I saw Rachael rushing to the bathroom with sickness three months later, I knew what was wrong. And I knew that everything I had wanted had come true. And not a damn person knew that it had anything to do with me. And in this, I would become Rachael's confidant.
    "Rachael!" I called her into the front parlour when I heard her footsteps turning towards the stairs.
    When she came in, her face was pale. "Yes?" she asked. She seemed annoyed by being summoned.
    "Close the door," I ordered, though I said it nicely, wanting her only to trust me while I watched her suffer with satisfaction.
    She closed the door and then turned back to me. I nodded to the chair across from me and she sat. "What is it, Ella?"
    "How have you been feeling lately? It's been three months since the rape and still you seem so depressed." I got the satisfaction of seeing her face become whiter.
    "I've been coming out of it." She lied. I could tell she had lied. Of course, I personally knew she had lied; I had been paying her maid to tell me what was going on.
    "I'm glad. But if you've been coming out of it, why have you been acting so sick and so tired all of the time? Are you coming down with the flu?" I pretended to be concerned as I got up and walked over to feel her head for a fever.
    She grabbed my hand as it fell upon her. "Ella, please. Don't do this to me. I know you can tell."
    I sat down again. "How long have you known you were pregnant, Rachael?"
    "Since last month. I haven't had a period in three months, so I figured I was pregnant with Michael's child." She choked on her words and began to cry.
    "Oh, you poor thing. Come here!" I ushered her over to me where she fell at my feet and buried her head in my lap. As I stroked her hair, a smile formed on my lips. "I know this may be the wrong time to ask, Rachael, but whatever are you going to tell Brendan? It's too late to get rid of it."
    Her cries became stronger after that and my smile widened. "I don't know what to tell him! He'll be so grossed out that he'll never want to look at me again!"
    I wanted to scream at her and tell her that if she hadn't crossed the line and taken Brendan from me she wouldn't be in this mess now. I wanted so much to flaunt in her face what I had done. I wanted to see how much more pain I could cause her. Yet, I relaxed and stroked her hair, pretending to be the perfect friend.
    "Now, now, Rachael, if he really loves you he won't feel that way. He'll be supportive," I assured her, hoping that I was wrong. I wanted what she predicted to come true. I wanted his disgust to make him leave her life forever. I wanted, more than anything, to make her life a living, rotten hell to be in.
    "You think?" She lifted her head to look up at me with hope in her large brown eyes.
    I smiled at her. "Of course." I lifted the phone that sat beside me. "Why don't we call him now?"
    She looked more hopeful, the tears subsiding. She nodded and I dialled the number. I listened to it ring and when a maid answered I asked for Brendan. Soon, Brendan's voice was on the other line and oh, how much I wanted to yell and scream at him what had happened, how he had caused it. I wanted to shove it in his face what his betrayal had cost her, his beloved Rachael.
    "What do you want?" Brendan asked when he realised that it was I on the other line.
    "Rachael has something to tell you, Brendan. I am only helping her with it." I hated him for hating me so much. But then again, didn't he have a certain right? I wouldn't let him even look at his own son.
    "Why can't she just tell me? I would rather hear it from her lips than yours," he spat out, the disgust in his voice evident.
    I looked down at Rachael, the nervousness showing in her eyes. "You tell him, please," she said.
    "Tell her I heard her and I don't want you to tell me, I want her to," Brendan said, overhearing the angel's voice.
    I quickly relayed the message to Rachael, who shook her head. Then she took the phone from me and said, in the softest voice, "Hello?"
    When Brendan must have been asking his questions there was silence. Then she began to cry. "I'm pregnant, Brendan. Michael raped me three months ago and I'm pregnant."
    She thrust the phone back into my hand and ran from the room without looking back. As I put the phone back up to my ear, a wicked smile curved on my lips again and I almost laughed. "Brendan?"
    "Where is she?" he demanded.
    "She left the room. What did you say to her?" I pretended concern, though I was crossing my fingers for the right words to slip from his mouth.
    "I only said that I didn't understand how she could be three months pregnant. She had to of known about it before, so why didn't she get rid of it?" He questioned me as if I knew the answers to why she was keeping the baby.
    "Maybe she was scared, Brendan. Did you ever think of that?" I snapped. I was truly angry. I didn't want them to be together, but it was just like a man to blame it completely on the woman and be angry that she was keeping her own child, by rape or not. What an ass he was to me.
    "I don't know. I just need time to think," he muttered before hanging up the phone.
    I set the phone down with ease, smiling and humming to myself. I picked up the book I had been reading and began from the top of the page. My mind was wandering somewhere else other than the book, though. I was thinking about how I was now in control of all of their lives. Whatever I wanted to happen would. And that was something to smile about.

Rise from the Ashes Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Epilogue

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