© 2002 by Sarah Ryniker JudgmentalMama@hotmail.com http://www.oocities.org/iamthealmightyrah/FF.html
STORY LAST UPDATED ON 21/04/2002
Rain of Fire Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Epilogue
CHAPTER NINE
The wedding wasn't the last we were going to see of Ella and Mitch. They would try everything to make our lives miserable. When Mama and Damian left, there were less people around to defend me. Grandfather Gerald was becoming sicker with every passing day. It seemed the revelations that had come about had killed him. He was becoming very ill, very quickly.
Jenny had heard it, too. She had also found out that she had been born of incest, too. How insane, and not to mention twisted, this family was. An uncle marrying his niece and actually producing a child was bad enough. But finding out that Michael Parish was the son of my real grandfather's first marriage and half brother to Ella and the woman he raped, my mother, was horribly sick. How could a brother rape his own sister? It confused me. There was even more of the past now to find out.
Why did it seem like every time I turned the corner, thinking I had almost found my way out of the web of deceit, I only entangled myself more? I just wanted out. I wanted to know what happened so many years ago. Why couldn't anyone just tell me all of it already?
Jacob did his best to keep Mitch and Ella away. Mitch kept pestering me, even making phone threats to come kill me. It got to where I wouldn't talk on the phone. Jacob would talk first and find out if it was safe. He tried his hardest to protect me from the two of them.
I knew everything was about hit the fan. It was in everything around, threatening to have the whole house fall down around us. I feared going anywhere, for fear Mitch would do as he threatened. I knew he and Ella were just crazy enough to do it. That was the most frightening part about it.
I tried my best to take care of Grandfather Gerald. His doctor said there really was nothing he could do. He gave him medicine to help, but Grandfather only became weaker. He was pale, with a constant fever. I tried my hardest and thought maybe he'd get better. Then he started vomiting. He couldn't hold anything down at all. Sometimes I would go into his room to check on him, only to see him crying.
"Are you afraid, Grandfather?" I asked him one night. "Is that why you're crying?"
"No." His voice was weak and raspy. It scared me. "I just feel so horrible about what has gone on." He began to cry more.
"What do you mean? Do you mean with Ella and Mitch?" I was worried about him. He was not only sick, but depressed as well. Gee, that was a fantastic combination.
He shook his head. "No. I mean with Rachael. We've all let you believe she is alive. She's dead, Phoenix." He started coughing. I helped him sit up and finally he stopped. "Ella killed her. Rachael and I had got into another fight and it had made Ella angry. So she killed her. I didn't know what to do. So I helped her hide the body until they found her. They never assumed that we did it. We simply buried her and pretended to forget that Ella had done it.
"Ella wouldn't have been strong enough had Rachael not been depressed about
your disappearance. You see; she was weak when she was sad. She didn't care if she died. She wanted you, though I don't know why. Michael, someone who she had always hated, had raped her to produce you. But you see, I told her she could keep the baby since she seemed to want it so badly.
"But Ella didn't want her to keep you. Two days after you were born, Ella stole you from the nursery and gave you to Karen and Michael. She pretended that this was what Rachael wanted. Karen, although jealous of Rachael, would never have taken her child from her had she known.
"I'm so sorry, Phoenix. I'm so sorry that you didn't know," he cried.
They were the last words he ever uttered. We took him to the hospital that night because of his being so sick. An hour after he arrived, he died. I felt as if he had been trying to die for so long, but God hadn't let him until he had got everything he needed to say off of his chest. I did smile, however. God had listened to me this time. He had lifted the weight off of my grandfather's shoulders.
The funeral wasn't very big. Not that we needed it to be big. I wasn't in the mood for a lot of people. He had lived so long for being so sick, I thought to myself as he was put into the ground. The wedding had been in April; it was now August. My baby would be born any time now. Not even a full month before I would have it.
Jacob and I took care of everything. Jenny was depressed because of her father dying, but she had been depressed before that. After finding out that her father was her mother's uncle, she just couldn't handle life. When the will was read two days after the funeral, she sat in the chair listening to the lawyer ramble on as if she were a zombie.
She had inherited quite a bit, but she told me that I could have most of it. She took half of the money she was given and built herself a house. Jenny, who had been so outgoing and had so many friends, became a recluse after that. She hardly came out of her house, unless she came to visit me. I felt bad for her and tried to visit her as often as possible.
Ella had come to hear the will being read and when she left with nothing she was furious. I thought it was the last we'd see of her. Now that she wasn't acting like a nutcase, I was sure she'd leave us alone.
Of course, I was wrong about that. It was late August and there was a storm going on outside. I woke up to the sound of thunder. Just as I woke up and looked over at the clock to see it was three thirty, all of the electricity went off. My eyes widened. The storm wasn't that bad outside. What was going on?
I got out of bed and slipped on my robe. I lit a candle and as I made my way down the corridor, I was reminded of the night Damian had come here. Only this time was much different. I heard something in the room that had been my grandfather's. Scared but curious, I walked over and shined the light in the room.
There was Ella and Mitch. Ella was going through Grandfather Gerald's drawers. I didn't know what she was doing but it was infuriating me. I was stupid enough to let my temper get the best of me at a bad time. "Get out of here! You don't belong here. This is no longer your home," I bellowed. I was so angry. They had no right to be here!
"You stupid little fool!" Ella laughed. "You honestly think that you'll get this place to yourself? Have no fear. You're leaving it to me in your will." She smiled the most frightening smile I had ever seen then. Before I could turn and run, as much as a pregnant woman could run, Mitch was on me, yanking my hands behind my back.
"No!" I screamed and turned around enough to bite him.
"Ow! Bitch!" he yelled, slapping me hard across the face. "She just bit me, Mother!"
"Oh, stop being a baby. Nobody ever said murdering someone was easy. It certainly wasn't easy with her mother," Ella muttered, rubbing a scar I remembered seeing on her arm before. Had my mother done that? I surely hoped so.
"Let me go, you crazy bastards!" I screeched, trying my best to get away.
When Mitch had my hands tied behind me, Ella came at me, knife in hand. "See, I made the mistake of letting your mother live to give birth to you. I also made the mistake of not tying her up before I ripped her guts out with this very knife," Ella told me with a sickening smile distorting her pretty features.
I shook my head when she laid the knife tip at my belly and laughed as I cringed. I knew Jacob couldn't hear us, and I feared calling for his help. All she would have to do is move once and I was dead. My heart was pounding in fear.
"Oh, don't worry, sweetie. I'm not dumb enough to kill you in here where your blood will be all over the carpet. Your mother was running away that night, I just happened to intercept her at the right time," she cooed sweetly, as if comforting me.
I tried my best not to cry but I couldn't help it. The tears came on their own, burning their way down my cheeks. She slid the knife up my belly, holding just a wisp above my skin. She ran it up all the way to my throat and twirled it around there. She pressed it into my throat just enough to make it hurt and bleed a little. She laughed as my body shook and I begin to cry harder. Never had I been so scared in my life.
Mitch and Ella dragged me through the house and out onto the beach. I was so weak with fear that I was unable to walk. Not that it mattered if I walked or not.
They dragged me, determined to rid of me for good. I had never been frightened by anyone like this before. Never had anyone been able to hold this power over me.
Ella and Mitch both took their turns beating me around. Ella slapped, kicked and did everything possible to harm me. She was first, getting to do anything she wanted to me. I curled up on the ground, making sure to hide my belly. If I got out of this alive, I was going to make sure my child did, too.
When Mitch had his turn I thought I was surely dead. He was a lot crueller than his mother was. He took the lose braid in my hair and cut it off where I had started the braid just as my shoulder. After he had the braid off, he laughed and swung it above my face. "Look, a whip made of her hair, other!" he cried and begin whipping me with it. I just couldn't believe that this was the same man that had been so tender and gentle with me.
"Stop it! Please, stop!" I cried.
It only made the both of them laugh harder. "Look at her. She's pathetic," Mitch said, pointing down at me and laughing as he slapped me hard with my own hair.
"Her mother was much the same way. It was rather pathetic. But it's fun, too," she said, as if they weren't doing anything but playing with some new toy. Only this wasn't new to Ella.
I began crying and begging louder. I knew I was pathetic, but I was scared and all I wanted was to get away. Ella finally got tired of my whimpering and begging. She began to kick me in the head over and over again. Then she took something that felt like metal and knocked me over the head. Darkness took over and I was positive that I was dying.
Rain of Fire Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Epilogue