College students Anna and Ainsley have a final year project, an interview with twenty first century multi-billionaire businessman and entrepreneur Calvert Ghislain. An established Englishman who made his name in the top ten Forbes of America.
But w...
I ran down the steps, and I could hear it, the screaming and yelling. Mother was shouting something while crying, she held one of father's vintage knives in her hands and she was swinging her arms aimlessly at James who was trying to grab her attention. The knife came so close as to his eyes and I ran the short distance towards her. I grabbed James just before the knife forcefully dived in the wall.
It made an unearthing sound and she stood there looking, she stared for a few minutes, before she turned and looked at us, I could not tell what she saw but she grabbed the poker and headed towards us, the basement door was open which was weird- it was always closed, locked even.
I threw James to the side and dodged the poker; I gripped her light body before she could fall all the way down the stairs. "Stay away from me, you're dead, stay away from us Richard."
My body froze for a few minutes, Richard, my father's name, she saw him. But how? I looked at James who was wide awake, he had a red bruise under his left eye. He shrugged his shoulders. She was still swinging her arms all around, a sharp metallic hair clip in her hand, she was screaming at the top of her voice.
"You can not hurt me! ... you are dead! No, you listen here you left the house angry, why would I shut up? Stop hitting me, leave James alone- I... but I told-- you,... you accused me.. you didnt listen-."
I dragged her up the four steps. "Mom, look at me, he is not here, mom." But she could not listen to me her eyes were closed, and her nose was bloodied, she had bruises around her neck and hands. Her hair had been pulled too hard and some strands lay at the table's feet and the coach. James brought me a glass of cold water, and I poured it on her face and held her in place.
"Mom open your eyes, he is not here, its me Anna, James is here to." Her pale eyes opened, and she looked up at me, she was breathing hard, a cut was on her forehead running to the side of her head, half of her face was covered in dry blood.
I looked around the room, it was in a mess, she pushed from me and walked around. "He was here Anna, he was here, and they, they were here and James." Her eyes drifted to her last born, she closed her eyes. "Is he real, I saw- I saw two, one dead and other not moving and I- he attacked me, he blamed my for his death, I, Anna, I am, oh God."
She dropped to her knees and cried in her hands. James and I moved towards her, I knelt beside her and placed my hands around her shoulders, she cried on me. She had gotten so fragile since the last time I had seen her, and that was last month.
The clock read 2:30 am, I was tired and so was she and James didn't look like he was going to bed any time soon. " He said I was responsible for their deaths, Anna I failed as a mother, I failed."
She buried her head in the crook of my neck and I felt pain shoot through my leg, as I was kneeling on my bleeding leg, I could tell there was a bit of glass in. Still, I didn't complain. I held her close to me, "Mom, you know that is not true, you didn't fail as a mother, things just happened, and they were unfortunate." She looked up at me.
"How could you not see my fault? Anna I am responsible for their deaths." She pushed from me, and I was relieved that the pressure was off my leg.
"Mom." I approached her and hugged her from behind. "Owen's death was not your fault, don't take it so hard on yourself. How would you have known that he would wonder from the party and go down through the basement door and end up drowned in the pool? No one knew, there were lots of people there, mom and you were as busy as dad was, yes it was very sad, but what could you have done? You couldn't have divided yourself into three and attend to the party, the people and Owen, besides you had me then, and I was tender, barely out of diapers. So don't take it too hard on your self." She sniffed.
"But I could have done something, anything, it could have been me and not him." I hugged her even tighter James joined to and held her close. "If you had taken his place then you wouldn't have had James or Eli, even though he said for such a short time." She tried moving from our grip, but we held her tighter.
"I wish you and father hadn't fought that day. It was a small misunderstanding that led to a big fight, and he walked out angry even when you asked him to stay. The accident was unfortunate mother, but you can not keep on grieving, you can not keep on blaming yourself, yet you were not at fault. It was bound to happen one way or another, whether it happened then or in the future." I turned her and looked at her red eyes.
"You have us mom, and them even though they are gone, and mother," I looked at the mirror that was behind her and I could still see him looking at us. "What you saw, it was not them." I had a new task, in the morning, throwing away all the mirrors and where did the mirror that was on the top landing come from?
Then there was the other problem. "McCurrie." I could still hear her voice.
I swallowed; shit was getting real.
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