Belladonna

PRESENT TIME

Sirens blared so loud I could have sworn I was going deaf. 

Red and blue lights flashed in my peripheral. An ambulance. 

As I looked over my shoulder, I saw a group of protestors barricading the only road that led to the manor where my family was. By the looks of it, with the adamant protestors, I doubted the ambulance would arrive on time.

The protestors held up signs with daunting statements.

KILL THE MILLERS!

LET THEM DIE!

CURSE THE MILLERS!

I was not particularly surprised. The people despised my family for their cruel ruling, I myself found it hard to support my parents and siblings in their barbaric practices. But that didn't mean I wanted them to die.

My mother had been widowed while she was pregnant with me. The richest man in the town, now my stepfather, had been mesmerized by her when they happened upon one another. Having been widowed himself, my step-father and mother connected through the loss of their first loves, growing deeper in love with one another. My step-father had two sons before his first wife's death. Thus, I grew up in a rich manor with my two brothers, isolated from the poverty that encompassed the lives of almost everyone else in our town.

My father was a greedy man. A cruel one too. He never paid his taxes and practically stole from the poor by the way he ran his business. It was sickening. But I had no power to stop it. My mother was a quiet woman with no backbone. Therefore, everything my father wanted, happened. No one stopped him.

Except, perhaps today. My family was possibly dead. And I was a possible suspect. Which was why I was on the run.

Now, let me assure you. I had not attempted to take away any lives, yet. But that didn't mean the police would see it that way. With the tainted reputation of my family, they would find it easy to frame me for what had happened to my family and brush everything else under a rug.

I was out of breath from running and needed to sit down for a moment. Leaning against a brick wall, I dragged my back down until I was sitting. I closed my eyes taking in everything that had led me to this moment.