13elieve (Short story collection)

Diamond

Diamond sat in the eerily quiet house. In the sixteen years that she has lived there, it was rarely quiet. Between her mother, her father, and occasionally her brother, who was 19 years older than her, and who people often joked was old enough to be her father, it was usually pretty loud. Diamond just sat there and she would just think. She wondered why her dad would do something like that. As far as she could tell, her dad loved her mom, and would never do anything to hurt her. She could not see how one person could bring another person to do something so drastic. When Diamond's mother, Aderyn, found out that her husband, Leonard, was seeing another woman, she was obviously hurt. She was the most loyal woman anyone could ever ask for. She would hardly ever think about other men, and when she would, it would be just that, a thought. She could not see how the man she loved for years, could just be with other women, as if she was not good enough. Ever since Leonard's other woman was discovered, the house was almost always this silent. The only time there was really any talking, was when Leonard and Aderyn would argue about the situation. Diamond would just sit in her room and listen. She tried to things other than listening to them argue, but they argued so loud that it didn't even matter. She could tell that her mom was extremely angry, because she would shout stuff like "You filthy pig" or "You're not even Diamond's father." She figured her mother was basically done with him, because why else would she say that he is no longer her father. As much as it pained Diamond, she knew that they were almost certainly getting a divorce. As time went on, and the arguments continued, they did end up getting a divorce. Aderyn ended up getting custody of Diamond, and this crushed Leonard. He already felt guilty about cheating on his wife, and getting a divorce, let alone losing custody of his child. Part of him started to change at this point. He did not even care about losing Aderyn at this point, all he wanted was to get Diamond back. He slowly started to become obsessed, and would do anything in order to get her back. At first he constantly texted her, asking her if she would want to live with him instead. The constant texting worried Diamond, but her mother just told her to ignore him. As time went on, the texts became more and more violent and forceful. They went from asking if she wanted to live with him, to saying that she would live with him, if it was the last thing he did. Diamond tried to tell her mom about the texts and how extreme they were becoming, but her mom gave her the same advice. She told Diamond that he was just really upset, and he was just doing this as a way to release his emotions, and that he would stop soon. Diamond highly doubted this, but much to her surprise, her father did stop texting her. In no time at all, Diamond and her mother were able to live normal lives. Since it was just the two of them, they became very close. They would go out to dinner, go see movies, or go out shopping quite often. Diamond's mom started to seem more and more like a best friend than a mother. At first Diamond thought nothing much of this, but as time went on she started becoming paranoid. She felt that her mother was not being with her often because she wanted to, but because she needed to protect Diamond. But Diamond had no idea why she needed protection, no one was after her. Then it occurred to her. Her mother was protecting her from her father. It made so much sense. They started hanging out when Diamond's father kept texting her. Diamond's mother told her not to worry about the texts and said they meant nothing, but she knew. She knew how serious the texts were, and knew that she had to protect her from him. Diamond had even more respect for her mother. Not only is she going out of her way to protect her, but she is doing it in a way, where Diamond would not worry about it, and could still feel like she could live her life. If anything this made Diamond want to hang out with her mom more often. It made her feel like her mom loved her even more than when she thought they were just hanging out. Diamond also became more willing to run errands with her mom, as a way to thank her back. One night Diamond and her mom were going out grocery shopping. They only needed a couple of things, so they were practically in and out. When they came out, Diamond pointed out the fact that her mom did not lock the car, because it was already unlocked. Aderyn told Diamond that she thought she locked up the car, but must have forgotten. She told Diamond that it was not a huge deal, since nobody stole the car. They put their groceries in the trunk, and started driving home. They stopped at a red light, when they heard a voice asking if they missed it. The voice was clearly not Diamond's or Aderyn's, but they were the only two in the car. They looked back and saw who else, other than Leonard. Something was different about him, he looked completely deranged.

"You left your car open sweetie," he said pulling out a gun, "now pull over."

Not wanting to start any trouble, Aderyn waited for the light to turn green and pulled over.

"Good, good," he said, "now I believe we have some issues to work out." Aderyn and Diamond's faces lit up in pure terror. "Don't give me those faces," he said, "you knew this would have to happen at some point."

Leonard raised up the gun, pointed it to his victim's head, and pulled the trigger.