Awake, My Sleeping Beauty

Chapter 6

More days passed and by now the Winters had lost all hope of finding Heaven's body. The authorities called off the search and reported Heaven as officially dead. Christine sank into a deep depression over her daughter's death and stayed in her bedroom all day long, only coming out once in a while to ask one of the maids for something. Arthur chose to deal with his pain by burying himself with his work, leaving the manor early in the morning and returning late at night when everyone in the house were getting ready to sleep. Estelle, too, felt the pain of losing her niece and her usual bottle of alcohol was the only thing that brought her the comfort to put her sadness in the back burner.

Esther, however, thanked her lucky stars that the rest of the family wasn't around much, for she didn't have time to put up the farce of a bereaved cousin. Ever since Heaven's death she'd felt like she'd been reborn. With her cousin dead, Esther took possession of all of Heaven's clothes, the new gowns, the name brand shoes, and even her cosmetics. She didn't care if Heaven had already started using one of the expensive soaps to wash her face; she used them anyway. Esther felt like she had taken Heaven's place and all she needed now was to usurp and fill the void she'd left in Sebastian's heart – which seemed to be growing bitter and dark with time.

Sebastian had changed dramatically ever since the accident. He didn't laugh as much anymore; all he did was immerse himself in his thoughts, never saying much, and this irritated Esther. She wanted him to communicate with her. She realized that breaking him would be a treacherous feat.

Sure, ever since they'd gone out to the movies for the first time, she'd managed to convince Sebastian that they both needed each other, being that the three of them had practically grown up knowing one another. Esther did everything to push Sebastian to the brink of bursting into tears so he'd go to her arms but it was useless. Sebastian repressed all his feelings and not once did Esther see him shed a tear.

* * *

Not too far away from their town, Bella grew accustomed to life with the Breslows. She found herself growing more comfortable with Susie and her grandmother Gracie and even started thinking of their apartment as her home. Gracie wasn't happy when Susie told her she wasn't going to call the authorities to inform them about Bella because she'd promised she wouldn't.

"Are you an idiot?" Gracie exclaimed while they were both in the kitchen chopping tomatoes, "We'll get thrown into the slammer! I don't even want to imagine what they do to little old ladies like me in prison!"

"Aw, please," Susie waved her off, "You'd be in line two days later getting a tattoo with the other inmates. You're a tough cookie."

Bella appeared at the entrance with her hair wet from the shower she'd just taken.

"Oh, hey Bella," Susie exclaimed, "I just got back from singing at the beach. I wish you would've come with me."

Gracie leaned over to Susie and whispered, "Maybe it isn't a good idea to be calling her Bella."

"Gracie, we need to call her something," Susie said not bothering to whisper, she pointed at Bella, "She hasn't spoken since I brought her to live here. I refuse to call her 'girl' any more."

"It's okay, I like Bella," Bella suddenly said softly. Susie and Gracie looked up from the tomatoes.

"You spoke," Susie gasped and let her knife drop. Gracie shrieked and stepped back.

"Damn it Susie you almost got my finger!"

Bella smiled awkwardly as Susie went over to her and laughed, embracing her in a big hug. "You spoke, you spoke! You have a voice!"