Till The Clock Strikes Gone

25 | doomed

(You killed my baby)

There are moments in life when you realize how much you fucked up. It happens all of a sudden, like a knock on the door. Your sense shows up out of nowhere. You may find yourself sitting and drinking your tea or more ironically, find yourself in a peaceful sleep and then it comes. Almost subconsciously, you start to put all the things together and then, you yank up from that sleep and your wife looks at you, rubbing her eyes as she grunts in annoyance for you have broken her peaceful sleep along with yours.

"What's wrong with you?" she asks, frustrated at your actions.

"I fucked up!" you say, not looking at her.

For Harvey Scott, that moment wasn't unfolding in his sleep. Instead, sleep was far far away from him. He watched his daughter as he saw all kinds of emotions crossing her face at the same time. Her countenance reflected a certain fear that Harvey couldn't understand. She was staring at him, blank, puzzled, upset and confused, all at one moment and Harvey regretted the words he had let slip from his mouth.

He didn't ever want to tell her the truth. He wasn't supposed to tell her but when he saw the anger in her eyes, he couldn't take it anymore.

He would bear every evil thought in this world except the thought of his beloved daughter hating him.

Suddenly, Eliza burst into a peal of mocking, sarcastic laughter. She was laughing and laughing and laughing like there was no stop to it. The sound of her laughter had always been a pride for Harvey but this time, it pierced his ears and he wanted it to stop. She almost fell off the sofa because she laughed so much and if Harvey hadn't caught her, she would have hit her head on the table.

"Eliza..." he said as he held her hand and tried to calm her down. "Eliza."

She wasn't listening. She was just laughing and then she met his eyes.

"Ha...Papa, look," she said, trying to stop her laughter and pointing a skinny finger at him. "Look, Papa, you have gone crazy."

He could hear the mockery in her voice. She didn't believe him. She would never believe him when it came to William Ray.

"Eliza...try to calm down," he requested her as she got up and started pacing around the room, still laughing.

"You have gone crazy, Papa," she laughed like a madwoman and Harvey's heart filled him with horror at her state.

How come he never saw her like that before? How did he not notice?

Her cheeks were hollow and there were dark circles underneath her beautiful, green eyes. Her arms and legs were so thin, they almost looked lifeless. He watched in horror as her weak body tried to balance itself.

"Papa," she stopped laughing and almost instantly, her face became serious. "I'm going to James'."

"It's late, honey."

"I don't care. I'm going," she declared as she walked back towards him and picked up her jacket from the sofa.

"Don't wait for me!" she shouted before he heard her get out and the front door shut.

He had fucked up.

***

Eliza had been right. William Ray wasn't the man he pretended to me. He had motives and he had used her poor, innocent father for them. Everyone knew how much his father was obsessed with every theory in the universe that was claimed as impossible. William Ray used that very fact.