Lunatic

Chapter 27

Long chapter ahead 😉

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SHEANNE

My sister once told me that hope is the foundation of a human being. You can eliminate everything from yourself, you can lose everything, but no matter what happens, you shouldn't give this one up. Because, like she said, 'Hope can rebuild everything, even in worst case scenarios, with hope, you can win.'

I remember how her eyes looked that day while she said me those phrases. They were over flowing with agony, with pain, with loathe, but somehow, I saw a hint of hope. That day was the day she was molested by our uncle. She called me crying, unable to utter a single word, just my name coming out of her mouth along with uncontrollable sobs. As soon as I arrived at our uncle's house which is also hell for the both of us, I saw Sally in the couch with nothing but a blanket covering her whole body. I've never felt more useless than that moment, because I just stared at my uncle who was leaning at the stairs, with cigarette in his mouth and a smirk in his lips, and whispered,

"Why?"

That was the stupidest thing I have done in my entire life. I should have shouted at him, I should have demanded him for answers, I should have pulled his hair and smashed his head in the railings until it bled so he could die in my own hands. But I didn't. Instead I stupidly whispered.

After demanding me to send more money, he left the house. I rushed to my sister, each step I took, the more that my heart ached. As I pull her into a hug, I felt all my tears stream down my face.

"I'm so sorry, I'm sorry you had to go through all of these." I told Sally as I look at her through her eyes. It pained me. But I know the pain I'm feeling right now can't even double to the pain she's feeling. I can see it in her eyes.

I expected her to cry as long as she wants because she deserved to let all those feelings go, but she just smiled at me, looking tired of all the crying.

"I'm not losing hope that you can get me out of this, Shi."

She held onto that little hope she had that I can get her out of that hell. But I failed her. She died while still latching onto that hope which never came true.

That's why as soon as my eyes opened revealing me the room with the same walls I've badly wanted to escape from, I didn't shout, cry, or beg for my abductor to free me. I went back to the Sheanne I was after my sister died. Numb.

After all, no one will be there to cry for me if I died, so what's the use if I go on my knees and beg. I should just wait for my fate.

After a few hours of lying in my bed and staring at nothingness, I decided to go downstairs. I realized the two 'brothers' are not down there because it has been silent all along. If they were here, I should have heard fighting and shouting and cussing again. But nothing.

I roamed my eyes around the whole floor when I reached the base of the stairs, the house is totally empty. I stared at the front door, what if I escaped now? Would there be a better life for me outside? Is there a chance I could wake my hope again?

I pictured my sister smiling in front of me, with those eyes filled with hope, telling me the sentence she always says, "There is always hope."

I gulped and walked to the door. As I held the knob, I closed my eyes and prayed.

Then I turned the knob.

But I realized that my sister can't always be right. She was always positive about life that she forgot to look at the bitter side.

The door was locked.

I silently cursed at myself for letting that tiny bit of hope seep through my soul. I'm never letting that feeling inside me again.

I froze when I heard the sound of something hitting a soft surface. I realized it came from the backyard.

I went to the kitchen and peeked through the opened window with metals surrounding it, making sure no one's capable of going through it.

I saw Tyler, consistently digging with his shovel. My eyes observed him, you wouldn't know that the man right there is a serial killer. He looked so ordinary, nothing in him could spark a suspicion. My eyes landed on the body bag beside him.

Who did he kill this time?

I stared at him until he finished what he was doing. When he returned the last bit of soil into the hole, he set aside his tools and used his key to enter the house. I followed him with my eyes and when he saw me, we both locked our gazes at each other. I didn't look away. He broke our gazes and attempted to head to the shower room but was stopped in his tracks, "Who did you kill this time?" I asked him.

He slowly turned to me and sighed.

"Follow me." He told me and went to the stairs. I hesitantly followed him until we arrived to a door at the end of the hallway.

When he opened it, a memory played in my mind when I saw the window at the top of the bed. That day when Ariela and I escaped this house. That day when she screamed because of the bones, but where'd the bones go?

"The bones you saw last time was my mother's." Tyler silently confessed. I looked at him with shock. Who on Earth would keep their mother's corpse in a bed, all the flesh rotting until the bones are the only ones left? Of course. Tyler Ross.

"I was quite curious how you found the secret passageway to this room when only my sister and I knew it." He started. What's he doing? Is he explaining everything to me now? Why he chose to abduct me? Us?

Tyler caressed the bed and continued, "That passageway was for my sister. You see, I was the one who picked this house, and because I saw my father's dangerous capabilities, I took the chance to pick a house with an escape."

"But it wasn't just my father." He laughed bitterly. "My father started to feed me lies. That women are fragile creatures in this planet, and that they shouldn't be suffering from the world's cruelty. That's why women who are suffering should be put to rest."

I gasped. Is that it? Is that why he targeted all these women? All these helpless women? He thought he could save us from the cruelty of the world, using his cruelty itself. I wanted to shout at him for being such a total hypocrite, but he continued talking.

"I noticed my sister started to change. She was lively before, always smiling. Damn, that smile was always my medicine, but they all went away for who knows why. It was then I also felt the crave to save her, almost to the point of killing her."

I remembered the diary that lead us to our escape. I remembered the blood-smeared final words she wrote,

What did I ever do to deserve this?

"D-did she die?" I asked him. I need to know.

Tyler looked at me with pain.

"Yes. But not in my hands. My father had another family, a new wife, a new son, they took Talia. I thought Talia would be better off without me, so I left her with them. I left my dead mother here, and went to the city."

"And then, next thing I knew, my father killed his new wife again, and that Daniel who I never considered as a brother," his voice cracked at the end of his sentence, "he killed Talia."

I tried to fight back the slight pity I'm feeling for him because he doesn't deserve it. I wanted to push that pity to the back of my heart, but it never went away. That day, I sympathized with him.