I posted this story on a while ago, but mid way trough the story I got a bad case of writing block and never finished it. Having found my notes on how I the story was supposed to develop I've decided to take it up again. But I've started again from the beginning, rewriting what I already had. For those of you that read the first part of this story on backtothebay, the story itself is still practically the same.
I own nothing.
Summary: Fifteen years ago Martha and Ric's mother was murdered and her father was sent to jail. Now they return to Summer Bay to discover the truth about what happened that night. With the help of Roy they discover the cover up and the lies that may end up destroying the new live they have built. But Summer Bay holds many secrets and troubles and before they know it they find themselves sucked into the strange world of the seaside town. Ric finds himself in the middle of the turbelent relationship of Matilda and Luke, which may end in tragedy and Martha falls for Jack, the man who without knowing it may hold the key to unravel the mystery of the death of her mother and a friendship, that of Robbie and Jack, so beyond repair that it seems like nothing could fix it. But somewhere a man sits in a jail cell waiting for the truth to out...
couples: Jack/Martha, Robbie/Tasha, Luke/Matilda, Rick/Matilda
Disclaimer for whole story: I do not own, if I did neither Noah nor Jack would have ever died.
Prologue
There had been a full moon that night.
The same night he decided to set his plan in motion, a plan that will in the end destroy himself; off that he is sure. When he finally sets out night has already set and the streets are deserted. He pretends like he's just going out for a walk, so that if in the off chance that he runs into someone, nobody will pay him a second glance. He wants to be forgettable to those that see him, he is after all walking a different path; one wrong step in the wrong direction and his whole world will fall apart.
Still he knows what he must do.
He does not, will not, dwell on it; he refuses to spend any more time running it over in his head, what has to be done will be done. She is the one who has does this to him, with all of her lies and secrets, he has driven him to this point, and now she must pay for it. She has driven him crazy and this is his only way out, the only way he can survive. Slowly and silently he creeps to the darkness and stops right in front of his destination, the beautiful houses are bathed in darkness and this one is no different.
The house is silent, nobody is awake anymore.
He picks up the pace then, so that nobody pays any attention to him; he wants to be out of the open fast, on the off chance that one of the neighbors will look outside. After all if only one person sees him, and recognizes him, his entire plan would fall apart; the plan that has consumed him for the better part of the last year. She has to pay, pay for what she has done to him; and to come this close and then fail is unacceptable. The door opens quietly, there is no need to break in for he still has his key, and he prays that nobody will be awaken by the closing of the door. For a second his hand lingered over the switch that will turn on the light, but he decides to leave the house bathed in darkness; after all he does not wish to wake up the children, after all they should not be harmed, all he wants is her.
He makes sure not to touch anything, nor disturb anything in the house, so that nobody will ever now that he was there. If his plan goes well tomorrow she will be dead and they both will pay for her mistakes, for what they had done to him. Praying that the stairs don't crack under his feet he silently makes his way of the stairs. He knows which room he has to be in, he has after all been here before in happier time; but he pauses at the first door he comes across.
He almost, almost, turns around and goes back home.
Inside this room a young baby boy is fast asleep, he is barely a year old, and this is why he almost changes his mind. He does not want to cause this boy, nor the girl in the next room, any harm. They are the only true innocents after all and they will pay for the mistakes of those around them. He is almost sure that the boy is his son and now he will never know, if he takes this path nobody must ever know that it could be his son. He has made his choices and he will also pay a price, this will probably be the closest he will ever be to the boy, to the one who's probably his third son. He reaches out and with one last glance at the sleeping boy slowly closes the door.
What comes next should never be heard by any child.
In the next bedroom, three doors to the right, a young girl sleeps, just six years old. She would be old enough to remember her mother, old enough to understand what had happened; but she would not be old enough to understand her mother's cruelty, she is as of now just an innocent child. She, who will remember it all, will suffer more than her younger brother, but he doesn't pause for her either. He closes that door as well; the children should not hear they should not be scared; they shouldn't be hurt worse than they already will be.
Two more doors and then he walks through the open door on his right.
Now there truly is no turning around, now it must just be done; the choice to punish her was made a long time ago and now he will truly do it. Before this moment he could still turn around, before he could still have pretended he was never here. He watches her sleep for a second, she is beautiful even then, it's really no wonder he fell in love with her. He had only wanted her to live him but she never had, she had pretended and betrayed him, and her lies had brought you to this moment. The moment where you sit down on the bed next to her, careful to not wake her and places a soft kiss on her long hair, then he grabs the gun that his friend, her husband, always kept in the closet.
With a whisper of 'I love you' he finally bids her farewell.
Then very fast, before he can hesitate and change his mind, he places the barrel of the gun against her head and pulls the trigger. She never even woke up and in all probability never suffered as well, but she was dead, there is no doubt about it. It takes him a few minutes before he can accept what has happened and then he slowly gets up and walks away, leaving the gun lying on the bed. There are no fingerprints on it, but since it is her husbands the police will assume he did it.
He stops one last time at his son's door.
This is the last time he will ever be close to him, he will let him live his own live; never search for him, never claim him. This will be his punishment for what he has done, he knows he'll go to hell, but he also knows she will be there waiting for him. He doesn't open the door to his son's room instead he turns to the stairs and slowly walks out of the house one last time.
He walked into the house an innocent man but when he walks out he is guilty, his hands are now covered in his blood.
But nobody will ever know and the man disappears into the darkness around him.
As if he was never actually there.
She thinks it is her father's scream that woke her up.
Or maybe it was her brother crying, she's never quite sure what came first. All six year old Martha knew in that moment was that she was awake and she had no idea what was happening. Her father was screaming, like he was in some serious pain, but she could not hear her mother, and this she found the strangest. Slowly and terrified of what she will find outside she gets out of her bed. At her door she hesitates, what should she do first? Should she turn to her father or her brother? But it's her brother who needs her the most so she goes to his room and not her parent's.
It is a choice she will be grateful for, for the rest of her life.
She is not old enough to take the boy out of his crib, too small to reach over; but she hopes that her voice singing a lullaby will be enough to calm him down, at least until one of her parents come. As she softly sang the song his crying seized, and slowly she began to realize that there were other sounds as well; voices, sirens and in the background her father is still screaming. She's scared and unsure of what is happening she curls up next to the crib and looks around; that's when her eyes land on the small golden ring lying on the floor. Never will she actually understand why she did it, put she picked it up and put it in her pocket.
She never thinks about it, she is just a child after all.
She feels like an eternity passes before the door opens and her father stops screaming, but in reality it was only a few minutes; now she hears people run up the stairs and past her room. They never stop long enough to look in and see her sitting on the floor, then she realizes that despite the fact that her father has stopped screaming she can still hear him, now he is crying; and this scares her more than the screaming ever did. Then after a few more minutes, which seem like another eternity, the door opens and a young man walks in and slowly crouches down in front of her.
He introduces himself as Roy and promises that everything will be alright.
She needs not be scared and all she needs to do is go with him, he's a police officer and he will make sure everything is alright. She asks what is happening, she asks for her parents; but he just repeats that everything will be alright despite the obvious sadness in his eyes. Can my brother come too, she asks and Roy just smiles at her, of course he can. She hadn't seen her father arrive until Roy took notice of him, the words this will be the best, let them come with me just confuse her, especially since her father does not argue. But he's still crying and that scares her, because her father is strong and never cries, but he was and she did not understand why.
He promises he will explain everything later.
Softly he kisses her hair and tells her he loves her, he picks up the baby and kisses him as well; then he hands him over to Roy, who takes her hand and leads her out of the house. Before she leaves, before she's gone, she turns around one last time to see her father standing there in the same place she had left him.
It will be the last time she sees him.
