Disclaimer: I own nothing any one else recognises, and take no credit whatsoever for anything other than rory, toby, tommy and minne.
the tragic story, that is our life [rory]
Normally I'm a morning person.
Don't get me wrong I like a good old lie in as much as the next person but I read somewhere that we spend more than one third of our lives asleep, that means of the sixteen years I've been on this earth I've spent more than five years sleeping.
I like being awake much better -what's the point in dreaming when you could be going out there having new experiences or learning new things?
During the summer I am always the first to wake out of my family, although my aunt Jane is still working and won't be home for several hours so that isn't strictly true. But out of the four of us, my two brothers and cousin I am always the first to arise.
Our lives have been pretty tragic for as long as I can remember, people generally feel sorry for our family. My mother, well my biological mother Sally met my dad when they were in school together, they were high school sweethearts and were married at just eighteen.
Sally's parents, well they disproved of my dad and, they disowned her, I don't really know much about them but my dad told me they were utter snobs. They could have quite easily loaned my parents money for a house, they could have set my dad up with an executive job and we could have had an easy life; but they didn't.
Instead they threw their only daughter, who was heavily pregnant with her first child at this point, out on to the street. None of us ever heard from them ever again.
That's when my grandpa Tom comes in to the story I suppose. Thomas Turner, he was as kind as anyone could possibly be even after raising five boys on his own after our Nana died, He took them in to his dinky little two bedroom cottage, tucked into the welsh countryside, without a second thought. He even got my dad a job at the local garage, things were starting to look up for the newly wedded Turner's.
Within months of Sally giving birth to my oldest brother Tommy she'd fallen pregnant with me and my twin Toby. For the next few years of our families life everything was utterly perfect, we weren't rich, but we weren't poor either, we were just plain happy.
I was five when it happened, one day we got home from school and she was just gone. It turns out Sally wasn't that happy at all, and hadn't been for a long time.
I've got to give her credit, her abandonment was quick, thorough and painful. She left it all in a note 'some people weren't meant to have children...life's too short to waste it being unhappy...fallen madly in love with my pilates instructor...need some time away to find myself...blah blah blah'
We later found out she'd eloped with above pilates instructor to Australia, with just under thirty thousand pounds my dad had been saving to buy her a dream home. She's currently happily remarried, living in Sidney with two beautiful tanned Australian children and a cockier spaniel, funny that.
My dad struggled without her I remember those days, despite still being very young, believing life couldn't get any worse. It took my dad two years to start afresh. To be happy again, then my Grandpa Tom died and things did get worse. And then they got a little better again, we always seemed to muddle along, surviving somehow.
I was thirteen when my father's health started to decline, it was just after my father took our cousin Minnie in and Aunt Jane, being Tom Turners son how could he not? Aunt Jane helped a lot to look after Dad, everything would have totally fallen apart without her.
I know as you get older you're supposed to remember things better and understand things more but the next two years were a total blur, hospitals, nurses visiting, social services, watching dad withering away, breaking our hearts. It was early August when dad died, Tommy was sixteen, Toby and I were fifteen.
"Rory slow down! I can't keep up with you!"
I sighed smiling slightly as I stopped and leaned against a tree waiting for the other three to catch up with me. Normally I would have carried on and left Minnie with the boys but I was in an exceptionally good mood today, so much so that I couldn't bring myself to shake off my clingy cousin.
She looked up relieved to see my standing still and quickened her pace hoping to reach me before the boys. Minnie had been like this all summer following me around reading all my books, lending all my clothes, like a little stalker.
I'd wracked my brains looking for a reason for this sudden change in behaviour on her part but came up blank. On one of the few days I'd seen Jane awake over the last few months, since starting night shifts she'd said it was probably because little Minnie wanted to be like me.
I doubted that highly, she and I were opposites in every way humanly possible...that and I wasn't exactly role model material. I had barely any friends and spent most of my time at home with the family, Minnie has so many friends that she often forgets their names.
If anything I should be trying to be more like Minnie, with her long blonde hair, green eyes perfect make up, she even had a tanned complexion, like naturally, and in Wales that's just not normal. Toby joked that we can't be related, that Jane must have had her wicked way and impregnated herself before meeting Uncle Bill with some tanned American film star.
All the Turners have dark brown hair and blue eyes, it's the way it's been for ever, and most of our family are boys. Minnie and I were the first girls born into our family in four generations.
I'm not jealous of Minnie or anything she's only fourteen and she looks much older than I do with boys chasing her round the village and girls begging to be her friend in spite of our small families recent poverty and Jane working flat out to keep things running.
I'm jealous of how easy she makes life look. I'm a very plain girl, and I'm glad of it with my curly brown hair and makeup-less face.
One of the reasons I look younger than my fourteen year old cousin is probably because I still have my baby fat, especially around my face. Though I've grown and lost some over the summer. I'm not over weight or anything.
I'm just not stick thin and I'm still the fittest one out of us four but my cheeks are a little too rounded, at 5"5 I'm also far too short for my liking. Minnie might not look like any of us, but in the three years we've lived together she's more like a sister to us all than a cousin.
"Rore" Toby poked me in the face. Ouch, I swatted his hand away cursing him, I hadn't realized how distracted I'd gotten staring off into space thinking about myself...ah vain Rory.
"How much farther?" Minnie moaned adjusting her 'heavy' rucksack.
"Only about a mile, and the rest is downhill so it should be easier than it's been so far." Tommy sighed watching her. I could almost see the internal debate going on inside his head.
This was Minnie's first (and probably last) camping trip, Jane had pulled him aside and insisted he take expert care of her baby. We'd split the heavy stuff between me and the boys so essentially all Minnie was carrying was clothes...and make up. At least we were only camping out for two nights.
We set off in silence after Tommy had cracked and agreed he'd carry Minnie's rucksack for her as well as his own, she quickly overtook me grinning as she passed, very pleased with herself. I'd laughed out loud when she'd waved from the bottom of the hill, showing off and stepped backwards into a stream feet emerging dripping with water.
"Hey Tommy, I don't remember there being a stream on route last time we came this way," I frowned thinking back.
"Hm, nor me. It must head towards the lake, towards the west of the forest you know?"
"Mm" I nodded once again successfully blagging my way through a conversation without revealing what an utter idiot I am.
"We should follow it, there must be a decent place to camp somewhere along the lake," Toby reasoned, talking rubbish as usual, recklessly setting off without a second glance closely followed by Minnie and Tommy.
I bit my lip torn. I didn't like not knowing where we were plus we'd left Jane a map circled with where we'd be camping if there was an emergency, there were few signs and footpaths through the woods but if we retraced our steps we'd be sure to find one within the hour.
But we really had to set up before it got dark and it was pushing five already, I rolled back on my feet nervously looking behind me and then towards the hot sun that was edging ever closer towards setting.
"What the hell!" I grumbled swiftly following the others gently downstream. It was six before we hit any flat land where we could set up our tent. It was seven before we had actually set up the tent with Minnie and Toby messing around chasing each other with sticks like a pair of three year olds until I snapped at them and told them to go and explore.
I wished I could be more like my careless erratic twin sometimes, easy going and fun, but I can't turn my brain off long enough to relax most of the time without a book in my hand and my brain off at Hogwarts or in Narnia.
"Hey guys! Hey guys, you won't believe what me and Toby found" Minnie screeched excitedly in my ear making me jump...again.
I needed to start paying attention, I thought shaking my head.
"Is it another stick?" It came out more harshly than I'd intended till I smiled up at her trying to soften it. She pouted slightly at me for snapping at her.
"It's not a dead animal is it? I really thought Toby had grown out of playing with dead animals" Tommy frowned shaking his head in mock disappointment till I grinned at him.
"Fine." Minnie huffed "If you don't want to come and see its just fine. Me and Toby will just have it all to ourselves." She turned stalking off dramatically.
"Minnie wait!" she stopped and turned expectantly "Toby and I" I corrected.
"What?" her eyes creased in confusion.
"Toby and I, will just have it to ourselves. Toby and I." I finished smiling sweetly at her.
With a final "Ugh!" she stalked away around the corner back from where she'd just appeared.
Tommy sighed slowly standing up and making his way towards where she'd just disappeared to.
"You're seriously falling for it? It's probably just a hedgehog or something!" I called in disbelief towards him. He turned motioned for me to follow him. I grabbed my bag quickly in case someone came and stole it while we were gone and hurried off to catch up with my older brother.
It turns out that for once Toby had actually stumbled across something quite cool. It was a cave tucked behind a tree towards one of the edges of the lakes. It was damp everywhere inside it, it was probably more often than not filled to the brim, entrance covered with water.
The sun must have just dried it out over the last week or so during our spout of unusually pleasant weather. There was still an inch or two of water along the bottom of the left hand side, but more than a foot on the right which was slanted downwards catching the murky liquid.
"I don't think we should go in today" I murmured looking up towards the setting sun chewing my lip again "It'll be dark by the time we get back out".
"That's what torches are for brainiac" Toby smiled back at me, "C'mon, you're not scared are you?" He raised his eyebrows challenging me. After a few seconds of trying to stare each other down, I folded gritting me teeth.
Challenge accepted.
"Fine!" I huffed storming ahead pulling my torch out leading the way.
"Rory wait! I agree, I think we should come back tomorrow, it's not like its going anywhere, come back!" I could hear Tommy yelling at me a few meters back as I rounded a sharp bend in the cave wondering how deep it could possibly go.
The others followed my lead, Tommy and Minnie rather reluctantly. Minnie had clearly lost her sense of adventure after I'd dubbed it a bad idea.
Toby was such an idiot, I can't believe I let him get the better of me again, you'd think after sixteen years of being in each other's company constantly that I'd have learned to ignore him.
"Oh" I stopped suddenly. Too suddenly.
The end of the cave after not a minute of walking had shocked me some, I'd frozen just on the outer edge of an arch which led into a small round pool still filled with water.
It wasn't the small cave that had shocked me, more...the creepy unnerving feeling this little dome gave me like we-shouldn't-be-here kind of feeling. Tommy was right we should have come at day time, or not at all.
Toby hadn't been prepared for my sudden stop and had barged right into me, I swayed on one foot swearing. I knew I was going to fall before I did, I could feel my bag's weight dragging me sideways, pulling me off balance.
Toby made a grab for me, latching on to my bag and pulling backwards. It saved me from the deep pool of water in the centre of the cave, but unfortunately swung me face first into the side of the arch.
"Ugh" I moaned blinking wildly. I could feel blood running down my face and taste blood in my mouth. I spat a mouth-full of dribble and blood into the water in front of me.
"Ow" I moaned my face scrunching up in pain, trying not to cry, crying sucked.
I paid no attention to the others scrambling trying to get close to make sure I was ok.
"Aw damn! I dropped the fricking torch." I grumbled pushing the others away from me, reaching my hand towards the torch that was just outside my grasp.
"I don't like it here, I want to go home, I want Mum" Minnie whimpered grabbing Tommy's arm tightly. The words had barely left her lips before I let out a blood curdling scream. I'm surprised it didn't bring the cave down.
Toby was nearest and saw what was happening seconds before the others in the poorly lit cave, staring dumbstruck at me, as I tried my damnedest to grab onto anything in the cave that I'd be able to resist and pull myself back towards my family with, any rock, any ledge.
Somehow the bumpy dangerous cave that we'd stumbled through watching our footing seemed smooth and ever more sinister. Though I'd known instantly what was happening as soon as it had happened and instincts to flee had kicked in it took a little for it register with me that what was actually happening...was actually happening.
I looked down mouth open with horror at the hand of water that had wrapped its fingers around my wrist tightly and was slowly pulling me towards the deep pool. It had grabbed hold of me as my own fingers had gripped back onto the torch.
Oh god I'm going to drown was the last thing I thought before an arm emerged up to an elbow yanking me into the water swiftly dragging me deeper until I slammed into the cave floor. I could hear screaming around me as Tommy, Toby and Minnie screeched and dived...or were dragged into the water with me.
I could feel myself slipping further and further into unconsciousness. Although the hand had disappeared there was still a force pulling me against the floor of the pool, I fought harder and harder, but it was no good.
If I hadn't have been in water I would have bawled like a baby as my eyes met Toby's he reached out towards me before the water swept us violently apart from side to side. A young woman's face appeared in the water smiling down at me as I closed my eyes, running out of air and fight, and drowned.
