My Discovery
That morning the two girls got ready immediately upon waking up. Mary again donned her green dress, and she helped Viola pick a new non-blood stained dress, eventually settling upon a green sundress that Mary used when she was younger, since it was one of the few outfits that actually fit her. She looked over to the red-eyed girl who was combing the knots out of her purple hair, and decided to ask, "Why do you like green so much?"
Mary shrugged, "I've like the color ever since I was young."
"That's it?" Viola asked.
"There is a bit more to the story, but it would take a long time to explain." Mary chuckled, and pulled at a particularly stubborn knot, "Oh, sorry!"
Viola felt tears at the corners of her eyes from that, but blinked a few times to rid them, "Ah – It's ok. I wasn't sure what I was expecting really. You're a witch, so I figured you might have some magical reason or something."
"There's nothing magical about my liking of the color green! I'm sorry to disappoint!" Mary said with a laugh, and continued to comb Viola's hair.
After that, the two had a quick breakfast, and it was again quiet. Mary would glance worriedly at Viola occasionally, but Viola just ignored it, thinking about what she would be doing once she left. A little bit after eating, the two got some shoes on, and went out the front door.
The walk through the sunlit woods was very silent, both of them lost in their thoughts. Viola's mind kept replaying the events she had gone through up until now, and it wouldn't stop at all. She almost wanted to just turn back and run away, but she couldn't do that, she had to know. There had to be a reason that Ellen would be so willing to make a pact with a demon and kill her friend. However, the longer it took to walk to the place, the more and more she began to shake.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Mary asked as she placed her hand on Viola's shoulder.
"I'm sure." She nodded, "I – I'm just really nervous. I don't know if I'll find anything worthwhile."
"It'll be fine," Mary remarked, giving Viola's shoulder a light squeeze as she let go and continued to lead the two of them through the woods, avoiding the occasional twigs and bushes her and there. Viola looked around – she hadn't realized that Mary had walked so far out of the way. The woman must have been incredibly strong if she had carried her all this way back to her house.
She heard Mary let out a gasp, and the two finally appeared out in an opening.
"This is where I found you." Mary whispered to Viola, pointing to a particular spot on the ground.
Viola didn't know how she'd react to seeing where her mutilated body was lying only a few days ago, but she didn't expect to suddenly throw up as she noticed the dried blood on the grass where she had forcibly dragged herself to chase Ellen. She coughed up the rest of her breakfast, and blinked, getting the tears out of her eyes as she again looked up. Mary was silent, just patting her back as she continued to cough.
"I'm sorry," Viola muttered, "I didn't think I'd react like that..."
"It's fine." Mary answered.
Viola slowly went over to the spot, her legs shaking as she did so. Finally, she stood exactly where she was lying down, and then turned to face where she knew her father and Ellen had been standing. Her father was right there with his shotgun, and Ellen in her body, putting on an act of looking scared so her dad would actually shoot her! Viola reached up to press her hand where her scar was on her shoulder, her thoughts spiraling further and further downward.
"Viola." Mary called.
She snapped out of her thoughts, "Thank you..." She mumbled, looking away from the spot and turning over to Mary, "That's where my dad stood when he... shot me."
"I see." Mary muttered, "I don't understand why he'd do it though."
"He thought I was a monster." Viola whispered, "He couldn't tell that it was me, even though I was calling out to him, asking him for help..."
Mary was silent, and only watched as Viola quickly recomposed herself, and glanced back over to her, "I want to go to the house now. Standing here is doing me no good."
"Ok." Mary nodded, "It's this way."
"I know," Viola said, "I used to come here a lot..."
With that said, the two walked down the path towards the house, and soon they came across a very large house, easily ten times larger than Mary's humble home, maybe even larger. Mary couldn't help but look up and let out a whistle at the massive size of the place. Viola instead looked down at the path of blood on the floor, and shuddered again at the memory, of the pain that she was in when she was desperately chasing after Ellen, hoping to get her body back and to be relieved of the horrible pain she was in.
"I'm going in now." Viola said, looking up at Mary, "Don't come in after me."
"I know," Mary answered, "You told me that last night. I'll be right out here if you need me. I promise."
"Thank you for everything." Viola tried to smile at the woman, but there was little for her to be smiling about. Instead she nodded at her.
"It's the least I could do," Mary repeated, "I hope you find the answers you seek in there."
"Me too." Viola said, "I'll be back."
Mary nodded, and watched as the purple haired youth stepped through the front doors of the building. The doors closed behind her with a loud bang, and Mary couldn't help but shake her head.
"I hope she comes to understand that any ideas of revenge are futile." She shook her head and frowned, "Trying to teach a thirteen year old child that is an effort in futility though... They must come to that conclusion themselves, before they'll truly believe in it."
XxXxXxX
She wasn't entirely sure what to expect upon entering the house, but other than the doors closing behind her without her input, the house didn't seem too bad. At the entry way she took off her shoes, being sure to avoid stepping in the dried blood on the floor, and reached for the light switch, letting out a pleased sigh when the power actually worked. She could vaguely recall in her time of pain when she somehow was able to force the power to stay off, but whatever power she had then had long ago left her.
With the light on, she blinked a few times – the house seemed a bit different than she remembered now. The paths had changed – again, she believed it had something to do with the power she had wielded in her attempt to get her own body back. She shook her head, trying to get rid of the memories of her pain, and she instead started to walk to the left, following the blood trail she had painted on the ground with her legs several days ago.
She felt her stomach heaving once more, and she quickly took a few deep breaths.
"I'm fine now," She repeated over and over, and finally she opened her eyes. Sensing that she wasn't about to throw up, she continued onward, being sure to avoid looking at the blood any longer, and soon she entered a very large dining room, where an absolutely massive table was set up neatly in the middle of the room, with plates and candles all out and set up, as if a feast was going to occur at any moment. At the far end of the table was a fireplace, and all around the walls of the room were paintings and creepy looking suits of armor.
Seeing this place triggered a memory from Ellen, during her childhood, when the girl was no more than six years old. She didn't know why, but standing there made the memory much more vivid, and she allowed it to overflow her consciousness.
XxXxXxX
"Ellen," An older woman with long purple hair and eyes of the same color said as she adjusted the cute little dress her daughter was wearing, "Make sure to behave for the guests, all right?"
The two of them were in the little girl's room. There was a bed in a corner, a desk beside it, and a dresser beside that. Ellen and her mother were both currently on the opposite side of the bed, where Ellen's closet and a large mirror were.
"I don't like these parties..." Ellen whined as her mother began to comb her hair, "They're boring."
"Come now," Her mother said lightly, "They're not that bad, are they?"
Ellen frowned, but said nothing.
"How are you feeling?" Her mother asked.
Ellen knew she was referring to her illness, so she said honestly, "I'm feeling fine right now, mommy."
"That's good," Her mother smiled, "But you ought to take your pills before going downstairs and meeting the guests, just in case."
Ellen nodded, "Ok."
Her mother was more than prepared, and pulled out a bottle of pills from her pocket, and took two out and handed them to her daughter, "Do you need some water?"
"No," Ellen shook her head. The girl had long ago gotten used to swallowing them dry, and did so with absolutely no problems.
Her mother smiled as gave the girl a pat on the head, and she finally stood up from her crouch, finally satisfied with how her daughter looked.
"Are you almost done, Natasha?" A man asked as he walked into the room, wearing a very formal suit, adjusting his tie as he walked in. The man had brown hair, but most interestingly he had gold colored eyes. He gave Ellen a quick look before turning his gaze back to his wife.
"We just finished," Natasha said, looking to her daughter, "How does she look?"
"Fine," The man said, not even glancing at her, "Did she take her pills?"
"Yes, she did." Natasha smiled, patting the girl on the head again, "Are you ready to go?"
Ellen nodded, and stood up, gripping her mother's hand as she led her out of the room, following quickly behind her father. He strode down the stairs quickly, and Ellen started to lose her breath as she tried to keep up with her parents quick pace, and she couldn't help but feel a bit of relief when she got to the bottom of the stairs, and they went into the large dining room.
There were already a large amount of people scattered around the room. The staff of the mansion was busy bustling themselves about as they helped those all around the room, serving those sitting at the table and refilling wine glasses. Several people were gathered at the table eating, while a majority were standing around in groups of three or four all around the large and lavished room, a glass of wine in their hands as they talked quietly among themselves.
"Ah, Eric." One of the well dressed men came forward and addressed Ellen's father, "You're finally here."
"I'm sorry," Eric apologized quickly, "I had to make sure my daughter was all right."
"Ah, your daughter." The man spoke, glancing down at the purple haired child, "I'm so sorry to hear that her illness has gotten worse."
Eric smiled at the sympathy, but waved it off, "I'm sure she'll recover soon..." His eyes averted in worry however as he said that.
The other man picked up on it however, and raised a brow, but didn't say more. Meanwhile, Ellen was taken around the room to the groups of people to introduce herself, again, to them all. She did as her mother had made her rehearse time and time again, she would bow, politely tell them her name, and then stand there as her mother would talk to them.
"I'm so sorry to hear about her illness."
That was the most common thing they would say, and Ellen slowly started to hate it. These people... They hardly cared. All they cared about was their image, since they were invited to a party that her parents threw. She had no clue about her mom or dad's occupation, but she at least knew it was for some big company, especially since so many people came to these parties.
"Ellen, is it?" An older gentleman asked as he walked into her vision.
"That's me," Ellen politely bowed to him.
"I've heard about your illness." The man said, "And I just want you to know, you're very strong. You remind me of my own daughter, and I'm sure that if they saw you right now, they'd be inspired to behave as well as you do, and do as well as you do in school."
Ellen wanted to roll her eyes - she wished she could go to a real school, instead of having one of the staff members teach things to her, but instead she smiled, "Thank you."
"I ought to go now," The man said, looking at his watch, "Good luck." He gave her a quick and rough pat on the head, and made his way out.
Ellen wandered the floor now, bored out of her mind, and just tried to stay out of people's way. Whenever someone confronted her, she did as her mother told her to do. She noticed across the room that her mother was wiping her eye as she was talking, and she made her way over.
"I – It's hard..." Her mother cried.
"She's a very strong little girl, she'll make it..." One of the men in the group standing around her stated.
"You're too kind." The woman said with a smile, wiping her eyes, gently enough so it wouldn't ruin her make up.
Ellen frowned sadly at the sight – her mother did at least play with her, and she knew her mother cared for her - why wouldn't she? However, it seemed lately that her mother was growing more and more distant. She almost wanted to cry, since the woman had slowly began to ignore her, and instead would focus on her work. She must have looked liked she was about to cry, because an overly well dressed woman came over to her.
"What's wrong?" She asked soothingly, "Are you feeling fine?"
"I - " Ellen didn't get to finish her sentence, since the moment she opened her mouth to talk, she suddenly felt sick to her stomach, and she collapsed to the floor, emptying the contents of her stomach.
"Help!" The woman had called out, and Ellen watched as a large group of people gathered around her. This is why she hated her illness... She would always seem fine, but then it would hit her instantly like this, making her feel really bad.
"M – mom..." She mumbled.
"Right here..." The woman said, wrapping her arms around her daughter, "Are you feeling better?"
She shook her head, feeling too sick to do much else.
"Come on, I'll take you to bed." Her mother picked her up, and Ellen watched as the staff began to clean up the mess she made. She turned her head, and saw her father watching her with his piercing gold eyes, as she was taken out of the room by her worried mother. She didn't see worry in his face, instead all she saw was indifference. She felt another bout of sickness hitting her, and she closed her eyes tightly as she gritted her teeth, trying to keep it down.
XxXxXxX
Viola opened her eyes and shook her head. That had been far more vivid than she expected, and she felt a little nausea from the experience. She walked over to the table, and took a seat on one of the chairs scattered around.
"Her dad seemed to not care, but why does she hate her mother? She seemed to at least worry about her, and took her up to her room when she got sick. I still don't understand why she resorted to murdering them..." She sifted through Ellen's memories again, and it DID seem that Natasha did start to grow more and more distant with her from that point on for some odd reason.
"Maybe if I explore more, I can experience more of those." She decided, "It's as if the house itself remembers these..." She mumbled, looking up around the house, but nothing changed.
Shaking her head at the absurd thought, she finally stood back up. If she wanted to have more memories like that, then she was going to need to explore the whole household. She turned around and pushed her chair in, needless as it was, and then she started to walk down the length of the table towards the fireplace. The right and left there were some doors. She vaguely remembered through the left door was the kitchen, so she decided to take a right, which led to another long hallway, where she finally took another door to her left.
Through this door was another large room with yet another fireplace, and this time instead of the room being a gigantic dining room, it was instead a living room. She closed the door behind herself, and switched on the lights, revealing that there were several very large bookshelves filled nearly to the brim with books scattered all along the walls. She walked towards one of the shelves near the fireplace, and reached forward, pulling one of the books out of the shelf, and started to cough at the amount of dust that doing that had produced.
"These haven't been touched in years," She quickly deduced as she took the book and flipped it over to read the front, "Edgar Allan Poe." She mumbled, "Figures that a place like this would have his books lying around..." She mumbled. She settled the book down on a nearby chair at the fireplace, and looked at the mantle above the fireplace, and noticed that there were pictures hanging there.
"These must be of Ellen," She whispered as she picked up the nearest frame, depicting a young girl who was just four years old, smiling widely at the camera and waving her waves in joy. All the other pictures were similar to that, "Where are the pictures of her mom and dad?" She wondered as she looked along the length of the mantle, realizing that they were only displaying Ellen from when she was a child to about two years ago. The only other thing in the photos was a black cat starting from when she was about seven years old.
She put the picture back and sat down in the chair she had set down the book by Poe down, and then she felt another memory coming to the forefront of her mind. Like before, she didn't fight it, and instead allowed it to take up her whole head, and she immersed herself in yet another memory of Ellen, from when she was a child.
XxXxXxX
"I'm bored." Ellen moaned, the seven year old walked over near the fireplace, where she saw both her mom and dad reading reports and other such things for their companies. Her mom looked very tired, but her father seemed to be putting his all into what he was doing.
"Ellen?" Her mom looked up, "You're out of your room! You you were sick this morning, are you feeling better now?"
"Yeah," Ellen nodded, "I feel better."
"You took your pills, right?" Her father asked, not even looking up from the paper he was reading. He was currently wearing glasses, and his sharp eyes darted from one side of the page to the next quickly – he hardly noticed his daughters presence.
"I did." Ellen answered.
Her mother set aside her paper as she looked at the girl, "I'm sorry dear, but we're both very busy right now. Can't you play in your room?"
Ellen's frown deepened, "But you haven't played with me in forever..."
Her mother visibly withered under her daughter's watery eyes, and she finally sighed, "I'm sorry, I can't do what you want..." She turned to glance over at Eric, giving him a very hard stare. The man ignored it for the most part, "Etic." She said, finally calling attention to him.
He groaned as he looked up, looking very unimpressed, "What."
"Maybe we should get a pet for our dear daughter..." She smiled when she saw the look of pure happiness come across Ellen's face.
"A pet?" The man scoffed, "I'm not going to waste mine or the staff's time with such a frivolous thing." He glared at his wife, "You know why it would be a bad idea."
"Please?" Ellen put her arms together, and did her best impression of a puppy as she looked at her father.
The man spared her only a quick glance, and rolled his eyes, "You'll have to take care of it. I'm not wasting the staff's time with a pet."
"Ok!" Ellen nodded her head in excitement.
"Then go do as you wish." The man said, looking down the report yet again, his eyes began to dart from side to side.
Natasha sighed at her husband's antics, and set her papers aside as she went over to Ellen, "Come on, let's get you dressed."
The two went upstairs to Ellen's room, where Natasha began to prepare her daughter for their time out. In the end, Natasha dressed her daughter up in a cute red dress, and she herself wore simply a blouse and skirt. She smiled as her daughter did a little twirl in the mirror.
"Oh, I almost forgot!" Ellen went over to her nightstand, and picked up her pills.
"Oh, don't worry about that." He mother quickly reached forward to the pills and set them back down, "You'll be fine if you don't take them once in a while. You said you already took them earlier today, right?"
"I did!" Ellen smiled, "Can we go now?"
Her mother returned her smile, "Sure."
At the store, Ellen picked out a cute black kitten that she fell in love with at first sight, and her mother had bought it for her immediately. The drive home consisted of Ellen cuddling the critter and claiming how much she was going to take care of him and love him for the rest of her life. Ellen missed the frown her mother had on the whole ride home though, and the woman never once smiled at the store.
The following days were a blur for Ellen, since she now had a brand new friend to play with her. Whenever her mom and dad were busy – which was almost all the time now – she would go seek out her feline friend, and play with her. They would go on adventures throughout the house, and it was clear that the animal was a hit with the staff as well, since they would occasionally feed the cat whenever it came near them.
When she was sick, her pet cat would cuddle up at her feet, falling asleep and keeping an eye out for his loving owner. It had been years since Ellen felt this happy.
The only real downside was that since she had a pet now, it was always an excuse for her parents to continue to ignore her.
They were at the fireplace again, this time simply reading books for enjoyment. Her father was reading the works of Edgar Allan Poe, and her mother was also reading something, Ellen couldn't see the title, and didn't really care that much.
"Play with me!" She said, running up to her mother's lap and putting her arms across it.
"Dear..." Her mother looked wearily down at her, "Please, not now."
"But you never play with me anymore..." Ellen mumbled.
"Don't you have that cat to play with?" Her father asked, giving her an annoyed glance, "Go mess around with that thing. That's the whole purpose for buying it in the first place."
"But I wanna play with mommy..." She whined, "I love you!"
Her mother visibly shuddered when the girl said that, and she desperately looked up towards Eric, "Dear... Maybe we should...?"
Ellen frowned then, was her mother just wanting to play with her to get her to leave? She felt tears stinging her eyes, and slowly backed away.
"What did I tell you?" The man said, setting his book down, fury visible in his face for the first time that Ellen could remember, "No!"
"Eric!" She cried, "We – we should -."
"Shut up woman!" He bellowed, he looked over to Ellen, "Go away! Mom and dad are very, very busy right now!"
Ellen backed away in fear at the anger her father was displaying towards her, and she ran out as quickly as her little legs could take her, intending to hide in her room. She could hear shouting behind her, but she couldn't make out the words. She didn't mean to make them fight! She really didn't mean it! She got into her bed, and wrapped her blanket around herself, and began to cry, wishing that she hadn't angered her mom and dad so much.
XxXxXxX
Viola couldn't figure it out. She knew what Ellen's emotions were at the times she had her memories, so she knew that Ellen had interpreted her mother's pleading looks to her dad as hatred for her – her mother just wanted to play with her to just to get her out of the way. Viola could feel the immense amount of hatred that Ellen felt for both of her parents, specifically from the one memory she just lived, but she couldn't help but pity the girl.
It wasn't hatred – her mother was pleading to be able to play with her because she loved her.
"How did she misinterpret that?" She wondered aloud, and then thought back to what she had discussed with Mary the previous day, about how memories were filled with bias. She nodded her head slowly, unconsciously shoving her purple hair aside as it got in her vision, "Whatever is going on, I'm viewing the memories from an objective viewpoint..." She muttered, bringing up the same memory she saw from Ellen's memories, gaining the girl's perspective, and she saw how the other girl had witnessed it. For some reason, Ellen saw hatred, and this was the catalyst for her spiraling hatred for her parents – her dad in particular.
Viola could understand Ellen's hatred for her dad at the very least. The man clearly didn't care for her, and only seem to use her as a trophy to show around. The only problem was that she couldn't figure out WHY he was behaving like that. Why would the man have a child only to completely ignore her and have nothing to do with her?
"I don't understand..." She mumbled, picking up the Edgar Allan book, and she threw it into the unused fireplace, "What a jerk." She leaned back into the chair she was sitting in though, and wondered aloud, "But why murder? What was the final straw that made her decide that killing her parents was the only thing she could do? She seems normal in these memories, other than the fact that she's ill."
"I don't remember a cat being here when I visited..." She mumbled, and she again sifted through Ellen's memories, her eyes widening in horror, "The cat... it died?" She paused, trying to recall from Ellen's memories how it died, and her frown deepen the more she learned. Once the animal had died, it became the body that the demon possessed and used as its avatar in the world. Viola crossed her arms across her chest, seeing how the demon had killed her parents, and then talked to a very happy Ellen about making a deal, and the rest was history.
"These memories must be biased." Viola sighed, "I need to go around and try to find the more places like this one, to try and see an objective view." If she wanted to, she could call it a day. If Ellen's memories were to go by, her parents were the most vile and hateful people around, but she just found an inconsistency between what really happened and Ellen's memories, so it was safe to say there would definitely be more inconsistencies between the memories and what really happened.
Her gaze landed on the fireplace mantle, where only pictures of Ellen stood. She sifted through Ellen's memories, and saw nothing about it. They had apparently always been that way. Ellen either didn't notice, or didn't care, and just left them as they were. "There has to be a reason..." Viola mumbled as she continued to stare.
Finally she stood up, knowing that she had to go find more memories, so to speak. She decided to wander up the stairs on the opposite side of the living room, away from the fireplace. The stairs were creaking a little bit, but not overly loud, just enough to make her cringe with every step. Reaching the top took little time, and she emerged in a familiar hallway. She had walked down here several times whenever she visited Ellen.
She turned the lights on, and the place lit up. The hallway was lined with old pictures and paintings, with none of them depicting family or relatives. Several of the lights in the hall were out or flickering, but it still provided enough light for her to see well enough. If she took a left and went down to the second to last door, that would be Ellen's room, but she decided to go the other way – from Ellen's memories, she knew that her parent's room was the last door at the end of this hallway.
She reached the door at the end of the hallway, the hallway itself ending with a large window beaming in sunlight. She covered her eyes, and reached her free hand down to the doorknob, and frowned when the door wouldn't budge. She tried again with a bit more force, and yet again it wouldn't open. She let out a groan and slammed her body into the door a few times to try and open it, and like every other time, it refused to open.
"I need a key..." She mumbled, sliding down the door and she breathed in and out a few times, "Stupid body... If I was in my own I could do this." She then felt herself chuckle, "Well... Maybe not..." She stood up, giving the door an annoyed glare, and finally decided to go across the hall to Ellen's room, knowing that at least that place wasn't locked.
When she opened the door to Ellen's room, it was as she remembered... Mostly. There were a bunch of papers scattered all over the floor, and the bed was completely messed up, with blood trailing down into a big dried up splatter on the floor, and then a trail leading out into the hallway.
Viola honestly didn't expect her body to convulse when she saw the bed, and she realized immediately that she was having a panic attack. That was where the switch had happened! It was where Ellen forced her to drink that weird potion that destroyed her ability to talk! It was where... She closed her eyes as she fell to her knees, "Calm down!" She screamed to herself, trying to force her breathing to something more regular, gripping her head in her hands as tears came from her eyes.
Eventually did she calm down, and she looked up, the sight of the bed still caused her heart to jump every time she looked at it, but it hopefully wouldn't cause her to have a panic attack now. She wiped away her stray tears, and shakily got back to her feet, using the wall as support.
"I'm an idiot..." She mumbled, "I shouldn't have come in here..."
She walked over to the closet, where there was a cracked mirror, and she looked in, seeing Ellen's – her own – gold eyes staring back at her. This was only the second time she got a good look at her new body, and she hated it. She forcibly shoved the mirror to the ground, shattering it, and again felt another panic attack coming from the image of herself. She had been holding it down for a few days now, but now she was beginning to wonder if she'd be able to live in a new body, and willing give up everything she once had.
"Think about it later..." She whispered to herself, fortunately preventing herself from having a full blown panic attack like last time. She let out a deep breath, and she felt her thoughts beginning to take a darker turn again. Maybe this was a waste of time. There was no way Ellen was justified in what she did to her! In leaving her to die! She wanted that bitch to die! Mary's words came back to her though – to let her thoughts of vengeance go, and her rage subsided for now.
"I need to figure out if she's justified..." She sighed.
She stood up, and looked around the room in full now, and she felt a vivid memory from Ellen's mind. She leaned against the wall, and closed her eyes, allowing the memory to play.
XxXxXxX
Ellen was sitting in her bed, allowing the doctor to check up on her. He did all the typical things, checking her temperature, heart beat, blood pressure, and being sure to check her ears, nose, and throat, and he finally leaned back on the chair he had pulled up the girl's bed, rubbing his chin deep in thought as he watched the little girl give him a a hopeful stare.
"I'm sorry, but I still can't identify what's ailing her," The doctor finally spoke, looking over to Eric as he talked, "The medicine I gave you before had no effect at all?"
"None." Eric said, shaking his head from side to side, worry etched on his face, "It hasn't been years doctor, surely something should have worked by now?"
The doctor glanced to the floor, unable to hide his frown, "I'm sorry."
Eric reached his hand out towards his daughter, and rubbed her hair affectionately, giving her a weary smile, "It's ok, I'm sure they'll figure out something soon, you hear me?"
Ellen smiled, "Yeah!"
The doctor let out a sigh as he pulled out a clipboard, and attached a paper to it, and began to jot down notes, "Well, if what I gave you six months ago did no good, then perhaps this will do..." He mumbled to himself, and then he glanced up, "Here's a prescription note." He nodded politely to Eric, giving him the note, and then he reached into his bag, giving the girl some pills to swallow, "Here, take these for now, and be sure to drink lots of water."
"Ok." Ellen nodded, "I'll do it!"
A few minutes later, the doctor walked out of the room, leaving only Ellen, her cat at the foot of her bed, and her dad. Eric watched the man leave, and his entire demeanor changed, he quickly looked towards Ellen, and sneered, "Are you feeling better?"
Ellen looked down at her covers – her dad was back to the way he usually was. Whenever the doctor visited, or when they had guests over, he was always very nice to her, and she adored those times. It was when they were alone that she began to resent the man, and at the back on her mind, she slowly began to learn that she was beginning to hate him.
"I'm fine." She mumbled, "I feel better than I have in a while."
Her dad nodded, "I'm going to get your prescription, you'll be taking it later tonight. Any questions?"
"None." Ellen muttered, and she watched as her dad walked out of the room, not even giving her a second glance. It had now been almost a year since she got her pet cat, and in that time the eight year old couldn't help but grow to detest her father more and more, despite the books and stories she read claiming that parents were supposed to be nice! Her dad certainly didn't fit into that category at all! He was the one who made her mom stop paying any attention to her... The memory of her mom going out with her to pick out a cat was the last time the woman was even remotely kind to her, and every instance after that the woman would ignore her, and do what her dad wanted.
"I want a real daddy..." She cried to herself, turning onto her side and allowing bitter tears to fall down her face. Her pet cat, as if sensing her tears, came over to her, and began to purr as it rubbed the length of its body across her face, and the girl did smile, "Thank you..." She wrapped her arms around the cat, and pulled him to her, "I love you. You're my only friend."
The cat jumped off her bed, and it wandered out into the hall, so she got up and followed it down the hall, and she noticed that her parent's room door was open, and she heard voices coming from there. Looking to the left and right, making sure there were no staff around, she tip-toed over to the room, and leaned against the wall, listening in to whatever her parents were discussing.
"...I – I don't know." Natasha said, sitting on their bed, looking down at her feet, "I – Is this right?"
"Is this right?" Eric asked, his golden eyes glaring at the woman, "She's our child!"
"That's only an excuse!" Natasha cried, "Even if she's our child, we should be doing everything to help her!"
The man rolled his eyes, "Oh please, you're going along with it just as much as I am. Don't you dare take the moral high ground."
"I – I am..." She mumbled.
"Good. Now then, I'm going to go get this prescription so that -" He glanced up at the door, where the car that Ellen got came in mewling loudly, "Get that damn thing out of here!"
"Yes dear..." The woman shooed it out of the room, and closed the door.
"I don't understand why we bothered to get her such a thing." Ellen heard her dad say through the closed door, "It's a pest!"
"We did it for Ellen."
"Like I care what she wants." He growled.
"She's your daughter!"
Eric scoffed, "If you say so."
Ellen gasped – she knew her dad didn't like her, but to hear it so openly... She rushed over to her room, and slammed the door close. She ran to her bed, and covered her face in her pillow, and started to cry. Why didn't her dad like her? What did she do wrong? Could she fix it? She continued to cry, and slowly began to realize that the hate she felt for him was growing more and more.
She didn't mind... If he didn't care for her, why should she care for him?
XxXxXxX
"I can start to see why she wanted to kill her dad..." She mumbled as her mind came out from the intense memory, her emotions were haywire – half of her mind was hating the man, mostly coming from Ellen's memories, and half of her mind was – she hated to admit – beginning to pity Ellen. She got up from the floor, realizing that she had slid down the wall from how powerful the emotion from that memory was, and she made her way out of the room, glancing over at Ellen's parent's room.
"I bet if I can get in there, I can figure out why her dad hated her." She mumbled.
Unfortunately for her, to get in there, she'd need a key, and she honestly didn't know where it was, even going through Ellen's memories didn't reveal anything, which was odd, since Ellen's last memories of her parents were of their horrifying deaths, so that mean that someone, or something else locked the door, as if to prevent Ellen from going in there, but why would they want to make sure she stays out of that room? What purpose did it serve?
Tired of having questions and no answers, she walked back downstairs, and walked around, being sure to avoid looking at the blood stained floors. She eventually wandered back into the dining room, and took the door leading to the entrance of the house, and noticed that there was a hallway she had ignored before. Figuring that there was little reason not to go there, she followed it down, and eventually came upon a glass door, which led out into a very beautiful garden.
It was an enclosed spaced, with the house surrounding it on all sides, in in the center was a fountain with a bench in front of it. To either side were small ponds, and there were various doors leading back into the building to different areas. She wandered out into the garden, and took a seat down on the bench, and looked up at the sunlit sky, noting that it was probably around four in the afternoon now.
"This place must have been so beautiful when the staff was taking care of it." She mumbled, looking around, the mention of the staff brought up a horrible memory of Ellen sadistically allowing the demon to use the house to murder them all in horrible ways. She shook her head, trying to ward away the thoughts, and instead looked around some more, "There must be something out here that can trigger a memory."
She got up off of the bench, and wandered around the garden, looking at the dead flowers lining all along the building, and seeing vines growing up the sides of the house as well.
"What's this?" She mumbled, noticing something in one of the ponds as she passed by it. She got down onto her knees, and took a closer look, and could clearly see something red in the water. She hesitantly reached forward, dipping her hand into the water, and pulling out a plastic red bucket, "This... This is here because Ellen kicked it in..." She mumbled, the memory flooding her mind, "During her... Ninth birthday." She felt the memory coming to the forefront of her mind, and she knew this it was going to be another intense one.
She went over to the bench and sat down, and like the previous three times, she allowed it to immerse her consciousness in the memory.
XxXxXxX
A nine year old Ellen walked around her Garden with a red balloon in hand, and like every other party her parents threw before, she was making sure to avoid everyone as discreetly as possible. That day, November 13th, was her birthday, and she dearly wished it weren't. Like for every other major occasion in her life, her mom and dad made very big theatrics of caring for their 'poor' and 'sick' little girl, and they wanted her to have a good time before her untimely death, and they invited every person they could think of to the party.
Ellen knelt down near the pond, and looked into it, seeing the fish swimming around. She hated these parties. She hated her parents. She hated the people who came. She hated the staff who didn't know what a hell her life was. She was knocked out of her quickly darkening thoughts when she turned to see her pet cat walking over, softly mewling to her and purring as it rubbed its whiskers against her thigh. She let out a sigh, knowing that thinking like that would do her no good, and she quickly reached out to her only friend, scratching him on the head.
"Are you having fun?" She asked.
The cat meowed at her, causing the girl to smile.
"I suppose not," She couldn't help but giggle, "There's no other kids here... I'm bored."
She reached over and picked up her cat, and intended to go through the glass doors into the hallway, but she was intercepted by several party-goers. The men and women were all very formally dressed, despite the occasion just being her birthday, and they all would tell her how much they found her illness to be horrible, but several of them would say 'God always has a reason'. She absolutely HATED it when people said that. So this 'God' of theirs made her sick for some reason? Why would he be so cruel? She didn't want to believe in any god who could be so cruel.
She finally reached the door, and made she to straighten out her blue gown that her parents had practically forced her to wear. With that out of the way, she set down her cat, and the two walked down the hallway.
"I'm going to my room," She decided, "I'd rather pretend to be really sick today than meet with all of these people."
With that decided she, and the cat following her, went into the large dining room, where like every single other party before, many guests mingled. In particular, she saw her dad at the table, chatting with several guys, and like every other party before, her dad was talking about her as if he cared! She hated him for that! He was a careless old man, and she – she wished he'd die...
Her cat mewled again at her feet, disrupting her dark thoughts once more, "Ah, I'm sorry." She mumbled, picking him up, "Thank you for not letting me think like that." She scratched behind his ears, and the cat purred in satisfaction.
She walked further into the dining room, and saw the gigantic stacks of presents on the table. There had to be at least three dozen presents, perhaps even more. There was also the cake, which she would have to make a wish, which would inevitably not come true – the same wish she made every year:
'I wish my parents loved me'.
She frowned, trying not to dwell on her sadness, and she made her way to the door leading to the hallway where she could go upstairs to her room, but her mother must have seen her, and the woman quickly rushed over to her.
"Dear," Her mother grabbed her arm, "There's some guests I want to introduce you to."
"Do I have to? I'm not feeling good." Ellen lied. She generally hated her illness, but at least it did have its uses at times.
"It'll only be for a little bit," The woman waved it off, and forced Ellen over to a group of tall men and women, all of whom were dressed like every other party goers – in expensive suits and dresses that Ellen detested.
"Hello, Ellen." One of the men in the mingling group waved lightly as he saw the little girl being dragged over by her mother, "how are you doing?"
"Fine." Ellen replied curtly.
"That's good." The man smiled, though it was clear it was fake. He was just probably trying to get favor with her mom for something at work, if she had to guess.
Ellen watched the very familiar scene play out as it did every other time her mom or dad introduced her to some guests. When it was her dad, he would act very affectionate towards her, patting her shoulder, giving her encouraging smiles, and in general acting like he actually cared for her. Her mother, on the other hand, did things a little differently. The people would talk about her illness, which would cause her mother to burst into tears, and soon the men and women around would comfort her in her time of need. Ellen was so used to the act now that she didn't even register what was going on now.
"I wanna go," Ellen complained to her mom, "I'm bored."
Her mother looked at the girl, "Go outside and play with some toys or something," She said, "I'll even let you take a single present."
Ellen let out a moan, "Fine..."
She went over the boxes and boxes of presents, and picked the nearest one, and made her way outside once more into the garden, where fortunately the amount of people had decreased significantly. She took a seat on the bench, and, despite her earlier protests, she did eagerly unwrap the box in an eager race to see what was inside.
"Wha – what...?" She mumbled, seeing what was inside.
Plastic buckets and shovels, among other things to take to the beach and play with in the sand. She frowned deeply upon seeing the content, and felt tears brimming from her eyes. She shoved the box aside very roughly, and covered her eyes, letting go of her balloon, letting it sail up into the sky in the process.
Did these people know she couldn't visit the beach? She only read about it, and saw it on the TV occasionally, but her parents always refused her to go there, so she could only wonder what it was like to have sand going through her toes, what it was like to see a vast body of water, and what swimming would be like! Those were things she would never experience, because of her horrible illness. She tried to contain her sniffles, but it was a futile effort, whenever she was confronted with something that reminded her of her desire to go outside and explore, she would fall apart.
"I hate my life," She cried to herself, glad that no one was near by.
Her cat came over and meowed at her, and she perked her head up, and smiled through her tears, "I – I guess I can play with it here."
The thought honestly excited her. She went over to the pond nearby, and again got on her knees, and started opening the box, and pulling out all the plastic shovels, buckets, and molds that she could use to shape the sand - or dirt in this instance - however she wanted. She could pretend her pond was an ocean, and so she used the shovel to begin digging up the dirt at her feet, and a rare smile crossed her face, as she placed the dirt into the bucket, filling it nearly to the top.
"And I do this, right?" She turned to address her cat, who simply mewled in response. She smiled, and poured the dirt into a mold of a starfish, and she quickly patted it down so it wouldn't all fall out when she turned the mold around to plant it on the ground. When it was in tight enough, she put it on the ground, and lifted the mold, and let out a laugh of delight, seeing that the mold had created the shape she desired.
She continued to play in the dirt for another ten minutes, having the time of her life, pretending that she was at the beach, when suddenly she heard a gasp, "Ellen? You're getting your dress all dirty! Stop that this instant!"
She looked up, and saw her father stomping over to her, and she noticed that several people were watching and started to gossip about the scene.
"I'm just having fun..." Ellen mumbled.
"You're playing in the dirt, dear. That can't be good for your illness." He said with fake concern in his voice, "Now come on, let's get you inside and clean you up."
"Why do you do that?" She whispered.
"Do what?"
"Why do you pretend to care for me?" She asked, tears beginning to stream down her face, "Why do you act like the dad I want only when people are around?" She wiped her eyes, "You're just a fake."
Her father bristled at that, but amazingly he calmed down. She expected him to lash out at her, but she supposed with people all around, that would do little good for his image. Instead, he took a step forward, and smashed the mold of the starfish she made earlier with his foot, "Come on, dear. I promise I'll clean you up."
She bit her bottom lip in an attempt to stop her crying, but it did little good, "I don't wanna..."
Now he started to get visibly annoyed. He let out an annoyed sigh, and shook his head, "Dear. You're too sick to be playing in the dirt! Who knows what kind of diseases you could catch doing that! You must be cleaned at once."
She knew she wasn't going to win this, so she just stood up, and dejected kicked the red plastic bucket she was using to dig up dirt with into the pond, "Fine..."
She was led away by her father, who had gently picked her up, and took her upstairs to the bathroom. She wrapped her arms around him, wishing against fate that he would keep on acting like this for the rest of her life – that he could act like the loving father he pretended to be, but it was a useless hope. The moment they stepped into the bathroom, the man's furious glare turned on her, and he quickly slapped her across the face hard, causing her to stagger into the wall.
"You ALWAYS do as I say, you got that?" He practically snarled at her, "I don't want people to think you're an insolent little girl!"
She just nodded.
"Good." He stood up straight and adjusted his tie, "I've got a party to get back to. I'll have the staff escort you down when it's time to cut your cake, but until then, you're grounded to your room."
"Ok..." She mumbled.
"Good," He turned around and left, leaving the dejected nine year old leaning against the wall. With no one there, she openly started to cry, knowing that her birthday wish wasn't going to come true this year either.