Chapter Two
Once the officers had finished talking there was a deadly silence as the family took in what they had just been told. Esmeralda shook her head but she did not believe it at all.
"No you are wrong" Esmeralda said alerting the adults to her presence. One of the officers looked at her sympathetically and her parents looked at her sadly.
"Esmeralda how long have you been there?" Mrs Hallow asked. She did not reply.
"W...why do you think it is Ethel?" Mr Hallow managed to ask quietly not understanding.
"We would not have known but she was holding this" Officer Williams said as he reached into his pocket pulling something shiny out. Esmeralda gasped out as she saw what it was. It was a gold locket and Esmeralda recognised it instantly because she had been the one who brought it for Ethel.
"That's Ethie's!" she replied staring at the golden locket in shock.
"Yes that is right, we managed to track down where it was brought and by whom, when we looked inside we realised you were the person who brought the locket and you had two sisters which is how we realised this locket belonged to your sister, it was the pictures inside that helped us" PC Kennedy replied as he looked at the girl. There was a picture of Esmeralda and Ethel in the locket. Esmeralda stared at the piece of jewellery unable to remove her eyes away from it.
"H...How sure are you that it is Ethel...I mean you said there was two girls it could have being pulled off" Mrs Hallow told the officers wanting to grasp at straws, anything to not have to believe the truth.
"That is a very good point Mrs Hallow, we think it might be wise if someone came to identity the body" PC Williams suggested knowing as Mrs Hallow said there could have been a mix-up.
"Yes that will be best, the two girls involved look very similar so we don't want a case of mistaken identity" PC Williams told them.
"What happened to the other girl?" Esmeralda asked them curiously.
"She is barely alive but she is alive, she is in a coma right now" one of the officers replied and Esmeralda hoped that she was Ethel, it was a case of mistaken identity, it had to be, she needed it to be.
"Very well can you take us there now?" Mr Hallow asked putting his arm around his wife and the officers nodded.
"I want to come" Esmeralda told them not wanting to be away from her little sister. Mr and Mrs Hallow agreed as they did not have the energy to fight with her but on the condition that she would have to wait outside, the parents did not want to scare their youngest yet if it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity so they left her in the care of the servants and maids, not something they normally would do but they had no time to find someone else at such short notice.
The family arrived at the hospital and Esmeralda was made to wait outside as her parents went in to identify the body. Sitting down by herself in the waiting room the young teenager's thoughts came into her mind.
She couldn't and would not believe it was Ethel. Her Ethel was alive she had to be, the thought of her not being was way to much for Esmeralda, so she told herself that it was a mistake. Her mother and father would come out of the room saying it was the other girl and though Ethel would be ill she could cope with it because she was still alive and she could see her and before she knew it her sister would be out of hospital. Yes that was right, Ethel was going to be okay.
This was the exact reason the girl was being so calm. She did not believe it, the locket was her sister's but maybe it got pulled off or something, there was a reason for it that made sense and in a minute her parents would come out and tell her that this had all being a horrible dream.
So why were her parents being so long? Ten minutes went by, then fifteen, twenty, with every minute that went by Esmeralda found herself become anxious, could her parents not understand every second was killing her? why were they not coming to reassure her everything would be okay and that it was not her baby sister in there...unless it was because she really was...no Esmeralda told herself don't think it, Ethel was okay she had to be.
Half an hour had gone by and Esmeralda had had enough of waiting and worrying so she stood up preparing to go in herself but just then the door opened and Mr and Mrs Hallow walked out.
They both looked awful to say the least. Red puffy eyes and red noses, clearly they had been crying. Mrs Hallow was holding a tissue which she was holding to her face and Mr Hallow had his arm around her looking like he himself was struggling to lead them both. Esmeralda started to feel physically sick but she told herself they were upset at seeing their daughter in a coma like state that was all.
Her parents walked towards her slowly still crying silently and Esmeralda waited anxiously.
"Darling..." her mother got out as if she could not say anything else.
"It is not true right? It is not Ethel is it?" Esmeralda asked holding on to her last bit of hope.
"I am sorry baby...she...she is gone" her father got out slowly before crying.
Esmeralda's whole world stopped in that moment as she realised it was true and she could not try to deny it to herself anymore. Ethel was really gone, her baby sister, her Ethie. In that moment the reality hit her and suddenly she felt like someone had just hit her with a brick, the room turned fuzzy and her chest was hurting.
"No" the teenager got out feeling her heart physically shatter.
"Baby..." her mother said trying to consult her.
"No...NO!" Esmeralda shouted before she found herself running.
She had no idea where she was going all she knew was she had to get away in that moment, she could hear her parents calling her but she ignored them and just kept running away, running away from the truth.
She ran for a good few minutes until she realised she had ran straight outside the hospital and stopped running to try and catch her breathe before realising she was about to throw up. She ran to the corner of the building and threw up in some bushes.
The girl had been holding it in for hours but she physically could not anymore. She found herself falling onto her knees before finally allowing herself to burst into tears. As she cried she could hear someone in the background saying her name but she did not look up to see who it was not even when she felt whoever it was put their arms around her, if anything that made her ten times worse.
The girl found herself crying on the legs of whoever this person was, she recognised the voice but her mind was so fuzzy she could not place who it was. The young girl screamed as she cried sobbing her heart out over her little sister.
Esmeralda could not cope with the fact her sister was dead. Ethel was the girl's whole world, she loved that girl more than anything, she had no idea how to live without Ethie there, she needed her there.
"Esmeralda" the girl heard someone say more clearly. She could feel whoever it was pulling on her trying to help her up but Esmie felt like she had lost control of her body, she was much to weak to move, so instead of sitting up the girl flopped back down lying on her stomach on the concrete floor just crying into the ground.
"Ethie" the teenager started to say completely hysterical just wanting her baby sister in that moment. Wanting the girl to appear and tell her she was okay.
"Esmeralda sweetheart, should we go inside?" the familiar voice said. The person was not trying to be mean, they were trying to get her inside because she was lying right in front of the entrance of the hospital and a lot of people were looking at her as if she had just escaped from a mental hospital.
"Ethie, Ethie, ETHIE, ETHIIE, ETHIIIE" the girl shouted getting louder each time she was completely inconsolable as after all her world had just ended. Her worst nightmare was a reality.
The girl was getting a lot of attention, some of the people looking very concerned about her and others rolled their eyes thinking she was having a meltdown because of a boyfriend or something.
Esmeralda's relative did not know what to do. She could not leave her lying on the floor all day screaming and crying but she could not carry the girl, she was too heavy and the thing was the girl did not seem to be calming down.
The girl cried just as much as she had when she started crying struggling to catch her breathe with how worked up she was, still screaming out her little sister's nickname.
Esmeralda was not even aware of the world around her only of the pain she was feeling at that moment, she could not see, she could not hear all she could do was feel, feel the unbearable pain.
Esmeralda did not remember what happened next because suddenly she felt everything going black as the world turned to darkness.