Sorry this chapter took so long, but I had to do a lot work. So it wasn't possible to update the story earlier. But now it's finished and I hope you will like this really important chapter. Have fun and don't forgive to review!
5. Chapter "Speak"
Vanessa sits on the bed of Ciaran. He is so cute when he sleeps, his hair stands slightly away from his head and his right arm lies bent under his head. She could not understand why his mother leaves him and his sisters alone so often. Even if her husband is dead, she has still her children.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Vanessa is frightened and looks to the window. It was only one branch of the beech tree in the front garden. The wind moves it and one of the gnarled branches touch the pane of the window. She takes a book which she had put in her bag when she was at home, before she had rushed over here to take care of the four children. She opens her book up to the page where she had stopped and begins to read, but after a few minutes her thoughts begin to swirl again and she cannot concentrate on the book. Vanessa looks at her watch. She has no idea why she is so restless. Again and again she looks to the window as if expecting the noise to begin again, but there is no sound and she turns to her book.
The large grandfather clock begins to strike midnight. She sighs and leans back in her great pillow. Two thousand times in this night she thinks if she forgot something. She and Robert want to go to New York tonight when Mrs. Chatterley comes back. She is tired of everyone telling her that Robert isn't the right one for her. Vanessa is looking forward to getting away from her petty, overbearing parents.
Suddenly she remembers that she forget to locked the balcony door which lead to the dining-room. Vanessa jumps off the bed and in the same moment she is certain she hears footsteps downstairs. She stops a moment thinking it is her own heart beating, but there is still another noise. It becomes louder and louder. How could there be steps there?
"You aren't imagining these things, Vanessa." She thought.
Downstairs in the hall she hears the creak of the floorboards clearly. The children stay in their beds and their steps are easy and springy. But these steps are heavy and strong. Vanessa's knees are shaking when she comes closer to the first step of the staircase, then the light goes out and she is standing in darkness for outside it is cloudy and therefore it is also dark.
Ciaran becomes awake, because someone is shaking his shoulder.
"Ciaran, wake up. Someone is in the house; we must go to the priest hiding place (explanation at the bottom of the page). Fiona and Elaine are already there."
Vanessa says to him. He looks around and sees Cait who is standing beside his bed.
Vanessa takes both children by their hands and runs with them to the corridor. Ciaran hears a noise; someone is with them in this corridor.
Martin stops speaking as the memories in his head come so fast, his heart beats with fear and sorrow and he is overwhelmed as the memories from so long ago threaten to engulf him as if they were only yesterday. He is crushed again at the sense of sorrow, fear and loss. His head is pounding and he's getting cold. It had been the wrong decision to come to the bureau and tell Jack everything. In that moment when they entered Jack's office Martin wanted to run. Elaine persuaded him to speak with Jack and now there are here, and all he wants to do is bolt from the room.
One moment passes and then Jack begins gently.
"Ciaran, is that your real name, Martin?"
"My father gave me this as a first name. You know Catriona and I were twins, so the names should have the same initial letter, but only a few persons are allowed to call me Ciaran." He answers softly, he is cold and clammy again and his voice shakes from the emotions.
Jack nods. He had informed the team about the two bodies and that one of them is Martin's twin sister after the conversation with Agent Miller.
"Can you tell us something about Vanessa's death?" Jack asks softly but sternly, he knows Martin needs to purge this from his mind.
Elaine squeezes the hand of her brother. She wasn't there when it happened, but she had seen the room after it was all over. Martin knows that he must talk about her death so that her family can find peace, for him there would never be peace. He had decided for Fiona and against Vanessa.
"Anata no sei ja hai.(1)!" (At the end is a list of the translations) Elaine whispers as if she knows what is in his thoughts. Quietly and with several interruptions Martin describes Vanessa's cruel death.
As Ciaran ran to the priest hiding place, Elaine comes out of the alcove, which is behind the walls.
"Elaine go down!!" he whispers and she nods and run downstairs.
Ciaran creeps into the alcove to where Fiona sits. He reaches for Fiona and brings her close to his body, so that Fiona's head is resting on his chest Maybe it was too loud, because the man is looking in their direction. The children are quiet and Vanessa fights so he is quickly distracted from searching for them.
Only one part of the partition could turn inwards when you push a special point of the wall. A small stairway leads to a secret area of the attic.
At the top of her voice Vanessa screams, but the man ignores it and laughs coldly.
Ciaran sees through the small slit something sparkle over Vanessa's face. It is a long knife and to his horror it plunges towards her throat.
Instinctive she lifts up her right arm, but it couldn't repel the attack; it only diverts the blade from the real goal and caused it to hit her in the shoulder. The blood gushes on the wall and the metallic smell causes Ciaran nausea. One last time Vanessa tries to escape but the man is too strong for her.
Suddenly she seems to lose her will to live and her cries stop. She turns her head in the direction of Ciaran. He catches his breath. Could she see them and would she say something?
But there is nothing in her eyes, her eyes are open wide and there is a silent, desperate call for help in it. Tears are on her eyelashes, but Ciaran couldn't help her and protect Fiona and Elaine.
Ciaran tries to escape from the images which sink deep into his heart and he presses Fiona more firmly to his body. His little sister is quiet as if she knows that one noise could endanger them.
It was too late to help their babysitter. The man reach for Vanessa's neck and put his sharp knife on her throat.
A suffocated gasp escapes Ciaran's throat when he understands what the man wants to do.
"No!" Vanessa whispers weakly. "Please don't!"
But the masked man is merciless and when the knife begins to cut in her throat Ciaran is quivering.
Victor doesn't know what he should say. To say the least that atrocity had to be terrible and he hadn't known anything about that. His guilty conscience became even stronger. He had ignored Siobhan's call for help at that time and maybe if he hadn't he could have prevented the violent incident. They would never forget what happened in this house.
"How is it you and Elaine and Fiona escaped?"
Elaine begins to tell the story. She squeezes Martin's hand both to give him her strength as well as to share his.
The terrible screams had stopped for more than a half hour and Elaine opens the door very carefully a gap. It is still dark, but then the front windows light up. A car door slams and music comes from a radio.
"Vanessa? It's Robert. I will drive away tonight. Please come with me. I love you! Tommy and Cherise want to come with us and already are waiting in the car. Have you decided, Vanessa? Vanessa, Vanessa!" A young man cries and hammers against the door.
Elaine notices a movement upstairs. A shadow creeps nearly noiseless down the stairs and she is paralysed with fear.
The masked man knows that the children won't make trouble for him, but now there are three teenagers outside and that would be problematic. So he decides to leave. He has what he wanted, with the glass receptacle under his left arm and the long knife in his right hand he goes to the rear exit, turns the knob and escape into the cold night.
Both Elaine and Martin don't want to say anything more but Jack needs to know what happened to Catriona.
"Martin, can you tell us what happened to Catriona?" Jack doesn't want to pressure him more than he has already been, but it is important to know what happened to Catriona. Jack can tell it is Martin and not Elaine who has the answer to this mystery but Martin continues to stare at the floor gripping Elaine's hand tightly
"I…I can't, Jack. Don't make me speak of Cait, Jack, not of Cait." Martin's voice is barely a whisper and his eyes, when he finally lifts them to face Jack, his eyes are lifeless, the horror of that day still so achingly fresh in his mind.
"Martin, tell me what happened." Jack's voice is soft but firm. He can see the sorrow and the torture in Martin's face but he has to know. He holds Martin's tortured gaze and till at last the story starts to spill.
Vanessa is running with Martin and Cait to the hiding place when she hears a noise, but she doesn't have enough time to interpret the noise. Just before the stairs which lead to the attic she runs into a wall, a living and breathing wall of muscles. Hands grab her and she tries to pull away. She fights without any thought of giving up. Suddenly the man staggers because Cait has hit him with a lamp.
"Stop! Leave her alone!" Cait cries. Now she has his attention. The face of the man is covered with a grotesque mask.
"You small piece of dirt!" he says hoarsely and grabs Cait.
Ciaran wants to help his sister and punches him with his fists.
"Dame(2)! Dooshite(3)?"
The man with the mask laughs, but his eyes are cold like ice and he hit Ciaran easily away. The boy crashes hard against the wall and is knocked out for a few seconds.
With exactly the same ease he lifts up Cait and throws her over the banister but with one hand she reaches for the banister. She gets it, but she can't hold there a long time. The man turns around to Vanessa who looks back. The man put up something that is similar to a knife. Vanessa run upstairs and it seems that man was more interested in her than the children.
Ciaran is still a little dizzy, but then he hears his twin sister scream.
"Dozo tsukete kundasai(4) Ciaran! Ciaran!" she cries desperately.
Ciaran crawls slowly to her, his head aches so much and he fights not to break down. Only a few meters separate him from his twin sister, but she couldn't hold any longer and falls into the darkness. A thud follows and then Ciaran hears the scream. A terrible, penetrating scream, a bloodcurdling scream which becomes even louder, until it sounds like a scream of a pained animal, an animal in the throes of death.
When Martin tells of his twin's death he feels his heart breaking again. He can't take any more of this, all the dreams, the sounds, the smells have all returned from where he had safely hidden them away. He feels weak, old and tired and only wants to close his eyes to sleep hoping to forget everything. But he will never forget. In that night his life has been destroyed irrevocably.
"We found this note." Elaine says and gives Jack the note. She feels that Martin isn't well and want to steer the conversation around to Fiona.
"Why you didn't you show it to me earlier?" Jack asks.
Elaine ignores his question and continues, "She has written that she wants to finish something and…"
"And you both believe she found and wants to kill the murderer of Vanessa and Cait. I thought she never saw his face, doesn't know who and where he is!"
"She has seen his face." Martin says in a broken and lifeless whisper.
The man had removed the mask. When he put the head into the glass receptacle there is this bad acrid smell.
A candle throws a dim light on his face and you could see his features. It is not easy to say how old he is because his face is worn-out and his eyelids are arched about his protruded eyes. The look in his eyes shows his madness, his nose is run through with thick veins, his lips are wet and red and his tongue moves uncontrollably in his mouth.
"Dad, you know his face from my picture!"
Victor thinks a moment "That man you drew when you drew your idea of hell. You could never forget Martin and he was, for you, evil!"
As Martin gives a small nod of confirmation Victor adds, "When she kills him, she must go to prison."
"Of course, you think I want to see her in such a situation. But I'm sure that Vanessa wasn't his first victim. That man deserves death, he caused Catriona's death!" Martin says angrily.
"God Martin, don't say that."
"Don't say that, father?" Martin says scornful "you ignored Siobhan's call for help and we moved to this house. Cait could be alive, but you wanted to show Siobhan you never forgave her that she married my father. You're surprised that I know that and your guilty conscience. You should have hidden the letter better that you wrote Bonnie. You and Mom are to blame for it. I have hated you both!" he shouts as he stands up ripping his hand from Elaine's.
"Martin! Calm down." Jack says with a firm voice
"You have no idea how it was to see what he had done with Vanessa and Cait. Our new parents were more interested in their work than caring for us. I can't take anymore." Martin all but ran from the office. He didn't care where he went and without knowing it found sanctuary in the men's room.
He leaned against the wall and then slowly sinks to the floor, puts his head on his knees and wraps his arms around his legs, he feels cold and empty and…nothing. Needing to feel something he clenches his right hand in a fist and squeezes so tight that his fingernails dig into his hand causing it to bleed.
"Martin?" a voice asks. Martin doesn't look up, but Danny is sure that he has heard him and sits down next to him.
"Martin, I don't know exactly what happened, but I know how hard it is to lose someone you love. When my parents died I took the blame on me. I thought I was responsible for the death of them. If I didn't defend my Mom against my father, he would never have turn around and lost control of the car.
You think you could have saved Cait and Vanessa, but you were a child. There was no chance to save them, especially for you. But you protected Elaine and Fiona, without your help and courage they maybe wouldn't have survived.
"But, maybe if I had only..." Martin begins only to be interrupted by Danny.
If you had only what, taken better care of them? That wasn't your responsibility to take care of your sisters, you were a child, your mother wasn't there when you needed her, Martin. It was not your fault, believe me when I say that, Martin, it was not your fault."
Martin tries to suppress his tears, but it has been too much these last days and weeks; Danny is his friend and he can trust him.
"Watashi wo koroshinasai(5)! Deguchi ga – mienai…(6)" Martin whispers
"Martin, what have you said? I don't understand it." Danny sees Martin's fist clenched so tightly; he sees the blood trickling from his friend's hand.
"I have said "Please kill me. A way out is not … to see!" Martin squeezes his eyes tight and knocks his head back against the wall and continues to cut into his hand with his fingernails as if relishing the sensation of pain.
"Things will turn out well, please trust me." Danny says gently and loosens Martin's hand, working Martin's fingers away from his palm.
As Martin knocks his head back against the wall again Danny embraces his friend both to stop him from hurting himself as well as to protect him from further pain. Martin resists but the tears that have been threatening and the pain he has been holding within break free and with shame as well as abandon he begins to cry.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Explanation and Translation
Priest Hiding Place: Under the reign of Karl I (king of Great Britain) there was the time of the religious war. His wife Henrietta was Catholic and the parliament disapproved her. The delegates of the parliament wanted to build up hatred against the Catholics to offset the people against the king.
1642 the conflict came to a head between King Karl I and the parliament. And when the influence of the parliament grow the Catholics were hunted. The civil war began. Families build priest hiding places, where a priest could hid. But it was also used to hid Catholics, money and etc.
Translations
I'm not sure if this following sentences are all right, I'm only a student in Japanese. (But this should be more or less right)
1 Anata no sei ja hai - You are not to blame for it.
2 Dame! - Stop!
3 Dooshite? - Why?
4 Dozo tsukete kundasai - Call for help
5 Watashi wo koroshinasai! - Please kill me!
6 Deguchi ga - mienai... - A way out is not... to see...
This was the fifth chapter and I hope you liked it. In the next weeks I can't write (I really want), because I have to do some tests. But I will definitely write on when the tests are over. So please be patient.