-Bit of language at the end-
Confrontation
"I have a surprise for you," Zane announced, having picked her up from a trip to the hairdressers. Rikki groaned.
"What is it? I mean, you've given me a haircut and bought me clothes, what else could you possibly do?"
"You'll see," Rikki groaned again. "That woman tried to give me a hair wash. Water Zane! Water!"
"Oh god, how did you hide your fishy form?" Rikki gave him a playful slap. "Hey!"
"I told her I had a sensitive scalp..." He turned to look at her, and grinned shaking his head.
"What do I do with you?"
"Well, I did ask, but you never told me," Rikki whined, he shook his head at her again, chuckling to himself.
"We're nearly there, so stop your whining!" He slung his arm round her shoulders, leading to a place she hadn't visited in over 2 years; she hadn't thought about it either, it brought back too many memories.
"Zane..." She warned when she realised where he was taking her.
"Yes?" He replied innocently
"What are you doing?"
"You'll see, you don't like surprises do you?"
"No Zane, I just don't like not being in control. Now. What is going on?"
He led her through the doors to the Juicenet cafe, where she and all her friends used to hang out in, things where still bad at home, she could cope with it. Then when it got too much, she upped and left. It brought back memories, but she remembered the happier ones this time. When they walked through the door, she noticed there was banners all over the walls reading; "Welcome back Rikki!" Then, loads of people that she vaguely recognised jumped from behind tables and seats, shouting "Surprise!" Rikki just froze. She wanted to keep a low profile, just in case her Dad realised she was back, she would definitely be in for it then. She looked around nervously. If there was this many people there, chances were that her dad knew she was back. She'd only been standing there in the doorway for about 10 seconds, but with all the thoughts she had been thinking, it may as well have been an hour. She turned around and bolted through the double doors. Zane gave a look to Emma and Cleo, begging with his eyes at them.
They nodded imperceptibly, and then ran out the cafe after Rikki. They could see her she had about a 10 metre head start on them. They followed as she ran towards the beach, she had realised that there was no point it running on any further and collapsed on the sand by a rock. Her body racked with sobs and emotion. She had curled her knees up, and rested her forehead on her knees. Emma and Cleo cautiously kneeled next to her.
"Rikki, what is it?" Emma rubbed her shoulder, and Rikki shook her head and nestled her face further into her knees, if that were possible.
"Rikki, come on, you can tell us anything, you know that..." Cleo added. Rikki lifted her tear stained face, and the other two girls could now see the years of abuse at home showing on her face.
"What if he...Finds out I'm here... Then finds me... I need to find him, before he finds me... He'll hurt me more if it was the other way round..." she sniffled in an answer.
"Rikki, he won't know you're back, you look really different than last time..."
"What if he does though? What if he comes to find me? And hurts you all...Take me back again?"
"We won't let that happen. So I take it you want the party called off?"
She nodded.
"I want to see my dad," She blurted out suddenly. The other girls were taken aback; she had suddenly changed her mind.
"W-What?! You just said that he would hurt you, Rikki! Why do you want to see him?"
"He's... He's still my dad... I just want him to know I'm leaving...To stay with Zane.. Then you won't get hurt, and neither will I... I couldn't get you hurt for something I did... He would go all out to hurt you guys, just to get at me... I need to find him, talk to him..." She let out in a rush, and then looked up from the sand to her fellow mermaid's faces, to see their reaction to her outburst.
"Rikki... You know that we don't like this idea, and we know that Zane won't either. But he loves you, I think he will probably give in, and let you see him, but you have to let us come with you... Just in case..."
Rikki closed her eyes, holding back even more tears, and nodded, biting her lower lip. Emma held her hand out, and Rikki took it, pulling herself up. The two girls smiled at her
"Zane?" Rikki nodded, and followed Cleo and Emma back to where she just ran from.
The journey was spent in silence, and Rikki started running ahead as she saw Zane waiting for her in front of the Juicenet. She ran up to him, wrapped her arms around him, and nestled her face in his chest, gripping his shirt.
"I'm sorry," She murmured into his chest.
"Don't be," He replied, rubbing her back.
Rikki could tell that Zane and one of the girls were mouthing words at each other; she could feel Zane's body shrugging and his head nodding in response to an answer.
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
"I'm sure," Zane lead Rikki off in direction of the caravan park where she had spent her late teens. As the park came into view, Rikki started taking deep breaths, trying to stop herself from crying. She slowed down her steps, taking deliberate paces, whilst she lead her friends in the path to her small caravan. She stopped outside the shabby number 69, taking deep breaths.
She slowly went up the three stairs leading to the front door. She held her breath, and knocked.
They all heard thumping and load swearing. Rikki went rigid. The door flew over, nearly off of its rusty hinges.
"WHAT." He squinted at Rikki, "Oh it's you. Coming back to live off of my money are you, you little bitch? Well you made a bad decision there." He grabbed her by the hair, dragging her into the small caravan. "I've missed this, you came back because I own you. You can't live without me, you know that." He taunted her, then he slapped her round the face, and proceeded to punch her in her face.
"Ah, so I see we have company. Did you tell them, you little bitch? Did you think they'd care? Well you're wrong there, you're just a filthy little whore. They don't care what happens to you. But as you brought them along to the show, would you like them to have their fair share too?" He turned round to look at the pale faced teenagers, who staring at Rikki, who was still being held by her hair by her father.
"No." She cringed, "Just take me, leave them out of it," She winced as the dropped her to the floor then kicked her in the stomach.
"Mr. Chadwick?" Zane spoke up for the first time. "You don't deserve Rikki. She came over here with the common decency which you do not deserve, to tell you that she was no longer going to be staying with you, even though she came back. We just wanted to let you know that Rikki will be living with me and my father from now on."
"Oh no you don't." Terry reached down to lift Rikki up by her hair again.
"If you don't let us have her now, we will get the police involved. If you just let her come with us, we won't make anything of it. Now, what will it be?"
"Fine," He threw Rikki towards Zane, who caught her then stood her up. "Have her, I don't want her anymore. I can find another one. You deserve to die just like your slut of a mother did Rikki." He sneered at her. Zane put his arm round Rikki to comfort her, but it just made her jump, then she realised it was him, and put his arm round herself again.
*
"Rikki, are you ok?" Emma asked, concerned as Rikki was checking the damage done by her father in the mirror in Emma's bathroom.
"Yeah, fine," She replied preoccupied with putting a wet tissue on her eye, not paying much attention, she had done it lost throughout her childhood.
"Are you sure, he did hurt you a lot." Rikki scoffed.
"That's one of the good days," She chuckled, and the others just gasped. "Do you have anything to eat?" She said changing the subject.
"Um, sure... We have the usual, you know, crisps, biscuits, whatever, help yourself."
"Cool," Rikki ran out of the room grinning ear to ear.
"How is she?" Mrs Gilbert poked her head round her daughter's door.
"Oh she's fine. Completely brushed it off. She's used to it, I guess. She's gone to raid the cupboards."
"Poor girl."
"Oh, hey Lisa!" Rikki burst through the door, her attitude had completely changed. She had her friends, her wonderful boyfriend, a place to call home, and no more threats from her father.
"Hello Rikki, so you're all happy everything's alright with your dad now?"
Rikki's face fell, she had just gotten it mostly out of her mind; She was happy now, and nothing or nobody could change it, then Lisa brought it up.
"Yeah.." She mumbled.
"So you're going to be living with Zane and his father now?"
"Yeah," She immediately brightened up at the mention of Zane's name.
"What about your mum?"
"She's um....dead.." She whispered.
"Oh! I'm sorry,"
"Doesn't matter." She replied with a lone tear rolling down her face.
"How?" Cleo whispered.
"Murder.."
"Oh my god! Did they find out who did it?" Rikki nodded.
"It was my dad.."
"What?! He killed your mum?"
"Yeah... My mum...She was my age, when she had me... My dad, was 36, he found her, and r-raped her... He kept her captive while I was in her womb... Then when I... Then when I was born, he m-murdered her... H-He made me watch... But I can't r-remember any of it though..." She told her story, and everyone just stared in shock. They couldn't believe that such a young girl had such a traumatizing past.
"What was her name?" Emma asked.
"Lisa, like yours, but my mum was 18, when she... died."
"That would have been cool if we were like sisters, or half sisters or whatever, wouldn't it?"
"Yeah,"
"But then she would be living with you, not me!" Zane playfully said, pulling Rikki over into a hug. "Do you want to visit her grave one day?"
"Yeah, I'd like that... But I need to do one thing first,"
"What?"
"When I was still... Living on the streets, this girl, called... Lisa, she talked to me, she was the one that convinced me to come back to you guys. She told me that if everything went well, that I had to ring her. She never gave me her number, but I'm going to ring up Tesco's-"
"Tesco's?"
"Yeah, I was getting some food out of the bins out the back, and she was on her break, she spoke to me. She worked there, I'm going to ring the branch up."
"Well... Okay then, you can borrow my mobile."
"Thanks,"
She dialled the number she found on the Tesco's website, and waited for an answer.
Hello and welcome to Tesco central Sydney. If you have a complaint, please press 1. If you need more details of our branch, please press 2. To speak to a human operator, please hold.
Rikki waited even more, then finally someone answered.
"Hello, you have reached the help desk how may I help you?"
"Um.. I was wondering whether you could put me in touch with my friend Lisa? She's an employee here."
"Oh, I'll just check our records..."
"Thanks.."
"We have no records of any Lisa here, are you sure it's her name?"
"Yeah, definitely.. Could she have left?"
"No, we have never had a Lisa working here. I'm sorry. Is there anything else I can help you with?"
"No... No thank you..." Rikki replied, putting the phone down. "She never worked there... There's never been any Lisa working there..."
"Well, that's a bit weird.."
"I know.."
"So what do you want to do now?"
"Um.. Could we... I, go and visit my mum's grave?"
"Sure, do you want me to come with you?"
"Yes.. Yes please. I know where it is, I've just never had the guts to visit..."
"Until now."
"Yeah,"
"Do you want us to come?" Emma asked, gesturing between Cleo and herself.
"Yes please," She smiled.
*
The group of 4 teenagers stood round the grave that was now covered in moss. Rikki was kneeling next to it, she had pulled the moss off the grave, so the faint words could be read.
Lisa May Cooksoon
April 7th 1973-November 13th 1991
She will be missed.
Rikki scoffed. "She doesn't deserve that. She would have cared for me. If my father" She said the words with so much venom, "Hadn't have murdered her, she would be fine. It's his entire fault." She was breaking down now. "He-He's ruined everything. Nothing will ever be the same again," Then she broke down into hysterics.
A lone figure watched the outburst from the hill overlooking the graveyard. The figure was wearing a Tesco employee uniform, alongside a badge reading Lisa.
"I'm sorry I had to leave you,"
The woman whispered, before turning and fading into the wind.
~Fin~
Yeah.. So there we have it. The end. Took my time didn't I? I've been really busy lately, so I obviously haven't been able to update. I'm planning on finishing my other story, Secretive for my own good, I think, then starting on a Twilight one. I have a good idea, and hopefully I will be writing it soon, when I have the time. Anyway, please review, also, if you didn't understand the ending, just PM me (:
