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Be Careful What You Wish For

Guest maccaz

By Guest maccaz
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maccaz

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Here it is...

Chapter 7

WARNING: This chapter deals with the subject of sexual abuse and also contains a scene of self-harm.

Aden turned towards Belle, a haunting look on his face. "You don't want to know what he's gonna do." Belle's head was spinning - she had never been so concerned for anybody's welfare - ever. She began to fear the worst for Aden. But she knew she had a choice to make - to help this troubled soul, or to leave him floundering in the midst of a rough and turbulent sea of emotions. She chose the former.

"If you tell me what he's gonna do, maybe he'll stop. If other people know what he's doing, he'll stop."

"You promise?"

"I promise."

Aden took a deep breath. Tears n his eyes, he began to recount a story no-one should ever tell.

"It all started after my mum died." Aden began. "After the accident, Dad took it pretty badly. Blamed himself, he did. So he hit the bottle to try and make things better."

Belle didn't need to tell Aden she was sorry - the look on her face said it all. Aden gritted his teeth and continued.

"One night, he tried to cook something when he was pissed and accidentally burned down our house. That's when we went to live with our grandfather. Everyone had nice things to say about him. He was a good bloke, a good dad, and a warhero to boot. The perfect role model for us...right?"

Belle was no psychologist, but she instantly suspected that Aden's grandfather wasn't all he was cracked up to be. She didn't want to push Aden, but then again, she needed to know what was going on.

"Do you want to tell me what he was like?" Belle asked.

"He was nice enough on the surface." Aden recalled. "He'd take us for walks, buy us pizza, help me and my brothers play footy - you know, all the things that a normal granddad does. We were all normal people in a normal family doing normal things."

Belle became suspicious - she didn't like how many times Aden said "normal". And what he said next just seemed to validate her thoughts.

"Until the sun went down...then he changed."

Belle's suspicions sere raised to their maximum height. "What do you mean?"

"It's like a werewolf - he never shows his true self until midnight." Aden recalled. "When he was bad - he was awful."

Belle took a hold of Aden's hand and caressed it tightly. "I'm here for you, Aden. You can tell me." she reassured him. Aden took a deep breath. From every corner of his memory, his demons were congregating to participate in an unholy ritual unlike anything ever seen. He had made a subconscious decison to fight those same demons - and he was going to do it now.

"It was a cold night in June. I was tossing and turning trying to get to sleep. Whether I was particularly restless that day, I don't know. Just then...he came in."

Belle squeezed Aden's hand ever tighter. "Whatever happened to you - we're in this together." she opined assuringly. Aden felt a huge lump form in his throat

- he always did when he had to talk about this. But he came this far - further than he had ever come, so he decided to go all the way.

"He raped me." he hissed in a voice that barely rose above a whisper.

Belle instantly clasped her hand to her mouth in horror. Wild thoughts began to race through her head - too many to name coherently. She had long suspected something bad - but never this bad. Suddenly, all her problems seemed microscopic in comparison. She just wanted to ask him so many questions - what would possess someone who was supposed to take care of his flesh and blood abuse his authority so grossly? Is this why he freaked out before? Belle probably knew the answer to the second one by now. However, Belle needed to ask hm something.

"How...?" she whispered, tears brimming at her eye-lids.

"Anal, oral, with an object - anyway he could." Aden muttered. "He loved to watch us suffer."

"Hold on - what do you mean by "us"?" Belle asked. She was then hit with a horrific realisation. "Don't tell me..."

"He did it to my brothers too." Aden whispered. "And when he was finished with me, he would always say the same thing. "You're weak. You're pathetic. If you were a real man, you'd have fought me off." Aden spat these words out as though his body was rejecting a piece of rotten food. By this time, both he and Belle had tears cascading down their faces.

"How come no-one ever found out?" she sobbed. "Why didn't you tell someone?"

"They wouldn't have believed me." Aden replied. "To the community, my grandfather was the ideal person - loyal to his community, to his country, to his family. As far as they were concerned, his s**t was pure white."

After this, there was what seemed like an eternity of silence.

"You're not disgusted in me?" Aden whispered, not daring to believe his girlfriend wasn't running away. "I wouldn't blame you if you did."

"I would never be disgusted in you." Belle whispered as she kissed Aden's forehead. He broke down crying as the weight of his secret was finally released. Belle truned him over onto his back and hugged him around his stomach. She was then briefly transported back to childhood, where her adoptive parents gave her a giant teddy bear named Mr. Tinkles. Whenever she was sad or confused, she would hug him in very much the same way she was hugging Aden now. He was, in a way, her new Mr. Tinkles. However, Belle realised she needed to be his support - a Mrs. Tinkles.

"I'm not going to let you go, Aden." she whispered. "I'm going to help you. We're in this together." She then decided to take a rain-check. "Is this fine?"

"Yeah...it's fine." Aden replied.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You did WHAT!?!" The scream bounced off all four walls of the Jones' living room like a satellite signal. If there was an Olympic record for a sudden swing from calm to anger, Christine Jones would have just won gold, silver and bronze.

"You don't understand-" stammered Melody, trying to plead her case. Christine, however, was having none of it.

"Oh, I understand perfectly well. You actively prayed in your heart for someone to die! You know as well as I do that's a sin, and a mortal one at that!" The woman regarded by many as Summer Bay's dragon lady was well and truly breathing fire. Sensing that he had a potentially explosive situation on his hands, Edward attempted to intervene.

"Christine, please-"

"This doesn't concern you, Edward." Christine snapped, a steely tone to her voice. Edward promptly shut up. Christine turned back to the matter at hand.

"How would that boy's poor family feel if they knew that you wished for their son to die!?" Melody grew ever angrier - she wasn't going to let Chrstine take the moral high ground on this issue. She decided to fight back.

"THIS ISN'T ANY OLD BOY WE'RE TALKING ABOUT HERE!" She screamed. "WE'RE TALKING ABOUT AXEL!! HE TRIED TO RAPE ME! OR HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN THAT?!"

"No, I haven't," Christine replied. "But that still no excuse! Haven't you heard of turning the other cheek?!?"

"I'm sorry-"

"You're doing the wrong thing by holding his sin against him. We FORGIVE people their sins, Melody! Or have you forgotten everything I've taught you?!"

There was a eerie silence in the room as both Melody and Christine caught their breath. Finally, Christine spoke - but her voice had a slight tremble to it.

"My word - you're...you're evil. And you're going to hell."

These words felt like a kick in the guts to poor Melody. Christine stormed out of the house, presumably to get some fresh air. Edward turned to look at Melody.

"I'm sorry!" Melody cried as she raced upstairs to her room.

"Melody!" Edward shouted after her in a half-exasperated, half-concerned voice. Deep down, he wished he could talk to Christine about aspects of her personality - her bull-in-a-china-shop attitude to raising Melody for one. She wasn't going to let anything stand in her way of making Melody the perfect daughter she had always wanted - perhaps this incident was one thing too many. But he wasn't going to bring it up at the present time - she was angry, and not the "I'm-disappointed-in-you-we'll-talk-about-this-after-dinner" angry, she was Lois in Malcolm In The Middle angry. And when she got like that, nothing could calm her down.

Meanwhile, Melody had colapsed on her bed. She looked in her mirror and was shocked to see two bright red lights where her eyes should be. Her mother was right - she WAS evil, and she had to get that spirit out of her body. Her eyes roved the bedroom as she saw her pocket-knife resting on her desk - it had a razor edge to help cut pages out of her paper pad. She picked up the blade and applied it to her wrists. Her face contorted in pain as blood sprang out of the wound in her wrists. This is the only way. I have to get the evil out of my body. I must cleanse myself. This is what God wants.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later, Christine came back in, breathing heavily.

"I didn't mean to scream back there." she panted. "Can you please not mention this to anyone?"

"Of course not." Edward replied. "Christine - we have to talk."

"Look, maybe I was a bit overzealous to say Melody was evil - but my point remains valid. You don't wish people dead, Edward. It's just not done."

"I accept that, Christine, but - let's just think of Melody here for a a second. How do you think she feels?"

"I'll talk about it with her in the morning."

"Yeah, but surely you should show some compassion for her, Christine. After what she's been through - I mean, you of all people should understand-"

"Don't. Go. There. Edward." Christine intoned, a steely menace present in her voice to show she was deadly serious.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I know it's a touchy subject for you, but I just saw the similarities between you two-"

"WHAT DID I JUST SAY??" Christine screamed. Her tone instantly softened. "Just - drop it. I'm going to bed early. Night, Edward."

Edward waited until Christine was out of the room before ascending the staircase to check on Melody. As he approached her door, he knocked apprehensively.

"Melody?" he called. No answer. He knocked again.

"Darling?" he called. Still no answer. Melody obviously didn't want to talk to anyone right now - well, she was going to talk to him - like it or lump it. Edward twisted the doorknob and entered the room.

"Sweetheart, I know you're upset-" he began, but was stopped dead in his tracks when a most horrific sight greeted him. There lay Melody on the floor, her wrists slashed wide open, the blood from them caking the floor a bright red. Edward bit down on his tongue - it was all he could do to stop himself for shouting aloud in fear. Instead, he calmed himself and called out.

"Christine? Christine, love! Come quick!"

End of Chapter 7

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