Chapter Three: My Hero, and faimly

Someone saves Stella from the ditch in pouring rain, and afterwards, the faimly starts falling apart.

 

After awhile I guess I fell into unconsciousness, and I soon awoke when someone picked me up. Half awake I tried to steal a glance at my hero. I couldn’t see anything. It was still raining, and my eyes were a little fuzzy anyway. I closed my eyes, and heard someone whisper in my ear, “Everything’s going to be all right. I’ve got you now.” It was a distant voice, but I already knew who it was. He carried me into a house and set me onto a couch.

“What is that?! Who is that?! I can throw you out of the house for this! I told you know one was allowed to come in here!” An old rusty voice yelled.

“I couldn’t just leave her out in the rain! She could have died.” Elliott’s voice was calm and he had no intention of yelling.

“You could have left her out there! Who cares if she died? I surely don’t. And if she was really wanted then someone would have found her.” The voice said angrily.

“I care, and she was found. By me.” His musical voice was growing distant and I knew he was either going into another room or I was growing unconscious again. I wanted to hear what they were saying. I couldn’t fall asleep. I wiggled around trying not to fall asleep, and ended up falling onto the floor with a loud thump. I layed there until I heard Elliott’s voice again.

“I leave you for a few seconds and your already trying to get away.” He chuckled to himself. I sat up and suddenly became self-conscious that I was completely soaked and my hair was plastered to my face. I shivered and fell back to the ground with a groan.

“Here take this,” he said and I watched him take off his coat. He held it out to me, but I didn’t take it. I just sat there staring at him. I didn’t know why I didn’t want to take his coat. Now that I think about it, I really wanted to take it, but I didn’t.

He dropped his hand, and looked down, “Okay then,” He sat on the couch and stared at me. I just stared at him for a few seconds, but I was the first one to look away. I sat up again, and looked at him. He was still staring at me with no expression on his face.

“What?” I asked.

He cocked his head to one side, “Nothing. I was just wondering what you were thinking.”

I didn’t say anything.

“What are you thinking?” he asked.

“Why should I tell you?”

“Cause for one: I saved you, and two: I want to know.” He grinned.

I smiled, “Well, I’m not going to tell you.”

I stood, and looked around. I was in a dark and gloomy small house.

“Where am I?” I wondered allowed.

Elliott stood, “I guess you can call it my home.” He said it like he didn’t want to tell me. I walked over to the front window, and froze. I turned slowly and glanced at the door, trying to see if I could make it to the door without him catching me. My eyes were wide and my voice was shaky. “Y-you live here?” I stuttered. I knew exactly where I was. I was in the old house where I had seen the strange eyes staring at me. Had those been Elliott’s eyes? Or the old mans? Who else lived here? Something about this house scared me. Like some kind of evil was taking over it. He didn’t answer my question. Just stood there staring at me. I bolted for the door, not looking back and threw it open. Elliott was already behind me. He grabbed my hand before I could get outside, and I flung around facing him. He was really close to me. I could hear myself breathing hard, but he was barely breathing at all. I fought against him trying to get away but he was surprisingly strong.

“Let go!” I screamed. I punched his chest trying to get him to free me, but he barely flinched.

“Stella, stop I’m not trying to hurt you. Just… please don’t go.” He said pleadingly. I stopped and stared at him,

“How do you know my name? I never told you my name.” I whispered. He was scaring me, it was bad enough that he lived here, but knowing my name when I didn’t even tell him was beyond weird.

He didn’t say anything; he just looked down, and then back at me, not letting go of my hand.

“Look, this has all been a really fun time for me,” I said sarcastically, “But I really have to go,” I turned to leave, but he wouldn’t let my hand go. If he wouldn’t let me go then I would have to drag him with me. I tried to pull him out into the rain, which had turned into a drizzle, but I only made it a few steps before I became tired.

‘I really need to start working out more.’ I thought.

 My heart still beating fast I turned to face him. “Okay, you win,” I said giving up. “Will you please let me go?”

He sighed, let go, and ran his hand through his hair, making my heart beat faster than it already was.

“Thank you,” I said, and was going to turn around to leave, but changed my mind. “Why…?” I asked him. Not just about the house, but everything.

“I- It’s a long story…” he answered.

I turned to leave, but he stopped me. “But I couldn’t tell you yet, because you haven’t officially introduced yourself.” He smirked.

“Well you seem to already know who I am. And I already know who you are. Remember the day at The Food Store?” I asked him.

‘He probably meets someone like me everyday, knowing how good-looking he was. He’s probably already forgotten who I was. But that doesn’t make sense. He knew my name.’

“Of course I remember. I had to give you that pack of gum.” He rolled his eyes, and then smirked again.

I smiled; he was so irresistible when he did that! I waited for him to say something but he didn’t so I said, “Well, I guess I should get going, you know, I got a family that’s probably worried.” I said

“Oh yeah, of course.” He answered as if he thought I didn’t have any family. “Bye,”

“Bye,” I said and turned to leave. I walked until I was past his “house” and then turned back to see if he was still standing there. He was. I giggled to myself and waved at him. He waved back and started towards the house. He totally just made my day. I walked home, smiling the whole time.

Once I was in front of my house, I stopped for awhile to look at it. It looked worn out, and ugly. I remembered my family, and Steven. I wondered if my parents had stopped fighting long enough to look for him. I got kind of dizzy wondering if Steven was still alive. I finally started up the driveway shuffling my feet, and not wanting to go inside to face the truth. I was scared. I walked up to the door, and held onto the doorknob. I didn’t want to open it, but I finally did. I opened it quietly and sauntered into the house looking around. Rose, ran from the den and gave me the biggest hug I’d ever had. She was crying and whispering something at the same time, but I couldn’t understand her. She finally let me go, and I look around. The kitchen was empty. The house was dark, except for a light on in the kitchen. I looked at her, “Where’s dad? And Steven?”

She started crying harder, which made me cry. It was obvious what happened. Either my dad had gone to go find Steven and had never come back, or they were both dead. Or maybe it was both… We both hugged and cried together for what seemed like hours. “You were so stupid to go out there during a storm!” she wept. After awhile she told me to go take a shower, get in bed, and she would bring me up something to eat later. I hadn’t noticed how late it was. It was ten at night. It defiantly didn’t look like it outside. I took my time in the shower. The hot water relaxed my muscles, and made me a little calmer. Once I finished I climbed into bed, and waited for Rose to bring my food. She never did. After about an hour of waiting, I tiptoed downstairs. She was in the den with all the lights off asleep. At least I think she was asleep. I noticed that I wasn’t going to get food unless I got it myself. I opened the fridge. It was almost empty. I finally settled for a few pop-tarts. I brought them up to my room and nibbled on them, not really tasting anything. I stared into space, and nibbled on my pop-tarts for a long time. After I ate two, I put the box on top of my stereo, and climbed back into bed. I stared at the ceiling trying not to cry. If no one else could be strong during a time like this then maybe I could. I had to try at least. I didn’t sleep at all that night. My eyes were wide and even though I was tired, I couldn’t bring myself to fall asleep. I waited, hoping that maybe, just maybe, my dad, and Steven would come home.

In the morning, I was stiff, and had trouble getting out of bed. I felt terrible. I looked at the alarm clock next to my bed. It was only eight o’clock in the morning. I fell back to the bed, and lay there for a few minuets. I fell asleep and soon after Rose, came to wake me up.

“Sorry about your food, yesterday, but I was just so tired! And it looks like you ate something anyway.” She said eyeing the box of pop tarts.

I smiled weakly, and got out of bed. There was no sign of dad or Steven that day, and Rosemary pretended like they didn’t even exist. Days past until it turned into weeks, and there was still no sign of them. I was beginning to lose hope. There was no telling what was going on in Rose’s mind. It was the same thing everyday; eat, sit around watching TV or surfing the internet, and sleep. Everyday our food supply got lower and lower, and everyday we would eat less and less. Every night I would wake up to hear Rose crying and mumbling something in her sleep. Our family, or what was left of it, was tearing apart.

But then on a bright sunny day there was a knock at our door. I dragged my feet to the door, and finally opened it. Dad?! Steven?! I hugged them feeling like I had just won back my family. Dad was trying to get me to let go… Wait… Not Dad… Someone else… And Steven… No that wasn’t him either. Two police men. I cried, and tried to stop as Rose came to the door.

“Oh Stella!” she said taking me into her arms, and then said to the police officers, “Come in, come in. Can I get you anything?” Dread was in her eyes.

“No, no, you need to keep as much food as you can.” The short and thin one said.

We walked into the den and sat there for a few minutes in silence. Me, trying to get a hold of myself, my mother trying not to have a nervous breakdown, and the police officers looking around the house.

“Well, what is it? What’s going on?!” Rose said hysterically.

“Your husband, and son; they are alive, but very sick.” He reminded me of Santa Clause, big rosy red cheeks, a rather large stomach, and a long white beard.

My mother waited for more. They didn’t say anything.

“And??”

“They are both at the local hospital. Your son and husband both have malaria. “What?!” Rose screamed.

‘Malaria? You mean that disease from the mosquitoes?’ I thought gaping at them.

“We’re very sorry, but it doesn’t look like they will make it…” the short and skinny one said hesitantly.

Rosemary lost all control of keeping control. She burst into tears.

“We came here to take you to the hospital with us.” The Santa Claus police said.

“We’ve waited weeks to hear if they were alive, and you just now tell us they are alive but in the hospital?!” I screamed.

“Well you never called about a missing man and child.” One of them said.

Both police officers took a hold of us and dragged us into the police car. They tried to get us to calm down, and we finally did. But we had rings around our eyes, and we looked absolutely terrible. I used to tell Rose that if my hair didn’t look good then I didn’t feel good. If that were still true, I felt even worse than terrible. No words can explain how terrified I felt when I went to that hospital to visit my dying family.

Author's Note

I had writers block during this chapter, and I'm not sure that it's the best, but I finally put it up here! Please give me some constructive critisism!

Reviews

[Morgan]

wow amazing
i love the details!