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Chapter 119: Azalea's story part 4

It was a cloudy Sunday. Aunt and uncle were out so me and Lia decided to spend some time in the front garden.

She managed the water hose for the flowers while I sat on the sidewalk staring at the cars pass by.

"Lia." I looked back at her and she looked at me, "I don't think we need to water the plants today." I pointed to the sky.

She looked up the dark clouds and dropped the hose on the spot. It looked like it would rain any moment.

I turned and sat looking at the road again. Lia decided to bring the popsicles for us both. I guess she was more excited than I was for it.

I giggled as she happily came running towards me with popsicles in both her hands.

She handed me one, "Thank you." And placed the other one in her mouth as sat down next to me.

Just a few moments had passed when Claire suddenly came out yelling, "I knew it!!" She screamed at us and we both turned our heads with almost finished popsicles in our mouth towards her, "That was mine!!" She pointed towards the popsicles and came to us.

I stood up to face her, "It was not yours." I told her, "We only took our share."

"Oh yea?" She folded her arms, "Then how come there is no other ice cream in the freezer."

Droplets started descending from the darkening sky.

"Beats me." I folded my arms as well, "Maybe you ate it." I looked at her, "No wonder you're getting fat."

"You bitch!" She grabbed my hair and I immediately retracted by grabbing and pulling hers.

We had fought like this many times before but never in front of Lia. I always avoided showing her violence.

So now that she was seeing us fight and throw punches at each other, she began to panic.

"D-d-don't f-fight." She stuttered like she always does when she panics. All the more reason for kids to tease her.

"Shut up you degenerate!" Claire pulled out some of my hair and I screamed.

"You bitch!" I bumped my head onto hers as hard as I could. She groaned and her grip loosened.

I took advantage of that, pulled her by her hair and threw her to the ground.

The light pattering of the rain was now getting heavier.

"Take that you little bitch!" I spit on her and I even wanted to stomp on her when Lia came in and stopped me.

She grabbed me by my waist and pulled me away.

"N-no!!" She looked concerned as I breathed heavily.

The rain had gotten really heavy and we all were getting drenched.

I nodded at her and she let me go.

I guessed it was time to call it a day and go inside, but as we both started making our way back in Claire suddenly pulled Lia's hair really roughly from behind and made her fall down.

I turned around in anger and pounced on her.

We began fighting on the footpath this time.

I punched her a few times while she clawed at me. I felt her nails dig in my skin.

This was the first time our fight had gotten this bad.

Maybe it was because no one was there to stop us and now that it was raining cats and dogs, no one was going to come either.

The sound of rain was nulling our screams and groans.

Well no one except Lia, who pulled Claire off of me and threw her aside to stop us but as she was about to grab me Claire tackled her, making her skid onto the road.

I got so mad I could feel the heat in my skin radiate out.

Just as Claire did to Lia, I did to her.

I pushed her with all the force in my body and made her skid on the rough road.

Even though it was autumn, the fog had started to erupt due to rain.

Claire didn't get up immediately and I didn't move either while Lia sat up, it seemed like some of her skin scraped off. She was hurt and her hair was a complete mess as she looked at me with hurt and confusion imminent in her eyes.

I began to run towards her to help her up when Claire started getting up as well. She looked at me as she started standing.

I could see it then, very clearly, even in the rain.

The pure hate she harbored towards me.

The desire to get rid of me forever.

Maybe it was me from the start, the one she hated and not Lia.josei

Just as I was about to reach them a screeching sound made us all turn our heads towards the truck approaching us.

The driver in it didn't realize there were kids on the road, so last minute honks he desperately gave had no use at all.

The truck passed by in front of me with a mere distance of only an inch.

I felt the pressure of its speed as it crushed Claire and Dahlia in front of me.

Those were the screams I could never forget, because those yells couldn't even be muted by the rain.

*****

Things sometimes happen so suddenly that even when they've passed you can't come to terms with the fact that it actually happened.

Dahlia and Claire's death was a blow to all of us.

Up until many months I couldn't believe that my last blood had left me.

Neither could aunt and uncle, that their only daughter had met such a sudden death.

I kept forgetting she wasn't there and often called out her name.

It slipped my mind time and again, whenever I wasn't concentrating and often came from home expecting her to come and greet me with her goofy smile.

But it was never going to happen again. Everything was gone.

I'd come back to my senses and each time it would break me all over again, yet I couldn't help but smile painfully to myself.

"Lia…" I would whisper into space as I looked to the sky, "I love you…" And each time I couldn't help but cry, "And I miss you..."

The incident had changed everything.

I was guilty of pushing Claire on the road but I could never confess. I just told everyone it happened while we were playing.

I pushed the thought and act in the dark depths of my mind.

I put it somewhere it wouldn't hurt me

I didn't want to remember that I was the cause of someone's death but it wasn't like I could completely forget it.

After all, how could I?

Guilt never leaves you.

Aunt and Uncle changed as well, after losing their only child they became depressed.

Many times they would get suspicious that I was the one who caused her death but there was no proof.

Our relationship began to change. They became more cold towards me and sometimes even did mean things but in the end I was the only one they had, so they couldn't let me go either.

In attempts to relax and get better uncle decided to get a kitten and named him Misa.

Unfortunately that didn't work out as well. Misa got a virus and ended up dying just when everyone was getting attached to him.

It had an even worse toll on aunt.

She started taking it out on me. She would snap at small things and then would apologize out of nowhere.

Shortly after Misa's death, one day I refused to have dinner and aunt snapped at me.

We had a big argument about it.

"You live in my house!!" She yelled at me, "You go with my rules!!"

"It's nothing to be mad about!!" I yelled back at her.

I knew she was no longer in her right mind but I didn't expect her to go this crazy.

She threw the cooking oil at me suddenly and I realized this was turning bad.

I tried running away when she called uncle, "Laurence, hold this ungrateful bitch."

Uncle grabbed me as I was running towards my room and held me down.

I knew what she was going to do..

I begged them to let me go but aunt lit the match stick she always kept on the kitchen shelf despite my appeals at mercy.

When we are in trouble and even know it's going to end bad, we still hope somewhere in our hearts that the other person will somehow let us go and show compassion or pity, even though that never happens.

When I saw that no mercy was going to come from them, I bit uncle's arm to escape.

I bit him so hard that it started bleeding and yet still, I was too late.

Flares of fire rose as I felt my back burn. I didn't know that you had to roll on the ground to extinguish the flames so I just screamed in pain and horror.

In the end, out of pure coincidence I fell in Misa's sandbox while running around and the flames died.

Along with the heat extinguishing I passed out as well.

I woke in the hospital, the treatment had already been done but the doctor told me it would leave bad scars.

I felt some of me really die then because that was the moment I truly realized I was alone now.

The incident wasn't made into a case and wasn't reported to the police.

I didn't see the point of it, I wasn't going to win or gain anything from it.

And just like that I continued living with them.