These Starcrossed Lives of Ours (16 page)

“Your parents didn’t do anything but love you! They were looking for you for ages!” I shouted back at her, stunned by my own bravery. I had never yelled at Annabelle before.

“All they ever wanted to do was control me,” she said, looking directly into her mother’s tearful eyes. “They forced me to go to church. I
hated
church! They insisted that I become a cheerleader and be a good little girl. I was never allowed to mess up. I was never allowed to be me. I
always
had to be perfect.”

I recoiled in shock as I noticed her voice started to waver. Never, in all my life, had Annabelle ever seemed anything but infallible.

“But that’s all over now,” she whispered, and that terrifying, perfect face was back, a smile spreading across her face. “I hate them, and I hate my brother too, perfect bastard that he is. Once I’m done with you two, he’s next.”

My heart gave a dull thud.
Ian.
No matter how much of a jerk he was or how badly he had broken my heart, I still loved him, and there was no way in hell I was going to let his sister kill him. “Over my dead body,” I hiss.

“That can easily be arranged,” she said. She gestured to Landon and he started moving towards me, his hands reaching for my throat.

“Landon, you don’t want to do this,” I said, slowly rising to my feet. “We’re friends.”

“I’m sorry Christie,” he said, eyes are full of regret. “But I have to. I love her. This is the only way to prove it. She already told me so.”

Landon charged towards me. I dove quickly out of the way and he ended up slamming into the fireplace behind me, causing picture frames and glass ornaments to shatter across the floor. As Landon stood up an expression of hatred and confusion flickers across his face. He was too far gone. He fell deeply under Annabelle’s spell, and there’s no way I could break it.

“You can’t fight me!” he yelled, his hands balling up into fists. “Once you’re in the cult, you can never get out! You’re in it for life!”

“Get this over with!” Annabelle demanded.

Landon went to charge at me again but before he could the door flew open and the roar of a lion echoed through the entire room. Ian charged towards Landon and tackled him to the floor, and the two rolled across the rug. I turned towards Annabelle, who was temporarily stunned.

I flew towards her with a wild yell, grabbing her hair in my hands. She shrieked and started punching me in the stomach, winding me. I let go of her hair and slammed her into the wall instead, forcing her to the ground. We barely missed Ian and Landon as we tossed each other across the room, her landing a heavy blow to my eye. I lost sight for a second, but didn’t stop fighting. Reaching behind me I grabbed the first thing I could off of a side table, an iron candelabra.             

“You’ll never do it,” she hissed, blood streaming down her face as well as my own. “You’re too weak.”

“No, Anna! I’m done with the cult, I’m done with being miserable, and I’m done with being afraid of you!” I raised the candelabra above my head and smacked her across the face.

She went flying to the floor, out cold, and Marjorie gave out a loud wail from her gag. I turned to see that Ian had Landon up against the wall, his one arm chicken-winged behind his back.

“Make one move and I break it,” Ian threatened. “Christie, grab me that rope.”

I did what he said, helping him to bind Landon’s feet and arms. “She’ll get you for doing this!” Landon said. “You’re going to regret hurting her!”

“Oh shut up,” Ian said, and he kicked Landon in the head, making him fall silent. I finished untying Ahren and Marjorie, who were beyond consolation. “Lia,” Marjorie moaned, going to her daughter’s side to stroke her hair. She was still out cold.

“Christie,” Ian said, turning to me and enveloping me in a shaky hug. “Are you alright?”

I pull away. “I’m fine. Never better.”

He’d seen me pull away. I could see it in his eyes. “Christie, about Tessica...”

“Save it. I don’t need your excuses. Let’s just call the cops so they can arrest these two and I can leave. For good.” I turned away from him.

“I didn’t kiss her!” he shouted. “She kissed me!”

“You didn’t exactly seem to hate it,” I said, glaring at him. The pain was gone for an instant to be replaced with fury.

“I pushed her away the minute she touched me, and then went after you,” Ian said angrily. “And if I
hadn’t
, my parents might be dead now. Along with you,” he shivered.

“Enough! Do you love me, or not?” I began pushing him, over and over. “Do you realize how much I care about you, how much it hurt when I...” I dissolved into tears.

“Of course I love you!” Ian shouted, bursting into tears as well. “I love you more than anything! What happened with Tessica meant
nothing
to me! I told her she’d always be an ex, and that I never wanted to see her again. And then I jumped in the car after you.”

“I can’t do this Ian,” I said, my voice shaky. “I...I can’t.”

Before he could respond there was a loud scream behind us. We turned around to see that Annabelle had climbed to her feet, a large bruise on her head, the blood seeping into her eyes and holding a gun.

“I’m going to finish this,” she snarled. “I didn’t come here to leave without my revenge.”

“You’re not touching Christie,” Ian said, and he stepped in front of me protectively. “You’ll have to kill me first.”

“Great! You’ll be the first to die,” she said, raising the gun.

“NO!” A terrible, inhuman sound wrenched itself from my throat, and I threw myself out from the protection of Ian and onto my knees in front of her.

“Annabelle, don’t,” I pleaded. “Don’t hurt Ian. Don’t hurt your parents. If you have to hurt anyone, hurt me. I deserve it.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You would give your life for them?”

“I would do anything to keep Ian safe,” I said. “I’ll leave with you right now. I’ll do anything you ask, I’ll join you again and I won’t run away, if you promise that you won’t hurt them.”

She shook her head, a light laugh tinkling through her throat. “You’re an even bigger sheep than I supposed, Christine. But you were always the most useful to me. Fine. A deal’s a deal.” She cocked the gun, and then pointed it at the unconscious Landon. Without a second’s hesitation she pulled the trigger, and everyone in the room screamed as the gunshot echoed through the house, Landon’s body jumping in place and splattering blood all over the wall. The bullet had entered and exited straight through his skull. Within moments, he was dead.

“No!” I fell to Landon’s side, tears welling up in my eyes. “Why did you do that?”

“He failed to do the job I gave him, and ultimately proved useless,” she said. “Unlike you, Christie.” She strode forward and grabbed my hair, yanking me to my feet. I yelped in pain and Ian watched helplessly, tears streaming down his face.

“Say goodbye to my dear brother,” Annabelle said mercilessly, and she pushed the nozzle of the gun into my back. “Go on. Go to my car.”

Barely able to see the way through my tears, I began walking out of the living room. “Christine,” Ian whispered, and I choked back a sob. Grabbing a fistful of my hair again, Annabelle dragged me towards the door. “If anyone tries to stop me, I’ll kill her,” she threatened. “And I’ll kill the rest of you as well.”

Ahren’s and Marjorie’s eyes were so large, full of disbelief. How could such wonderful people have given birth to such a monster?

Nothing seemed real. Annabelle opened the back door to her car and I slid in carefully. Annabelle locked the doors and took the wheel, driving away and glancing back at me in the mirror. I didn’t look into her eyes, only out the window at the house where I left everything that I came to love behind.

“Oh Christie,” she laughed. “You’re so stupid.”

“What are you going to do with me?” I asked.

“I never wanted my family,” she said. “I was always trying to get to you. Imagine how surprised I was when I heard you fell for my brother. I knew if I went after them, you’d come running. I did plan to execute them after I had you, although Landon fucked that plan up rather nicely.”

“All to get me back?” I said.

She smiled. “No. To finish what I started three years ago.”

Chapter Eleven

Christine

She pulled up to a house in the middle of nowhere,  a tiny little cottage that was far too cute to be housing someone as sociopathic as Annabelle. I expected the cult to be waiting for us, but when we pulled in the driveway, it was empty.

“Where is everyone?” I asked her, afraid of the answer.

“Dead,” she said. “Or I abandoned them. They didn’t have the stomach to do what needed to be done.”

“And what was that?” I said sarcastically as she dragged me out of the car, pointing the gun at my head. I obediently walked towards the house, trying to think of some sort of way I could trick or fight my way away from Annabelle.

I got my answer when I opened the door to see two little children staring up at me, eyes wide with terror. I knew it was Harlem and Nolane, the boy and the girl that had gone missing from Manchester not so long ago.

“What have you done?” I gasped, turning to Annabelle. The two children clung to each other, huddling close together in the corner and staring at Annabelle as if she was the devil herself.

“Shortly after you left, I discovered that there’s quite the black market for children,” Annabelle said. “It’s all the matter of finding the right buyer. Though I’ve had a bit of trouble letting them go.” She eyed the children with a revolting hunger on her face and my stomach turned, sickened at what she was suggesting.

“How could you do this? These are children, Anna. They’re innocent,” I said, turning around to stare her down.

“All things innocent grow into all things cruel,” she said. “I too was small and innocent once.”

“I can’t let you do this. I won’t,” I snarled.

“You don’t have much of a choice,” she said. She gestured towards the other room and I walked past the two children, whose very eyes seemed to beg,
Help us.

I will get you out of here,
I promised them silently. She led me to a cellar door and opened it. I peered downward but all I saw was a deep blackness consuming the room below, and a coldness radiating from within.

“I’m not going down there,” I said, shaking my head.

“You don’t have a choice.” With all the strength she had Annabelle shoved me down the stairs and I went falling head over heels. The door slammed behind me and I landed on the cold concrete floor, bruised from my fall. I looked around, trying to catch my surroundings. I saw nothing except darkness and a single lightbulb extending from the ceiling, providing a small amount of light.

Was this her plan? To keep me down here forever until she figured out what to do with me or until I starved to death, or went mad? All while she continued to look for buyers for the children upstairs?

There had to be a way out of this place. I wasn’t just going to sit down here and die. I climbed shakily to my feet, wincing from my injuries. I looked around the room but found only concrete walls, no sorts of weapons or anything to use in order to break out of the darkness.

“You’re wasting your time,” a small voice said. “I’ve tried everything.”

Someone else was down here with me. From out of the darkness a woman walked, and I fell against the wall in shock as the light illuminated her ghostly face. “It can’t be,” I said. “Faith.”

Ian

My head was swimming when the police arrived. My parents sat together on the couch, sobbing, while I paced endlessly around the house, unsure of what to do. Christie needed me. I had to go after her. But if I did, would that increase the chances that Lia would kill her? What was going to happen if I found them? I had no weapons. I couldn’t face my crazy sister head on with a gun.

All I wanted was to grab Christie and bring her back safe and sound. I wanted her back in my arms again. There’s nothing more I’ve ever wanted, not ever.

The police started asking my mother questions, but when it became clear that she was too upset to get a word out of, they turned to me. I told them everything I knew, except for the part about Faith.

“I suggest that you go to the hospital,” the cop said when we were done. “You’re going to need to be checked out, just in case.”

“Forget the hospital. I’m coming to look for her with you,” I said.

“Let us do our job, sir. We’ll get your girlfriend back soon,” they told me.

I wanted to believe them, but I couldn’t. While I waited for them to leave I sat on a cold white bed in my old room, watching the clock tick by. I thought about how Christie must feel, how terrified she must be. Annabelle could’ve been doing
anything
to her. There was a strong possibility she was dead.

I started bawling. 

I had a lot of stuff happen to me, but until today, I rarely cried about any of it. This, though, was too much. The girl I considered the love of my life was missing. She was in the hands of the sister that I adored with all my heart, but wanted nothing more than to kill me. How could I have been so blind for so long? She always hated me. I just thought my love could change that.

I wiped off my face and forced myself to keep it together. I could cry later, after Christine was found. Right now, the important thing was to get her home.

And I would get her home if it killed me.

I got up from the bed and began pacing the room. Christine had called Lia by the name of Annabelle. Annabelle had been our grandmother’s name.

I slammed to a halt. Of course. Lia had never been the same since our grandmother died. Grandma had been Lia’s idol ever since she could talk. Lia’s downward spiral had begun once she passed away. She’d turned so cruel after Dad and Mom had forced her into cheerleading and going to church, to try and keep her spirits up. That’s when she ran away.

Grandma had lived in a tiny cottage outside of Manchester, way out in the boonies. It was difficult to get to and needed repairs. Nobody had been interested in buying it in years. I was sure that’s where Lia was keeping Christie.

I strode over to my cabinet and picked up my old hunting rifle. I never had shot anything with it. Never had the heart or the chance. It had stayed here, forgotten, once I’d moved out.

The idea that I was heading into a violent situation with my sister was enough to turn my stomach. But I wouldn’t use it to hurt Lia. I would just threaten her with it, so she’d let Christie go. She wouldn’t try to shoot me if I had a gun, too.

I thought of going to the police but cast that idea aside. They would only hold me up with more pointless questions. I had to handle this on my own. I snuck past the cops and got in my car, driving quickly down the road towards my destination.