Chapter 13: A Violent Reaction (Part I)

Twenty Nine Years Earlier

Music blared throughout the whole building. It was an old, run down small boarding home. People lined the stairs and halls as they held dranks and smoked. Rooms upstairs were reserved mainly for people wanting to pass out and couples needing a place for privacy. The main rooms downstairs were filled with scattered teenagers also drinking and dancing and talking.

In the kitchen, Linda and Ginger sat across from a girl in their class, Rhoda, who was shuffling a deck of Tarot cards.

"So you really wanna know what's going on?" Rhoda questioned, smirking as she split the deck, her hand on the right pile ready to reveal the card at any second.

"I really wanna know!" Linda cheerfully replied.

Rhoda softly laughed at her enthusiasm before turning over the top card to reveal it. It was the Chariot card. She laid it flat on the table, announced its image and then began to study it. After a moment of concentration, she looked up to Linda and took hold of her hand.

"You're obsessive. Not in general, but you need to be in control of your life. Am I correct?" She asked, rather too seriously for Linda's liking.

"Oh," she replied, disappointed as she pulled away her hand.

She wasn't so sure whether she was truly disappointed in what she had heard because it sounded bad or simply because it didn't actually tell her anything about her future. She thought that that was supposed to be the point of all of this.

"It's not a bad thing," Rhoda started. "It means that you know what you want and you will stick by it. Most of this comes in when someone does wrong by you. You know what to do and how to do it to get back at them. I saw it in gym class last month."

"How about we just move onto the next one, Rhoda," she harshly suggested.

Ginger sighed, rolling her eyes as she placed her hand on her friend's shoulder. "We all know what she's talking about, now calm down," she told her.

"And that is the Three of Swords," Rhoda said, placing the card onto the table.

"Now that one looks better," Linda stated, the smile returning. She began to study the image of the heart with the swords running through it herself.

"You will love deeply, but with such deep love will come deep pain," she informed her.

"Awe," Linda replied, as though listening to a story.

Rhoda looked up to her with a small smile. "All of your feelings are very intense. The more intense your love, the easier it will be to get hurt, thus, the worse it'll hurt. It follows the same rule of physics. For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. Again, it doesn't mean that you will most certainly get hurt every time, but it means that you allow yourself to be vulnerable enough to be hurt, and you're not going to repress anything, you're going to feel every ounce of it that you possible can."

The smile was once more gone. Something about her words struck her. She wasn't scared or concerned, but rather taken aback. Something had been revealed to her that she never really gave a second thought about. Being sixteen, she had this idea of romance, an unrealistic view. In her mind, she was going to graduate high school soon and meet a man and fall in love and get married and have kids and there wouldn't be anything messy about it. It all appeared to be just that simple to her.

"So be careful?" She questioned.

"I would say so," Rhoda answered, reaching for the next card.

A chill went down Linda's spine the instant that the card was placed before her. The image was of the grim reaper, his scythe at hand and a white rose in front of him.

"I'm not going to die soon, am I?"

Rhoda shook her head. "No, but you will experience loss. Great loss. There will always be something following it though, a new beginning. For every death, there is a birth. Just remember that."

Linda wasn't sure how she felt about that. There was something ominous in the message, a warning of sorts. "I see," she flatly replied.

Present

Linda sat in the chair beside Bob, holding as tightly as she possibly could to his hand. They were supposed to be up there, standing beside the coffin as everyone went up to say their goodbyes, but she couldn't do it. She couldn't stand there and watch as they all looked to her with pity while constantly reminding herself that this was her fault. She had set up the whole thing. If they would have just stayed home, just forgotten about everything and moved on, perhaps they could have saved Tina.

Her head rested on her husband's shoulder. Somehow, he remained stoic as if blocking everything out around him. He had been doing that a lot lately. She supposed that was his way of dealing with the situation, and everyone deserved to have their own way. The only problem was that she was beginning to feel as though she were losing him. He might be there holding her at night and he might be sitting beside her when she cried, but he wasn't really there. He was shutting down and leaving her behind.

"I thought she stayed upstairs," Bob mentioned.

Linda was pulled out of her daze, eyeing the little girl as she made her way through the line to the coffin. She held her little night light in her hand - Kutchi Kopi.

"She did," she replied with a sniffle, pushing herself to sit up and watch.

The little girl stood before the closed casket, her head lowered for the longest time. Then suddenly, she opened the top, just a crack, and slid her night light into it.

"Oh my God," she gasped.

She wanted to go up there and tell Louise that she didn't have to leave that with her sister. She wanted to go up there and tell her that she could hold onto her things, that not everything had to be given away to the siblings she was losing. To her, it so much more than just her giving away her material, she was giving up everything that she had spent so much time clinging to. She was giving up a tiny part of herself to Tina and Gene.

Louise turned back around, her hands folded as she kept her eyes to the ground. She started towards the door, only pausing a second to look to Bob and Linda. Her gaze made Linda feel as though she were being blamed, and she couldn't argue with the accusation.

"Louise!" She whispered as the little girl continued on her way.

To her dismay, Louise didn't stop, her pace only hastened. She wanted to get up and follow her, to apologize, but she couldn't. Not now. She spent most of her son's funeral hiding and wishing she weren't there. This time was different. There was only so much time left before they buried the body, made everything official. She needed to stay here and keep telling herself that Tina was in the room. She had to be able to remind herself that her daughter wasn't all that far away from her.

Most importantly, she had to be here. Linda had to face the consequences of her choices. She thought she could take charge and show a few people not to mess with her, and they proved stronger. She was the one that took that first step and she was the reason that Tina was dead. This was the only chance she had at any form of apology.

So instead of running and pretending that any of this was truly about her, she sat there. All of her thoughts went back to when Tina was eight years old.

Six Years Earlier

Louise was four years old and had just moved into her very own room. It was nothing more than a rather large closet, but it was something for the child to call her own.

Linda sat on the edge of the bed as she tucked Louise in. "You think you're gonna be okay here tonight? All alone in the dark?" Linda questioned.

She didn't want to chase her youngest out of the room, she just wanted her to be sure of what she wanted before everyone else fell asleep. They didn't need a tiny Louise roaming around the apartment.

"Yes!" She argued, the overconfidence compensating for the fear.

Linda softly laughed as she pulled the covers up to her daughter's chin and placed a kiss on her forehead.

"Louise?"

Linda quickly turned and looked, watching as Tina slowly opened the door. There was a little green glowing doll in her hand. It had been given to her by Al and Gloria the prior year for Christmas.

"Tina? You should be in bed, sweetie. Is there something wrong?" Linda asked.

"I thought Louise would want this because she's afraid of the dark," Tina stated as she stepped further into the room. She stopped before the bed, holding up the Kutchi Kopi light.

"Awe! Tina! Looking out for your baby sister!" Linda gushed as she took the night light from her hand and set it on the nightstand.

"I'm not afraid of the dark," Louise pouted.

"Well then," Linda started as she took the toy. "Perhaps we should give it back to Tina."

She had been well aware of her daughter's fear, but she wanted to get her to say thank you rather than argue.

Louise reached out and snatched the toy out of Linda's hand. "No! I still want it. I just don't need it," she explained.

"What do we say to Tina?" Linda questioned, watching as the child hugged the nightlight tightly to her chest.

"Thank you," she said, looking to her older sister.

"You're welcome," Tina replied.

Present Day

Bob sat there, staring. He wasn't sure what to do, what to think. It were as if he wasn't himself. He wasn't Bob anymore and he wasn't sitting here at his daughter's funeral. Rather, he was watching the events unfold before him as someone would watch a movie. It didn't feel real. He didn't feel real.

The past few days have been spent between periods of feeling as though his heart were going to explode in his chest and being exhausted. There were times where he felt as though he had to leave, he wasn't sure why, but he had to. He had to run away. The room would spin, he didn't feel real, he would get shaky. Linda would have to walk over and try and calm him whilst stuck in her own thoughts. He would wake up in the night drenched in his own sweat and barely able to breathe. He noticed that he absolutely had to be holding Linda to be able to even lay down.

When he wasn't wired, he would go into a zombie like state. He would zone out, stare at nothing in particular. He wasn't even focused on his thoughts. Time would just simply pass by around him. Sometimes he would zone out for up to an hour. The only way he would come back was if Linda or Louise pulled him out of it.

"Please don't leave me now."

Bob quickly turned to his wife, seeing her as tears stained her cheeks, her face red from sobbing. He instinctively reached out and pulled her into his embrace. He wasn't all too sure of what she had meant by her plea, but he did not want her thinking she had to be alone for a second.

"I won't leave you, I promise," he whispered as she leaned into him.

As much as she wanted to stay buried in his chest, there was something that she had to tell him while he was still aware of his surroundings. She pushed herself away, keeping her hands on his shoulders. This was hardly the place to do so, yet it didn't feel like she had a choice.

"I need you to keep that promise, because I'm about to do something awful. I'm going to need you after," she warned him.

"What is it?" He asked, fear evident in his voice.

Last Night

Shaky hands clung to the glass as Linda stared down to the cheap kitchen table. Her entire life was falling apart and she went to the only one she knew could help her - Chuck. Maybe they didn't know each other that well and perhaps he would advise against what she wanted to do, but she didn't know who else to turn to.

"I don't think this is a good idea," he answered.

Chuck stood there, leaning against the counter. He had been well aware of what happened, he was there to help clean up the scene. It made him sick to even think about it. The problem though was that they had more children, two that could easily be killed off just as Tina had been.

Linda slowly looked up to him, vacant eyes surrounded by dark, puffy circles. The color had been drained from her face. Her hair was frazzled and unkept.

"You don't think this is a good idea?" She asked, her voice cracking from the frustration and the unshed tears.

"No," Chuck sternly told her. "I have a list of names of the possible suspects, but I can't tell you for sure who did it. Without that, you could be out there killing innocent people and causing more trouble than you need to. If anything, you and Bob need to lay low for a while."

"Was Tina not innocent?" She flatly questioned, not even bothering to look up at him.

"What?"

"Was Tina not innocent?!" Linda yelled this time, standing and shoving the glass so harshly that it flew off the table and shattered on the floor. "You can't stand there and tell me that innocent people don't deserve to die when they came into my home and murdered my daughter! If they don't deserve to die, then why did Tina? Huh? Can you tell me that? Would you rather stand here and explain to me why I have to go home and face that blood stained couch and pass her empty bedroom? Would you rather lecture me on why I shouldn't hurt people? How mean it is? Or would you rather give me your list and let me do what I want?!"

His words struck a nerve within her. This was not some minor thing, these people didn't just walk into their home and leave a threatening note or destroy the place and take things, no they killed her child. They ripped her daughter away from her and she could not forgive it. This was not something that would simply pass. She needed that closure in a sense, a way of knowing that this would not happen again.

Chuck sighed as he took a few steps towards her. "Look, I appreciate what you're saying. Your child was killed. And maybe if she were your only one I would tell you to do whatever you wanted. But those innocent people that you would be killing? They have some not so innocent friends. They have more people out there that will kill for any reason they feel like."

Linda huffed, her palms flat on the table as she lowered her head. She knew where he was going with this, and he was right. They were shown that their children would pay for their sins, and that would continue on as long as Gene and Louise were still alive.

"You want my advice?" He asked, approaching the table and leaning in towards her. "You and Bob stay home, guard Louise. Keep her out of school for a while. Keep the place locked up. Just wait for this to all blow over. Gene will be fine, no one's going to touch him while he's at the hospital."

Linda looked up to him, her blood still boiling from her outburst. "You know that's not enough," she replied through gritted teeth.

Chuck heavily sighed once more as he stood up and glanced around the room. "Alright," he replied, receiving a small look of relief from Linda. "What do you need me to do?"