WARNING: Explicit Violent Content. Please read on at your own discretion
Family Short Story – Born bloodless
Photo credit: xenia from morguefile.com
Crushed watermelon, crushed strawberries, sliced beetroot and sliced neck. Audrey had the knife held between her fingers. Her eyes had turn to stone, still they showed shock. Her body lay over the grinder. Blood mixing, drop by drop, with watermelon and beetroot that lay at the bottom of the mixer. She had been standing at the chopping table, in the middle of the kitchen preparing her famous fruit cocktail, when her throat was slit. Even though she had a butcher’s knife in her hand for her self defence her reflexes were slower. Audrey woke up with sudden jerk. She was perspiring heavily. In an attempt to run away, she hurried off her bed, tumbled in the sheets and fell. She was scared of her premonitions now. She sat on the floor. Her knees close to her. Eyes tightly shut. A trail of tears rolled down her cheeks and she breathed soft sobs. She was all alone in her apartment.
She had a sister but she lived miles away with her husband and three beautiful kids. Their parents, they knew nothing about. They had been brought up by a Lady who called her their Aunt. But on Sasha’s 21st birthday, a present from the aunt lay on the table. Sasha read the letter that had come with the gift. It told the sister’s that she was no aunt of theirs rather, a mid-wife and the last person to see their parents alive. She was the one who had delivered Audrey. The letter continued.
My dear lovelies,
If you are reading this letter it means ‘am no longer there with you. It does not mean that I do not love you. Though I did not give birth to you yet I brought you into this world. I have fed you from my bosom and showered you with all my affection. Do not hate me for what I am about to tell. Your parents are no more. They had given up their lives to save yours. Today is their 21’st death anniversary. I am sorry my darling, but you both are bonded by faith not by blood. Audrey you are my daughter. Yet, Sasha I love you no less. Both of you were as dear to your departed parents. This house is a blessing from them. It is so, because Audrey you were adopted by Mr. Wales. I have little tome to explain how painful it was for me to distance myself from you yet you are now Audrey Wales and Sasha’s sister. I wish I could stay with you both a little longer. But alas, it has to end. I know you want to know more about your parents but it’s all I can tell. Hope you would understand. Audrey, my darling, do not be scared.
Love you both,
Your Aunt.
Audrey got up and brushed aside the memories of past. She stood up, shook as she did. She held on to the edge of the bed to steady herself. She reached and pulled opened the cabinet. She had to find out what the letter had to do with visions. Crumpled and tattered, she picked up the letter and began to read again. But she did not have much time. She was meeting Steven and the kids for Thanksgiving. Sasha would already have prepared the turkey, sushi, pancakes, tarts, what more and what not. Even though she was smaller of the two yet was more mature and now she was settled with a loving husband and kids.
Audrey had tried getting into relationships, three to be precise. But none had worked out. Her fiancé, who was perfect, hands down, died of cancer when they had just celebrated their third anniversary. The pain was unbearable, but then came a gift wrapped within her. She was pregnant. But the pleasure of being a mother was also agonizingly taken away. The child was entitled to counted breaths as his little heart did not support its existence. As dawn broke, Audrey felt nothing. The pain had vanished and in course had left her numb.
Next day when Sasha visited her sister, she was aghast to see all sorts of tattoo’s on Audrey’s body. There was an impression of a wooden cross, inked from her neck to her lower waist line. Another was on the inside of her wrist. This one was of Mother Mary and Jesus. When she thought it was the end, she saw another on the back waist line. It was of an angel or a devil Sasha couldn’t make out. But it was clear that it was spreading its wings in an attempt to free itself from the barbed wire, which was tearing in its wings. The ink was so penned that the agony for freedom was evident. Audrey had whatsoever so memories of the night.
With moist eyes, Sasha’s heart simmered. She knew Audrey could only be healed by love, but love was now something Audrey feared to experience. Were the entire tattoo’s representing her inner excruciation?
But after five years now, Audrey had become a DA, that to a well known one indeed. She had been there to walk Sasha down the aisle, also for her baby shower and so on for every Christmas with gifts for her beautiful nieces.
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