Fan Fiction
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An End Has a Start – Part 10
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“Bette, she’s in here!”
Bette backed up out of her room quickly, almost tripping over her own feet. How would she ever be able to sleep in that room? Why had she been so eager to come back?
She approached Angelica’s bedroom, where Tina was standing in the doorway with a relieved smile. Bette peeked in at her daughter, who was playing with some stuffed toys on the floor. Angie was looking at her mothers with a confused expression, probably because they had never been so interested in her playtime before.
Tina walked in and sat down cross-legged on the floor with Angelica. “Can we play too?” she asked.
“Yeah!” Angelica sweetly handed Tina a blue doll to play with. She held up a doll and waved it at Bette. “You play, too, mama.”
Bette took a step forward and reached tor the toy, determined to shake off the creepy feeling she’d felt back in her own room. The doll Angelica had given her to join in with wasn’t one that she recognized. She held it for a moment, frowning. It wasn’t the kind of toy Tina or herself would buy Angelica. Where had it come from?
Her face prickled when the realization dawned. Jenny had given it to Angelica last Christmas.
Bette dropped the plaything like she had been burned by it. The doll’s eyes stared sightlessly upwards, just had Jenny’s had when she’d been pulled from the pool and Bette attempted to resuscitate her. For one crazy second, Bette was back in that moment, pressing her lips against Jenny’s cold ones, trying to make her breathe, all while Jenny’s pale eyes had been open, blind, fixed on nothing.
Bette felt her stomach heave and she reeled backwards, gagging.
“Bette? Bette, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Bette gasped. “I need air. I’m sorry, I need air.” Bette spun on her heel and ran down the steps, out of the front door and into the hard, white light of midday. She put her hands on her knees and gulped at the dry air, not caring if she was making a spectacle of herself. She took in every familiar thing within her line of vision and kept breathing until the nausea had passed.
The sun beating down on her felt good. Heat was good. Light was good. The dim coolness of the house was not. She’d been a fool to come back here. The relative discomfort of hotel living was vastly preferable to the disquiet she felt in her own home.
There was a hand on her back and Bette jumped away from it with a yelp.
“What’s the matter with you? You’re scaring us.”
“You were right, T. We shouldn’t have come back. We should have just stayed in that damned hotel. I should have listened to you.”
Tina looked at her sympathetically. “It will get better, Bette. Give it some time.”
Bette shook her head. “It won’t.”
Tina pulled Bette to her and hugged her close. Bette rested her head on Tina’s shoulder. “It will, babe. I promise.”
Bette buried her face in Tina’s neck and said nothing in reply. It won’t get better, Bette thought, gripping Tina tightly. It won’t.
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Great update omalley! Your description of Bette’s panic was palpable! I can understand it…being the one to find Jenny and trying to revivie her…that’s a sight she will remember for the rest of her life.
Omally…wow…on the edge of my seat. The tension you create feels so real. Can’t wait for next chappie. Happy Mum’s day to ya!
Great update, feel so bad for Bette and Tina , I think that staying in a hotel was not such a bad idea…looking forward to the next:)
Excellent as always and very realistic!
awesome job! lol update soon :)
Wow… I can even feel the heat and tension just reading about it. Great update. Bette is a little caught up with herself again. Tina deserves some comfort from her too because they both lost someone in their house…
So weird and freaky for the family. Tina seems to be the stable one of the three. Poor Bette is still reliving the opened eyes of a dead Jenny. I once pulled a woman out of the gulf and performed CPR. Those eyes still haunt me to this day but I had different result, the woman survived.
Superb writing!!! PPS!!
This story is amazing. Please continue!
What a horrible feeling??? Been there done that. Go back to the hotel or rent an apartment. Great update. PPS
OMG. This story is so friggin’ great. Realistic, painful and authentic.
Good job – very true to their characters, including Angie’s innocence – ‘”Mama, I want to go swimming. Can I?”
Cinematic in its pacing, I could feel the eerieness creeping up my neck. How will Bette survive? Expertly done!
This is such a great story. So awesome! Thank you and can’t wait to read what happens next :)
Whoa. I could feel the panic, the near-claustrophobia… What is Bette going to do? Actually, what has Bette already done? I’m nervous. pps, pps, pps. And for good measure… pps. Great update, thank you.
Great update. I feel bad for Tina – she has to be so strong for both of them it seems and no one seems to realize that maybe he needs some comfort too. She did loose her friend after all.