BullsEye

Chapter Fifteen

Alexa's P . O . V

"Honey, it's time" Aunt Audry spoke softly to me as she glanced over at me from the door standing fully dressed in a simple black gown that stopped just above her knees and her hair carelessly held up in a loose bun with evident dark circles throwing more effect on her bulging eyes.

This last few days of my poor unfair life has been nothing but emptiness for me as I always stayed locked up in my room away from the world trying to put the now several pieces of my life together.

Aunt Audry was always running in every second to check up on me and I hated it.

I hated the way she treated me with too much protection like I was some helpless child.

"I'm never gonna let anything happen to her, I wasn't there for Brenda, I won't make that same mistake with Alexa." I overheard her say last night as I suppose she feels just as guilty as I do over Brie's untimely and rather unfortunate demise.

I know she's trying to help but making me feel this fragile isn't helping, it only constantly reminded me of the reason for my unforeseen sadness.

If at all Auntie had her way, she wouldn't let me walk on my own two feet but rather have the maids carry me about on their backs.

I sighed and waved off any thoughts of my Aunt after I replied her with a firm nod of my head and dragged myself off the bed after she turned and left gently shutting the door behind her.

Today is the day I get to officially say goodbye to my sister.

It's the day she gets buried.

I felt tears gather at my eyes once more but I immediately brushed them away with the back of my hands.

I walked over to the window side, drew up the curtains allowing the bright rays of sunlight to seep into my dark room that felt like a mirror to my soul,

Then I looked down at the numbers of cars that were parked outside and the many others that were trooping in, many people I knew and a greater number I really didn't recognize were all over the place.

How could I be this unfortunate? I asked myself as I now stood in front of my mirror looking at my frail self that has obviously lost a few pounds over the last few days of extremely bad eating habits which caused Auntie to feed me soup last night.

How could such ill fate befall upon me?

Loosing my parents really wasn't easy for me but I eventually got over it because I had Brie with me.

She was like a pillar that was always there, she always acted like a dad, a mum and an elder sister all at once it deeply hurts to know she's gone and left just me behind.

The only sibling I ever had was snatched away from me. I should have been the one that got shot! It should have been me! I should have died instead of her! She deserves none of this!

I lamented as i was about to breakdown into another fit of tears but I consoled myself with Auntie's words.

"You need to be strong, Brie would have never wanted you in this condition. Be strong for her sake, you atleast owe her that much as her little sister. We all do" auntie said last night as she blew at the hot liquid before feeding it to me spoon by spoon.

And she was right, I didn't only owe her a proper final goodbye, Nor did I only owe her my mental strength, I also did owe her the heads of those disgusting men that snatched her away from the surface of the earth in a cold blooded way.

I sharply turned without thinking and glared at the card I had picked up that night that rested on my bedside table.

With anger flowing through my veins, I picked up my hair brush and sent it in the card's direction with all the force I could produce but the brush sent the glass lamp that stood atop crashing to the ground instead.

The clicking sounds of heels I heard fading away in the distance reminded me I needed to be downstairs right about now.

I reached for the green company card careful not to step on the mess I had created on the floor with the pieces of broken glass from the lamp that was all over the place.

I picked up the card and carefully studied it for the fifteenth time this morning and then I hid it in one of the pages of Ben Carson's gifted mind, a book my father gifted to me several years back when I was out reading with him in his study that particular night.

I held the book firmly as if scared it could escape from my clutch and took it with me into my closet.

I hid the book beneath my box of jewelries that rested in one of the compartments, I properly tucked it in and ensured it was properly hidden and safe because I couldn't afford to loose the only clue I had to my sister's murder as I later learnt from Aunt Audry that the Cops searched and found no one and they couldn't hold the organizers or initiators of FIRM FAIR accountable for any of it because the crime was committed outside of their entire premises.

The bloody criminals escaped!

And I came to the conclusion without much thinking that I'm not releasing this little piece of evidence to anyone at all, not even the Cops.

This is a very personal score,

one i'll like to settle all by myself.

I picked out my dress and shoes and tossed them on my bed and got out of my batting robe.

Thankfully enough, I had already taken my bath earlier that Morning as Aunt Audry persuaded me after setting my bath herself.

If not that I haven't been able to find sleep all through the night each and every day, I could have sworn Auntie sits by my bed side all night long watching over me as I sleep.

I shook my head at my Aunt's over protection and slipped on the long black dress that swept down all the way to my feet and only showed my neck upwards and my fingers down to just little above my wrist as my hands were covered by it's soft cotton material sleeves.

I reached back for the zip and dragged it up before I picked up my hair brush and began brushing my hair. After briefly brushing it to get rid of the tangled edges, i held up the hair in a firm ponytail.

In no time I was done and returned the comb back to the table, i glanced up at my reflection in the mirror and studied myself carefully, I got lost looking at my reflection that the tragic events of that night began to replay in my mind. I fisted my hands till my nails began to dig into my palms, all the sadness I felt suddenly turning into burning anger.

I flashed a wicked smirk at my own reflection and picked up my dark shades, I put them on to totally hide my eyes away from everyone as I exited the room.

I climbed down the stairs supporting my weight with the silver railings and gazed down on the many faces gathered in my sitting room that glanced up in my direction as they heard me walk down the stairs.

I straightened my position and held up a brave face as I descended further.

Jake stood at the foot of the stairs neatly dressed in a black suit with his hair brushed back in a totally unusual play boy Jake style.

I took his stretched out hand in mine as I got to where he stood and peered at him through my glasses.

He looked sorrowful, I could tell even from the look in his eyes that he was burning with agony.

I heard he totally lost his control at the station when the cops failed to apprehend the culprits.

I shifted my gaze to Brie's enlarged photo that hung over the fire place with an array of tiny flowers surrounding it.

I swallowed hard still resting my eyes on the photo as I was led out of the house by Jake and we drove over to the church in a very large convoy.

We all reached the sanctuary and I slowly walked up front and dragged my eyes down to the silver opened casket that rested atop a high table.

Walking a little bit closer, I stood directly in front of the table, just leaving an inch gap and looked down upon her lifeless figure, she looked peaceful and extremely pail after being murdered in cold blood.

I stood there watching and longing in vain for her to just open her eyes.

If she didn't open her eyes, then atleast let me open mine and discover this is only a very bad dream.

As I stood there motionless, and wordlessly looking at my dead sister, I thought I would cry but I didn't, I suddenly had no emotions in me till I felt my legs move closer on their own accord and I held onto the side of the casket and touched her pale white face with my shaky hand.

"I wouldn't let this go, I'll find Justice for you" I whispered holding my other hand to my chest and feeling strange at the sound of my own voice because I haven't used it in days.

I felt two hands rest on either of my shoulders I looked up to my left and was greeted by Michael's gloomy eyes, Mason stood by me at my right hand side also looking into my eyes and saying absolutely nothing.

I felt someone appear from behind me and before I could turn to find out who it was, the feminine arms encircled round my waist and I felt her head rest on my back.

Even without turning to look up at her I could tell it was Valerie as the unique fragrance of her perfume filled up my lungs.

"I'm so sorry" she whispered into my back with a shaky voice causing me to turn and face her.

The three pairs of eyes looked at me from each side and boy was I really happy to see the little group I shared the last wonderful moment of my sister with, but my weak smile did nothing to convey that message to them.

Without even thinking we all found ourselves in each other's embrace as we huddled in for a long group hug.

It was wordless and peaceful.

We eased out of our embrace and stood side by side now all facing Brie's coffin.

I felt my heart break into two when I saw that tiny drop of tears escape down Michael's cheek as he cast a long sad look at Brenda's lifeless body.

Valerie was furiously dabbing at the tears that freely ran down her cheeks with her now soiled little handkerchief.

Mason on the other hand just stared blankly as if not believing his eyes as he held way too firmly onto my hand.

After a long moment of Silence in respect of Brenda, we moved back to take our seat as the Sermon was about to begin.

The four of us sat together side by side at the front row just across from where my Auntie sat with Jake.

I wordlessly watched as the sermon went buy and everyone said their last wishes. But I only had one thought in my heart,

Vengeance!