Distorted Links

Chapter Two

"You better start talking," he grounded out.

"It's nothing Tray, teenagers. Eh! " Rubik said with fake sweetness while trying to herd Jessie upstairs.

The teenager already shaking from the menacing glare coming from Tray assented weakly and allowed herself to be dragged.

In a flash Tray was barring the way and the murderous glint in his eyes had both sisters backing up. They returned to the living room and sat while Tray sat on the stairs with his glare in place.

"Start talking." he prodded.

"I'll do the talking." Rubik said while patting her sister's head softly.

"Our father died when mum was pregnant with Jessie and she started living with our stepfather when I was sixteen and Jessie ten. Our mother was always working herself to the bones to provide for us so she was blind to a number of things. Including the fact that he was molesting me." Her breath caught on a sob at this moment.

"And you never told me anything?" Jessie sobbed out while clutching her sister tighter.

Tray looked ready to kill someone and clenched his fists tightly. "It's okay, you can stop if you don't want to continue. I'm sorry I pushed you." Tray pleaded.

"No, it's better to gloss over it so you can have an idea of what brought this about." She collected herself and continued, "After our mum died, we still continued living with our stepfather as I couldn't provide much for us at the time while he continued his periodic abuse in various ways. I came back form work one day and found him pinning down my sister and calling her names while trying to rip her clothes. I saw red and immediately entered the kitchen to look for a weapon. I picked the first thing I came across which happened to be a rolling pin and banged his head from behind. We both ran away leaving him in a pool of his own blood. We got to this town and you know the rest. Changing our appearance by wearing sexy flashy clothes and make-up, people who knew us before would have had a hard time recognizing us. Even dying our hair and that was the hardest part because we've always loved our natural red hair." She said while sobbing quietly and wiping her face.

"I want you to know we're very grateful to you for taking us in." She said raising a tear-stained face filled with gratitude to him.

He immediately averted her gaze and bursted out, "How could you two keep something as big as this away from me? How do I explain this?"

"Explain what?" Rubik said standing up while her pensive mood dissolved into anger.

"This. You brought this trouble to my doorstep. I'm still on suspension and then this!"

"Are you even worried about us at all?" Rubik asked with a pounding heart.

"You know I'm worried about you and you know Jessie is like a sister...," he trailed off when he was Jessie flinched.

"See sweet," he addresses the kid, "I really do see you as a sister but this is going to destroy my shaky career."

"You...!" Rubik said while taking a menacing step towards Tray. A quick glance at her pale sister brought her back and she hugged her close.

"Don't worry now, let's get some sleep. We'll talk about this tomorrow. But don't worry, we're good." she assured her sister cheerily.

Jessie nodded mutely and allowed herself to be led away.

Thirty minutes later, while the tendrils of dawn was slowly breaking over the darkness, Rubik left Jessie's room. The girl was already dozing off and will hopefully fall asleep soon. She descended down the stairs softly and was relieved to see Tray seated on a couch.

Tray came out of his contemplative daze and rubbed a hand over his face. He was conflicted. His cop instincts told him to call it in while his heart warred with him. He was pained that the woman he was slowly having feelings for chose to keep something so huge to herself. This could possibly be murder case, he reasoned.

"So?" Rubik prompted.

"So nothing. See I have to call this in and set my feelings aside."

"What? You are willing to turn in Jessie?" she asked incredulously.

"What? No, of course not." He said quickly. "See I don't know yet, let me think."

"I don't even get it." Rubik challenged while placing her hands on her hips, "You expected us to just accept what he did or better yet just turn in ourselves for defending my sister's virtue? You've been suspended. Why are you still trying to play good cop all of a sudden?"

Tray whirled around, his face pale and disturbed. She just touched a sore point and she regretted it immediately.

"I'm leaving," he said his hands white and tight on the door knob.

"Wait," she called back. "I'm sorry." But all she heard was the shutting of the door.

She was too incensed to think straight and just insulted their savior. She was scared about Tray's indecision, he might come back with the whole police department. She was fine with going to jail as long as her sister was kept from the mess. The girl was too fragile to go through that.

She sat for a while before proceeding upstairs to her room.

She gave up on sleep after worriedly staring at the ceiling for some time. Tray was out there somewhere that might be unsafe and she drove him out, she thought guiltily. The booming of thunder had her sitting up and she saw the early morning light had turned gloomy. Her heart rate jacked up as she thought about the fact that Tray was still out in that weather in only his pajamas. She took to roaming around checking the windows and doors purposelessly. She then proceeded upstairs to check on her sister.

Her soft rap went unanswered and she entered the room to check. Looking down at the scattered bedclothes, she panicked for a moment before she decided to check the bathroom. She could already hear the sound of running water before reaching the bathroom and calmed considerably.

"Jessie," she called out softly not wanting to intrude her privacy, "are you okay?"

Receiving no reply she asked again, "Can I come in?"

She decided to risk intrusion and entered the bathroom. She pushed the shower curtain aside and was shocked at the scene in front of her.

Jessie submerged in the bath tub with the water rapidly spilling down the sides of the tub. Motionless.