Her Unknown Shades

You Hurt Me

  The night was cold and lonely. Weirdly, the sound of chirping birds filled the air. One really couldn't tell if it was night or morning or a dream. Annette woke up rubbing her eyes. She could have sworn she heard someone playing the piano. She remembered she threw her piano in the basement when Josh left her. Apparently, The piano represented their love since they played the instrument together.    

  She got up from bed to ensure she really wasn't dreaming. She wasn't wrong. Someone really was playing the piano. A woman whom she assumed was her mother due to her dark black weave, her favorite.   

  "Mom, what do you think you are doing here at this time? I mean, what time is it?"   

  "You burned me." The woman answered. Her voice was nothing like that of her mother. she knew whom it was. It sounded like that of her sister.   

  "What?" Annette asked in confusion.   

  "You hurt me." The voice repeated and slowly faded away.  

  Annette woke up from her insane nightmare. "Annabelle!" She exhaled.   

  She rushed to the kitchen breathing heavily. She could hear her own heartbeat beating loudly against her chest. You burned me. You hurt me. Those words haunted her countless times and she was shaking.

  Annette went back to her room and took her phone to call her mother.   

  "What is it dear, you already miss mommy?"   

  "Cut it out. We need to talk." She shouted.   

  "That was rude." She sighed. "Fine then dear. lets talk. I'll meet you at your house."   

  Annette hanged up without a word and threw the phone on her bed. She walked to the bathroom to at least take a shower to relieve the tension and fear in her heart. The hot water ran through her dark skin. It was too hot but its like she did not mind the burn. Well, her night was too cold after all.   

  Karen let herself in since she had the keys. She heard the shower still running in Annette's room and therefore decided to make herself comfortable.   

  By the time Annette was done burning her dark skin Karen had already gotten tired of waiting for her. She could have left but all she wanted was to fix the already destroyed relationship between her and her daughter before she loose her too. Annette entered the living room rapped in her towel as moisture escaped from her skin. Her mother looked up at her and a wide grin formed on her face.   

  "You know you really haven't changed dear. You still taking long showers and," Her face suddenly dropped. "Didn't I warn you not to use hot water.  Make it warm, you are destroying your skin."   

  "Morning too, mom. I did not call you here to lecture me. I want us to talk about Annabelle."   

  "What about her?" She furrowed her eyebrows.   

  "You said something yesterday and I want to make things clear."   

  Oh, you mean the fact that your sister told me you hurt her?"  

  "Yeah, that. What did she mean?"  

  "You are asking me? I should be the one asking you." She shifted in her seat and sighed. "When you were young, you were very jealous of your sister. Remember that time you burned her calling letter to her university just because she got called to your dream university? And that time you cut her hair because it was growing faster than yours? And that time you locked her up in your room..."   

  Annette interrupted her before she could finish. "Okay fine. I am a horrible person. But would you really blame me? Annabelle had everything. She was the most prettiest, most intelligent and most loved by you and dad. And then there was me, Annabelle's sister. Not everyone really knows my name or the person that I am."   

  "Now hold on there. For the record I loved you and your sister equally and I still do."   

  "Sure you do. And what about dad?"  

"He loves you too and you know that."

  "You don't have to stand up for him mom. I just want you to believe me mom, I did not kill my own sister." She lowered her voice.   

  "What did she mean when she said you hurt her?"  there was silence for a while. Karen's motherly instinct told her that her daughter Annabelle did not just die, she was killed and it could not be an accident. Even if it was not Annette, it had to be someone else and she had to start somewhere.   

  "I slapped her. That's all." Annabelle said. "I was angry at her for what she did to me with Josh." She said her voice shaky.   

  "I believe you." Karen said and pulled her daughter in for a hug. although she wasn't sure if she really did.   

  "What did the doctor's say?"   Annette asked pulling away from the hug.

  "That she was really sick. Apparently, your sister was suffering in silence and she told no one. Not even me." Karen eyes became heavy and she started crying.   

  Annette sat next to her and wrapped her arm round her shoulders. "Do you believe that?"   

  Karen swallowed the lump in her throat. "No."   

  Annette pulled her into a hug and they stayed like that for a while each of them burred in their own thoughts. Karen thought of how she had suddenly grown apart from her own daughters. She loved them both and had always promised to defend and protect them. The day before the bad news, Annabelle had called her telling her that she had to tell her something about Annette and Josh. Something that she could not tell her over the phone. That something that she wanted to tell her haunted her every night and she wondered if that something was the cause of her death.    

  Annette on the other hand was thinking of the last time she spoke to her late sister. She had just gotten the news that Josh was planning to propose to her. That made her heart ache and she decided to talk to her sister. She wanted to hear it from her mouth.    

  She had looked at herself in the mirror and Josh's words ran through her mind. You are nothing like your sister. She is more humble and way more beautiful. That had hurt her deeply. It still does.