Ruby Rising (16 page)

I exited out of the menu and turned the screen off, putting the phone down on my desk to charge while I sat down on the bed. My head felt woozy and light and a few seconds later I ran from the room with my hands over my mouth as I tried not to vomit before I made it to the bathroom.

CHAPTER 19

An hour later I lay on my bed, angry, betrayed, and confused, but most of all I was numb. So much of this just didn’t make sense. I knew I didn’t have enough information to put all the puzzle pieces together but I was starting to develop a pretty good picture.

Sitting up, I suddenly realised what I needed to do, I grabbed my mobile out and sent a text to Krystal’s parents, asking if I could come and visit. Their reply was instantaneous and it said I was welcome to come by and that they would be expecting me.

I changed out of my dirt stained clothes, throwing on a blue t-shirt, a pair of jeans and my runners. I ran a brush through my hair and tied it up into my usual tight ponytail.

I headed out the back and told my mother where I was going, she nodded and asked if I was okay and if I wanted a lift. I could feel her watching me walk away after I said I was fine and that I would rather walk.

I put Phoenix on his lead and took him with me, he needed the time with me and I didn’t want to feel like I was completely alone.

We walked slowly, I followed the directions that Krystal’s mother had sent me and it took forty-five minutes to get there. I let Phoenix stop at any tree he wanted to, sniffing and squatting where he chose. I still found it funny that he hadn’t learned to pee like a boy dog. I was hoping I wasn’t the one who was supposed to teach him, because if that was the case he could just go right on squatting.

I stood in front of a big brown door with one of those thick ‘welcome’ mats in front. Taking a deep breath I pressed the doorbell and waited. The house was an older colonial style red brick with white details. The garden was beautiful, obviously well cared for, with a small pond that ran into a long water way that circled around the entire garden and back into the pond.

The door opened, and Krystal’s mother, Julie, stood in front of me, she looked ten years older since I had seen her at the funeral. She ushered me into the kitchen and, after asking how I take my coffee, made one for each of us. She even put a bowl of water on the floor for Phoenix, who happily helped himself. When he finished lapping at the fresh water, he sat under the table and went to sleep.

I had barely said a word since I walked in the door and I suddenly felt like I was intruding on her grief. I was about to remind her that her daughter was dead and needed to bring up the past.

“I don’t blame you, Ruby…for Krystal. You didn’t do anything wrong.” She put her hand over mine and gently patted it.

“What do you know about her? Did you know she tried to talk to me and I didn’t listen?” I looked at her, not expecting to see the compassion in her eyes.

“Yes, she did tell me about that. She just wanted to warn you. I know Krystal had a…an affinity for water.” She was testing me, to see if I would understand what she was saying.

“I do too.” I didn’t even know her, yet here I was confiding in her after less than five minutes in her house. There was something special about their home, it had a calming effect on me.

“Krystal said you were special. That’s why Mikayla didn’t give you a chance to get to know anyone else.” The way she spat Mikayla’s name actually made me smile.

“She tried to warn me, but I didn’t listen, and then when I tried…that’s when she died.” I didn’t look at her when I spoke those words. I knew what I would see in her eyes.

“Ruby, nothing you could have done or said could have stopped her from dying. She had a heart condition, she knew she only had limited time left. She left me a note, and one for you as well, I wasn’t sure you would ever come here for it but she left strict instructions in my own letter to only give it to you if you came here yourself. In mine she told me that she had an amazing life. That she had been blessed to be part of our family, and she was sorry for the trouble she caused when she was friends with Mikayla.”

I looked up, I could see the honesty in her face along with the raw grief that was also prominent there. Krystal had left me a letter, I wondered if it could give me any answers.

“Can you tell me what happened? I think Mikayla did something to her, so she couldn’t tell me, I mean she actually
couldn’t,
even if she wanted to.”

“I know a very short version, but it nearly tore our family apart. The basic story is Mikayla tested Krystal, continually tested her loyalty, tested her ability and kept at her to try to do other things. Mikayla wanted her to be the
Chosen One
. I still have no idea what that means, I never did found out.” She took a long sip of her coffee and closed her eyes for a few seconds before continuing. “Krystal became secretive and stayed out longer than her curfew. She refused to tell me where she was going, who she was with and when I grounded her she just snuck out. I was terrified something was going to happen to her. I thought maybe she was taking drugs. Something
did
happen though. Krystal fell pregnant to someone from the youth group. Everything changed for her then. She focused on the baby, on getting her life together so she could make sure the baby had a good start in life. But Mikayla hovered over her, protecting her, making sure she didn’t get rid of it. She threatened Krystal and even came here to try and convince me to let her have the baby. I don’t know why Krystal didn’t tell her that she was going to keep it. She made the decision almost straight away.” She stared off for a second as the memories came back to her. “The weird thing was Mikayla couldn’t walk into the house. I have no idea why, but she seemed almost
repelled
by it. When she went to come into the house it was almost as if she walked into a glass wall. Looking back now her face was pretty priceless, a mix of shock and then she just seemed furious.”

“Do you know who the father was?” I asked.

“We were sent some pictures…” Tears filled her eyes and her face reddened, I reached across the table and held her shaking hands between mine hoping the small action would help ease her pain a little. “She was, they…there were about six of them, all having sex, it was hard to tell who people were. The angles weren’t very focused on the…on their faces…if you know what I mean.”

I felt my face turn scarlet matching her own, at least we were both as uncomfortable as each other.

“The only face in all of the pictures that could be distinguished was my little girl, everyone else’s was just a blur. I never showed her the pictures, I’m not sure she even knew about them, but they were dated six weeks before we found out she was pregnant, I just put two and two together.” She got up and walked to the window, staring out into the garden. “In the pictures, it didn’t look like she was…she didn’t look happy to be there.”

I closed my eyes as the revelation made my blood run cold. “I’m sorry to ask, but do you still have them? The pictures?”

“No,” she answered not taking her eyes off the garden, “I’m sorry but I never wanted anyone to see them. I can tell you they were dated March twentieth last year.”

I realised that it was a year ago yesterday, a lot had changed in the last year.

“What happened… to her baby?” I felt absolutely terrible asking her, but I knew it was important.

“At some point Mikayla realised that she wasn’t this Chosen One that and started telling vicious rumours around the entire town, including that Krystal was a slut and that she didn’t know who the father was. Which was true, but not because she didn’t want to know. She just refused to remember the night she fell pregnant. She blacked it out completely. When I asked her she just cried and told me she couldn’t remember anything past a small group sitting together watching TV at Mikayla's. Mikayla went from being her protector to a callous, catty bitch overnight. Sorry, but it does fit her. Krystal was outcast by the entire town overnight. Not just her so called friends, but most of the adults as well. It was disgusting the way they treated her, and us.” Julie walked over to a shelf above the unused open fire place and picked up a small photo frame. Then turned back to me, tears streaming down her face. Walking over she placed the delicate frame in front of me. “She was twenty weeks pregnant when she lost him, she went into labour and they couldn’t stop it. She lost so much blood she was in hospital for two weeks, we nearly lost her twice. We’re not sure why she lost it, the ultrasounds looked fine, they said it might have been her heart not being able to cope, but we’ll never know for sure. When she finally got back to school a month later, everybody knew, and Mikayla told her that at least now she didn’t have to raise a bastard son on her own.”

I gasped, feeling sick to my stomach. I had no words in me to comfort the grieving mother that came to sit back at the table with me. Her shoulders were slumped and her hands were shaking violently. I picked up the small frame and let the tears fall free from my eyes. I was looking at an ultrasound picture and next to it was an impression of two tiny little feet. Painted in blue the image was heart breaking, underneath someone had written in black pen ‘Rest now my little Mitchell, I will meet you in heaven and hold you forever.’ We were both silent for a few minutes, I needed time to pull myself together and Julie looked to be trying to do the same.

“Before you ask, we wanted to move, to give her a second go at being a teenager where nobody knew her past. But my husband lost his job because of the rumours, and we had to use all our savings on the mortgage and bills. We nearly lost everything, now I guess we’ve just lost our reason for all of that.”

The doorbell rang, startling me and Julie.

“I’m sorry Ruby, I completely forgot that the new priest was coming over this afternoon. Father Thomas, our current priest has always liked to check in on us and see how we are. The church has been so supportive in the last year, especially since Krystal…” She never finished her sentence, but stood to answer the door. I stayed where I was, too overwhelmed with grief and even more questions to move.

I looked around and noticed the lounge room was full of pictures of Krystal and religious images and paraphernalia. Crosses, statues and rosary beads lay amongst the sympathy cards and flowers on the mantel piece. Prayers were framed and hanging on the walls, it wasn’t over done though, it was beautiful.

“Ruby, this is Father Michael, our priest.” Following her into the kitchen was a young man, around thirty, dressed in casual clothes. The only give away that he was even a priest was the while collar tucked underneath his shirt. HE had an air of familiarity and I felt an immediate attraction to him. I couldn’t take my eyes off him as he slowly walked into the kitchen.

I stood and took his outstretched hand. He took it between both of his and looked deep into my eyes with his own striking amber ones. “Nice to meet you Ruby. I’m glad you’re here, seeking the answers that you need.”

“Um,” I felt myself blushing as he continued to hold my hand. “Nice to meet you too, um, Father.” I hadn’t spoken to a priest since my mother stopped taking me when I was about five. I didn’t ever recall my father going with us, he had some kind of hate for the church, and eventually he had worn my mother down and she had stopped going. I still don’t know what had happened in his life for him to hate religion so much. 

“I saw you at the funeral Ruby, I’m sure Julie and Tom appreciated you coming. This is actually my first week in Primfield, but I’ve known Julie and Tom for a few years now.” He explained, at least I knew where I had remembered him from. He had been sitting opposite me in the church that day.

I hadn’t noticed Julie leave the room but suddenly I was alone with the attractive priest and I was still a hideous shade of red when he leaned in and quietly whispered in my ear.

“You can come to me anytime, Ruby, if you need
anything
, even if you just want to talk or somewhere quiet to sit for a while. God’s house is open to everyone, but especially those who need it the most.”

His voice was low and deep with a slight huskiness to it, I averted my eyes from his when he finally let go of my hands and I shoved them into my pockets to hide the slight shake that was there. I was ashamed to feel such an attraction to him, a
priest
of all things, but I couldn’t control the pull he seemed to have on me. I secretly hoped our paths would cross again at some point.

“Thank you,” was all I said before Julie came into the room carrying a pink envelope and handed it to me. I watched as Phoenix came out from under the table and jumped up onto the priest’s leg, tail wagging ferociously, a little whimper of utter happiness coming out of him. Father Michael bent down on one leg and gave him a good scratch behind the ears while I talked to Julie.

“This is the letter I was telling you about,” she paused for a moment before letting it go completely. “Will you promise me something?”

“Anything,” I replied without hesitation. I truly believed that I would keep my promise.

“If there is anything, at all in there that I should know, regardless of whether it will hurt me or not, will you tell me?” Her eyes pleaded with me.

“I promise.” She let go of her letter slowly and I knew it was the last thing that Krystal had left with her and while I desperately wanted it I also felt terrible taking it. “Thank you.”

“I hope you find what you’re looking for, Ruby. I’m sorry I don’t have much else to tell you. Just be careful, especially around Mikayla and Scott.” She hugged me tightly, holding me for nearly a minute. When we pulled apart we both had tears on our faces, we laughed a little and I kissed her cheek and said my goodbyes. I walked slowly home, Phoenix quickly falling into step next to me happily.