Bella tapped her legs, the faint snapping of her pampered fingers against her black leather pants piercing her ears faintly before being swallowed by the piano music that rang from the speakers of the car. Bella peeked out of the the tinted glass, the surroundings slowly giving way to outcrop of buildings, gently taking the place of grasses and bushes that had formerly heralded the area.
After eleven years, Bella's eyes saw the sign, letting the nagging problem in her mind take the backseat. After all that was why she was here.
In bold, well strung letters, Rivera City was spelt out, its colorful lights accentuating the dredges of beauty of the city. Bella allowed her eyes to track down unfamiliar buildings that had taken residence. Shiny skyscrapers reaching up with glass padded plates that gave an iridescence to shorter and more stout buildings of an array of colors. The car picked up speed, the silver jeep weaving through numerous, both expensive and mediocre, trumping the road with all their fanfare. Right beside the road, after a long line of trees, the river flowed through its artificial channel, the clear water sparkling underneath the glare of the sun.
Bella looked away from the scenery, getting bored of it all after all she had seen better. Bella glanced at her phone once again and despite the annoyance she had held chose to take it in her hands and switched it on. More than thousands of notifications from her insta and other social media accounts. Bella knew, as she slid her finger over the screen and entered the password that she would regret doing this but the need to know. The need to know what they, the public was saying was too hard to chuck away. Once again she found herself staring face to face with the headline that caused her distraught, the thought of it causing disgust to pool inside her stomach. The headline being the very reason she had decided that enough was enough, which had led her to the conclusion that she was coming back home.
Supermodel, Bella Cox was finally tying the knot with drummer of the Dark Rose, Blake Peterson.
Her mother had said it had just been a ploy to get his father to invest more in her already expansive perfume business. That had been the plan. They had known each other for years, one of the first people her mother had deemed worthy or rather valuable enough to be called a friend since she officially started modelling after they moved to Oakland. People had always paired them together, saying they would make a great couple, that there were no other two people that could be a better pair for each other than these two.
Well, she knew that she couldn't stand him. He was so conceited, proud, everything that bad that she could think of him. The thought of him alone set her skin on fire, making her boil, her freshly painted neon nails digging into the palm of her hands. Bella shook herself out of it as her eyes rushed through comments that continuned to increase, a new one popping up with each passing second.
"Of course! I knew they would finally!"
"That's so cute, I wonder how their babies would be like. I hope they would have Bella's eyes, she's so beautiful."
Bella couldn't help the smile that lifted her plump lips at the compliment but she continued reading all the same.
"Oh, she's so lucky! I'd kill to have that man give me a second of his time! She better not blow it."
Bella's lips immediately curled at that, annoyance swallowing up the temporary relief she had gotten. Bella's anger towards her mother worsened, the flame growing with each second that passed. Her mother had told that she should go as his date for a couple of events, hoping to draw more reason for his father to invest more in them, when Bella knew that she meant her. Go on some dates, she had said and then we drop it, there's no point clinging to a man as idiotic as him. Only for her to be scrolling on her insta and the first thing to pop up was this, something that had seemingly been released to the press by her mother.
Bella gritted her teeth. This was crossing the line, a definite breach that Bella was already sick of.
"Turn up the volume."
The music increased, the calming melody briskly weaving through the air. The harsh anger that swam over her before had taken a step back, briefly giving her a break. Bella once again dropped her phone, cutting herself off of the world. Bella looked out the windo, counting the buildings that whirled by, the piano taking her deeper into the recesses of her mind. When it was only her father and her, when life had been easy and not a game of cat and mouse. When she didn't have to walk on eggshells, not having too worry so much about the people that she found around her. When all she needed was her father and that was it, no one had any other day. That was what matters then.
The headache that had been pounding at her for a couple days now worsened as she thought, the creases forming on her smooth forehead. Bella sighed as she stared at her phone that pinged with several other notifications, blinking as though trying to catch her attention. She stared at intently before grabbing it, she saw a couple missed calls from her mother. With angry inhaled, she swiftly shut down the phone and blocking off any contact with the world outside of Rivera City. Bella allowed her attention to focus back on the whole reason for this trip.
She was finally going to see him after all these years. After the divorce, her mother had made sure that she had no contact with her father, she remembered how much she had done to her mother's dismay to get in touch with her father, she remembered the ensuing rebellious phase that had come about. Goosebumps spread across the flesh of arms despite being covered by a dark leather jacket, her mind unable to stop treading down the path. Bella heard a small beep from the smart watch on her wrist, she raised it up and noticed the reminders her mother had made her assistant set on taking water, herbal tea and the likes.
Despite the annoyance that rekindled at the thought of her mother, she still turned to the side. Bella took the cup of herbal tea she had bought at a shop in the airport from the small paper bag she had left it in. She gingerly opened the lid, allowing the smell of peppermint to career through the air, the light green liquid sloshing in its container. Tipping the cup backwards, she was about to chug it down when the car stopped abruptly, making the tea to spill all over the black blouse beneath her leather jacket, swathes of green now sweeping across the intricate stones that formed a swirl along the dark material.
In annoyance, she turned to the driver and said,
"I didn't pay you to ruin my clothes, you know. These clothes are worth much more than what you'd earn in a month!"
The old soft spoken man only pulled down his hat, hiding his completely white hair as his hands continued gripping the steering wheel, quieter than ever.
Bella eyed him for what seemed like an eternity before she inhaled through clenched teeth.
"Bring my bags out of the car and take them upstairs."
Bella brushed her blouse, scrunching her face up before she quickly zipped up her leather jacket which thankfully had not been stained and did a great job of hiding it well. The panic that began to thunder in the horizon was stilled.
" You're lucky that they shouldn't be able to see this." After all, she said inwardly, appearance was everything.
Bella got out of the car, the sun's immense rays causing her to blink a couple of times, the tinted windows had reduced the effect of it but now that it came down at full force she could only hope that the sun screen she had slathered onto her skin was enough. Though as her eyes traced the environment that anger morphed into confusion.
Sirens wailed in the air, making the environment to buzz with unspoken energy. Multitude of people had gathered on front of a medium sized house suitable for a middle class family, with dark grey walls that had hints of white highlighting the edges, a porch that had overgrown, flies skidding around long blades of grass and box shaped windows. Bella stared at the house to be sure, she took a glance down the street, the sign stood two blocks away, visible even from where she stood. Elm Street. This was the place.
Bella's eyes whipped back to the house, the wave of familiarity washing over her as she noticed the large piano that stood outside by the balcony, shining despite its immense age, the same piano she had run her fingers across with her father right beside her as he had sung, his voice as much a melody as the vessel that lay underneath the pads of her fingers.
Bella tapped the ground, her higheeled boots chinking against the pavement. The aroma of sweat swept and stale perfumes that seemed to have been concocted with subpar ingredients clogged the air but that didn't deter her as she registered the looks on people's faces. Sadness. Horror. Fear.
Soon, the sirens that had been a distant dong suddenly became jarring, reaching the peak in its crescendo. Right then, she saw the shadows of the fleet of cars as they scree he'd to a halt, wheels leaving trails across the road. The suddeness of their arrival caused her heart to skip a beat.
What was going on?
In her paralyzed confusion, she watched the men leave their cars and push the crowd, causing the people gathered to take a step back, their features and talk growing restless by the second. Not liking the stone of dread that had crumbled down her stomach, she began pull through the people, noticing the surprised stares and muffled whispers that came with noticing her presence but even when some still failed to notice her, the situation at hand obviously troubling enough.
"Tom is dead."
Bella stopped abruptly, her back going rigidly as blood began to pound in her ears. She turned abruptly, meeting a couple that huddled together, looking at the house with pain glaring in their dark eyes.
"What did you say?"
Their eyes widened as they peered at her, their mouths hanging in open in shock. Another day she would have revelled in that look, the surprise that came with her attractiveness but the bubbling anxiety that had began to thicken in the air had already taken a toll on her as well. Bella grabbed the hand of the woman, shaking her, jolting her out of her stupor.
"Well?"
"Huh?"
"What did you say? About Tom?"
As if sensing the urgency in Bella's voice, the woman righted herself swallowing as her husband still remained taken aback by her presence even after she punched his side.
"To-m, h-e's the ow-ner of this house,"she stammered and then visibly swallowed, the next words she said causing her heart to jump to her throat. "He's....dead." There was a finality to the statement that made even Bella stagger, her legs become like jelly, almost falling to her knees.
It has to be a different Tom, she thought furiously, holding to the hope that they were speaking about someone else. That he had moved out and was no longer in the area, that his namesake had come to taken residence in his home. In her home.
"What's his last name?"
The woman was equally startled by the question, she seemed to try to recollect herself, wrapping her spindly arms around her equally bony body.
"Gates.. Gates was his last name."
The air got caught in her throat. Before she could stop herself, she saw herself running across the porch, pushing through people that were thick in their own conversations. She ducked underneath the tape that the policemen had already begun using to close off the area. Shours of her to stop sunk into her ears as she pushed through the door, the resulting bang of it against the near walls echoing across every crevice of the house.
Bella's eyes adjusted to the sun lighting of the sparse hallway. Without wasting anytime, she checked the living room, the kitchen and even the storage room before proceeding to the backyard. Each yielded no fruit, no human in sight to comfort her that the claims of the woman was wrong, it only heightened the tension that now congealed her muscles, sucking up the energy that her body had formerly buzzed with it.
On her way back, she almost collided with an officer whom had tried to stop but she had slipped out of his reach easily. Bella turned onto the stairs and ran all the way upstairs, reaching a similarly dim hallway with wooden walls, lights being the only decoration in sight. One whiff of the air made her insides turn to ice.
Charred flesh.
Bile rose in her throat. Bella suddenly stopped at the door left ajar, the door that led to what was formerly her parent's room. The smell snaked through from the gap between it and it's old iron frame, her heart flammed in her chest. Like many times while growing up, she had remembered how she had sneaked in here, when her mother was absent, to meet her father on his laptop, absently typing things on his computer. She remembered how she would make her steps quiet, trying to suppress hidden giggles as she sneaked through the door, looking for ways to scare him.
Now, unlike that time, she had a semblance of what she would see abf she didn't want to confirm it. Bella could feel the flitting vision skirting through her mind, something she tried not to imagine despite her very core strongly agreeing to what had become of the man that had played with her, the one that had held her hand after her mother had scolded her. The one that had made her mundane life more alive.
What you believe, he once said, is what you'll see.
Despite the nagging sensation that said he had become what they had said he had become. She chose to believe he was still living, that he was waiting for her behind that door, waiting to pull her into his arms like those times when she had a bad day. She chose to believe that he would be there to hug her, shielding her from her mother like he used to and her manipulative tactics. She believed he would be there to remedy the predicament she was in with Blake and that he would somehow find a way to push through. He always did. She never failed.
With the gnawing feeling in her chest, she groped the door handle and pulled it back. The smell of charred flesh thickened so much more, making her skin crawl. Her mouth curled as she coughed, the jarring smell thick in the air as plumes of smoke continued to swirl, unperbuted. Bella coughed again, allowing her eyes to wander around the bare room until it latched onto the bed.
Then she saw the corpse.
A gasp left her lips.
"Daddy?" She whispered, her voice barely passing through the mound in her throat. Bella stepped closer, her heart quickening with every stride she took, her breathing drowned by the sirend that shut off on the inside.
His skin was now a patchwork of charred flesh and blistered wounds, twisted and contorted by the merciless flames. The stench of the burnt flesh became thicker as she dropped to her knees, unable to take her eyes off the grotesque work of nature before her. Red raw skin intermittently traced twisted limbs, reminding her of the time she fell off the runway on one of (what do they call the event that a model performs.)
Footsteps rung through the room but she barely paid attention as she was stuck in a dilemma. Something he held caught her eye, with already trembling hands she reached to pull out a chain from his blackened hand, so unlike his milky white skin that she remembered glistening with sweat as he complained how much pain she put him through. Bella stared at the semicircle that hung at the base of the chain. Apart from the
Bella broke down, falling by the bed as all her dreams of their perfect reunion burnt like the corpse lying before her.