The Lightning Strikes

Prologue:
Every Mother dies. It kept repeating inside her head, those bitter words from the bittersweet song. Every Mother Dies. The irony in that song would soon later come into her mind, but as for now, she had no clue why these specific words hurt. A slow song, a slow death it played out before her ears and no clue was taken in. No worried expression displayed on her face just a deep puzzling one as this song was studied.

Chapter 1.

A ear shattering shriek came from the small eating section of the house. A small shriek from a small child. Making cereal should be easy for an eight year old, but apparently not. The bowl had shattered on the tile and Linny-Anne had cut her heel with a piece of porcelain. The blood trailed behind her and up the carpet covered stairs. Linny was trying to find her sister to get a band-aid.
Mommy was out, and had been out for a few hours now with a new boyfriend of hers. First date Fiasco, what else would happen tonight. Mommy would come home crying and drunk. Her hair a mess, clothing ripped and makeup smudged. Of Course Linny had no clue what happened to mommy, and just thought mommy looked off. That was all her little mind could process.
BeeAnna of course knew everything, she would ignore it and pretend her mother was not as she appeared but the mind of a seventeen year old knows. It knows what goes on in the world, and what goes on with their parents. It’s not stupid and oblivious like that of a small girl, specifically one with a bloody heel.
Linny reached for the shiny bronze door handle on Bea’s room leaning on the door to push it open. Her small figure came limping though the door way making BeeAnna’s head shoot up from her book and onto Linny’s pain creased face. The blood had left a trail all across the white carpeted upstairs and into Bea’s room. And the smell of iron filled her room.
Bea sighed and stood up motioning Linny to come a bit closer. Sliding the book onto her desk BeeAnna herself sat on the floor and took Linny into her lap, examining the heel. It was starting to swell and push the porcelain out, a normal reaction of the human body. The blood was slowly coming out now, another normal reaction to a foreign object being shoved into the body. Bea took Linny’s hand and with the other hand slowly started to yank the shard out of her minuscule foot.
Achieving the doctor status Bea smiled and pressed her palm to the slit in Linny’s heel, repeating in a motherly voice “It’s fine Linny-Bee” The shard had slid out easily, but a cry came out of Linny’s small pink lips, and tears out of her bright green eyes. The white piece of bowl was covered in dusty dried on blood, but at least it was out of that poor young child.
The clock struck by her bedside, midnight, and way past Linny’s bedtime. Bea gently picked Linny up and carried her towards the medical cabinet, grabbing a band-aid. Time to patch that cut up and put her sister to sleep. Pushing open the purple princess door into Linny’s princess themed bedroom she settled the youngster onto her bed, unraveled the band-aid, and stuck it onto her heel.
“All better” she whispered and pulled the blanket over Linny’s small fragile body. Creeping out of the room Bea headed for the living room, to await her mothers return. The stormy weather outdoors was growing worse and Bea feared it would keep her mother out even longer than her usual stay. Thundering came followed by lightning and no sign of cars driving on the road yet.
Bea slid the bar on her radio set towards her favorite music station and listened to the slow song that it had playing. One of her favorite songs it was. Every Mother Dies, was the title of the song, the precious and sad song.
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Hours past and Vianna (Bea and Linny’s mother} had yet to return. BeeAnna slowly drifted off into sleep on the leather sofa but her ears were still listening for the click of a front door opening. More hours ticked by and Bea was in a deep sleep as well as Linny. Forgetting about their mother, and fallen into dream land they were both content, and out.
Daylight struck and sunshine flooded into Bea’s face, pulling her out of sleep. The living room was the same as before, radio still playing, but a different song. The house was dead silent and Linny was still asleep. Mother was probably knocked out on her bed as well. Bea decided to disturb no one and silently watch Television while her family slept on.
Flashing images floated across the screen causing Bea to blink ever so often, but she was hardly paying attention to the Television in general. It was the stormy clouds that hung outside, that had her attention. Another summer storm was on its way for her city. Not unusual, just something that worried BeeAnna quite a bit. Along with things her sister Linny did and her mother being home, this was at the top of her “to worry about” list. A tip-toeing creak coming down the stairs pulled Bea out of her trance and focus on what was happening within her home. Linny was awake finally, that little child was smiling sleepily and didn’t appear in pain anymore. The sweet smile was spread even bigger at the sighting of Bea. She was happy somebody besides her was awake. Being awake and alone in a large house, for a small girl, can be scary at times and it made her happy to know she wasn’t alone. Comforting almost, although she had no clue how to name that feeling at her age.
“Good morning Sleepyhead,” Bea breathed standing up and brushing her jeans off. Still dressed from last night and dozing off on the couch, she looked ready for a new day still. “Want some eggs for breakfast Linny-Anne?”
“Y-Y-yes please,” the child stuttered and inched towards BeeAnna. Still asleep and drowsy, she had to think really hard in order to put a sentence together. Soon enough she would not stutter and work though her insecurity issues, but Bea was not in the right position to help her yet.
“Okay. Cheese, ham and tomato’s sound good?” BeeAnna grinned and swiftly walked into the kitchen, pulling a frying pan down from a handle and stepping around the porcelain mess. “I’ll need to clean that up soon.” muttered Bea while she searched for eggs in the fridge. The eggs were done and Linny was seated at the table anxious to eat her meal. Pushing the gucky mess onto a plate for her sister Bea shoved in front of Linny-Anne and headed off to quickly scrub up the pan.
BeeAnna quickly finished washing the dishes she used and decided to go have a look at Mother, seeing if she wanted to eat as well. The white staircase still had dried on blood but it wasn’t Bea’s main focus as she climbed both flights of stairs towards her mother’s room. The door was closed the same as it was last night, and as it usually always was.
Bea lightly rapped on the door and pushed on the handle, opening the door and walking into the bedroom. It was clean and orderly, still smelling of Airwick freshener, blech. The bed was made and tidy, and Mother was not in it. Let alone any sign of her being in this room for weeks. It was too clean, and smelt too, fake. The bathroom door was wide open and Mother wasn’t in there, or the walk-in closet.
“Probably still with Skip” she muttered and left the room, ‘no need to panic yet, right?’ her mind kept repeating. The terrible storm last night, her mother not in her room, her mothers’ car was probably still not back. It must all add up to something but she was not jumping to the worst conclusion. Vianna was dead.
Linny was running around the living room chasing her Teacup Poodle. It looked like a dust-bunny to Bea, but who was she to spoil her little sister’s fun? The little girl was so happy, and absolutely adorable, Bea loved her even at her most annoying times. A person could not just hate a blood relative that was just not do-able. Dislike, yes, hate Never! The dog ran in circles around the coffee table and sent the little girl giggling and made her dizzy. It amused Bea to the highest point watching the child and her ‘toy’.
‘Gah, may as well check the garage now.’ Bea’s mind informed her, there was no way she could avoid it. The worry would scratch at her nerves if she didn’t check sooner than later. And worry was one emotion that did not float so well with BeeAnna. Well then again, most emotions were hard to cope with for her. She would bottle them up and try to forget them, and they really didn’t appreciate that. It was hard being the mother-like figure and she had too many thoughts and feelings and responsibilities for a girl of her age. She needed a therapist, but now way could they afford it! Mother wasted money on booze, drugs and male strippers (whom she called boyfriends). A sad thing to admit for the girls, but an un-avoidable fact.
Her stomach was churning and her head pounding away. Bea hadn’t been this nervous in years; actually she hasn’t ever been this nervous. Mom usually came home before four a.m. no matter the circumstances. Besides when she did plan on staying the whole night at someone’s she would call and leave a voice mail for them. Mom was many things in her mind, but she wasn’t forgetful. Even if BeeAnna prayed and prayed her mom would never forget something. It seemed she would even remember the things that Bea didn’t want her too more.
Her heels clunked against the tiled floor as she made her way across the house, slowly. She stopped in front of the garage door and gave it a slight tug; pulling on the handle she opened the door. Just as she had suspected, mom’s car was nowhere to be seen. So where could she be? This deeply worried BeeAnna but she refused to let Linny know what was wrong. It was time she tried calling her mom’s cellular phone, maybe she was still overreacting.​