Seduced by Lies (13 page)

CHAPTER 12 - THE END

             
The sun was nearly set, casting soft pink light through the leaves of the trees and barely illuminating the clearing that Sienna sat in for the second time that day. She swayed back and forth on the fallen tree while she waited for her love, sure that at any moment she would throw up violently - mostly because of nerves, but the entire bottle of vodka that now swished around her otherwise empty stomach didn’t really help matters much either. A freshly opened bottle of red wine hung from her right hand - the vodka had been gone before she even left the house, and so she had sneakily swiped the wine from the corner shop as she’d made her way into town, making sure that she had at least a little something to keep her buzz going - to stop herself (or at least try to stop) from crumbling into a complete emotional mess.

             
It had been a good few hours since she had got Jacks message agreeing to meet her at this specific location, but Sienna still couldn’t shake the feeling that she was in a dream - she’d made the hasty journey here feeling detached from herself, as if her body and mind couldn’t handle the cacophony of emotions that stormed and raced around inside her, and so she floated above everything, watching it all happen as if she were watching a movie.

             
She had no idea how long it would take Jack to get here, but she would wait all night if she had to, passing the time by recalling the feel of his skin against hers, their lips pressed together, the weight of his warm body on top of hers - feelings and sensations that she was itching to relive the moment Jack arrived.

She wasn’t forced to wait too long before, for the second time that day, she was startled to her senses by the sound of snapping twigs coming from the undergrowth to her left. She let out a little gasp, leaping from her wooden perch and spilling a few precious drops of wine as she did so. A six foot tall shadow was walking slowly towards her from out of the trees, and Sienna caught a glimpse of shining, chocolate brown hair in the rising moonlight. Now that the moment was finally here - the moment she had previously never even dared to hope would arrive but that she had secretly imagined a thousand times over in her mind, Sienna found she was unsure of how to proceed. Taking one shaky, tentative step towards the looming shadow, Sienna’s voice was almost too quiet to hear, even in the silent woods.

              “Jack?” Her voice cracked as she spoke her lover's name. The shadow did not reply, but instead took one, final step out of the gloom of the trees, revealing himself fully in a brilliant beam of silver moonlight that managed to pierce through the branches. As she finally gazed upon the face of the man she had been waiting for, her stomach tightened in shock and horrifying disappointment, and she could no longer hold back the river of vomit that now emitted from her mouth.

Sam waited patiently while Sienna emptied herself into the undergrowth. Eventually, still bent double and leaning against a nearby tree, Sienna spoke.

“I thought I told you to fuck off.” She grumbled, full of loathing and self pity.

“It’s me, Sienna.” Sam whispered gently, feeling nothing but love and a strong urge to protect the girl in front of him.

“I know bloody well who you are Sam, and I’m telling you to fuck off! I happen to be waiting for someone important.” She finished hastily.

“I know.” Sam continued, standing his ground. “It’s me - You’re waiting for me.” There was a brief silence, before Sienna snapped -

“What?” One short, sharp syllable.

“It’s me Sienna. I’m Lewis. I’m Jack.”

“Don’t be fucking ridiculous...” She began, before her mind could comprehend that Sam couldn’t possibly have any idea who Lewis or Jack was, or even have known Sienna’s name unless he was telling the truth.

Sam watched the realization dawn on Sienna’s face, as little pieces of the puzzle fell into place in her mind, and the truth of the picture started to become clear to her. She seemed eerily calm and collected, her pale face expressionless as she asked -

“So, you’re Lewis Stowell? You made a fake profile?”

“Yes.”

“But why?”

“Because I love you, and it was the only way you would talk to me.”

“But...I told you everything, all my secrets.”

“And I told you mine. We’re meant to be together, Sienna.”

Ignoring his ridiculous claims of love, Sienna asked the one question that burned at the front of her mind.

“But Jack.” She mumbled in shock. “My Jack. How could you have known?”

“Jack was my father. I didn’t know about you and him until tonight.” Sam admitted painfully.

A few seconds later, Sienna was once more throwing up loudly into the bushes, yelling at him in between heaves -

              “You lied to me!...You...Bastard!...You made me believe...made me love you!...Jack!” The last work was a choked sob as she fell to her knees in her own puke.

Spears of agony tore through Sienna as her new found hope and happiness crashed around her. Her jarring, heartbreaking sobs echoed through the silent night as she struggled to breathe through her pain. Her world was in tatters around her, torn into a thousand pieces that couldn’t ever be rebuilt. Somehow losing Jack all over again, despite only having him back for a few short hours, was worse than it had been the first time around, and Sienna felt as if she would die from the sheer anguish and torture of it all. Though death was a welcome prospect right now. All the while Sam was yammering on behind her, trying to justify himself and sounding as if he too were in floods of tears, not that Sienna cared.

She had no idea how long she knelt there in the cold mud, but by the time her tears had run out, replaced with dry, empty sobs, she knew what she had to do - the only thing she could do now.

“You’ve ruined my life.” She stated simply, stopping Sam's incessant stream of words in their tracks. “You’ve taken everything from me. I may as well be dead.”

“Please. Sienna...” Came the pitiful plea from behind her.

She stood up sharply, her mind set and nobody could change it now. Without looking behind her she spoke to Sam one last time, injecting as much venom as possible into her scathing words.

“I couldn’t possibly hate you more. And you can die too for all I care!” Without further ado she scooped up her spilled bottle of wine and disappeared into the trees in the opposite direction.

             
Sam had no idea how he had managed to get home. The last thing he remembered was stumbling through the pitch black trees, getting scratched and stung by unseen flora and fauna as he cried Sienna’s name over and over, to no avail. Much like that morning in the smoking area, Sam's despair was complete and consuming, and he existed only as a vessel of self hatred and wretched anguish. This time there would be no bouncing back - no more second chances for him and Sienna - this time he had royally fucked things up with her, thereby fucking up every other aspect of his life simultaneously. The next thing he knew he was pulling into his drive, his body automatically performing the tasks that his broken mind were unable to think about. And so it wasn’t until he was well past the threshold of his house that he realized that all the lights were switched off, and that the air was thick with a grimness and despair that extended beyond Sam himself.

             
With a strong feeling of déjà-vu, Sam wandered around the eerily silent house, flicking lights on as he passed through each room, calling emptily out to his mother, with a voice that did not sound like his own. his subconscious already knew what he would find before he even entered the bathroom or turned the light on, but he could not stop his body from carrying on in auto pilot. He flicked the bathroom switch and harsh light flooded his eyes, bouncing back at him off the hundred white tiles, but he did not blink or even squint - He couldn’t close his eyes against what greeted him on the bathroom floor.

             
Looking like a crumpled pile of dirty washing in the middle of the linoleum, his mothers prone, unmoving body lay spread eagled across the floor.

“Mum?” His voice echoed around the room, his mind instantly detaching itself from the unbearable emotions that now consumed him. He took a slow step forward, bringing his mothers face into view, and revealing the drying, crusting pool of vomit in which she lay. Half of it was spread across the floor by the side of her, the other half covered her face like some hideous, peeling mask.

Sam was no longer in control of his own body, and fell with a thud to his knees, crawling towards his mother, unable to breathe. He already knew she was dead - her skin was whiter than the linoleum she lay on, and her lips, beneath their coating of vomit, were tinged with an edging of cornflower blue. But still, he could not stop himself from shaking her slightly, her head lolling from side to side and her mouth opening in a grotesque, slack jawed ‘o’ as he did so.

A small, white object rolled out of his mothers loose fingers and he moved her, and clattered away, rolling across the floor. Sam reached out for the object, one hand curling around the small, plastic pill container while the other held tightly onto his mothers cold, dead hand. He opened his shaking palm, reading the label with blank eyes, not actually taking in any of the words written on, the last thing Sienna ever said to him running around and around in his head -

“You can die too for all I care!”

Despite the hopelessness of everything, Sam was still, and eternally would be, a slave to Sienna’s wishes, and could deny her nothing she asked for. After all - what did he have left to lose? Rising slowly from the floor and dropping his mother's hand back down to her side, Sam tightened his grip on the plastic tub in his hand and shuffled, zombie like into her bedroom. He emerged seconds later with a half empty bottle of rum and shuffled back, resuming his sitting position next to his dead mother. Gazing once more at her still face, now more peaceful than he had ever seen it while she was alive, Sam lovingly stroked the hair from her eyes, silent tears pouring from his as he whispered -

“See you soon Mum. Love you.”

EPILOGUE - 6 MONTHS LATER

             
The early summer/late spring sunshine shone down brightly on the mass of students as they clamored to make their way into College, all smiling, laughing, flirting and chatting away happily. Only one small group of boys didn’t join in with the frivolity, choosing instead to occupy a quiet corner of the car park as they raised a beer to the memory of their lost friend on the six month anniversary of his death.

“To Sam!” Lee cried, his voice cracking with the strain of holding back tears.

“To Sam!” The rest of them repeated in unison, voices sounding equally strained.

“Gone but never forgotten.” Johnny added quietly. They finished the rest of their drinks in morose, contemplative silence, Dan having to half turn away in an attempt to conceal the emotion that poured silently from his eyes. They waited for the rest of the crowd of students to disperse before slowly making their way in.

“Didn’t that girl die around this time as well?” Dan asked the group tentatively. “What was her name? The weird one - she wasn’t here for long.”

“Oh yeah.” Lee recalled. “Sasha or Siarra or something wasn’t it?”

“Well, nobody knows if she actually died do they?”Johnny interjected. “Didn’t they just find her clothes next to the river or something? Don’t think they actually found a body.”

“Yeah, something like that.” Lee mumbled disinterestedly. The group remained silent after that, making their way miserably to their first lecture, unable to tear their thoughts away from the memory of the smiling, jovial friend they had lost.

THE END