Cassandra froze. She did not scream or shout or cry. She just remained frozen at her place. Her eyes zeroed at the very scene in front of her and she didn't want to look at them and yet she knew looking away wasn't going to do anything, they were not going to come back and this probably the last time she was seeing them, even if they barely looked like her parents she had known for last 16 years.
"Miss please" an officer requested before dragging her downstairs and this time she did not resist him.
Her memories were all over the place and it was like she was travelling in two different realms at the same time, she wasn't sure if she was in present or travelling in the past memories. She didn't even knew when the officer had managed to drag her downstairs and make her sit on the sofa as he handed her a glass of water, She could not feel the taste of the water that she was now gulping hungrily.
She saw one of the detectives now step towards her as the officer vacanted her place and the detective sat right beside her. Only when she looked at him she realised that it was detective Miller, who is also a very good friend of her fathers.
"Cici!" He mumbled in a sorrowful voice looking at her, his eyes weren't filled with pity but with pain like for the first time somebody was suffering the same pain as her even if the degrees of it may vary vastly. Him being here reminded her of the first memory that she had when her father and Mr Miller was sitting on the couch talking about something, She was three then And her name was too hard for herself to pronounce so when Mr Miller asked for her name the only thing she could say was 'cici' and as a result he ended up calling her 'cici' all the time.
She wanted to broke down when he called her that, It reminded her of everything she had lost and how everything in her life had collapsed and yet she couldn't find a single tear sliding down her eyes.
"You are going to be fine Cici" he mumbled.
She wanted to reply to him, Shout at him telling him that he was talking bullshit, her Entire universe had collapsed on this very day and she was never ever going to be fine but she did not even have the courage to speak a single word like she was mute now.
"Cici say something!" He begged, taking her now cold hands in his. From the corner of her eyes she could see the officers climbing up the staircase, maybe getting ready to carry away her parents body and she was glad because she could not even think of seeing them like that again.
"What happened to mamma and Papa?" She asked finally finding her words.
"I don't think that is something you need to know about right now!" Mr. Miller exclaimed.
"What happened" she pressed again.
"Sometimes I forget that you are Liam's daughter and the stubbornness runs in your blood." Mr.Miller said shaking m his head at her with a kind smile but Cassandra kept her face straight and kept looking at him with expression, just like her parents dead body only waiting for her answer.
"They poisoned themselves! Apparently your father had a lot of financial debts that he was unable to pay" Mr Miller answered in a small voice.
"And you believe that my parents can commit suicide?" She asked.
"I don't want to cici! just like you don't want to either but the financial debt is huge and I do not want you to be burdened more than what you are right now but it is pretty huge and the evidence says so" Mr. Miller concluded.
Cassandra wanted to shout at him and threw her tiny fist at his scarred face, This man had known her parents for a very long time now and yet he so easily believed that the two of them were capable of committing something as horrendous as suicide. Even if the financial depth was huge and they were hiding it from her they had told her this very morning that they would figure it out together like a family. The most important point was if the financial debt was so huge they wouldn't leave it on her head and leave her alone like that.
"What evidence confirms it?" She asked.
"I don't think we should talk about this right now! what is more important right now is about you!" Mr Miller exclaimed in a worried voice.
"My parents are dead! there is nothing left about me right now. So just tell me what confirms that it was a suicide?" She asked.
"Your house has the highest security in entire Springfield and there are no marks of any forceful entrance which means the only people in the house were your mom and dad and they left this" He said handling her a note.
It was a small piece of paper but the handwriting in it was something she could recognise anywhere, First line was in the sprawled in dirty handwriting of her fathers.
"I am Sorry for doing this horrendous act but I cannot struggle anymore. I quit"
Goodbye it who is the beautiful handwriting of your mothers, Drawing laughter at the irony of the situation her parents were quitting something as beautiful as life and yet her mother's handwriting was the same course of beautiful handwriting as ever.
"We Always love and watch over you Cass" it ended.
"How much?" She asked looking a the detective beside her.
He looked at her giving her the same expression he did when she asked last few questions, like he wanted to tell her again that she was not ready for that yet but she knew that she would never be ready for this, so it was best to get over with it.
how could she ever be ready for a financial debt that her father killed himself?
how could she ever be ready for the loss of her parents when they were all she had?
how could she ever be ready for anything that was happening in her life right now?
"100 million dollars" he answered.
******
"100 million dollars" he answered.
She looked at him with the same expression yet again, 100 Million dollar was a fucking huge amount she couldn't even think what her parents took that amount for.
She did not have the words to ask him any questions so she simply look at him like he was to explain it to her how she was going to pay that amount.
"You don't have to pay that amount cici" he said. But she kept looking at him with the same pressing expression like she was waiting for an explanation and the entire story and not just a little fucking sentence.
"This attitude of yours can be so annoying sometimes" He groaned angrily before he started.
"Your house and all your parents property will cover this money so you won't have to pay anything" he explained.
"They could simply sell all their things and pay the debt then why would they commit ...." she couldn't finish, this made no sense.
"Cici! If you want to know everything right now I need you to be strong and promise me you are not going to try something bad." He asked.
"I lost everything I had to lose what more bad do you think can happen to me but if it allows you to feel better then I promise that I would not do anything reckless, I would not do what my parents did" she promised.
"Your parents had a policy on their name, All your properties in this house manages to pay only $30 million but the rest of this is paid by this policy that was in your father and mother's name" he explains.
"Their life insurance policy!" She exclaimed. It Made perfect sense now. Would probably never be able to pay $70 million so instead they opted to end their lives so that the life insurance policy will cover the entire debt.
"When is the Bank coming to seize my house?" She asked.
"Don't worry about that right now" Mr Miller answered.
"How much time?" She asked.
"2-3 days after your parents burial" he answered.
She did not ask him any questions further, She watched the officers carry her parents dead body away. She was less sad than the amount of anger she was feeling running through her bones. Her Father and mother had always taught her to be strong and fight every single situation with determination because there was nothing that cannot be cured and yet with two of them decided to give their life just for a depth.
You did not run behind her parents body or try to stop the paramedics from taking them away. Running after those bodies would mean nothing because those two bodies with saliva flowing from their mouth to their chins were not her parents. Those were the dead bodies of two people she loved the most on this earth and their soul had left long ago and their bodies were not going to bring back the people she loved the most.
Once everything was cleared, hours later she still sat on the same couch looking at the distant place with the expression same as her parents dead body.
She did not even realize when Mr. Miller had left to look after everything in doing his duty as a detective and when he came back again and sat beside her.
"Go pack your necessities! you are coming with me tonight!" He exclaimed.
She looked at him like he had grown three heads.
"Do not look at me like that Cici! You can make whatever face you want and I am still not going to leave you alone in this house when you lost your parents right here a couple of hours ago! And this is not the order from me it's from Amelia" Said mentioning his wife.
"I Can't leave Uncle especially after knowing the fact that I won't be able to be here anymore after a few days" she exclaimed.
"This house was once mine, it Has memories of me growing up and doing all those little things with my parents who are now gone. This is the last thing I have of them left and unfortunately I don't have this for long so I am going to spend every single second I can spend here" she answered.
He did not say anything but on the queue his phone rang and he showed it to her as it read Amelia and handed her the phone.
"Hie" she said.
"Cass! My love! I am so sorry for what happened! Where are you guys right now? how much more time before you reach home?" She asked.
Cassandra wanted to laugh at the brutality of the situation, What was she going to do reaching their home when she did not have a Home herself and the only home she had was due to the people who made this mansion a Home and now they were gone.
"Uncle will be leaving soon" she answered.
"WHAT? Absolute bullshit cass you are not staying there alone...." Before Amelia could finish Cassandra cut her off.
"I don't know if Uncle has told you this or not aunt Amelia but parents have gone bankrupt and I would be losing this house in a couple of days and this house is the only part of them that I have left with me and I would like to stay here as much as I can when I know I do not have a long time with it" she explained.
"I understand this love and you can stay there from tomorrow but just come home tonight. I do not think it's a good idea to stay there all alone tonight" Amelia answered.
"I will be fine aunt Amelia and if anything happens I promise I will call you and ask for help even if it's midnight" Cassandra promised.
"Okay! Take care love" With that Amelia hanged up. Realising that he did not have any option here he left too.
Now That she was finally alone she climbed the staircase and climbed into her parents bed as she cried for the first time, Cried more than she had ever cried before, sobbing so loudly that the entire mansion shook by her sobs.
********
Cassandra tried looking all around herself but all she could see was darkness. A sort of darkness that she did not knew if it was binding to her eyes or her surroundings were indeed dark. The darkness was engulfing her like the blanket of atmosphere around the earth. It wasn't the sort of darkness that covers your room when the lights go off suddenly. It was the sort of darkness that engulfed a place that has never seen light before.
You see that feeling when the lights go off suddenly and yet you could make out some little details of your surrounding, Cassandra was never sure if that was because their surroundings were familiar or because the lights had gone suddenly But this feeling wasn't the same. The surroundings here were unfamiliar and scary and it was so dark that she could not even see her own arms as they struggled around trying to catch something.
"Mumma! Papp!" She exclaimed helplessly trying to find them in the darkness.
"We are here" she heard a voice. And for the first time she felt relief after she found herself in this place. Her parents were around somewhere and that meant that even if worlds most darkest monsters came to life she would still be protected because she was with her parents.
"Mumma Papp!" She exclaimed again as she started walking in the darkness trying to find her parents. Moments passed as she guided herself towards the voice of her parents ignoring any warning bells in her head that she might hurt herself by banging into a furniture or anything in this pitch darkness. This place was definitely not her house, this place was something she had never been to because she had never been to a place that was as dark and as empty as this.
Walking finally she touched something that felt like a hand.
"Mumma" She exclaimed happily as she held to that hand. The hand pulled her closer into an embrace and she happily went into it as two arms wrapped around her. She could hear a light singing melody coming from the woman's mouth as she removed one of her hands and started caressing her hair.
"God mamma! I was so scared. I couldn't see anything and it was so dark and I didn't even knew what place we are at. Where are we?" She started ranting until she felt the grip on her hair tighten, she winced in pain.
"You are hurting me mamma!" She exclaimed trying to leave the embrace but the women wouldn't let her go.
"LEAVE ME" she started shouting when she could hear the noise of her hair being pulled out by the woman's grip.
Struggling she finally managed to put some distance between her and the woman when a faint light came into the room.
What she saw horrified her to her very core. The woman standing in front of her was about a few centimetres above the land, her arms and legs were twisted in weird angles and her mouth was forming with saliva, There was also a man beside her looking exactly the same and both of them were staring at her with this ghostly smile that her breath was caught in her chest.
The worst part of it was that they were no other than Liam and Maria Smith.
"Ahh" Cassandra shouted as loud as she could quickly getting up on the bed and struggling to break free and breathe. When she finally calmed down she realised that she was in her parents bed, In the same room that they had poisoned themselves.
There was a faint morning light coming from the window, When she picked up her phone she realised there were a couple of missed calls from Ethan and Amanda and it was around six in the morning, There was also a few missed calls from Uncle Miller, Amelia and Lucas.
She knew that after the sort of horrifying dreams she had she wasn't getting any sleep so she walked out of the bed and walked towards her mother's closet pulling out a dress that she thought could fit her she held it to herself and looked at the mirror.
She squeezed the fabric in her arms and hugged the cloth like her mother was within it and sobbed.
Not having the courage to stay in the same room anymore she ran outside to her room and splashed herself on her bed so being even more loudly.
Her phone started ringing again and it was Uncle Miller which meant that if she did not pick it up now he would definitely stop by and she did not want him to see her crying so she picked up.
"Yes uncle" She asked.
"I just called to make sure that you are okay" he answered.
"I am fine uncle miller!" She answered.
"You are a terrible liar Cici!" He exclaimed.
Cassandra did not knew what to reply to that she definitely wanted to cry her heart out in yet she could not find it in herself to show her pain to anyone.
"Anyways I just called to let you know prior hand that Amelia and Lucas have been really worried about you and they are stopping by at your place. They might be reaching any moment so yeah!" He answered.
"Thanks for the pre-warning Uncle Miller" she answered.
"It's fine Cici! I just need you to know that it's okay to show your pain. You are a human and just 16 years old and less than a few hours ago you have lost your parents in the most tragic way. You are a allowed feel the sorrow and you are allowed to cried but did not pack the sorrow in yourself because it will break you." He answered.
On the queue the doorbell rang.
"I'll keep that advice in my mind uncle Miller" she answered before hanging up.
She splattered some water on her face to hide the traces of tears but she knew that her nose was tomato red and her eyes rimmed bloodily so whatever She might do would not hide it.
So she dashed downstairs wishing the earth would swallow her.