That was when it hit- that familiar metallic scent. Eve stopped in her tracks, her stomach churning as her boot hit something squishy. Bile rose up her throat as she slowly craned her eyes downward, resisting the voice in her head to run- run as fast as she could. She remembered the sound of whatever was hitting the ground.
Eve was sure that even in between the noise of the torrential rainfall, she had heard the sound of something breaking. But no amount of courage prepared her for what caught her gaze. her eyes widened in shock.
"S-sir?" She called out, bending slightly towards the man lying face-down on the muddy ground.
There was no response. So she tried again, this time, dropping to her knees in a hurry. There was something about the scrawny back and the yellowing shade of the man's collar peeking from beneath his worn-out coat that pushed a sense of familiarity into her. Tears streamed down her face as Eve reached out to grab the man's shoulder.
"Sir!" she shouted, shaking him with a sense of urgency.
Silence greeted her yet again, leaving her alone to her own devices, soaking wet in the torrential rain as she kept pulling at his shoulder. A labored grunt escaped her chest as she finally managed to flip him over. As his coat flapped open, she saw a large gaping wound right in the middle of his chest, draining him of what was left of his lifeblood at a fast pace, soaking into the mud and her clothes.
Eve clenched her teeth, trying hard to stay sane. Thunder boomed once again, bringing with it a flash of lightning across the cloudy sky. The man who she had hated all her life was laying lifeless before her, his eyes wide open like his mouth in a horrified expression as if the last thing that he had seen took out his very soul.
"Father!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, tears streaming down her face.
Though she had hated the man, she had never once wished such a gruesome death upon him. Fear gripped her insides, twisting it in all directions. What kind of monster had done this? No. No one deserved this. Not even Eustace, she thought as she looked around desperately.
"Someone help! Help!" She cried, her voice breaking under the strain of her fear.
There was a voice in the back of her head asking her to drop the body and step away, maybe the voice of her reason. But her heart clenched at the realization that she'd lost something that she never knew was hers, to begin with.
Even through years of abuse, the man had made sure that she wasn't left out in the streets to starve. And that was why, now and again, the term father slipped out of her mouth. Fear and dread intertwined into a thick wine, wrapping around her teary eyes, making everything else blind to her.
She kept screaming for help until her throat was raw and her mind was numb to her blood-soaked hands and legs, the rain binding her body to the ground as it pushed her down with its cold hands. And hence, she did not register the squeaky sound of the kitchen door opening or the flash of a kerosine lamp before it fell to the floor, its clang subdued by the raging thunderstorm.
When warm hands grabbed her shoulder, she felt a momentary relief that flicked when a sharp sting rose up her spine. She let the body go in shock, falling sideways straight into the pool of mud that had become of the backyard. Eve pressed her hand against her tailbone, biting on her tongue to keep from screaming.
When she opened her eyes again, she saw a shaking Dodie kneeling in the mud, her hands wrapped around her husband as her mouth opened and closed in agony. Eve shook her head, trying to push through the daze that covered her mind. The sounds of her stepmother's screams pierced through her being.
"You monster!" Dodie cried out, turning to her with reddened eyes. "What have you done?!"
Dodie looked a mess- like someone who had lost the last straw to a happy life. With her hair matted down her skull and the shadows that seemed to have appeared below her lids in the past few seconds, she didn't look like her usually almost-charming self. But above all, Eve's mind wasn't able to process what the woman was spewing.
"W-what?" She asked, looking at her stepmother confusedly.
Dodie's face scrunched into an ugly sneer. "You killed him you evil thing!" Her voice rose above the loud torrential rainfall.
Eve cringed back in reflex, more mentally than physically. Her hand slipped as she fell back into the mud, soiling her bloodied clothes once again. The wight of her words slammed against her being, shocking her with its intensity. A murderer? She thought as she watched two more figures rush out the backdoor of the house.
"Mother!" The sisters screamed, rushing towards Dodie.
But the moment, they lay their eyes upon the body, they staggered back, shocked. Viola fainted at the sight without a warning, her limp body plunging towards the mud. The younger sister was quick to react as she broke the fall with her hands, stumbling once before balancing the dead weight against herself.
"Sister!" Pavia shouted, giving continuous slaps to an unconscious Viola.
Ignorant to all, Dodie was clutching Eustace tightly against her chest, whispering as she rocked the body back and forth. "Murderer. You murderer." She repeated robotically as tears streamed down her distraught face.
"What?!" Pavia exclaimed, turning to Eve in shock. "You did this?!"
Eve shook her head, struggling hard to stand up. "No, I-"
With a scream, Pavia lunged towards her, dropping her sister's unconscious body to the muddy ground. As her step-sister's nails racked through her neck, Eve screamed out in pain.
"You knew it, didn't you?!" Pavia screamed, pulling at her hair.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Eve cried out, trying to push the girl away in desperation.
"Liar!" Pavia shouted, her hand clutching the sleeve of her soaked dress. "You knew that he was not your father and that's why you killed him in jealousy!"
Eve didn't know when and how her strength had returned to her limbs. But at that moment, she raised her hand, landing a neat punch right on the girl's nose. Pavia screamed out in pain, releasing the grip on her hair as she fell back. The sound of ripping clothes accompanied the fall but Eve ignored it.
"Pavia!" She exclaimed, narrowing her eyes at the girl who was now lying face down on the mud beside her. Standing up with much difficulty, she shook a hand at her. "How dare you-"
"Get out!" Dodie's command rang through the backyard, cutting her off.
"What?" Eve asked, turning to the woman in shock.
"Move to the side!" Someone shouted from behind her. "The coroner is here!"
That was when Eve realized that they were not alone anymore. Sometime in the middle of all the accusation and the screaming, the entire village had gathered in their backyard, the crowd thickening by the minute, all in their worn-out coats to cover up their shabby night dresses.
They were whispering amongst themselves, their faces a mixture of hatred and shock as they watched the scene unfold before them. A crouched figure rushed through the crowd, holding a small leather bag with him, walking straight towards her stepmother and her dead father. She recognized the coroner.
"I said get out!" Dodie screamed, glaring at her as the man eased Eustace off of her arms.
But Eve did not move. She couldn't. Her legs had grown roots in the soil. The coroner took out a gleaming metal from his bag as someone with an umbrella rushed to his aid with a kerosene lamp. She watched the man poke the thing inside her father's wound, feeling around inside with a scowl on his wrinkled face, probably grumpy about being called to work in the middle of the night.
Suddenly his hands stilled.
"His heart!" The man exclaimed, quickly taking out the instrument with a startled expression. "The man's heart is missing!"
Dodie's head snapped towards her, her eyes wide in accusation. Murmurs rose among the crowd like a wildfire, their voices rising as they stood in the rain, pointing their fingers towards her. Eve shook her head.
"No." She whispered. "No, it was not me."
But no one seemed to care. As the first villager took a step towards her, Eve knew that there was no other option. Cursing under her breath, she ducked his hands, turning to her right as she shot towards the fence of the house.
"Someone stop the murderer!" Pavia's scream rang behind her as she pushed herself off the ground, jumping the high fence with ease, unaware of a pair of eyes that watched her through the streaming torrent.