OPHELIA: Chapter 18
Blurb
Elizabeth Lockwick wants one thing… to ensure Ophelia remains dead.
For years she’s weaved a life seen through rose-coloured glasses in idyllic Vermont with her husband Sebastian Lockwick, an alluring man with a broken moral compass, whose intent lies in protecting his wife. However, apart from her unorthodox understanding of Sebastian’s dark and gritty hidden nature, she finds herself slipping away from her sanity in maintaining this picturesque life.
After receiving a gruesome gift from an unknown sender threatening to expose her, she finds herself haunted and possibly hunted by her buried past.
In order to make things right for herself and ensure that her secret is hidden, she reluctantly travels back to her sleepy small hometown in Wisconsin. A town where young girls seem to be mysteriously disappearing. There, she reunites with the dysfunctional Pierre-Louis’, a French-American family who sheltered her in their manor in her time of need.
With time slipping away, she struggles with her guilt and a dangerous affair and realizes that perhaps Ophelia wasn’t dead after all these years.
Elizabeth suddenly finds herself caught in a game of cat and mouse, unsure of which she really is this time and who she can trust.
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Chapter 18
She sat up at the edge of her bed on the verge of a bitter scream but swallowed it back in like vomit too embarrassed to throw up. She tried to convince herself that it was only but a dream but she knew her reality too damn well to be called delusional again. It was 3am and every inch of her soul was wide awake now. She couldn’t sleep anymore. She didn’t think she wanted to at this point. Ophelia curled herself into a ball on the bed and felt herself break into a million pieces. She couldn’t hold it all in together right now. Being in Rose Gap tore at her very soul and ripped it open to such a vulnerability in such a way that she considered it an endless merciless murder. She blinked away the hot tears that was swollen in her eyes and steadied her battered breathes all whilst feeling weights which seemed to tie down her organs and taunt at her sinful survival. The faster she was out of this town, the better.
Ophelia quickly showered and was about to leave the manor around 6:25am when Diane stopped her at the door. “Where are you going?” She asked in her demanding tone.
Since her arrival, she promised herself to keep her interactions at a minimum with certain members of the family and she was fixed on keeping it that way. “I’m going to meet with Charlie at the station. I want to volunteer in the search.”
“The men are doing the search, why are you intervening?” She scowled.
“Because I want to find Claire Marie as much as you do.”
Ophelia was about to walk away when Diane stopped her. “Don’t pretend to care about her. Don’t think I don’t know, but my son is dead because of you.”
“I loved Monty like a father. And I care deeply for Claire. I don’t wish to argue with you, Diane.” She frowned, picked herself up and left.
The town had been quite busy for a Thursday she noticed as she walked along the street to the station. Standing at the door, she peered in but saw no Charlie. Instead, busy officers hurrying around with files in their hand and coffee. A female officer who was just entering ushered her inside.
“Good morning, I’m looking for Officer Russel. Tell him it’s Ophelia Lucien.” Ophelia told the girl who sat at the front desk.
“Good morning, just a minute. You can have a seat as you wait.” It was refreshing to have a sense of pleasantry after her interaction with Diane this morning. Ophelia took her notepad out and began scribbling words to submerge her sense of uneasiness that boiled within her like hot earthy mud. An image had been hovering over her head all night long like ghostly clothing hung outdoors on a subtle windy day. She tried to push it out but it kept intruding her thoughts. She allowed herself for a minute to dwell on it and began sketching the lines of the image within her head. Her stomach flipped when she finished and realized it was a similar design of the tattoo the man who had broken into her house back in Vermont had on his wrist. The tattoo which made her assume him to be in a cult. Why was she even drawing such a thing? Instead, she shut the book tight and threw it into her bag.
“Ophelia?” Charlie’s voice alerted her as she stood to speak with him.
“I want to join the search group, Charlie.”
He let out an apologetic sigh and drew himself closer to her, speaking in a hushed voice as they walked outside. “You know I have no problem with you joining nor anyone else but I’m not in charge of making that decision. I even tried to make them see that the more people involved the better and they just don’t get it.” He shook his head, annoyed and ashamed of this place.
“I can’t believe after all this time,” she sighed as she continued, “And they haven’t changed.”
“Listen, I have an idea, meet me at the food court at Grand Plaza around lunch. You can join me at that time. You’ll be with me so they won’t say anything to you about being there. I got to get going to conduct the interviews, I’ll be done by lunch.”
“Alright.”
He tried to comfort her with a smile. “You haven’t been sleeping properly, have you?”
“It’s not the best time to talk about it.” She sighed and noticed from a distance Stefan making his way towards them.
“I should go. I have some investigating on my own to do,” she returned the smile whilst feeling the notepad through her bag. She tried to call the private detective again who didn’t pick up. At this point, she just gave up on this man. He probably was just a fake. She shouldn’t have trusted anyone she found on the internet anyway. The fault was her own.
Ophelia gathered her thoughts and made her way away to take a taxi. She knew exactly where she was headed when she felt most lost as a child. A place she abandoned after certain incidences in her life. Yet today was the day that felt like the child within her was craving that sanctuary. The taxi stopped directly at the Rose Gap’s Saint Bell’s Church which sat on top of a sloped hill with a stone paved walkway. She clutched her bag and took a step inside. Very few persons sat on the benches and faced the alter of the Virgin Mary adorned with candles lit at her feet. She reminded her of what she’d been robbed of, her very name taunted at Ophelia when she was a child and she was scared the Lord would never forgive her.
She felt herself tremble at the icy coldness of the open windowed church. Sitting solemnly for an hour or two with the book of the sketch in her hand she frowned and prayed for answers, especially answers for Claire Marie. Although her faith was broken a long time ago, some small part of her still held on. It was the part of her that brought her back here.
A hearty low cough suddenly caught her attention from the back of her. “Little Lucien.”
Ophelia turned to face the old man who sat silently behind her. Cloaked in a deep black, the wrinkles upon his face formed a smile towards her.
“Father Greywood.” She hadn’t seen the old priest in such a long time that she had completely forgotten of his entire existence at some point in her life.
“I’m surprised to see you here again.”
“I’m surprised to even be here again,” she corrected. “In Rose Gap I mean.”
“It’s a lovely little place once you can see the beauty behind it. I remember your mother adored it so much upon a visit she convinced your father to settle down here as well.”
Ophelia loved hearing about her mother but her mother being in love with this place hardly felt true. And if it was, she couldn’t understand where or what she found so lovely about this morbid town.
“You seem lost in many thoughts,” Greywood noted.
Sucking in her breath, she clutched onto the book, opened with her scribble. Without showing it to him, she noticed his eyes directly planted upon the image. “Father, are you aware of any cults here in Rose Gap.”
The old man coughed with his laugh. “In Rose Gap? What in the devil are you saying, child?”
There was something about his tone that reminded her of her ex. His reprimanding way of speech. It wasn’t what she needed right now. He had no idea what she was talking about. He must have thought she was crazy to visit the church after so many years asking about cults.
“I should go,” she tried to smile. “It was nice seeing you again, Father Greywood.”
After leaving the church, she noted that it was almost lunch so she headed towards the Plaza where she was supposed to meet with Charlie. With an hour to spare, she ordered a white chocolate Frappuccino and sat at an empty table at the food court. This was the hot spot it seemed for the teenagers. A young couple at the side had been sucking the life out of each other’s mouths in the most uncomfortable manner and no one seemed to bother regardless if they were borderline inappropriate with their touches. Ophelia sipped on her latte and thought about her teenage years. If anything, she rarely used to visit places like this very often. Those years of her life had been mostly spent with Stefan. They’d explore the forest finding lonely streams, borrow Monty’s car and leave the town just to buy Joe’s Sloppy Joe and eat it under the endless night sky as they’d lay on the hood of the car, and soak in the silence of the sunsets together with her parents souls in her old home. He’d been her first kiss, her first everything, all she’d ever wanted and so much more and yet here she was throwing it all away again.
From a distance, she noticed Terilla and her friend Roxanne enter, giggling together like schoolgirls. Both wore a similar blue fitted dress but Terilla’s stood out as it was much shorter which highlighted her smooth calves along with her white sneakers. Her eyes fell on Ophelia’s and an amusing smile grew upon her face as she made her way towards her.
“I see you’re quite enjoying our little Rose Gap,” she said while taking the seat opposite her with her friend alongside.
Ophelia smiled dryly. She really wasn’t a fan of the ‘little girl, big woman’ attitude. “Shouldn’t you be at home?”
“Oh geez, don’t tell me you’re a Charlie too. I thought you were cooler than that. He’s a pretty face but a bore.”
“That’s how you address him?”
Terilla laughed, “I wanted to call him Daddy at one point I have to admit but then I saw that new guy.”
Ophelia arched her eyebrow.
“He’s a total hottie. What’s his name? I saw you get into the car with him.”
“He isn’t a pedophile, Terilla,” she stated casually taking the last sip of her frap. Ophelia had to admit that the young girl before her also amused her.
“They never are,” Terilla retorted with a challenging look in her eyes. Roxanne who noticed broke the tense silence. “Did you hear about Maddie?”
“Maddie?”
“Yeah, Maddie Wilson. She went missing last night. Her parents only a few hours ago made the missing person’s report.” Roxanne continued. “Maybe they thought she would come back home but she didn’t.”
“I think she’s dead,” Terilla interjected, unamused. “She’s that goody two shoes. Just like Claire. Girls like that aren’t brave enough to have that sort of fun. Maddie would have gotten caught before she even made a call to a boy, so that’s why I think she’s dead.”
Ophelia watched as Terilla played with her rose quartz bracelet around her wrist tiredly. There was something about that. Annoyed. She couldn’t bear the thought of her words being true. If Claire really is dead. It’s not too late she tried to remind herself. Her stomach felt sick. Her head ached. And now a new girl is missing. Something was definitely not right in this town.
**
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