Pitch Black Heaven

I wasn't very surprised to see Liam standing over me, my phone twisted and deformed in his hand.

"You betrayed me... again." He mumbled very quietly, spiting the last word. I didn't have anything to say so the silence dragged on. "Do you know how much trouble he and his little gang have given me?" I once again remained silence, not knowing whether it was a question or not. He took a small dagger from his belt and ran it across his finger. I gulped when a tiny drop of bloody oozed from the tip of his finger.

"You killed they're families." I muttered.

He breathed a laugh. "They're families killed me." He said darkly, a sudden evil sparkle coming into his eyes. He very slowly stroked the blade across the inner part of my arm, ending at my wrist. It was a shallow cut but the pain was only just bearable, the blood oozed from the cut and ran down my arm staining it red. Then with a quick flick of his wrist he cut the rope holding my arm to the metal railing leaving my wrist free but another shallow cut on my hand.

"Oh god!" I wailed grasping my wrist and pressing my hand to the cut, it ran all the way down my arm and continued onto my hand.

Liam laughed. "I could end your life so easily." He growled kicking me in the gut.

A cry of pain escaped my lips. "You bastard." I spat on his shoes and he shoved me to the ground holding the dagger to my neck.

"Shut up." He ordered. I peered over his shoulder, there was a door to the left of the sewer and on the opposite side there was a ladder leading up to a sewer drain. My escape. Once Liam pulled the blade away from my neck I grabbed his wrist and wrestled the dagger from his hand and flicked it across the room. "No!" He rasped as I pushed him into the waters, he slashed back onto his feet. I grabbed the gun from his belt and ran to the ladder and scrambled up it, but he was too quick, his hand wrapped around my ankle and he tried to pull me down.

"Get away from me!" I screamed kicking away his hand. He growled with fury as he once again fell back into the waters. I lifted and pushed aside the sewer lid and pulled myself up using all my strength. I could hear Liam trying to pursue me.

"I'll kill you!" He barked, the metal ladder shaking just as I pulled my foot off it. I rush onto the road diving to the pavement when a car came with in inches of my shaking body. I ran down the pitch black streets, the lights of the perfect little houses were still one and the street lamps still flickered with life. I slipped behind a fence.

- LIAM'S POV -

I grunted with the he effort when I eventually pulled myself out of the sewer. I had no time to go back down there for backup. I pulled my gun from my belt and pointed it up to the sky, I shot twice.

"Get out here!" I bellowed to the silent street. No answer. I took four careful steps forward and shot twice up at the sky. "Mi-Mi." I said quietly, deciding to play the loving brother to lure her out. "I'm sorry. Please come out, so we can talk. I promise to behave." I pleaded. Once again, no answer. I struggled to contain the rage building in me. I shot my gun into the sky with every step I took, a car approached so I lounged against a street lamp whistling casually. How cliche.

"Hey y-you!" A man said gruffly. I turned and quirked a brow at an old balding man who was armed with a baseball bat. "Y-you'd better get outa here before I call the police!" He stammered his threat.

I laughed. "Ooo, I'm so scared. Go back to your family unless you want them to witness your death." I replied smoothly.

He stood there shaking for a few moments before he slowly shook his head. "N-no!" He protested.

I chuckled quietly to myself. "Suit yourself." I muttered, pointing the gun at him, I pulled the trigger but I missed seeing as he ducked just in time. "Oh, damn. Too bad." I scoffed.

"Leave these people alone, there innocent people!" Rhiannon's firm voice echoed in the quiet street. I smiled to myself.

"There you are." I half growled, turning swiftly on my heels. She had her gun pointed straight at me, I laughed and I too pointed mine at her. "So what are you going to do? Kill you own brother. No I think not, cause your weak." I teased darkly. She raised both brows in amusement. I frowned.

"Oh, you think your so smart, that you've got everyone figured out." She laughed.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Yeah, I do actually." I murmured.

She rolled her eyes, then fixed them back on me. "You don't know anything. Because yes I would kill you, and yes I will." She growled in a low tone.

"No, I don't think so." I presaged smugly. Right on cue the sound of sirens pierced the silence of the street. Curtains were pulled back and curious eyes stared at our little confrontation. "Bad luck Mi-Mi..." I mumbled. The sirens grew loader and the cops would be here in a matter of minutes.

"Ugh!" She barked in frustration. She slipped into the darkness, disappearing over the fences and away into the night. I ran back to the sewer drain and jumped back in, slipping the lid back over as I climbed in.

- RHIANNON'S POV -

I was running from my psychopathic brother and are on the police wanted list life can't get any worse can it? Well I was sure I could sink, far, far lower. I needed to find out my brothers past, why he had such a grudge against the rich and wealthy. I needed to speak with my mother, my father being dead left my mother as my last option. I knew two things. One, I wouldn't be staying at my house because the cops would show to take me away if I did. And two, normality was some impossible for me now. I was apart of Rapture and there was no going back now.

I stopped at a near by gas station and snuck to their pay phone. I used my spare change to call Zach.

"Hello?" He said when he answered.

"Oh thank god, it me." I told him as calmly as possible.

"Rhiannon! Are you okay and how come you and Liam's faces are plasters all over the news!" He gushed snappily.

"I'm sorry, I tried to escape but Liam followed me and may have had a gun on gun confrontation in the middle of a crowded street with dozens of eye witnesses." I explained sheepishly. He exhaled loudly, I knew this made it tough for him, I hated knowing I was causing the gang trouble.

"I'm coming to pick you up just stay were you are and lay low." He commanded firmly. I mumbled my yes. "Were going to have to leave town for a bit." He added in a whisper. I didn't speak, I knew hiding away would be unavoidable.

"Wait." I intervened. "I need to speak to my mother quickly, meet me at my house in half an hour."

Before I could hang up he added sternly. "Thirty minutes only. Be careful." I hung up without replying. I immediately began running, I knew what street I was on and my house wasn't far away. I only prayed that Liam's bloody girlfriend Ailee wouldn't get to mum before I could.

***

I entered the house through the back door, it creaked heavily as I pushed it back. Mum hearing my entrance sat with pursed lips in the middle of the kitchen, her eyes were swollen and red, she was sitting with a glass of vodka beside her.

"You know don't you." She whispered groggily. I nodded my head. "You shouldn't have gotten involved." She almost growled her words. "Your fathers dead." Her voice became louder as she slipped off the wooden stool and onto her feet.

"Where is he?" I asked shyly.

"The police were here earlier, they had to take him away like a piece of bloody evidence!" She began to shout, I flinched away. Her face became soft as she noticed her ferocity. "And on top of that my beautiful baby girl is wanted for the police..." Her eyes were fierce with pain when she looked up at me, a tear gliding down her creamy pink cheek.

"I'm sorry." I mumbled, not sure how else to respond. Sorry was a pathetic way to respond. Oh mum I'm so sorry that dad is dead because of me, sorry mother that I'm wanted by the police, sorry mum that I carry a gun around with me, and sorry mum that I'm in a gang that wants to kill my own brother.

"Let me guess. Your hear to ask about Liam?" She guessed pushing the vodka aside and pulling up a stool.

"Yeah..." I answered taking the seat beside her.

She hugged my tightly before she released me and began. "He seemed to be the perfect little boy." She began, staring off into space as if the memories were playing out right before her. "His cute rosy cheeks and dimples, his curly blond hair... He was eleven when we first adopted him." She paused for a moment and looked to me, I smiled encouragingly.

"We had known his parents, but he didn't know that... They had once been good people, until Linda fell pregnant by accident. She never wanted Liam, she said she wanted to kill him. They were rich and so when he was born they pushed him away and left there helpers to care for him. As he grew older he tried harder and harder to claim his parents love, when they would come over in the summer to swim in our pool I could see how it pained little Liam when his father would kick him away when he tried to hug him." Another tear rolled down her cheek, followed by another.

"It's okay." I comforted her, patting her arm. She smiled halfheartedly dabbing away her tears.

"I came to visit Linda and George one night, they invited me to for dinner because your father had gone away for one week on business. When I was there Liam had bruises on his arms, I could see them. They had a fight just before I was leaving, Linda showed me out the door, but George didn't. I could hear Liam screaming in agony, Linda tried to push me out the door but I pushed back in an effort to help him. She told me to get out and said never to come see them again, and she slammed the door in my face." I became teary eyed when mum struggled to continue on.

"Then...?" I prodded, sniffling away.

"I heard news of Linda's death a few months before Liam's eleventh birthday, she had committed suicide over what I don't know." My jaw dropped when she added. "Not hard to guess why. A month later George grew tired of bothering with Liam that he kicked him out of the house and drove him to our door step. He drove away leaving nothing, not even a note. I only heard the wheels of his car screeching then I saw Liam standing alone on the driveway. Your father got a call from him saying that he was leaving Liam with us and that he was going to California, he was going to work at a boarding school over there as a teacher."

"What was Liam like... with you?" I questioned.

Mum smiled to herself. "He was such a beautiful young boy, so polite and kind. Your father would take him to the local baseball games and I would read him bed time stories and take him out on little trips. Just like your perfect movie like family." She laughed softly. "I only found out recently that he used to sneak out, and hurt people." Her voice darkened. "When Liam turned twelve he always said he wanted go to school and study, and we wanted to give him everything his previous parents hadn't. Your father and I decided to send him to MacFarline Academy so he could see his dad and maybe make amens." Mums face grew sour as she looked ahead blankly.

"We took him to the airport, he hugged us and said he loved us for the very first time." Mum sobbed as she almost broke down. "But when he looked at his time table he saw his fathers name as his English teacher. He threw a tantrum, he screamed and said he hated us. He said that we were horrid selfish people, that we all were. He ran out of the airport, we couldn't catch him." She trembled with sadness. "We didn't hear from him for around a year and a half. Even though he was only a boy of fourteen he had already made his first kill. By then the string of murders was only just beginning and Liam said that he was sorry but he wouldn't come back."

"Did you know it was Liam behind each murder?" I asked.

She nodded, once again drying her tears. "I knew it was him, I knew no one would believe me and your father but we knew what he was capable..." With that dark comment a flash of car lights shone in the front yard. I walked into the living room and peeked out the curtains. Thankfully it wasn't the police, it was Zach. "Your going aren't you?" I wasn't sure if it was a question.

But I answered anyway. "Uh... yeah. I have to lay low, so the police don't find me."

"Oh yeah... I saw your face on the news." She mumbled sniffling. I turned to face her.

"I'd better get some things." I didn't wait for an answer. I went upstairs and grabbed my large bag that I hadn't unpacked packed from camp. I shoved a few other things inside and skipped back down stairs. Zach was standing by my mother, waiting in the front room. I strode to Zach's side, he took my hand surprising me.

"You look after her." Mum ordered lightly.

Zach smiled. "I will. I won't let anything happen to her." He agreed, his head turning to me, his eyes boring into mine. When I looked back to mum she was looking at our hands.

"You two be careful. This won't be the last time I see you." She said firmly. She stepped forward and pulled me into a tight hug, I could hear her sobs in my ear. "I love you." She whimpered, crying.

"I love you too." I whispered back.

"We should go." Zach interjected also in a whisper. I kissed mums cheek and Zach pulled me gently out the door. Mum mouthed 'I love you' again.

My life would never be the same again, never. I was running away from everything that could go wrong, and though I knew if I stayed things would go wrong, I wanted to stay.

Pitch Black Heaven - © MemoriesdonoJustice / Rose Tonis 2009