Shattered By Broken Dreams

Blade knocked on the door hoping that his Uncle wasn’t going to be angry with him. Stormy was the one who answered. “Hey, you’re home!” she smiled and hugged him.

“Come in” she said as she held the door open for him and he walked in on his crutches and sat down on the couch. Stormy took his crutches and placed them beside the couch.

“Is Uncle Brian home?” she asked.

“Yeah, he’s just giving Melody her shot”

When Brian walked out of Melody’s room and saw Blade sitting on the couch he smiled.

“You’re home” he walked over and handed Stormy the needle before sitting down.

“I was wondering if we could speak alone”

“Sure” Brian said looking over at Stormy.

“I’ll just be inside” she smiled at her husband and went to her bedroom.

“What’s up?”

“I don’t blame you if you are angry with me for this”

“Angry with you for what?”

“The whole Laura thing” Blade said slightly uncomfortable.

“I don’t know what you mean? How could I be mad at you for what happened?”

“I saw her, long before this happened”

“What? When?”

“Remember when Mel was 5 and you had that party for in the park?”

“Yeah”

“When we went to play hide and seek, I found Melody talking to her. I didn’t know who she was then; I just thought she was someone who came to the party. Then I saw her again the day Mel broke her arm. She was sitting in the park watching us. I didn’t know her name was Laura until I saw her outside the ballet studio holding Melody’s hand.”

“WHAT?”

“The day I picked up Melody, Laura was with her and she was holding her hand. When Melody got into my car I asked her if she knew she shouldn’t talk to strangers and she told me that the woman wasn’t a stranger. She said her name was Laura and she was a friend of her mother’s and Aunt Sydney’s so I just assumed she was a family friend and didn’t think anything of it.”

“So, Laura has been stalking my daughter all this time?”

“Yeah, the last time I saw her with Melody was the day before she disappeared. She was in the park sitting on a swing talking with Melody about something.”

“Oh my God, how could I have missed this?” Brian was shocked and upset by the realization that Laura was right under his nose for years and he never even knew it.

“I’m sorry, if I knew she was a danger to Melody, I would have told you.”

Brian nodded and found himself fighting back tears. “Excuse me” he said and got up and walked into his bedroom.

Stormy was lying on the bed when he walked in. “Brian?” she got up off the bed and walked over to her husband. “What happened?” she asked.

He collapsed in her arms and cried as hard as he could. “Help Me,” he whispered through tears.

“What’s wrong?”

“I failed her. I failed my daughter.”

“No you haven’t. Where is this coming from?” she begged him for answers, but he just continued to sob.

Meanwhile Blade picked up his crutches and stood. He walked over to Melody’s room and knocked on the door. When she didn’t answer he turned the knob and went inside. She was sitting in a chair in front of the window holding a piece of paper in her hand.

“Hi Mel” he said but she didn’t look at him.

He walked over to the window and sat on the sill leaning his crutches up against the wall.

“Do you want to go outside?” he asked, but she didn’t answer him.

“Mel?”

“Talk to me, please. Let me know you are ok” he begged but she didn’t say anything.

He grabbed his crutches and stood. “I’m going to leave now, but if you want to talk to me, just call and I’ll be here in a heartbeat. I’m staying upstairs for a little while.”

He walked out of his room and when she heard the door close, she looked down at the piece of paper in her hand, the one with the happy face on it.

Later on that night…

Stormy had got Brian to calm down and she left him sleeping in their bedroom.
As he slept she sat in the living room with Sydney crying her eyes out to her sister.

“What am I going to do Syd?”

“Just be patient with him honey.”

“He’s losing it and I can’t help him, my daughter wont say a word. My family is falling apart.” She cried.

“Stormy, you and I both know better than anyone that this isn’t going to go away overnight”

“I know, but I don’t know how much more of this I can take” She cried.

“Just remember when it was you, how patient Brian was and how strong. It’s up to you to be strong for him now.”

“I can’t believe she was here all this time. It took all I had not to break down in front of Brian when he told me that Laura had been around Melody practically her whole life.”

“I know, Matt was pretty pissed off at himself too when I told him about it.”

“I never should have had a child.”

“Stormy!”

“I never should have brought a child into this life. Had I known this would be her fate I never would have had her.”

“You don’t mean that” Sydney said.

“I love my daughter, but why her?” Stormy cried.

Melody closed the door of her bedroom after hearing her mother’s words. She put on a jacket and opened her bedroom window. After climbing out she started walking unsure of where she was going.

Legend and Blade were sitting out front on the porch when Legend noticed her take off down the street. He tapped Blade on the arm and pointed in her direction.

“I got this, don’t say anything to her parents” he said and walked off after with is crutches.

He stayed behind her so as not to make her nervous, but he knew something was wrong. She was walking as if she had a purpose.

When he finally caught up with her she was standing on the bridge.

“Melody!” he called out her name just as she climbed up and stood on the ledge.

“Melody what are you doing? Get down from there”

She looked down at the water and closed her eyes.

“Damn it” He threw his crutches down on the ground and started to climb on the rail himself. His cast made it hard, but he managed to get up there with her.

“If you jump, I jump” he warned. “Come on Mel, you want to jump.” He grabbed her hand “On the count of three. One, Two…”

“NO!” she yelled. “You cant! Just get down and leave me alone” she cried.

“I’m not getting down unless you get down. If you jump, I’m going with you”

She pulled her hand out of his and turned around jumping off onto solid ground again. It took him a little longer to get down, but when he did, he stood in front of her and held out his arms.

She cried for the first time since the night at Laura’s house, she let out all the pain and hurt that was inside her. He held her close and let her cry as long as she wanted.

“I cant do this” she said.

“Yes you can, you’re a tough girl. You can get through this and there are so many people who want to help you if you let them.”

“I made them cry” she said.

“No, you didn’t. They cried for you not because of you.”

She shook her head no. “Your leg is broken and it’s my fault and Legend was hurt. My father is falling apart and it’s all because of me.”

“Melody, my leg is broken because of Laura, not you and the same for Legend. Your father is falling apart because he doesn’t know how to help you and he wants to, believe me he wants to.”

“You don’t hate me?”

“Are you insane? No, I don’t hate you. I think you are a pain in the ass sometimes, but I could never hate you.”

She wiped her eyes and he bent down to pick up his crutches. “Come on, we should get home” he said and she nodded.

“Are you going to tell my father about this?”

“No, this will be our little secret” he smiled and they walked back to the house.

When they got there he waited outside the window as she climbed back in. He sat on the sill from the outside while she stood in front of the window.

“Tell me I can leave with peace of mind that you are going to go straight to bed and not try anything stupid like that after I leave.”

“Straight to bed, I swear” she said

“Good, now hug me” he held out his arms and she walked right into them. “If you ever scare the hell out of me like that again, I’ll kick your ass”

“You cant, you only have one good leg” she joked and he laughed.

“Go to bed!”

“Ok I’m going” she took off her jacket and he waited as she climbed into her bed. When he stood up he closed the window and blew her a kiss that she pretended to catch with her hand just before he walked away.