Abandoned by Abigail Livinghouse (distant reading txt) 📕

at her eyes. “No, he would if he could. And he can anytime he’d like. I just don’t know what I’d do if he left.”

Cyndi gripped Brandy’s hands. “Brandy, I know Conner. I’ve known him for a long time as well as you have, and I am positive that he did not leave. He wouldn’t do that to you, or me. I’m sure he’s still here.”

Tessie touched Brandy lightly on the shoulder. “I–”

 She didn’t finish what she was saying. Darkness swirled around her until the room she had been in disappeared completely. She gripped Brandy until her nails seemed to dig into her skin, but they didn’t, Tessie ended up clutching air.

 The darkness came to an abrupt halt. Colors began to merge together like puzzle pieces clicking, until there was an entire picture. This was more of an out-of-body experience. Tessie could see Brandy, her back against the chalkboard, and her eyes wide with fear. A black clad figure held some sort of object in his right hand. He was pointing at Brandy with the other hand and shouting at her.

“There’s nothing here! Please!” Brandy begged, sobbing into her hands. The man yelled profanities at her, cussing and calling her horrible names.

“Get on the ground!” He commanded.

Brandy did as she was told. Now on her knees, she cried and begged for mercy. The man held up his right hand, the object he gripped flashed with the sunlight streaming in through the open windows. It was a knife.

Tessie jerked away from the scene unfolding before her, she felt herself fall. A red hot flash of pain warmed the back of her head. The vision shattered.

Tessie blinked a few times, her eyes were cloudy. Once she could see, she realized she was back in the basement. Brandy stared at Tessie in surprise, a bit of alarm showing on her face. Tessie was on the ground, her hand clutching the back of her head. She had banged it against the coffee table, she now realized. She brought her fingers back, they were red with sticky blood. Tessie moaned softly. Her parents were going to kill her.

“Oh my God,” Brandy breathed, reaching out with her hand. Tessie recoiled automatically. No way was she returning to that vision.

“Are you okay?” Cyndi asked, getting down on the ground so that she was at eye level with Tessie. “What did you see?”

Tessie’s eyes flickered to Brandy, whose eyes got big with fear. Not like Brandy was afraid of Tessie, but that she was afraid of what she had done to Tessie. She swallowed, ignoring Brandy’s frightened gaze.

 “I saw Brandy, she was”, Tessie swallowed again, “attacked. I didn’t see anything else.” Tessie lied. 

She saw the guy begin to stab Brandy viciously, but she didn’t want to recall it. Cyndi nodded, her eyes grave as if she understood what Tessie did not say. Brandy had become completely still. Her lip trembled slightly, and she was as pale as a sheet.

Cyndi placed her hand on Brandy’s shoulder. “It’s okay. Let’s go find Conner.”

“There’s no need.” Everyone’s head snapped up at the voice.

Conner leaned in the corner not ten feet from where the girls sat, giving off the same faint white glow as the other two ghosts. Brandy immediately jumped off the sofa, ran over, and threw her arms around him. She was hysterical, but Tessie couldn’t tell if she was happy or angry.

“Oh Conner, where did you go? I was so worried! What were you thinking?! You are in so much trouble!” Brandy gave him another hug. “I’m just glad you’re back.”

Conner patted Brandy’s arms awkwardly. “I never left.”

 “Tessie!” Mrs. Porter shrieked from upstairs. Conner eyed the ceiling.

“Who was that?” He asked, then shook his head. “Never mind.”

 Tessie wasn’t sure if her eyes were playing tricks on her, but she could’ve sworn Conner floated up to the ceiling, and dissolved into the plaster. He appeared moments later, holding a crowbar in his pale hands.

“I’ll take care of it.” He said, making for the stairs.

“No!” Tessie rushed forward, blocking Conner’s way. He cocked an eyebrow. 

“They’re my parents. I’ll deal with them. Just, give me that.” She held out her hand for the crowbar.

Conner gripped it tighter for a moment before Brandy walked over and placed her hand on his shoulder, a silent warning passing between them. Conner reluctantly handed the thing to Tessie. She clenched her fingers around the cold metal. Where the hell did he get a crowbar anyway? Tessie wondered. She discarded the thing onto the ground, where it landed with a loud clatter.

Tessie climbed the stairs, but hesitated at the top, listening to her parents arguing.

“We can’t let her home alone anymore.” Her mother’s voice filtered through the wooden door separating the basement from the kitchen. “Not if she’s going to do this.”

Tessie imagined her mother gesturing wildly at the disaster around her. She heard her father sigh.

“I just can’t figure why she would do such a thing. Tessie was never the violent type.” She could picture her father running his hands over his tired face.

“She said it herself”, Mrs. Porter said heatedly, “She hates it here.”

“Mary, what do you suggest we do?”

Tessie could hear the impatience in Mr. Porter’s voice. He didn’t feel like dealing with this right now. He wanted to put the groceries away and have a hot meal. The last thing he wanted to do was come up with a punishment for Tessie.

Tessie hesitated at the top of the stairs, worried that coming up now would be a bad time. Well, she realized, coming up at any time would be a bad time. She wondered if they would actually send her away like she had wanted when they first moved in. She turned around to see Brandy, Cyndi, and Conner all watching her, waiting. Tessie realized that she couldn’t leave them, not now. Because, no matter how much Conner would try to deny it, they needed her.

They had business that they had to take care of, and they all needed Tessie to help them with it. Whatever her punishment, she would have to persuade her parents that sending her away would be the last thing that would help her. “I can come with you.” A whisper came from beside Tessie. Cyndi looked up at her with shining blue eyes.

 She clasped Tessie’s hand in hers. “They can’t see me. I’ll go with you.”

Tessie gave Cyndi’s cool fingers a gentle squeeze. “Okay, but just so you know I can’t censor out what you’re about to hear.”

Cyndi giggled softly and nodded. Tessie pressed a finger to her lips to signal for quiet as she headed upstairs, Cyndi’s hand slick in Tessie’s from sweat. She swallowed, gripped the doorknob, and stepped out, releasing Cyndi’s hand as she came into her parents’ view. Mr. and Mrs. Porter’s eyes snapped to Tessie as soon as she came out of the basement.

“What the hell did you do?!" Mrs. Porter shouted at her.

Mrs. Porter’s face was beat red from yelling, as opposed to her husband whose face was pasty from stress. He pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, shaking his head.

“Mary”, he said in a strained voice. Mrs. Porter spun around to face her husband, her eyes blazing.

“She destroyed my kitchen Tom!” She turned back to Tessie, her face hardening. “Tessie, I’m sorry but, you’re going to St. Theresa’s Catholic School this fall. I hope that this will be an effective punishment.”

Tessie’s jaw dropped, her eyes widening and burning with anger.

“What? You can’t send me to a private school! That’s–crazy!” She shouted. 

Mrs. Porter crossed her arms. “It’s the last thing I want to do, trust me, but it’s the only thing I can think to help you.”

 “Mary”, Mr. Porter interrupted, shooting a glance at Tessie that said keep quiet. She nodded slightly. “Don’t you think that’s just a little rash? Just ground her. I’m sure that’ll teach her.” 

Mrs. Porter laughed curtly. “Hardly. When has grounding her ever worked? Remember a few months ago when she snuck out? We grounded her for weeks and that didn’t stop her from doing it again.”

 “You snuck out?” A whisper tickled Tessie’s ear. She jumped slightly. Cyndi had glided up to her height, how, Tessie didn’t know.

She coughed lightly, hiding a muffled shh! Cyndi rolled her eyes but thankfully kept quiet. Tessie turned her attention back to her parents, who were in the middle of a heated argument.

 “I don’t care if she doesn’t like the school! That’s the point! It has a very good educational system and high standards. The records are spotless and the references are miraculous. She’ll get a very good education there and if she doesn’t like it, that’s tough.”

Tessie stamped her foot, actually stamped her foot. She knew the gesture was childish and stupid, but she couldn’t help it. She was furious. A Catholic school? Of all the things she was being sent to a Catholic school? She could’ve screamed. 

“That’s not fair!” She shrieked.

Mrs. Porter shrugged indifferently. “Life isn’t fair.”

Tessie clamped her mouth shut in an effort to swallow a scream. She couldn’t believe this. She absolutely refused to go to a Catholic school. Never. Ne-ver.

“You can’t do this.” She said breathlessly. “I won’t go, and you can’t make me go.”

Tessie was playing the ‘you can’t do this’ card, when she really was being royally flushed. She knew that her parents had the upper hand. They had a few aces up their sleeves. Saying she was screwed was an understatement.

The corners of her mother’s mouth turned up in a grim smile. “I’m sorry Tessie, but if this is what it takes to get you to behave, so be it.”

Tessie clenched her fists in outrage. “No”, she said through her teeth, “I’m not going. I’ll–leave here before I go to a Catholic school.”

Her father’s eyebrows arched up in surprise. “You’ll leave home?” He asked incredulously.

She nodded, folding her arms across her chest defiantly. “I’ll run away. I swear, I won’t go to Catholic school. The streets are better than here.”

She meant to sound firm but it didn’t help that her voice quivered at the end.

There was a beat of silence that was broken by Cyndi going psst! Tessie’s eyes roved over to the little girl in silent question. 

“You wouldn’t really leave us, would you?” Cyndi asked, her voice thick with unshed tears.

Tessie shook her head, making it look like she was shaking it in defeat at her parents’ argument.

“Look”, she spoke up, “I don’t want to leave here. I really don’t. But, I won’t go to Catholic school. Anything else, I promise, any other punishment I’ll follow.”

Her parents exchanged a questioning glance before her father sighed. “Let’s just ground her.”

Mrs. Porter’s jaw clenched in anger. After a moment she finally shrugged.

 “Fine”, she looked at Tessie, “you’re grounded for two months, maybe more if you keep this up. For starters, you can clean up this mess. You will also be paying for a majority of the repairs.”

Tessie’s stomach dropped to her feet. She swallowed, feeling like her heart had jumped into her throat. “But–where am I supposed to get that money?”

Her mother shrugged again. “You tell me. It’s not my problem.”

She swept out of the room then, but to Tessie it felt like a cold breeze had just entered it, giving her a chill that shivered down her spine. Mr. Porter gave her a look that said, just let her alone, and followed after her mother. 

Tessie breathed a sigh of relief, leaning back against the wall. She felt like she had just faced the beginning of a huge battle. Her parents would be keeping an extra watchful eye on her from now on. Even though it seemed like she had won the battle, to her it felt like she had just suffered a brutal loss.

Cyndi glided over and hopped up onto the countertop, observing Tessie with sad eyes. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”

Tessie looked at the little girl, her eyes tired. “No. It’s not. Trust me, this’ll all blow over.”

Cyndi’s angelic face pinched into a scowl. “When?”

She