Beautiful Bedlam Read online

  (“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.”)

  Aristotle.

  1.

  Sienna jolted up suddenly awake in bed in a frenzied state of fright and panic to the thwacking sound hurtling against her bedroom window followed by the slumping, then the faint thud that could only have been what Sienna knew it to be. Her pounding heart slowly eased itself back to its ordinary pace. Although that didn’t help the fact that her nightshirt clung to her curved slender back, damp with sweat. Anxiety filled her every nerve. She balled her trembling hands in to fists and ignored the wriggling writhing worming feeling in her anxious knotted stomach and sighed. She looked glumly at the neon bold numbers on her alarm clock that read three thirty AM. Two hours. She had managed to get two hours of undisturbed sleep. This had been the norm for Sienna for the past couple of weeks.

  Sienna remembered the good old days when she could sleep up to nine hours without a care in the world. Oh how she envied that dark circle eyed-free girl. She ran her fingers through her long dark mane of hair that cascaded all down her back. It must have looked like a shambolic bird’s nest built by a drunken mama bird but Sienna was in no mood for caring at this time of the night. With great difficulty she staggered out of bed and stood at the heart of her bedroom, still in the dark, unmoving. She could hear muffled cries reverberating from the living room downstairs.

  Thin walls. She had always hated that about her house, among other things. Moonlight poured in to the room and gave her eyes some much-needed adjustment to the dark. She slowly tiptoed her way to the large glass window that took up a great deal of the wall. She was careful not to wake Annie, well Annabelle, but no one ever called her that other than Great Aunt Bertha. Annie lay soundly asleep, snug as a bug, under her comforter, blissfully unaware of the threads that were unraveling all around her.

  Her pale face was half covered by the comforter, and the other half by her pretty black bangs across her forehead. Sienna almost envied her little sister then, not because of the bangs of course but because of all the sleep she got every night in comparison to her insomniac sister.

  “Annie,” Sienna hissed and waited for a response but her little sister was sound asleep and grumbled slightly before turning to her side. The Rivers household was so very much abnormally alive in the dead of the night. Sienna ignored the muffled cries that were only growing louder and louder and opened her bloodstained window.

  She looked out and was unsurprised to see a single white dove lying still, motionless, with its neck undoubtedly snapped and broken at the end of the widow’s walk. It was third time this had occurred in three nights in a row. When it had first happened, she thought nothing of it. She told her mother whose only response was to get rid of the damn bird. But when Sienna went up to dispose of the bird, she found nothing but confusion and an empty clean roof. Each night it would die, and each morning it was nowhere to be found.

  She swallowed hard and took a small unconscious step back. She caught a glimpse of herself in her dressing table mirror. She bit back her gasp of shock. She looked like she had walked straight out of a scary movie and in to a small-unknown suburban town in Pennsylvania. Sienna had always been relatively small-boned and slender but now coupled with her sudden growth spurt, she looked more slender, statuesque even. Her big green eyes almost glowed in the dark resembling like the feline she was. Gone were the chubby cherub cheeks of her preteen days, now she had prominent high cheekbones; a heart shaped face and a pointed chin much like her mother’s. All in all, even Sienna could be forced to admit abashedly that her looks had certainly taken a turn for the better but not tonight. Tonight her usual glowing complexion appeared shallow and almost ashen. The long white nightgown and the long dark hair didn’t exactly help to shed the creepy ‘The Ring’ girl image.

  “I look like a ghost.” She whispered with her hands on her face in a classic Home Alone Kevin McCallister pose, still in shock. The girl in the mirror smirked at her. Sienna blinked and it was gone. She was soon snapped out of her confused daze when she heard the faint melodious sound of a woman singing over the growing ruckus her parents were creating down below. Her luminous green eyes flicked towards the window again only to see a dark figure dash behind the sycamore tree in front of her house. She could still hear the eerily high-pitched soprano voice singing the baby lullaby ‘Rock a bye baby’ sending chills up and down her suddenly rigid back. Now, most people would have at this point been running back to their beds and hiding under their duvets praying for sleep or a quick death. Sienna on the other hand was so overcome with adrenaline and the overwhelming need to find out whether she was losing her marbles or not.

  She quickly hurried out of her room thinking she’d slip out of the house unnoticed only to find her older sisters dressed in matching fluffy pink night robes standing on the staircase, leaning over the bannister. Meredith was doing her weird mumbling under her breath to herself thing again and Cora was chewing and knowing at her fingernails as if her life depended on it. This was definitely not good. They glanced up at her anxiously upon her untimely arrival with identical crazy brown eyes and unruly dark curls and hissed at her to be quiet in eerie twin like unison before she could even get a word out of her agape mouth. Meredith was all of seven minutes older than Cora and not a day went by that she didn’t remind them all who the alpha was. Sienna thought her more of a dictator but she dared not say it, aloud anyway. But still, anything and anyone was better than Cora and her aggressive personality. She was different to her kin in everything from green eyes to brown, straight long hair to short curls, from sensitive and caring to bullying sociopaths. Okay, maybe that was a little harsh but Sienna was way too tired to censor her thoughts. She crept up behind them and looked over the bannister along with them.

  “They’re fighting again.” Cora stated bluntly as always stating the obvious. The sisters unanimously flinched after hearing a large thumping sound against the wall, followed by the sound of glass smashing on to the floor.

  “We should go down there and stop them!” Sienna said quickly and took a couple of steps down the stairs.

  “No, of course not! Don’t be so stupid!” Cora growled and crossed her arms over her chest. Her squinted brown eyes were almost hidden under her furrowed brows.

  “What are you even doing up? Go back to bed. School starts again tomorrow.” Meredith chastised and grabbed her by the arm gruffly before Sienna could go fleeting down the stairs.

  “Don’t you remember what happened the last time you stuck your nose in where it didn’t belong?” she hissed remembering to keep her voice down. Her sister didn’t even appear to be listening. Her eyes were vacant and distant again. Her face fell flat. Emotionless. Her body still.

  “Can you hear that?” she whispered before turning her head slightly to the side as if she were listening out for something.

  “My fault? You’re the one who’s always working so late!” their mother shrieked. Her voice was growing louder and louder.

  “Yes, it’s called being in a twenty year old marriage.” Cora grumbled and rubbed at her eyes, as if their family drama was nothing more than a hindrance to her.

  “No, the singing. You hear it, right?” Sienna asked softly as she could hear the gentle almost shrill singing of the old lullaby echoing through the house. It was coming from outside. Meredith and Cora exchanged confused glanced with each other startled by Sienna’s weird behavior. She shot off down the stairs before they could get a word out between them. The door to the living room was left slightly ajar. Her parents were in their screaming at each other oblivious to their audience. Sienna walked straight past the door and walked out of the house. The cool breeze hit her instantly blowing her silken dark locks behind her. The lamppost was aglow with dim fluoresc
ent yellow light exposing a tall shadow of a girl, or a woman hiding behind the tree. Her long hair was etched on to the ground, and flew past her shoulders. Her frame was eerily familiar. She rocked from side to side with her elbows out as if she were cradling something in her arms. As Sienna got closer and closer to the shadow, the song got louder and clearer, music to her ears.

  “Rock-a-bye baby, in the treetop. When the wind blows, the cradle will rock. When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall. And down will come baby, cradle and all.”

  The crisp burnt orange and amber leaves crumpled under Sienna’s bare feet as she slowly walked around the sycamore tree. Her quivering fingers lingered against the rough bark of the dark tree trunk. Her heart could have catapulted right out of her chest right then from the way it was pounding so loudly. It would have been a small mercy if it had. It would have saved her from the dawning paralyzing fear that was slowly gripping her. She could barely hear the singing over the sound of her own heart thumping against her chest cavity like a starved ravenous animal thrusting against its metal cage desperate to get out. Sienna swallowed back the sick that was rising up her throat and extended her fingers out as she took that final step around the tree. She let out a blood-curdling scream as a tiny creature jumped out at her knocking her instantaneously to the ground. She fell on her back and leaned on her elbows only to find the most foulest looking cat she had ever had the misfortune to lay her eyes upon just mere inches away from her face. It was a pale pink wrinkly hairless Sphynx cat with pale blue eyes, one of which was lazy. It also didn’t escape Sienna’s attention that it was missing a leg. As it crouched on its three legs it quite positively purred and scowled at Sienna. Relief washed over her like a bucket of fresh cold water on a blisteringly hot summer’s day. She let her head lay back against the ground again as she caught her breath.

  “You scared me half to death.” She half chuckled half wept with wry amusement. The cat leapt off Sienna’s stomach and landed safely on its three legs beside Sienna’s head and began walking around her as if it were inspecting her. Sienna sat up and brushed the leaves out of her hair.

  “I’ve lived in this neighborhood all my life. I think I’d remember a cat like you around here. Whom do you belong to?” She asked curiously and cautiously stroked the soft saggy skin on its head. The cat purred clearly used to displays of affection. Despite missing an important ligament, Sienna could have sworn that it was a pure breed, meaning it was a hell of a lot expensive.

  “Who’s your mommy? Creepy Mrs. Bosworth down the street?” Sienna asked as she held the cat and pulled it on to her lap. The Sphynx growled and nicked her arm with its claws before settling down again to the loveable friendly feline it was seconds before. “Okay, jeez, I get it. She’s not your mommy.” Sienna said quickly with a small smile. It had no neck collar, no nametag, nothing.

  “Maybe, you’re the Andersons’? God knows they’ve got more than enough cats to keep Mrs. Anderson busy whilst Mr. Anderson goes out to play.” She remarked dryly. Sienna lived in a small town, small towns meant everybody knew everybody else’s business no matter how private and intimate the details may be. What Sienna didn’t get was how each time Mr. Anderson was caught cheating on his wife, his wife gladly accepted yet another cat as a peace offering. She shook her head. She didn’t think she’d ever understand the concept of marriage. She looked down at the ugly little creature that was staring at her intently with those big creepy eyes. It rolled its eyes as if it were listening in on her erratic inner monologue.

  “Seriously? Did you just roll your eyes at me?” Sienna asked brusquely and picked the cat up before her and glared at it with wide eyes. She glanced around at the empty street. The front door to her house was still left wide open. Her parents were to busy yelling and cursing at each other to realize she’d slipped out.

  “How come no one else is around when weird things happen?” she asked in a high-pitched excited voice as she turned back to face the ugly feline. The cat just meowed and Sienna knew if it could, it would have shrugged along with her. “

  So, what are you a boy or a girl?” she asked curiously. The cat just stared at her with dull bored eyes.

  “What? Now you’re shy?” Sienna retorted sardonically before lifting the cat higher in to air trying to determine its gender. She could barely see anything in the dim lighting. “A girl! Or…a boy? Wait a minute…have you been…neutered?” she asked her voice dropping down to a low whisper on the last word. The cat let out a yowling cry in response with its face tilted upwards dramatically. Sienna put him back down in her lap and stroked its back. “Poor guy.” She said softly. First, the leg, now the genitals, this cat could not catch a break. She sat on the floor, leaned against the tree with her new friend and faced her house, her home, the only home she had ever known and watched in silence as it came crumbling down right in front of her. From the surface, her family seemed pretty damn normal, perfect even. She had one set of parents, never been divorced or even separated, a lawyer daddy, a hot trophy wife Colombian mama, older twin sisters in college, a cute little ten year old sister, a nice house complete with a white picket fence and a rose bush.

  She could see her parents through the window as the curtains were still possibly due to the fact that her mom had been up all night with a glass of red in her hands, pacing and pacing around driving herself crazy waiting for her father. She could see their dark figures moving animatedly, her mother’s hands on her hips, her father yelling with his hands raised. It was just another night at the Rivers house. Dinner always came with a show, a show that was slowly reaching closer and closer to its inevitable expiry date. She could see Annie’s small figure beside the giant window in the upstairs bedroom, her small tired eyes taking everything in. she saw movement. Her father ran up the stairs, probably straight past the twins. Sienna only took this as a sign of retreat. Her mother had clearly won this battle.

  “They weren’t always like this, you know. They used to laugh. Now they can barely be in the same room as each other without setting the other off.” Sienna said softly and shivered in the cool night air. The freaky looking Sphynx looked up at her and gazed at her with his big blue eyes purring lovingly. The damn thing was growing on her. She quickly wiped the traitorous tear that seeped out her glistening green eyes and laughed in spite of her self shakily.

  “Yeah, I know, what you’re thinking. Get over it. Everybody’s parents fight. Everybody’s parents are divorced. You’re sixteen years old; you hardly need your mommy and daddy to hold your hand anymore.” Sienna whispered with a wry self-deprecating smirk trying as always to make light of her situation. It drove her sisters nuts. Whenever anything terrible happened, she was always the first to resort to laughter. You could understand why Sienna’s mother didn’t exactly allow her daughter to attend any more family funerals. She heard more yelling, more feet stomping down the stairs, more cries. It was a wonder the neighbors weren’t up yet wiping the dust off their blinds with their eyelashes with sheer delight.

  “I don’t know. Its just sometimes it feels like I’m screaming on the inside. I’m screaming to the world, I’m screeching right in to the abyss, I’m crying, kicking, dragging my feet all the way to oblivion and not a soul on earth can hear me…sometimes I feel like I’m already dead.” She said numbly her eyes staring out pensively in to thin air, her voice rang heavy with the echo of truth.

  “Ow!” she yelped as she felt a set of very sharp claws dig in to her arm. She jumped back, throwing that cat off her along the way. The Sphynx landed perfectly safely on its three legs and looked up at her patiently as if it were a pink Yoda with anger management issues.

  “What is wrong with you? No! Bad kitty! Scratching is bad!” Sienna reprimanded irritably and frowned at the sight of her bloody arm. She never had a cat before. She wondered if she’d need a tetanus shot. ‘Do cats give rabies? Or is that just dogs?’ she wondered to herself. The cat was clearly feeling sorry and purred and meowed adorably and licked Sienna’s ankles.

&nb
sp; “You know what, I was going to call you Mr. Wrinkles but clearly you’re more of a Sméagol!” Sienna sighed and put her hands on her hips looking at the curious creature below. She couldn’t help but smile at the hairless thing. Where it lacked in beauty, it clearly made up for in brains.

  “Yeah, you’re probably right, Smeags. I have to stop feeling sorry for myself. My life could be a lot worse.” She remarked considerately with a small tilt of her head.

  It was as if the universe had heard her utter those words aloud because the second they passed her lips, Sienna’s father, Phil, came rushing out of the house with his car keys and suitcase in hand complete with her mother running out after him. They hadn’t even noticed her in amidst all the drama and the chaos.

  Her father was still smartly dressed in his usual work attire of a crisp white shirt that now looked crumped and beaten down along with his tired exhausted face, his charcoal grey khaki pants just seemed to wear him down even further. She looked nothing like her father. Thankfully, she got her mother’s good genes, which were just about the only good things about her. He was a man of average stature, below average looks, unbecoming outward appearance and an absolutely outstanding heart of gold. Usually he was of fair pink complexion, which contrasted greatly with his balding dark hair and brown eyes. Yet, tonight they were both disheveled, pale faced and strung out. Perhaps it was the lighting but he seemed to have more flecks of grey in his hair, more lines on that crowded forehead. He looked perfectly apt for what he was at that moment, a man who had given up.

  “I just…I need some time!” he yelled as he yanked open the door to his black SUV and threw his jacket in to the passenger seat.