July 15, 2020
The four of them sat around the dining room table, silently eating meat loaf and buttered mashed potatoes with gravy, two of Edward's favorite foods. Well, almost everyone was eating silently, except for Lillian who couldn't quite keep her mouth shut while she was eating.
"Lillian," Edward said abruptly, feeling his peace being infringed on. She looked at him with her innocent little eyes and a mouth full of potatoes.
"Mouth closed."
She smiled at him and made it obvious how hard she was trying to keep her mouth closed. Her cheeks and chin puffed out while she did her best not to smile and let all the potatoes fall out of her mouth. Edward was irritated. Isaac was able to eat with his mouth perfectly fine at her age, why couldn't she?
Speaking of Isaac, he had hardly eaten anything on his plate. He swirled his fork around his potatoes while his eyes remained unmoving. It was only a matter of time before something like this would happen again. It had been a few months since Isaac had went through a severe depressive episode but there were so many warning signs that had led up to it that Edward wished he wouldn't have noticed before. Isaac hadn't been to a therapist in months, since his accident, and never took any of his medication. Perhaps it was the copious amounts of drugs that he was taking with his friends that led him down such a dark path; maybe it was Edward and Sarah's fault; or maybe it was something else. Edward only wished he could be better for Isaac.
"Everything alright, son?" Edward asked.
"Yes, Isaac, you've hardly touched your food," Sarah added.
His son's eyes looked up to Sarah. Edward could see a slight tremble in his body. Almost as quickly as he looked up at Sarah, Isaac immediately fixed his gaze back to his food.
What did she do to him?
"I'm fine," Isaac said.
"Are you sure? If you want something else, I..."
"I said I'm fine," Isaac said, interrupting Sarah.
His wife nodded her head and looked back down to her own food. Lillian looked at Isaac with a wide mouth and scared little eyes. Edward slowly sipped from his beer, while watching Isaac. Perhaps his son was becoming just like him, silent and irritable.
They continued to silently eat their food until Sarah looked up to Edward. "How was your first day back at work, love?"
Edward glared at her. Every fiber in his body wanted to ignore her, tell her to shut up and eat her food. It was a great pain to even have to look at her, nevertheless talk to her. He should have let her sister drown, make Sarah feel some of the misery that he felt everyday. Why he saved her, he couldn't even answer for himself. The bitch was worse than Sarah and wouldn't have, without hesitation, let Edward drown if the roles had been reversed.
"Fine," Edward said.
Sarah smiled at him and nodded her head. "Wow, that's great," She said sarcastically, now playing with her own food. "That's great..."66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbwpOBrxdAi
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His annoyance has just heightened another level. Now she was being sarcastic with him, thinking she had some kind of right to be angry with him. No, if anyone was going to be angry, it was going to be Edward. And he sure did have a lot of anger.
"Is there something wrong, Sarah?" Edward asked. He held his hand on his fork and pushed on it into his meat loaf. His son and Lillian were both looking to him, most likely realizing that there was tension surrounding the table.
"Oh no, it's nothing dear," Sarah said.
"Good. Keep it that way," Edward said, now gulping his beer down.
"It's just..."
Here we go.
"It's just what, Sarah? Hmm?"
Sarah looked at him, angry confidence now lighting up her eyes.
"It's just that you won't try to talk to me," She said.
"Sorry, I didn't realize."
"And you act like a short and sarcastic prick whenever you do talk to me," She stood up from her chair, trying to make herself look bigger to Edward. "Why can't you just tell me something about your day? Why can't you at least try to talk to me?"
Edward took another bite of his meat loaf and looked to the children. "Dinner's over. Isaac, Lillian, go clean up your plates."
Both left the room quickly, leaving Edward with his wife. Maybe today would give him a reason to divorce her. He so badly wanted to.
"Fine, Sarah, let me tell you about my day," Edward said. "My day was so lovely. Oh, the sun was shining and it was so beautiful out. My boss told me how great of an employee I was and I made so many new friends."
"Fuck you," Sarah said.
"You asked..."
He could see her clenching her fist and pacing around the table. Obviously, his answer wasn't good enough for her. Why she chose to fight with him on this particular night, Edward wasn't sure.
"Edward, I can't take it anymore."
Great. Neither can I.
"I'm sick of pretending to be happy for you when you won't even give me the luxury of talking to me. I've tried so hard to please you, to defend you, to make you feel loved. Yet, no matter how hard I try, you never give me anything back. Not even a simple: 'My day was fine, how was yours?'"
Edward chuckled. "Sorry... How was your day, honey?"
He could see the anger flaring up in her. Edward knew the right buttons to push and, despite it, she still stayed with him. No matter how hard he tried to push her away, she still wouldn't leave him.
"Why do you have to act like this? We're married, in case you have forgotten."
I could never forget.
"So why can't you act like you're married to me. We're suppose to talk through our problems, tell each other how we're feeling." She looked down at Edward, who remained quiet. "What kind of example are we setting for our children?"
"Child," Edward said.
She sighed as her eyes started to look more glossy. "You've raised her, Edward. Despite what you might think of her, she's a little girl who's only known you as her father. She looks up to you, tries to make you smile and, yet, you belittle her and ignore her. That little girl loves you and thinks the world of you and you can't even simply smile for her."
"She's not my daughter," Edward argued.
"She might not be your biological daughter but you adopted her."
"A mistake I'll regret the rest of my life."
She slammed her hand into the table, jolting Edward's eyes up to hers.
"Can you just fucking let it go, Edward? It was almost nine fucking years ago!"
Edward now decided to stand up. He had let her build up her confidence for too long. "I don't care if it was nine years ago or twenty, you still fucking cheated on me, Sarah!"
"And I've told you so many times how sorry I am, how deeply sorry I am. I never meant to hurt you but you weren't exactly around all the time. You never wanted anything to do with me, even back then," Sarah said.
Now she's trying to justify herself.
"So, you're trying to saying cheating was okay? You're trying to say that fucking around with Ethan was okay?"
The sound of rolling rocks clouded his left ear. He could he taste salt caking his throat. Sarah's lips moving broke him out of his trance.
"No, Edward. No. I'm not saying what I did was right, not at all. I only..." Tears rolled down her cheek as she looked to the window that peered out into the backyard. "I only want us to get past this. You stayed with me, despite everything I've done. I only want you to try. I want you to try to show me some kind of love, some kind of forgiveness. I don't want our children to grow up in a loveless house. Even Isaac... He doesn't even want to look at me anymore."66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNaqinAL7hu
66Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYmLcHSX8QP
So that's what this is all about. She's upset that Isaac snapped at her. She thinks that it's my fault, that he's being influenced by me.
"I wanted nothing more than to try, Sarah. I tried so hard but every time I see... her, I can't help but be reminded of how you betrayed me and how you betrayed God. I tried to love her but every time I look at her, I see his face." The lights began flickering as he spoke. The temperature in the room seemed to be dropping.
"I know," Sarah said softly. "But I promise you, Edward, I will never betray you like that again. I am loyal only to you."
I'm a loyal man. I'm a married man.
"Oh? Is that why you're flirting with that guy from the daycare?" Edward asked.
Sarah stared at Edward, as if taken back by his question. "You mean Aaron? I hardly ever talk to him, Edward. All I do is watch his kid for him, for fuck sake."
"Sure, of course," Edward said sarcastically. "I mean maybe after a while, you'll invite him to the bar and start hitting it off with him. And then, just like Ethan, you'll sneak him into our house and take him to our bed. Then you can defend yourself again and tell me how I wasn't there for you, how I never loved you."
"Edward, please. I..."
"Well, Sarah, I did love you. I loved you so very much, even if I had a hard time showing it."
"Edward..."
"The day you told me Lillian was about to be born, I was ecstatic. I was so happy to have another child and to be raising her along with you. But instead, you cheated. You betrayed me; you betrayed the church; and you betrayed God. So sorry if I don't think Aaron is just a friend. Sorry if I can't help but feel that you're whoring around while I'm away."
The room started to become almost icy cold and very faint sounds of whispering filled the room. Edward paid no attention to it.
"I know you feel this way Edward but, as I've said, I'm loyal to only you. No one is going to make be betray you or God ever again."
Edward ignored and took in a deep breath. "I prayed to God everyday, asking for his guidance. I so badly wanted what you said to be a lie or for this to be all some kind of nightmare. I went to church to get comfort from others." He paused. "And in the end, the only thing that relieved me was this." He held an empty beer bottle in his hand.
The light began flickering more rapidly and shadows began moving outside the window.
"Umm, Edward..."
He paid her no mind. He wasn't finished.
"For a while, it did wonders. I felt I could be happy again, learn to trust and love you again. But, over time, it could only slightly numb the pain."
"Edward..." Sarah said once more.
"You want to know what I did next? You want to know what I did when the depression slipped past the alcohol? I did something terrible, Sarah. I..."
"Edward!" Sarah screamed.
The windows looking out to the yard shattered and glass sprayed across the ground. Both Edward and Sarah dove for the floor and tried to use the chairs as cover.
Laughter flooded the room, as well as an icy cold breeze.
"What the hell is going on?" Edward yelled, feeling deafened by the laughing.
At the base of the shattered window was another wooden figure. Another bird. Just like at the river, it had black beady eyes and appeared to be laughing at Edward. Next to Edward, he could hear Sarah screaming, begging for the laughter to stop.
Icy winds swirled around the room, blowing plates and silverware onto the ground. Edward held his hand over his ears and saw a figure outside disappearing into the night. He wanted to scream at them but his voice would never rise higher than than the laughter. The wooden figure, seemingly, flew off and, just like that, the laughter, the wind, and Sarah's screaming stopped.
Edward helped Sarah stand up and they both looked out into the dark and cold abyss. His heart was thumping against his chest so violently that he thought he was going to be vomiting meat loaf chunks back onto the dinner table.
"What the fuck was that?" Edward asked, shaken.
Sarah panted and held onto Edward's arm, something he would not normally allow under any other circumstance.
At the corner of his eye, Edward saw Isaac walk in. His face was completely expressionless and very white.
"Son?" Edward said. "Are you alright?"
His son smiled in an almost sadistic manner and pointed to the window.
"It's where the fun begins."
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