Secrets of the Past

Chapter 9

It was two o'clock in the afternoon. Anna sat in the kitchen table, gobbling down a noodles she had hurriedly made to defeat her hunger. It was all new to her — staying alone — and she knew she had to get used to it as soon as possible.

What was she even thinking coming all the way to Los Angeles? The only friend she had here was Alvin and he was even more in need than she was. Oh God. She had to start getting her life back together. Start getting things straight, Anna. Beginning from that second.

She jumped up from her seat. Why did she come here in the first place. What was her intention?

To find her parents' killer. Yes.

Anna paced around the kitchen as her mind wandered. Her thoughts racing through her brain like speed cars on race tracks.

How did she intended to find the killer? The email. Also, yes. Whoever had been emailing her. They said they knew. But how could she get in contact with the person? Whoever they were.

How could she. . . The envelope.

Anna hurried to her bedroom and quickly grabbed her bag, rummaging through its content to find the white sealed envelope that she was too nervous to open.

Her mind settled when she found it. The answers she needed might be inside of it, waiting for her.

Get it done, Anna. She thought to herself. This was it.

Anna ripped open the seal of the envelope, it made a satisfying tearing sound and she slowly peeked into its content.

Pictures. Anna frowned. “Pictures?” She pulled them out of the envelope, sinking her eyes into the images on the papers. And she almost couldn't believe what she saw. Who she saw.

She hadn't seen them for over twenty years. It was her parents. Sitting in front of their huge house back in Wisconsin, happy smiles on their faces. And right in the middle of them was Anna.

She might have been six when the picture was taking. Her hair had been packed in side rolls and she had a huge robot toy on her hand. There also was a tidy smile. Anna stared at her face, this was truly the last time she had a real genuine beam. The pictures, she looked so happy in them.

In every single on of them, they were happy and buoyant. Gleeful looks on all their faces. Anna started to tear up. The streaks of salty water falling down her cheeks as she reminisced on the pictures. Thinking about what her life could have been if her parents were still alive.

She sniffed and one of the pictures fell from her hand. Get a hold of yourself, Anna thought. She got down from the bed to pick up the photograph but then she noticed a writing on it back.

Anna narrowed her eyes as she picked it up. A stamp. ‘Property of Lawrence Hussain.'

“Larry?” she thought out loud. He owned this? He had this? This whole time he had pictures of her parents, pictures that could have helped to remember them, to keep memories. He kept it from her. He lied to her.

Anna remembered when she asked him, a few years ago. The day just after her birthday and Larry had told her that there were no pictures. They had been burnt down in the fire. What other things could Larry have been lying about?

Larry wasn't someone who lied, Anna had always thought. He was good to her. From the very first day he had always been good to her. Anna had spent days crying herself to sleep and waking up to more tears after she had lost her parents. She remembered Uncle Wallace and the way he treated her terribly. Punishing her for everything her father had done, hitting her because he believed it was her family that stole everything from him. The cold angry stare he would always give her as if Anna had anything to do with it.

Larry was her hero. He saved her from her uncle and he did it so persistently. Anna didn't even beg him, she didn't even need to ask him but he knew. He knew that she was suffering in her uncle's house and he did everything he could to save her. To get her out.

He was successful of course. But not after a few court wars. There were restriction orders placed against Larry by Wallace and yet he still found a way. Thanks to Tessy of course, Anna's cousin and Wallace's daughter. She testified against her father's horrible treatment towards Anna and Larry won the case.

Anna remembered how she felt the second they declared Larry the winner. She almost burst into tears. She was grateful, so very grateful that she became scared of owing a debt to Larry. Not that he'd ever ask her for anything but she knew she couldn't rest until she felt that the debt was paid. Her self esteem was colossal.

“We won.”

That was what Larry said to her when he walked over after the case had closed. Not 'I won' or 'They lost' but 'We won.' Anna remembered nodding her head in concurrence and smiling sheepishly to her hero.

“You'll never have to see them again,” Larry also said. “Okay? I promise. They're gone.”

And he kept that promise. Ever since that day, they moved to New York and Anna never saw her uncle, Wallace and Tessy ever again. And that was how she ended up putting all her trust in Larry. Every bit of it. And now she wondered if that was a mistake. As Anna stared at the stamped signature in the back of the photograph, her worst fears started to intrude.

What if Larry wasn't the knight in shining armor that she thought he was? What if he was actually the villain and not the hero? A turn of events, she knew. One she might not get over. She wouldn't be angry at him for betraying her but angry at herself for trusting him.

Anna took a deep breath. Or maybe, she was overreacting once again. Only thing she knew is that Larry truly was hiding something or else he would never have lied about the photos. That was all she—

𝘚𝘯𝘢𝘱.

What was that sound? Anna rushed to her window and peered outside. It was the sound a tree branch. Yes, like it had snapped from the bark. Jeez, someone was watching her again. The thought of it made the hair at the back of her neck stand awfully straight. Her teeth clenched as her pupils darted around the premises, ascertaining if there was any movement.

Only her eyes were satisfied but her mind kept telling that someone was out there. Anna hurriedly locked the window in her room. 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩, she thought as she hurried out to lock every single window in the house. Her heart pounding callously as she scurried around.

“The door!” she murmured before hurrying back into the kitchen. Had she locked the front door? She wasn't very sure. Her chest started to get heavy and it wasn't her ponderous breasts weighing on her as she ran. Her hands grabbed the door nob and her lungs instantly released a breath of relief. It was locked.

Anna sighed again, collapsing with her back on the front door, the envelope still clutched in her left hand. “Oh God!” she exclaimed, relieving herself.

Anna frowned. Squeezing on the envelope, she noticed it was still solid. She peered inside of it only to find out that there was another picture inside of it, looking back at her. Anna pulled it out of the envelope and tossed the covering away.

“Oh my God!” she yelled. “Jesus!”

She flung the photo away and jumped back to her feet, shutting her eyes in horror. Who could have done such a thing?

There was blood in the picture. Not on it. Her uncle, Wallace, his wife, Dea and their daughter, Tessy.

In the picture, they were all laid symmetrically on the floor, stark naked and their chests had been carved open with X marks on all of them.

“Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God!” Anna kept exclaiming. Not sure of what to do, she scurried out of the kitchen, her body shaking uncontrollably and as she was about to enter her room, the intoxication pumped into her brain and she slowly felt the life drain out of her. Her head felt light and her eyes foggy.

Anna fell to the floor with a loud thud and remained there, laying in her faint.