Chapter 6 - Burns and Trust

Chapter 6

Burns and Trust

As morning came on the beach, the tides were calm and the skies were misty with a heavy fog touching the surface of the water. As the water came washing up the shore, it revealed three bodies laying face down on the beach. The next wave of water came crashing in and one of the bodies started to pull its head out of the sand. That body was Lynae's.

After blacking out from the cave, they seem to have drifted to shore somehow whether the woman helped or they just were carried by the currents. However, the girls started to wake up after the rush of that water crashed on top of them.

Amelia started coughing up wet sand and extra water that seeped into her mouth when she was out.

"Next time I see that witch, I'm kicking her ass!" Meredith said while trying to wake up fully.

"You're going to have to wait your turn..." Lynae said with determination.

"What did she do to us? I can hardly breathe..." Amelia said while holding her neck and tried to grasp some more air.

"I see we have some teenagers that were out past curfew..." A man said addressing to the girls.

Once the girls heard that voice, they directed their attention to where that voice was coming from. After they looked up, they knew they were in trouble. That man was no ordinary man unfortunately. He was wearing a police uniform. From the girls' assumptions, Hank must have called the police to report that they were missing considering what time it was now versus how early Hank and Brie get up each morning.

"You girls are lucky that you have such a caring father. Otherwise, you would be in jail for breaking curfew."

"Curfew?" Amelia asked.

"There's a curfew that children under eighteen must abide by or they get arrested here in Oahu," Lynae explained.

"But I'm nineteen,"

"Right, he did mention that you weren't a minor, technically I can't arrest you or bring you back to his place. However, given the fact that he mentioned you have a serious condition, I'm obligated to take you back regardless."

After he escorted the girls to his cruiser, Amelia felt guilty throughout the trip back to the house. When they arrived at the house, the adults were standing there with stern looks on the porch.

The girls were escorted to the living room and sat down on the couch together in complete silence.

"I cannot believe this! My own daughters sneaking out past curfew to go out on a joy ride! What were you thinking?!"

"Uncle Hank, it wasn't their fault. I was the one who snuck out, Lynae and Meredith were only looking out for my own well-being. I take full responsibility of my actions." Amelia stood up and tried explaining.

"I have a hard believing your story considering this is not Lynae's first time out past curfew, but bringing Meredith into this..." Hank said while glaring Lynae dead in the eye and her looking down.

"This wasn't her doing. It was mine, I am telling you the truth." Amelia pleaded.

"Meredith had nothing to do with this. She was only concerned about me and Amelia. Amelia especially after the incident at the beach..." Lynae jumped trying to defend her sister.

"Alright, that's enough! Lynae and Meredith, you are grounded for two weeks. Bill and Ash, you deal with your child how you see fit. I'm going for a smoke."

Hank stormed off going towards his cigarettes.

"How could you do this? To Lyn and Meredith especially..." Bill scolded his daughter while she remained silent.

"All these years I've watched over you, made sure you were safe, I want to know what was going through your head! Was it me being overprotective? Did you just get fed up with us? Did you think just because you're over 18 you could do whatever you want?!"

"No, that's not it at all!" Amelia cried out.

"Then what is? Explain it to me! I can't read your thoughts!"

"It's complicated..."

Amelia knew she couldn't tell her dad or anyone other than Lynae or Meredith. How could she? Lynae didn't believe her for a second until that night after the boat tipped over and they were underwater completely. Plus if her parents did believe her then it would mean more hospital visits to try to "cure" what is going on and why she was having these visions. Or worse case scenario, she is placed in a loony bin after telling that story to anyone and be deemed insane. She knew she couldn't risk telling her father – let alone tell anyone for that matter.

"Complicated or not you've not only endangered yourself but your cousins as well. It would be best if you were to be on good terms with your uncle and aunt by helping them anyway you can while we are here. Chores, errands, I don't care... what I do care is whether or not I should put the amount of trust in you as I did before this incident."

"Trust? What trust? You never trusted me since the day I was born, you never trusted me since I was diagnosed with this burdening disease, you never trusted me as an adult nor when I proved to you that I was responsible! You never let me do anything on my own! You never let me drive, you never let me go to college on campus! I admit what I did was wrong but for you to say that you had trust in me is news to me because from the way I see it, you never did!"

"Amelia, that's enough!" Ashlynn demanded her to stop.

She then looked at her parents with tears forming in her eyes with this feeling of hurt. She knew she couldn't tell them, she knew that she had hurt them, and she knew that she was being hurt from what her father said about trust when she was never given the chance to let loose from the reigns and live her own life. She then dashed through the door to the deck running off with tears coming down.

"Amelia, wait, come back here!" Bill instructed her to come back but didn't listen this time.

"Dear God, what do I do?"

"She may have had a point there..." Ashlynn chimed in her input.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bill said with the hint of being possibly offended by what she said.

"What do you think, William? Amelia never asked for what she has, what would you have done if you were in her shoes and your father sheltered you from just about everything life has to offer?"

"The irony just now in your statement about my father..."

"Bill..." Ashlynn gently scolded her husband.

"Alright, alright, I'm just scared, okay? Our daughter could have been killed last night. I'll have a talk with her this evening that is if she ever comes back."

"I doubt she'll go far considering she knows she needs her medicine and that she wants to see her boyfriend again." Ashlynn spoke knowing her daughter well.

Upstairs in Meredith's bedroom, Lynae and Meredith were discussing about what occurred last night and tried figuring out on the woman's words from before.

"What do you think that mermaid meant on what she said before we passed out?"

"Don't know, don't care..." Lynae said while reading her book.

"Oh come on, you went with Amelia to that spot, of course you care..."

"Past tense.... Cared. Not anymore... now leave me alone." Lyn said while turning the page of her book.

"You know, I don't get you. First you cared about Amelia's whereabouts and now you don't." Meredith crossed her arms trying to figure out her sister's motive.

"Yeah cause' we got grounded for it."

"But you knew you risked that factor when you went! What is your deal now?"

Meredith knew that what Lyn said was full of nonsense. She wanted to know why all of a sudden she had a change of heart when she was so determined to look after Amelia.

"Forget it, you wouldn't understand..." Lyn looked deep down at Meredith hinting her to drop the subject.

"Whatever you say, sis..." Meredith said in a dismissive tone while going to the bathroom.

While she was in there, Meredith ran the water to wash her hands. She placed her hands under the sink to rinse them. Despite having it on cold, she felt a burning sensation coursing through her hands and wrist. She jerked her hands at first but then she saw that the faucet was turned to cold rather than hot. At first, she assumed that perhaps that her father messed up with the pipes again and switched the temperatures for each knob again.

She kept washing her hands making sure that there was no steam coming from the faucet and she knew for a fact that it was on cold. After she got done washing her hands, she saw something unusual on different places of her hands. When she touched them, they felt raw to the touch. Then she started to scream for Lynae.

"LYN!" She screamed as she rushed out of the bathroom and back into her room to see that her sister was still reading.

"LYN!"

"You don't need to shout."

"Lyn, look at my hands!" Meredith shoved her hands near Lyn's face.

"What about them? Did you burn them?" Lyn said carelessly while still eyeing on her book.

"I had the water on cold and look at them! There's these plaque things on my hands and they won't come off!" Meredith said in a frantic tone.

"Are you sure you didn't burn your hands on the hot water by accident? You know that dad keeps messing with those pipes every time something goes wrong in this house" Lyn eyed her in annoyance.

"Put the bloody book down, and look at my hands!" Meredith snatched her book and directed Lyn's attention to her hands.

Lyn saw that these burns did not look like regular first-degree burns. She tried reassuring her once more that they could be burns even though she wasn't sure herself.

"Okay calm down... it could be blisters from when you burnt yourself."

"Blisters are soft and they don't look this dark!" Meredith began panicking.

"Did you tell mom or dad?" Lyn asked nervously.

"No."

"Okay, um, wear these. Don't show them too much around others." Lyn gave her some gloves to put on to hide the places.

"What if mom or dad ask why I'm wearing the gloves?"

"Um, you're into sports, I'm sure you can think of something like ... taking up boxing and you are wearing these to help get use to the punching bag and not hurt your hands and you didn't wear them the first thing like you should."

"Okay, okay, sounds plausible... do you think this has to do with last night?"

"No, and I want to forget all that has happened last night so no mentioning this to anyone, got it?" Lyn quickly said with a worried tone.

"What about Amelia?"

"Just say nothing for now, I'm sure it's a rash of some sorts."

Later that evening, Amelia came back closing the door behind her. What she didn't want to anticipate was running into her father, but she knew that it would be the first thing to happen once she came back. And just as she expected, her father was waiting for her on the couch.

"You're finally back."

"Yeah..." Amelia averted her eyes trying not to make it more awkward.

"We need to talk..." Bill said while standing up from the couch.

"Fine, I'm sorry I stormed off."

"That's not what I want to talk about."

"Say what?" Amelia said in shock not expecting that response from him.

"You may have been right on some things."

"Come again?"

"I've dictated about where you go and what you do for the past 18 years of your life. Now I was reminded numerous of times that you are not a little girl anymore. Please try to understand that everything that we did was to protect you and to keep you alive."

"Dad, you don't have to..." Amelia tried to reassure her father but he wasn't finished.

"I do, trust me; you know that Alex and Aaron are adopted right?"

"Yeah?"

"And you know that you are not, right?"

"Yeah?"

"There's a reason why we adopted your brothers. You see, before you were ever thought of, your mother and I had difficulties of starting a family. We tried numerous treatments and all failed. Until that one September day, your mother found out that she was pregnant with you. We had difficulties, yes, but after you were in our arms, we were relieved to think all of the struggles we faced were over when you were born happy and healthy." Bill started explaining.

"But..."

"But... that was all changed when you started your symptoms when you were two. Doctors have said that your condition could one day be fatal if not given proper treatment and therapy. We were scared, heeding to every instruction that the professionals gave us, thinking that if we could control the scenario, then you'd be okay."

"And you found that to not be entirely true..."

"Precisely what I am saying. I know you are a good and responsible kid, I am sorry I did not give the credit you deserved when you proved it over and over. Now do you understand why I am so overprotective at times?"

"Yeah, I get it."

"Your mother and I have talked, and I think it was time that I loosened the reigns with you."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. But you still have to take your medicine, and abide by our rules if you still wish to live under our roof."

Amelia rushed to hug her father feeling that she was finally understood on how she felt for the first time.

"Oh thank you, thank you! I love you, Dad."

"Love you too, kiddo."

Bill and Amelia hugged it out for a bit that evening. While they were hugging without noticing, Ashlynn overheard the conversation and started tearing up around the corner knowing it was the right thing to do for their daughter. They weren't sure where this would end up, but they settled that if it made Amelia happy, then that's all it really mattered.