Shadow of the Day

[soph1303]

Great update,

Seriously thought that Jake was gonna kill that old man at the start !!!

Aww felt sorry for Bianca and Liam with the whole inspection thing, they would be so nervous !!!

Nice twist with the adoption lady being jakes mum !!

Don't think ruby killed grant despite the fact that she has obvious motive, I'm actually really not sure who killed him....

More soon please

[Inactive User]

Fab chapter More soon please xx

[Arielxo]

Yes, i am still reading this fic and im sorry for not commenting on it more often. Its still amazing; your work always is

Something i really enjoy about this story is that i have no idea whats going to happen next. Its always a mystery and every chapter is like a missing piece to the puzzle.

Brax truly brakes my heart though. Its so sad to watch him when he's with Charlie. Its really not healthy but i can see why he does it. Poor guy

I have a feeling that Ruby didn't kill Grant but she knows who did or something like that? But like i said, i love the mystery about it all so i look forward to finding out who did kill him.

Looking forward to more

[pembie]

I thought Jake was going kill that old guy at the start, he might try again.

I can't help but think something will go wrong for Liam and Bianca. Which will be a shame if it does with them really wanting a kid.

Hmm is Ruby hiding something?

[mizziette]

Thank you for the comments, they mean the world. To those of you who have been patiently waiting to find out what happened to Charlie...

THIRTY FIVE

VJ couldn’t believe any of it. What he was seeing, what he was hearing, it was all much unexpected. All in all, it was a pleasant surprise. ‘Mum, what exactly is all this?’

‘I figure if you’re going to be on the ocean in winter, it’s going to get rough out there, you need proper wind breakers; those light hoodie things won’t do anything for the cold or the water. I invested in a life jacket as well just in case. I know the aquarium will provide something, but the store clerk told me this was top of the line and I expect you to wear it 24/7.’

VJ looked at the pile of survival supplies his mother had invested in and back to Leah, leaning nervously against the dinner table. He could tell in her eyes, she was still unsure about the situation but he appreciated the gesture. ‘Mum…’

Leah abruptly cut him off by handing her son a sleek object. ‘This is the satellite phone you’re calling me on once a day,’

‘The aquarium provides this too, you know,’ VJ was amused and touched by the effort she was putting in.

‘I don’t care. You call me like clockwork or I’ll worry, you hear me? I don’t care how much it costs, I’ll pay the phone bill,’ Leah felt like she was about to faint; the words were difficult to form but for VJ’s sake, she had to be strong.

Her strength crumbled into pieces the second VJ’s face warmed in recognition of his mother’s acceptance of his decision to defer university for a while. Leah felt her heart drop when she noticed the joy in his eyes and she hugged him tightly. ‘Oh, you’re not my baby anymore, are you?’

‘No, I’m not,’ VJ agreed and hugged Leah back with a laugh.

Leah felt her eyes tearing up and she rubbed her son’s shoulders. ‘I’m going to miss you so much when you leave.’

‘I’m not leaving for another three months,’ VJ pointed out.

‘I’m allowed to get a head start.’ Leah headed into the kitchen to start on dinner. ‘What do they feed you on these expedition things?’

‘Canned food would be my best guess.’

Ever the chef, Leah scrunched her nose. ‘Maybe I could freeze up some ready-made meals for you to take. They have a decent fridge and stove on the boat, don’t they?’

VJ just leaned against the kitchen doorway and smiled. ‘Quit fussing mum and just let it be,’

Jade looked at the little needle marks on her tiny hand where the IV tube had punctured her skin. The very thought of it made her shudder and as gently as she would touch a butterfly, Jade tapped the little red point on her skin nervously. Yes, the stinging had subsided a little more; it was barely noticeable anymore.

‘Jade, are you listening to me?’ Brax woke Jade up from her momentary fixation. Jade looked up innocently and placed her tender little hand back on her lap.

‘Yes daddy?’

‘Do you want ketchup with your lamb chops?’ Brax held out the ketchup bottle.

‘Yes please,’ Jade nodded and started down at her dinner plate with a sigh. She was still very fatigued and wanted to sleep all the time. Being sick was no fun at all but at least she didn’t have to be at the hospital anymore.

As Brax poured the sauce onto her plate, Jade watched intently. Everyone had been trying to stuff food in her mouth ever since her collapse. All the extra attention, the concerned looks, the spoiling overwhelmed her. Jade was a reclusive shy girl; she did not enjoy being the centre of attention.

‘Daddy, am I going to die?’ Jade knew the looks well. She’d been getting the same pitying looks Irene had gotten her cancer went into relapse. Poor little sick girl, they said with their wide eyes and soft smiled. Poor little sick Jade Buckton.

The question threw Brax off and once he regained composure, he sat down next to Jade. ‘No, you’re not going to die, what makes you think that?’

Jade shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Just…’

Brax took both Jade’s hands in his. ‘Listen to me, your illness; it’s just like Ruby and her diabetes. Some little things change like your food and stuff and you have to take extra care of yourself but in a few months, you’ll be so used to it, you won’t notice.’

Jade felt the little pressure on her temples from the headache that had been persisting since afternoon and found her father’s words hard to believe. But determined to be brave, she nodded. ‘I guess so,’

‘I know so,’ Brax patted her. ‘Now eat up, you need the strength.’

Jade obeyed. After dinner, Brax tucked her in tightly into her bed with Esther and kissed her on the forehead gently before turning out the light. And then, he set about doing the dishes.

‘Poor kid, eh,’ Brax commented solemnly.

Charlie agreed. ‘Yeah, I can’t imagine how she must be feeling,’

‘I just wish she had someone her own age to take her mind off it sometimes.’ Brax scrubbed the scraps off his plate at the sink. ‘Who knows, maybe if you and I had given her a brother or sister…?’

Charlie remained quiet. Brax smiled quietly to himself. ‘Yeah, I wouldn’t mind that. I’ve had Casey and I have Jade but a kid that’s completely my own…’

‘We could’ve had that.’ Charlie was thinking about Grant and her baby.

‘No, we couldn’t.’ Brax didn’t seem to understand. ‘He happened before we could. I guess it just isn’t meant to be, eh.’

‘You’ll have another baby one day,’ Charlie reassured him. ‘You were meant to be a father.’

‘Apparently not with you,’ Brax turned off the water to the sink and smiled as he looked at Charlie next to him. He shrugged. ‘It’s alright, I’m over it.’

Charlie hadn’t seen him coming. He came up from behind. Waiting for Bianca to arrive, she held her heeled sandals in her hand leaning against the wooden railing when Grant’s voice pulsated through the air.

The next thing she knew, he was gone and Charlie was left with a convulsing pain in her abdomen. At that moment, she just knew her baby boy was gone. All it had taken was a blow to the stomach, and a painful one at that. Charlie sat on the sand clutching her abdomen, fighting the tears and not having the energy to call for help.

The pain came hard and fast. It felt like she was being repeatedly stabbed from the inside. As Charlie sat there wailing with her grief, the trickle of blood between her thighs was barely noticeable at first. And then the water came in a gush.

Charlie sat there in a daze, tears down her cheeks, alone. Before she knew it her four month foetus was in her hand; the tiny being barely covered it. For an hour, she sat there on the wet sand, gazing into the dead eyes of her son, not wanting to let go.

Her phone rang. Charlie looked down at the caller ID. It was Brax, probably wandering why she wasn’t at their engagement party. With an unwilling sigh, she gently took off her white cotton cardigan and wrapped her baby in it tightly before gently placing him in a shady spot. ‘You stay right there, Landon. Mummy’s going to be right back.’

Landon Ross Braxton. She and Brax had already decided on the name. It took some effort to stand with the soreness all over her midsection and thighs but she managed. Stumbling a distance, she leant against the opposite wood railing and her hands shook as she tried to hit answer. Weak, Charlie dropped the phone and it smashed to the ground. The phone broke and the ring tone halted with the smash.

Sighing, she turned back to Landon lying still on the sand and smiled at him. ‘Just you and me, beautiful,’

By the time Charlie reached the body, she was feeling a little better. She knelt down to pick her little boy up but her body was a little weak. She placed the bundle down again after kissing his lifeless eyes. ‘Mummy’s going to go get help. You just sit tight, okay? I’m just going to hide you under these nice shady bushes so no one finds you. Don’t be scared, I’ll come back, promise.’

Talking to her dead son was strangely comforting. If Charlie had to admit it, she was in something of a daze. The shock of her current predicament hadn’t registered. Taking a deep breath, she began walking gently down the pathway, trying to ignore the guilt in her heart for leaving her child unsupervised and the pain in her belly from the miscarriage. Every now and then, she could still feel the blood trickling out of her. It wasn’t over by a long shot.

Reaching the beach clearing brought life into Charlie’s eyes for the first time all afternoon. There was no one there and Charlie stood in the beach pathway feeling relief as she watched the ocean. Seeing that kind of natural beauty after her ordeal was a blessing. The waves softly crashing, the sun gleaming in the cloudless sky, the sand warm and untouched by humanity; it would’ve touched any heart. A lone dove flew by and perched itself on the wet sand.

The dove flapped its wings and looked at Charlie and she noticed the way the beauty of the moment contrasted with the grief over her loss. In that moment, the pain in her abdomen, the pain in her heart and soul mattered none. She looked beside the dove and saw Landon, her beautiful baby boy Landon, sitting jovially on the sand with his dimples, looking so much like his father. Charlie died with a smile on her lips and a weightless heart, knowing she would be with her son.

‘That was the last thing my mum ever saw; the beach.’ Ruby hadn’t expected to open up so much during her first one on one therapy session but once the flow of words started, there was no return. Ruby half smiled. ‘Charlie always hated the ocean. She loved the sand but it would take a gun to her head to even get her to dip her toes in.’

‘They said she went peacefully, she wouldn’t even have realised the aneurysm bursting. I guess I should be glad it was quick but I’m not. Her death should never have happened.’ Ruby looked at Dr Rivers sitting on the couch across.

‘It’s very natural to feel like it is unfair when you lose someone close,’ Dr Rivers offered.

‘But everyone close to me? That’s not just unfair, that’s…cruel.’ Ruby looked back out the window and then down at her hands. ‘The doctors said the aneurysm must have been there in mum’s brain since Jake gave her head injury all those years ago. Even after he gets locked up, he still manages to ruin our lives. None of them noticed. All those doctors in the hospital and none of them noticed there was something wrong with Charlie all those years. Apparently strong emotions can trigger it to burst. Her grief over what Grant did to Landon would’ve done that,’

‘Landon, that’s your little brother, isn’t it? Why don’t we talk about him?’

‘What’s to talk about? He died before he was born. The cops found him in the bushes a few metres away from where Charlie was found. He never even let me see him before the cremation,

‘Him,’

‘Brax, he started all this you know. Ever since my mother met him, she’s been through so much grief.’

‘It sounds to me like you’re looking for someone to blame,’ Dr Rivers noticed the scorn in Ruby’s voice.

Ruby shrugged and looked at him. ‘I don’t know what I’m looking for anymore,’

[kiwi151]

Aaah, everything cleared up. That was such a sad, poignant chapter and so beautifully written. Love the way you you described the peace that Charlie felt when she was about to die... so sad. Thanks

[pembie]

That was a brillant update

Charlie's death was written really good. The death of Landon was very shocking and written with great emoition as was Charlie's death at least she got to hold her baby before she died, and at least she had a peaceful death watching the ocean.

Found it amusing how Leah was fussing over VJ

[Inactive User]

Great chapter.

Whoa so sad about what happened to Charlie and baby Landon! Grrr can't believe Grant did that to a little innocent baby!

More soon please xx

[soph1303]

That was such an amazingly emotional chapter,

The way that she died was just heart breaking !!!!!

There's so much I wanna say about this chapter, but seriously words are not enough to explain how incredible that was !!!!

More soon please

[mizziette]

THIRTY SIX

Community service was a little more pleasant the next time around for Ruby. No more picking up trash; with the state her ankle was in, that was out of the question. Instead, Ruby had been assigned to the local crisis hotline centre as a volunteer. After some extensive training, she was finally put behind a desk, armed with a switchboard telephone with a head set.

The first hour of her shift was spent in her swivel chair filing her nails. No calls came through for her. Just when she was about to fall asleep from the sheer boredom of it all, the light lit up on her telephone and it rang. Ruby took a deep nervous breath and pressed the button.

‘Hello, crisis helpline, how may I help you?’

‘Yes hello, I have a crisis,’ the woman on the other end of the line sounded desperate. ‘It’s my boyfriend.’

‘Is he hurt?’ Ruby asked. She had gone through the training and knew what to say but real experience was different.

‘No, he’s coming home from his conference today and we were supposed to go out and I got this beautiful red dress, the kind that was just made for you?’ Ruby still didn’t know what the crisis was. ‘I wanted to look perfect for our date so I had it dry cleaned but I got it back today and…’

‘And…’

‘And it was pink. My gorgeous cherry red dress is pink!’ The woman sounded like she was about to cry. Ruby rolled her eyes. This was supposed to be a crisis line.

Although Ruby wanted to give the woman a piece of her mind, she held her tongue. She was supposed to help and soothe and give the caller a sense of anonymity and sanctuary. Or so the pamphlet said. ‘Find something else in your closet for your date but later if you like; go to the fabric store and get a good quality fabric dye. It might not be the same but it’ll be close enough.’

‘Oh, I really wanted to wear that dress though. It was the dress.’ The woman whined defeated. ‘I better get off the phone and go raid my closet. Not that I’ll find anything worthy.’

Ruby sighed when she hung up without even saying good bye. Helping people in crisis was not what she expected. The phone rang again. ‘Hello, crisis helpline, how may I help you?’

‘Hi, I did something,’ Elle whispered on the other end of the line, not noticing that it was Ruby. ‘I didn’t mean to and now everything’s gone wrong and I don’t know how to fix it. I can’t do this, I can’t. Not when it’s his. Not after…’

‘It’s alright; whatever you say here is confidential.’ Ruby reassured.

‘I’m sorry, I can’t.’ Elle hung up. Ruby sighed and did the same. Neither woman recognised the other’s voice. As promised, the call was anonymous.

Jade was fast asleep after complaints of a headache so Brax made sure to keep exceptionally quiet while looking for a particular receipt he needed. Opening the bottom bedside drawer, he didn’t even acknowledge the romance novel at the bottom of it. It had been Charlie’s. The book was dog eared on page 98; the last thing Charlie had ever read.

Brax sat on the bed and placed his head in his hands. Rubbing his eyes, he suddenly remembered he needed to change the flat tire on his car. Work could wait. Brax reached over into the closet and pulled out a clean shirt from the top shelving. The shirt had been under a box and the box fell into a clutter onto the floor.

Sighing, Brax bent down to pick up the mess. Among the various papers, there was an ultrasound photo that caught his eye. Baby boy Buckton; it said. Brax smiled; they must have gotten the gender wrong on Jade’s ultrasound. He placed this in his shirt pocket. The most substantial piece in the box was a white cropped cardigan. Brax lifted the soft cotton material in his hands and sighed. It must have been Charlie’s.

Brax leant against the closet door and gazed at the cloth in his hand. It had been a while since Charlie had her clothes in his closet. It was a nice feeling. He unfolded the cardigan and immediately wished he hadn’t. It was quite obvious that someone had painstakingly tried to wash away the stains but the faded pink was still there.

Blood; dried, washed, faded blood but blood all the same. Charlie’s blood, Brax assumed but he couldn’t imagine where. She had not cuts on her body when she died so where was the blood from?

Brax gripped the material of the cardigan for dear life and just as quickly let it go, the cotton floating onto his knee. He picked up his phone and dialled.

‘Hello, crisis helpline, how may I help you?’ The voice on the other end was bored. Brax didn’t recognise the voice; if he had, he probably wouldn’t have said anything. The volunteer at the other end of the helpline was Ruby. Neither of them realised that they knew each other.

‘I’ve never really done this kind of thing before, I just saw an ad on TV this morning and…yeah,’ Brax admitted sheepishly.

Ruby had been bored of the constant phone calls in her third hour on the telephone desk at the crisis centre. The second Brax spoke, however, it all changed. Ruby realised she knew the person who had called and immediately sat up in shock.

‘Um…well, what seems to be the problem?’ Ruby found her voice, although it sounded a little unsure. She wanted to make her identity known but then remembered the rules of the trade. Anonymity; anonymity was essential to the hotline. That was the reason people called. So Ruby kept quiet and tried to keep her voice level and stable.

There was a pause, a pause so long Ruby thought Brax might’ve gone but then he spoke. ‘I miss her. I know I’m supposed to let it go; it’s been years but I can’t do it. She’s everywhere and I want her to go away but when she does…’

Brax looked down at the stained cardigan and took it in his hand. He closed his eyes and touched the back of his head to the open closet door. ‘When she does, it’s like I lost her all over again.’

Ruby knew he was talking about her mother and gulped. Her supervisor was busy with her own caller a few tables away. Ruby closed her eyes and leaned her elbows on her desk. This was the one problem she couldn’t help with. The one problem that Ruby herself had been trying to figure out for years. How to get over a loved one? There was no answer.

‘Aren’t you supposed to give me advice or something?’ Brax filled Ruby’s silence with his words.

‘Everyone heals in their own time, time heals all wounds as they say,’ Ruby’s therapist said that too. Just give it time; he’d say as if he knew exactly what he was talking about. Ruby didn’t think he did but relayed the words over to Brax anyway. After all, what else was she supposed to say?

‘I gave it time, and it got better but only a little. And then it got worse again, worse than when she died. At least then I didn’t have the constant physical reminder. Now she’s real but she’s not real at the same time and I don’t know the difference.’

Brax knew he wasn’t making any sense but articulating his thoughts was more difficult than he’d initially thought. Still, it helped to relieve his mind of some of the pressure. And talking to a stranger on the phone- at least he thought it was a stranger- seemed a lot easier than confiding in family or friends.

Ruby had no idea Brax was feeling so torn until that moment. She couldn’t understand a thing he was confiding to her but for the first time she knew he was hurting more than he ever let on in public. Looks could be deceiving. Ruby knew the art of hiding one’s true feelings only too well.

Even with this new revelation, Ruby still had the predetermined notion of Brax as the cold enemy engraved in the back of her mind. That mindset was hard to shake and Ruby still felt there was a strong truth to her feelings but understood Brax more than before.

Ruby leaned back in her swivel chair with a new understanding. ‘You say you don’t understand your own reality anymore? What do you mean by that?’

The question threw Brax off and he suddenly felt an inner panic. No one could know. His mindset would never allow weakness. Then he calmed down and decided to ignore the question. ‘What’s your name?’

‘Huh?’ Now it was Ruby’s turn to panic. Her curiosity wanted to know the inner workings of Brax’ mind but she didn’t want to scare him away. ‘Um, it’s…Elsie.’

‘Elsie, that’s Charlie’s mum’s name,’ Brax had a light smile on his lips and rested the elbow of the arm holding his phone atop his knee.

Ruby recognised that she wasn’t supposed to know anything about him. ‘Is Charlie the woman you were talking about? The one that died?’

‘Yeah, she always talked about her mum. Elsie died before I met Charlie but I wished I could’ve known the people who helped make her the amazing person she was.’

Ruby tried to stop the tears sneaking up from her tear ducts and succeeded. She was in a public office. ‘Go on,’

For the first time in years, Brax opened up his heart, unaware that the person on the other end of the phone might just be the one person who could get him past the darkness. There was no mention of the hallucinations but Brax spoke for an hour all the while Ruby listened with an open heart.

When Ruby met Elle at Angelo’s for dinner after her shift at the crisis centre, it was quite clear to her that her friend had already knocked back a few too many wines. She sat down at the corner table by the bar in front of her. ‘Did you start without me?’

‘Oh, sorry, you know how thirsty I get,’ Elle’s eyes were puffy; she’d been crying.

Concern swept over Ruby. ‘Are you alright?’

‘I like my wine,’ Elle emphasised each word in such a drunken way that there was not one person who wouldn’t agree with her. She leaned forward towards Ruby as if it was a national secret; her voice full of pity. ‘I like to pop pills and stay up til the wee hours of the morning and wake up with a hangover bigger than Marge Simpson’s hair. My diet consists of vodka, speed and the occasional Big Mac; it’s not exactly responsible. I can’t do responsible.’

‘I don’t quite know what you’re getting at.’ After the day she’d just had listening to other people’s vague thoughts, Ruby wasn’t exactly thrilled to have her friend give her the same.

‘I’m unresponsible. Unresponsible, is that a word?’ Ruby shook her head as she watched Elle with one hand on her forehead. ‘Well, it should be, because that’s what I am. Have I ever told you about Missy and Pam? They were my goldfish when I was five, they died because I didn’t realise I had to put water in the fish bowl when I poured them out of the plastic pet store bag.’

‘That’s unfortunate,’ Ruby was getting more confused by the minute. “Do you want to order?’

‘Yeah, Seafood special, thanks. Now where was I?’

‘Missy and Pam,’

‘That’s right, I killed them. And they were a lot smaller than what I’ve got to deal with now. I’m not set for this whole thing. I’m a twenty two year old screw up. I still need my mother to do my laundry, I’ve never even touched a cleaning wipe in my life. I’m going to kill this baby,’

‘Wow, what?’ Ruby nearly spit out the wine she was drinking. Her eyes went wide. She reached out across the table and took the wine glass from Elle’s hand and placed it away. ‘Baby? And you’re drunk?’

‘Well, wouldn’t you be if you found out you were with child?’ Elle whimpered, close to tears. ‘Don’t worry; I only had the wine not the vodka.’

Ruby rolled her eyes but ignored it. She was still processing. ‘Elle, whose is it?’

Elle looked up at Ruby with a hardened emotionless expression. She placed it in the back of her mind and faked a smile, forcing the tears away. ‘Don’t worry about it, I don’t want to push all my problems onto you. How was community service? I missed you at clean up duty. It’s so boring without you,’

Ruby sighed and rubbed her temple. She had been bombarded with so many of other people’s problems that day that she hadn’t had time to think about herself. Maybe in a way it was a good thing; the need to party away her hurting thoughts had been replaced by a much more beneficial distraction. Unfortunately, crisis aide had its headaches as well.

Ruby emptied the rest of her drink down her throat and sighed.