Fateful Night

By Raven Kay

“Mommy!” The little girl with the brown curled hair ran across the dance floor with her shiny black shoes and new party dress. “Look at my dress! It’s got lace and a bow and oh isn’t it wonderful?” She did a not so graceful spin around showing her red ribbons on the white dress off.

“Now calm down Elaine, yes it is a wonderful dress. Your nanny did a great job on helping you pick it out. Be careful not to get it dirty now. Go talk to your father. I have to make sure the string quartet plays everything right. You know this is a very important party so don’t case any trouble.”

“Yes maim.” Elaine curtseyed and her brown curls fell in front of her hazel eyes. She walked around the food tables and the violin quartet started playing. A few other instruments joined in and Elaine started humming carelessly to herself. “Hi dad!” She smiled up at the dark haired man and he smiled warmly.

“Elaine my precious! Why aren’t you looking marvelous today? Better keep those boys away from you!”

“Daaad…don’t embarrass me like that!” She blushed and self consciously brushed her dress.

He laughed, “Oh I almost forgot! I’ve got something for you!”

“Oh what is it? What is it?!”

He dug in his pocket, “Hope I didn’t lose it…”

“Dad! Come one!”

He pulled out a bag of gummy bears and she squealed in delight. “Gummy bears! My favorite candy!”

“Got them for my little angel.”

“Oh thank you Daddy! You’re the greatest!”

“Now go eat your gummy bears and I’m going to go greet the guests. Make sure you’re nice and polite now.”

“Of course Dad!” She ran to the balcony and opened the bag of gummy bears. She popped a few in her mouth and noticed people coming in. The string quartet began playing a different song and her dad began shaking hands with people. Carefree to everything for everything was perfect, she ate her gummy bears. She then watched her mom who was holding her martini glass and laughing at somebody’s joke. Elaine sat on the bench and watched for anything interesting to listen to. The party continued and then her mom left to check her make-up. Standing up, she brushed her brown curls out of her face and followed behind her mom. Her mother’s crystal earrings swayed as she walked in her black slim dress that fit her mom’s figure so well.

The string quartet began a faster piece that people could ballroom dance to. Elaine got lost in the crowd of adults that suddenly began dancing in the center of the room. “Excuse me, excuse me.” She found her way out of the crowd but lost sight of her target. Elaine wandered down the hallway and she heard crying. Looking through the key hole she saw her mom crying as her father stood in front of her. She then moved so she could see the rest of the room and found another woman in the room. Elaine wasn’t sure what was going on but it couldn’t be good because her mom was upset her dad seemed to be the cause of it. Then she thought of the worst thing possible and she stepped back from the door. “It can’t be…”

A man approached her and said, “Miss Elaine, you’re missing your parent’s party. What are you doing here?”

“Oh, nothing. Just stretching my legs is all.”

“Well get back to the party, you’re missing some fun things.”

“Yes, I’ll be right there.”

“Now Miss Elaine you aren’t up to anything…are you?”

“Of course not.” She kept a serious face and walked back toward the party. “Just got bored and decided to walk around.”

“Sure thing my dear. You’re looking quite lovely this evening with that dress and your hair all curled. You’re growing up so quickly.”

“Thank you.”

He walked with her back to the party and she got herself some punch. She contemplated how to get back to that room. Surely what she thought was going on wasn’t and that this was all a big misunderstanding. Sitting restlessly for a minute she saw her chance to escape when nobody was looking. Quickly she slipped back down the hallway out of sight. She could hear her parents arguing profusely and the woman in the corner was crying too. Not being quite able to hear what they were saying she put her ear against the door.

Her mother was hysterical saying, “I can’t believe you Robert!”

Her father replied sternly, “Now Adele it isn’t what it seems.”

“Isn’t what it seems? Isn’t what it seems? How is it supposed to seem? I see it quite clearly! You’ve been sneaking around hiding this! How could you betray me like this? We have a family!”

He fell silent and said softly, “You’ve known for a long time that this family isn’t happy. We were forced into this for the money and you know as well as I do it would never work.”

“You son of a bitch! How can you say that? We have what everybody wants, money, status, and a beautiful daughter! It was perfect and you had to go and screw it up!”

“It was the farthest thing from happiness.”

“Well I hope you are happy now because this isn’t going on any longer. No…no it isn’t.”

“Adele what are you doing?”

She walked casually to the dresser. “Ending something that should have never started” With that she pulled opened the drawer and pulled out a gun. “Good-bye Robert.”

“Adele wait! I’m sorry!”

“It’s too late for apologies.” Elaine screamed and tried to open the door and found it locked. One shot. Two shots. Three shots. Music fell silent and people were clapping. They hadn’t heard the shots because they were too far away. She ran to her room, trying to see through her tear blurred vision and pulled a music box out from under her bed. Her parents had given her a master key to all the rooms of the house when they trusted her. She grabbed it tight and ran back to the room. Unlocking the door she fell to the ground, crying over her mother.

Getting her white dress stained with blood she saw her father dead on the floor. In the corner was the woman that he had cheated with. Then her mother, she looked so beautiful. The blood stained the carpet as did the dropped martini glass that was by the door. Elaine was shaking and found her hands covered in her parent’s blood and looked down to find her dress blood stained also. She looked out the window as the moon shone in. Between sobs she managed to say, “This can’t be real.” A woman came around the corner and screamed when she saw the mess. It summoned more people and somebody ran to call an ambulance. A crowd stood around the door in silence looking on to the bloody mess.

“It’s too late…nothing could be done.” Somebody murmured.

Elaine heard them and screamed, “That’s not true!” She began crying and whispered again, “It’s not true.” Digging in her pocket she found the remainder of her gummy bears. She held them close and somebody took the moment to pick her up. They began leaving the room and Elaine began kicking and screaming. The ambulance noise wailed in the background. The door was shut tight for people didn’t want to the imperfection in their perfect little lives.