The Lark

CW: Abuse, Betrayal, Gore

Copper and iron have a very distinct taste- an even more specific aroma. When I walked into the building on Lark Avenue, I didn’t expect what happened. I didn’t want it to happen. The memorable scent of this night will torment me for the rest of my days.

~|~

The Clementine family had a strange household line-up. The husband, Ross, worked full time as a manager at the local grocery store. The wife, Rhowena, was the oldest of three sisters. Her sisters, Rhosari and Rhachel, were down on their luck and had to live in the same two bedroom- one family home with Ross and Rhowena. They all work part-time at the autobody shop close by. Ross wasn’t around enough to drive them to and from work so they all had to work somewhere close enough to home so they could walk.

~|~

One day, after all the years of silence, Rhowena decided to reach out to me via text message. I was tan, short, rotund but fit, with wavy brown and purple hair. The entirety of her text message was, “Hey, it’s Rhowena.” I turn my phone for my husband, Jeremy, to see, and snicker, “Oh my gosh, Jer, look at who texted me.” When he turns-with his curly brown hair, pale skin, and chubby stomach-from his television series to see the message, we erupt in laughter. After our explosion of pure giggling, he says, “Daisy darlin’, I don’t think you should reply. What she did to you wasn’t okay. It’s ultimately up to you but I won’t have anything to do with this.” When Jeremy started talking like this, I knew he meant business, so all I said to him was, “That’s fine. I’ll think about it.” Jeremy kissed my forehead and walked away.

Rhowena Clementine, formerly Bonsai, was a beautiful person inside and out-until she wasn’t. She was tall, thin, pink, and had thick, flowing auburn colored hair-always tied into some kind of intricate braid. It turned out that her outward beauty was all that there was after she showed her true colors. She ruined our years of friendship with lies and betrayals. After she met and married Ross, she completely changed-or maybe that’s who she was the whole time and I never realized it. He was tall but the same height as her and artificially tanned with straight, long, bleach blonde hair. Whatever the answer truly was, she didn’t give it to me. I reached out a few times over the years but never heard anything back from her.

After Rhowena’s betrayal, I was broken and all I wanted was to tell her how badly I was hurt by her. I wanted to cry and wail and be comforted by her but any time I needed help, she shrugged her shoulders and said I was being too emotional. The thought of her needing me after everything she did made me want to exact my justice but I swore, I’d never do that again. I replied to her, “I am only replying to tell you to lose my number.” Then I blocked her number, never expecting what happened next.

Jeremy told me how proud he was of me. I’ve been growing around my wounds and for me to have put myself before someone else’s needs was a massive growth point. Suddenly, we heard a barrage of urgent knocks at the door. “Daisy, Daisy please. Open the door. Please!” Jeremy stood straight up and ran in front of me, “I will take care of this. You stand your ground and do not speak to her. Listen to me, Daisy. It’s for your own good.” I knew he was right and I let him answer the door.

“Rhowena, you need to go. I don’t know who gave you our address but you are not welcome here.” Desperate and frantic, she cries out, “He hurt us.” Hurriedly, I ran out from the back room, and stood in front of Jeremy in a protective manner. With a bit of a quiver in my voice, I say, “Jeremy didn’t lay a hand on you. Leave. Now.” Then I saw the broken sisters. Half of Rhowena’s face was purple, blue, and brown. Rhosari’s knuckles were cracked and her nose was bloodied and crooked. Rhachel wasn’t physically hurt, at least not outwardly, but you can see that she was shaken up.

The urge to invite them inside and tend to their wounds was eating me alive then I looked at Jeremy. He grabbed the keys to the mini-van and told them all to get inside. I went in the front seat and made sure to take a video of the entire encounter. Luckily, Jackson was on vacation with his friend Carlton and Lyle was at his grandmother’s for the weekend. We bring them to the local hospital and tell their doctors our suspicions. The hospital staff told us we had to wait for the police to tell them our version of what happened. I said, “I have everything on video. I always do.”

When the police arrived, I gave them all of the recordings, the doorbell camera and the phone footage we have taken since deciding to bring them here. The police told us that they are frequent flyers and we assumed the rest. We were basically let go as soon as we were interviewed. Now lies the question of if we stay. We did our duty and should be done but the layers of questions I have are so deep. Why did she choose to come to me? After all these years? Why did she decide to betray me in the first place? I needed answers, I needed to stay. Jeremy told me that he’s going home and for me to be safe.

Rhachel needed surgery for internal bleeding and Rhosari needed a nose procedure done. Rhowena-the woman I thought would be my friend forever-was getting a saline solution done because she was dehydrated. Her badly bruised face made the doctors worry so they gave her an x-ray. They found that her orbital bone was previously fractured but was already healing. I walked into her emergency room with my lips sealed shut and just nodded my head. Rhowena looked up at me in shame and, through tears, said, “I know what you’re about to say. I don’t know why I came to you.” My scoffing turned into laughing and she became angry with me. “Why are you laughing? Do you think I would have come to you if it weren’t emergent? I never wanted to talk to you after what you did to me,” Rhowena said.

My eyes became bigger as I laughed harder. Rhowena’s doctor came into the room and asked, “Haha, a couple of old friends reminiscing?” Once again, I laughed even louder and snorted out, “Yeah, doc, I was reminiscing with my ‘old friend’ here. Actually, she was the one doing the reminiscing. Wena, girl, you were just going to say what I did to ruin our friendship?” The doctor walked away because he didn’t have time for the drama but I just stared-straight lipped-at her. When she didn’t answer, I raised my eyebrows and widened my eyes for an answer.

Rhowena whines out loud, “You didn’t come to my wedding. You didn’t officiate it like you were supposed to then you sold me…” I abruptly cut her off with a scoff, “Sold you? No, you appropriated…” She interrupted me and said, “Yes! Yes, what I am saying is we both messed up.” Then the nurse comes in and begins to take out her I.V. and mutters, “Are you two done yet?” I grabbed my items and nodded my head and sternly replied, “Yes, yes we ARE done here.”

When I begin to leave, I hear Rhowena whine, “Don’t let her leave. Please.” The nurse muttered something about it’s for the best but I continued to hear Rhowena’s protests all the way down the never-ending hallway. Finally, I am out of the emergency room and on my way to the bus station. As I am sitting at the bus stop in the hospital’s parking lot, someone walks up to me. My head is in my palms and I am on the verge of crying. A familiar voice said, “Her lies hurt, huh?”

Ross was standing in front of me. My face goes rigid in my hands and I slowly raise my head but don’t look at him. He begins to speak again but I walk away-mama always taught me that if I don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all. However, in true Ross fashion, he grabbed both of my shoulders and pulled me back. When I fell on my bottom, I began to yell, “FIRE, PINEAPPLES, KUMQUATS, PENGUINS!” Anything to get attention to a man grabbing a woman and throwing her to the ground. The hospital’s security picked up what I put down and ran over.

As they question us both, I tell them that he’s the reason the three women I brought in needed surgery, and then he pulled me to the ground in an attempt to speak to me after I walked away. The two security officers grabbed his hands, zip tied him, and made him walk to their office while the police arrived. Ross yells out to me, “Meet me at The Lark tonight. I can explain myself.” I called Jeremy to tell him what happened and he was livid, “I’m coming now, darlin’.” Before I could fight it and tell him I was on my way home, he hung up. There was nothing stopping this stubborn man so I waited at the hospital.

Before Jeremy got here, Rhowena walked up behind me and said, “Before you walk away, hear me out... I’m done with him.” I’ve heard it before and I honestly don’t want to hear it again. Jeremy turned into the parking lot and I began to walk away without replying to her. Rhowena raised her voice, “I heard him tell you to meet him at The Lark tonight. I’ll be there and if you were ever my friend, you will be, too.” I knew she was trying to manipulate me but I also knew that I had to go.

~|~

After telling Jeremy to stay in the car, Felicity, who was tall, olive skinned, green-eyed with hair of gold, came with me. Jer was our get-away driver in case we needed it. Felicity always had my back in times of trouble and she was always ready to defend me. Felicity and I stand in front of The Lark, a nightclub by trade, on the only weekday that it is closed, and look at each other. Felicity said, “You sure you wanna do this, Dais? She is one hundred percent manipulating you. She’s probably getting ready to jump you… us.”

Nodding my head in agreement, I reply, “Yes, that’s why I brought you. Just in case I am in over my head.” She laughed and facetiously said, "Let's hope what happened last time we were in fight mode doesn’t happen again.” With a serious face, I agreed. Then we opened the doors.

Copper and iron have a very distinct taste- an even more specific aroma. When I walked into the night club on Lark Avenue with Felicity by my side, the smell of blood was undeniable. We saw Ross there, on the floor, nose bleeding and a nasty gash to his forehead. In front of him was Rhowena with a piece of rebar falling out of her hand with drops of blood splattering here and there. She was screaming obscenities at him-yelling about how she wouldn’t have ended up the way she is without his constant condescension. Her sisters wouldn't be getting surgery right now if it weren’t for him. After thirteen years of pent up rage against him, Rhowena erupted.

Felicity saw me trying to fight off the demon inside me. I’ve been good, I got myself a hematology position and I’ve turned my life around for the better. Everything that I needed was there. “You told her?! Are you kidding me,” Felicity questioned. That didn’t help, holding back my anger, I growled, “NO!” She realized that I was trying to behave and calmed her tone, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you upset. How did she find out? How does she know that you’re…” My mouth curled up and I snarled, “She must’ve…” I almost let loose but gained my composure, “...been there. The last time. It was near her house.”

Seven years ago I did something bad. Someone turned me into something I never thought was possible. A monster turned me into a beast; I didn’t mean to but I hurt those people-their families. The only people there to help me clean up the mess I made were Jeremy and Felicity. They were the only ones to understand and control me back then. Now, I am centered. That is, when I am not ambushed with the scent of warm, freshly spilled blood.

Suddenly, my eyes darken and my teeth elongate. Felicity tried to stop me but when I got this way, my strength grew immensely. Flashes of flesh flying, blood gushing from necks, and bones snapping were all that I saw through the red. Rhowena was my last victim. She was standing wide-eyed and scared in the mess of limbs carelessly strewn on the ground. Before I did anything to her, I calmed down. I loved her like a sister for 30 long years before she betrayed me. The least I could do was hear her out.

In an accusatory tone, I yell, “How did you know!?” Rhowena stares at me, breathes in, and says, “You killed almost everyone seven years ago. Ross’ girlfriend at the time was the only one who almost survived. She crawled back to our home and she begged to see Ross. I felt bad for her but told her to explain herself. She said that she was his girlfriend and how she was waiting for him when a monster came and turned you into his kind. How you almost killed her but she gained consciousness enough to crawl back here while you were cleaning up your mess out there.”

With tears rolling down my cheeks, I beg for an answer, “Why did you betray me? Why did you turn your back on me? Why did you leave me when I needed you the most?” Rhowena now looks annoyed and says with a sigh, “Uhh, I already told you-you didn’t come to my wedding.” Stepping forward, I growl, “Tell me the truth!” She shakes in her skin and falls on her butt, “Okay! Okay… The truth is I thought you betrayed me when you didn’t marry us. I know that you were seven months pregnant but when I needed you, you weren’t there. This was the most important night of my life and you decided to have a baby. I wanted you to feel the same hurt. So, when you told us we could live with you in your home… I had to take it from under you.”

Rage rises within me but I quell it and say, “I didn’t marry you because I had a baby. I was in the hospital and after the birth of that baby, of my Anabella, she died. You don’t think I was hurting enough? You had to run me out of town and then had the NERVE to stay in my home, reclaiming it as yours? Do I have that right?” She rises to her feet and steps closer to me. She says, “Before I answer that, I wanted to thank you. You killed Ross for me. Now I never have to put up with his disloyalty and abuse ever again.” She pauses, just for a moment, and smirks, dryly saying, “Sincerely, thank you. It’s too bad I recorded all of this and have to give it to the proper authorities.” My shaking body doesn’t deter her from moving closer.

With every step closer, I feel a primal urgency to snap her neck but she continues, “With that said…” When Rhowena is directly in my face, she cocks her head to the side, smiles, and in a snake-like whisper finishes with, “Yes.” All I see is red. When I finally come through the fog, everyone is on the ground—dead: Rhowena, Ross, all twelve of her family and friends she brought to take me out, and the wooden stakes they collected to kill me. The only two still standing are Jeremy and Felicity.

Felicity finds a mop and bucket and Jeremy begins to pull the people to the side. I grab the lifeless bodies and run them to a local incinerator. By the time I was finished, Jeremy and Felicity both were almost done cleaning the blood. I picked everything up that had fallen during the struggle and put it back into place. No one will ever know of the battle that took place here. Felicity is a genius hacker and has already wiped the footage. Nothing happened here at The Lark.