Deadly Silence (complete) Chapter 8

The house was bigger than all her previous homes put together. The layout itself was straight forward and she doubted getting lost would be an issue, but it didn’t stop her from feeling overwhelmed early on in the tour.

Her bedroom was the last room she was shown, Samuel opening the door and held it so she would be the first to step in the room.

It was furnished, though only in a generic sense; a bed, night stand, dresser, couple comfortable chairs, desk… To Vivian it gave the vibe of ‘high end hotel room’. Even the walls were painted a neutral tone.

“We didn’t have time to do much with the room,” Samuel was saying as she explored the space. There was door on the right that led to an ensuite bathroom, with both a tub and shower stall, still all in that same neutral tone. “You’re more than welcome to change anything you don’t like; it can be painted whatever colour you want, and the furniture can all be exchanged for something you’d prefer more.”

“A template,” Vivian said out loud as she stepped from the bathroom back into the bedroom.

Samuel hesitated then smiled at his daughter. “Yes, exactly like that. It’s your space to do with as you please.”

On the opposite side of the room she noted another door and went to see what else the room had to offer.

Opening it, she took note of the empty walk-in closet that she didn’t think she’d ever be able to fill. Currently her wardrobe consisted of two pairs of pants, five shirts and an assortment of under garments that got her through the week. It would take a month’s worth of clothes, if she only wore any outfit a single time in that span, to maybe fill one side of the closet. The two other walls would still be bare, plus the shelves that had been carefully worked around the door for even more storage space.

Did they expect her to arrive with a truckload of possessions?

The closet itself was reminiscent of how large her rooms were in previous houses. She’d never owned enough things to give those rooms a personal touch, and now she was supposed to fill this room with stuff, and that was without bothering to take the bedroom itself into account.

“I don’t need all this,” she found herself saying out loud, wincing afterwards. Vivian hadn’t meant to speak her thoughts and worried what Samuel would think of such a statement.

A light chuckle came from the man, who was still watching her from his spot near the door. “It’s not about need,” he explained, a warm smile on his face. “It’s about what you deserve. As my daughter, this is what you should have had since birth. I feel like it’s not enough — there are years worth of things I can’t make up for missing, for not being able to provide for you — and this is only a drop in the bucket.”

“What I deserve…” she murmured to herself as she looked around the room again, wondering what, exactly, she did deserve.

It wasn’t this, that much she knew. Vivian didn’t believe she deserved anything she’d been given since that day she’d stopped at St. Peter’s church in hopes whatever priest lived there would take pity on her and share some food.

Unfortunately, no one actually lived in the church — which had been a surprise for her eight-year-old self — but someone had noticed her presence and called people.

Vivian’s memory of that time was sparse, like a hazy dream that jumped around a lot. She didn’t know how she’d arrived at the church, only that her feet had been torn up from running.

What she had been running from was a memory she wouldn’t ever be able to forget, though. It was the aftermath that she couldn’t quite piece back together.

She’d been picked up by an ambulance at one point, then there were different uniforms, the smell of chlorine, questions she couldn’t understand, and even more people talking all around her as she tried to come to terms with what had happened.

Plenty of people had been around her during that time and Vivian remembered none of their faces, not a single name, and in some instances if they were even real or just part of some weird dream.

“I was hoping we could go shopping tomorrow,” Samuel was still talking as Vivian lost herself in chaotic memories. “You should have a few more clothes, and when school starts again you’ll need a uniform.”

This snapped her back to the present. With a frown, she looked at her father. “School?”

Samuel nodded. “Laurent will be a senior, so you’ll know someone there. All my boys went to the Academy. Fun fact: your mother championed for those of lesser means to be allowed in, to base entrance off merit and not just wallet.”

*That sounds like Mom…*

“Unfortunately,” Samuel let out a bit of a sigh, “She wasn’t able to bring that change around before… Instead we started a scholarship in her name, giving students who meet certain academic standards the chance to attend.”

There was a flash of pain across his face before it disappeared, and Vivian could empathize; she missed her mom too. If only he knew she’d been there when the bullet was shot — that it had been in exchange for her life.

Would he be able to forgive Vivian for being the reason his wife was forever gone?

“Shopping sounds fine,” she told him, switching the topic back to what it should have been. The past should stay in the past. Dwelling on it now wouldn’t do anyone any good.

“Great. It’ll be fun.”

Was shopping with your father supposed to be fun, Vivian wondered absently as she moved to look out the large window, pulling back the curtain a bit to get a better view.

“I ordered in some lunch; I hope you like Chinese food?” He said it like a question, but Vivian knew if it was he would have said something before ordering.

“Chinese is fine.”

“Why don’t you unpack…” Samuel hesitated, glancing over at her two suitcases, neither of which were full. It would take her all of five minutes to unpack. “And start getting settled. I’ll come get you when the food arrives.”

“Okay.”

He left without saying anything else and Vivian let out a sigh. A conversationalist she was most definitely not.

Wondering if he found her odd yet — they always found her a bit odd whenever she moved in with a new family — and how long it would be before she was able to become invisible to them.

Siblings were easy; stay out of their way and, for the most part, they could forget you even existed. The parents took a bit more time to get off her case and just let her be, but it always happened in the end — usually a couple weeks before she was removed from the home.

Cassidy would lecture Vivian about bad habits, to give the family an actual chance but none of them understood anything.

The definition of family Vivian had been raised knowing for those first eight years was not what she wanted. The dynamics of those she’d been fostered into had all felt wrong, like it was all a lie and would fall apart the moment she let her guard down.

This family, though her true biological family, was no different.

The feeling that she was to play the part they expected of her without sharing the script beforehand was still there — the moment she said or did the wrong thing, ruining the scene, was when everything would come crashing down. Her solution to this problem was to say little, have few interactions with others to the point she was like a ghost.