“Well, I heard Belinda singing in Spanish. I thought that maybe you might have taught her a lullaby from your childhood,”
“No, I don’t recall any songs from my mother. I was a teen when she died, and I don’t remember much of her, really. It’s been such a long time ago. Maybe she learned it at school; I wouldn’t sweat it. Kids would do anything to impress their peers. I know that too well.”
Antonio grew silent as he thought of his words and what his daughter said earlier. It burned his soul to think of what she could possibly know of his past. He had moved on, so the rest of the world should too.
Chapter Eight - Camille
Even though Camille told her family not to worry about Miss Nancy’s investigation, she had found out through the grapevine of neighbors that the old lady’s hands had been severed, and her dog’s ashes were deep in her throat prior to her death. As much as this information worried her, nothing concerned her more than the cops lurking around asking questions.
This neighborhood carries too many secrets, and like traveling water, it all drained back to the mansion at the end of Lull Lane. She knew of her husband’s dark past, added to her own; she stressed about it every single day of her life. The pills she constantly took were no longer working. Her addiction, which she had accepted, was the only way she could live with herself and the recurring memories of the past.
Only once, a couple of years after Belinda was born, had Antonio drunk himself to sleep. It wasn’t normal for him to do that; in fact, he had not drunk anything since high school. She blamed herself; she had always been the one to push him to drink, feeding his lurking bad conscience.
But after her friends rejected her new mom life, she still yearned for a late-night Mai Tai. Earlier that day, she had gone to the store to buy rum, grenadine, and other ingredients for mixed drinks. Once the baby was down for the night, she made drinks for Antonio and herself.
With a little bit of music on her phone to create a fun mood, she selected Taking Back Sunday. Seductively and yet aggressively, she began to approach Antonio while singing just loud enough for the two of them to hear.
“And we lay, we lay together just not too close, too close.”
She crawled onto his lap and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, spilling some of the drink she held in her hand. When he felt the ice from her drink on his skin, he jerked upward. Camille fell back, her hip absorbing the impact. Lying on the ground, she cried out for a moment.
She asked for some pain medicine; Antonio ran to the bathroom cabinet to grab it and gave it to her before moving her back to the couch. They sat on the couch for a little while afterward, with Camille convincing him to drink a little more with her. Given that he hadn’t drunk in years, he was feeling every drop.
Fighting through the pain and not wanting to completely ruin the moment, she sat close to him but drank less than she had planned. During this time, she was afraid of mixing medications with alcohol.
A few more songs played before Belinda was heard crying. Due to the baby sleeping in their main bed, Camille had to get up as quickly as she could and limp her way upstairs to check on the baby. By the time she reached the bedroom, she quietly opened the door and saw that Belinda had soothed herself back to sleep. Not wanting to make a sound, Camille left the door cracked open and headed back downstairs.
By now, Antonio was lying down on the couch, spread out. Camille felt a slight disappointment, but she grabbed a blanket from the ottoman and slowly lay it on his legs. When she unfolded the rest of the blanket to cover his chest, Antonio began to mumble some nonsense.
“What are you saying, honey?” Camille asked.
“I didn’t mean to hurt her. You all made me do it,” Antonio mumbled.
“Who? Hurt who?”
“I didn’t mean to, Savannah” he continued.
“I. Made. You. Do. It?” she asked.
“I didn’t mean—”
Antonio fell into a drunken coma before he could finish what he was trying to say. It frustrated Camille so much that she confronted him the next morning. He denied everything that was said and blamed it on the alcohol he shouldn’t have drunk, gaslighting Camille for bringing the past up.
After Antonio had left for work, Camille left Belinda with Jenny while she headed to the old mansion. When she reached the old gates, she tried to open them, but a raven with a deformed neck scared her when it flew between her and the fence, causing her heart to race out of fear.
Watching the bird land on the tallest part of the fence, she couldn’t understand how he could live with a visible, broken neck. Camille retreated to the street after not being able to break the gate open, slowly heading back home. She felt someone watching her from the darkest parts of the mansion, but every time she looked back, she couldn’t see anyone.
After making it back home, she sat in the living room, opened her laptop, and Google searched Savannah. It wasn’t long before numerous pages of information and reports appeared. All leading to the same links.
After a quick scan, Camille couldn’t believe how much she had forgotten. She quickly ran to the kitchen, where she threw up her breakfast mixed with bile into the sink. Standing over it, she was frozen, her diaphragm spasming uncontrollably, splashing vomit everywhere.
Forgetting to close her laptop, she went to her room and took several sleeping pills. Camille lay in her bed, trying to piece together the whole night. She remembered being so drunk at the tracks, not forgetting the extra drugs she had mixed into her system. She couldn’t believe how much she had forgotten about that night. The night she partook in Savannah’s nightmare. As she started to drift off, she watched the fan blades spin slowly, feeling her future slipping away.
When Antonio got home from work, he noticed the laptop on the couch. Being the workaholic he is, he decided to make some adjustments to his work files. When he opened the computer, immediate panic shook him. He closed the pages and the laptop as fast as he could and quickly made his way upstairs, looking for his wife, who he found lying in bed.
He always remembered that day vividly. After shaking her a few times, he realized that she wasn’t waking up. Antonio reached into his pocket and dialed for an ambulance. When the paramedics arrived, they took her to the hospital. Jenny stayed with Belinda while Antonio drove to the hospital. Throughout the drive, he felt an overwhelming sense of guilt. He had done this; he would never forget that day.
A few hours went by before the doctor came out from Camille’s room to tell him that her stomach had to be pumped; she had taken way too many sleeping pills along with her pain pills. The doctor asked him about their home environment. Antonio didn’t know what to say at first.
