The Salvation of Daniel (The Blue Butterfly Book 2)
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Authors: D H Sidebottom
Tags: #Book 2 in the Blue Butterfly Series
The Salvation of Daniel
Copyright © 2014 D H Sidebottom
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to actual places, incidents and persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 D H Sidebottom. Please do not copy, alter or redistribute this book.
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THE MIST APPEARED to be crawling towards me. I didn’t move, refusing to let it push me away. I’d been pushed away too many times and I wouldn’t allow anyone or anything to do it again.
My heart ached as I stood under the cover of the trees, their heavily laden branches providing a secluded hideaway as I watched the small congregation gather by the graveside. A couple of people opened umbrellas when the rain began to fall heavier, immediately dampening down the curling fog.
I recognised most of them. I was surprised Tammy had come; she’d always bullied Mae at school. And Bonnie, another two-faced bitch me and my sister had avoided like the plague.
I swiped at the tears that flooded down my cheeks. A part of me had gone, evaporated from inside me. My soul felt incomplete, my heart had split down the middle.
I couldn’t decipher what the vicar was saying from so far away but I didn’t need his words. They wouldn’t comfort me nor would they take away the ache or the guilt. Bonnie wailed when the vicar threw a lump of soil on top of Mae. What the fuck? Dramatic skank.
My eyes widened when a tall dark-haired man stepped out from behind a woman with a large umbrella. I hadn’t noticed him before, and from the sheer size of him I wondered why. His long black coat was drenched, his dark brown hair slicked across his forehead as streams of rain ran down his face. I could see the drops dripping from his long eyelashes even from the distance between us.
He stood by the edge of the hole, looking down into it with a severe frown. He looked angry; angry at Mae for dying possibly. I understood because I felt it too. The rage that had engulfed me when one of my contacts notified me of her death had been the most unreal feeling I had ever felt, even greater than the grief of losing my parents… or rather my mother.
I cocked my head in puzzlement when he dropped a single deep red rose onto her coffin. His fists clenched before he brought one up to his lips and kissed it then tossed something else into the grave.
Loud sobs filtered across the cemetery, the driving rain doing nothing to stop the weeping as people wandered off.
Waiting until everyone had left, I trudged across the muddy ground and stopped beside my sister’s final resting place.
“Hey,” I whispered as I brought my gaze down to the wooden box that held Mae. A deep tightening in my chest brought on a gasp of pain and I closed my eyes for a moment. The rain beat down on me, punishing me for the sins I had committed against my own flesh and blood. “I’m so sorry, Mae.”
The silence tore at me until the pain became too much and I stepped back to leave. A splash of white from the coffin caught my attention. It was obviously what the tall guy had thrown in. I squinted, trying to focus on what it was but I couldn’t make it out.
Pulling my phone from my inside pocket, I quickly snapped a shot of the object. Opening up the camera album, I swiped at the screen as the rain beaded, distorting the image before I zoomed in and stared in shock.
I stumbled backwards, losing my footing, my heart thudding loudly in my ears, and my arse landing in the mud when a two-year-old
us
stared back at me. However, this wasn’t one of us, this was the essence of Mae. It was a new photo, the clothes the child wore were modern. She was sitting on the bonnet of a car, smiling widely for the shot. Her long black hair was in pigtails, and her bright blue eyes - Mae’s eyes, my eyes - twinkled brightly. This year’s registration on the car confirmed my thoughts.
Holy fuck.
Mae had a family. I had a niece. And the guy who had dropped in the photo was obviously her husband.
My heart burst for her, my sorrow lifting before intensifying when the reality of what she had to leave behind consumed me. She had found the very thing she had always wanted. Relief coursed through me, any taste of happiness she could have lived before passing should be celebrated. I thought I had broken her when I… when I left. Thought I had given her more of a reason to want to leave this dismal place and join our parents. And the fact that she was now with
him
agonised me.
He shouldn’t be granted time with his daughter in the afterlife, he didn’t deserve that. The only hope I held onto was that the devil had claimed his rotten soul, and refused him sanctuary with my mother and sister.
I brushed my thumb over the happy picture, saving it to my phone as wallpaper and smiled. I wasn’t alone anymore. There wasn’t only me that remained of the Swift family.
I needed to find them, both her and Mae’s husband. But how much had she told them? Did they think I was dead? It wasn’t as if I could just walk up to them and say hi. I mean I was the exact replica of the woman they both loved and had just lost. That shit would freak them out, especially if they didn’t know I existed.
But I would find them. I needed that little girl in my life more than I needed to breathe. I needed a reason to live now, and she was my only hope. I would look after her, care for her and repay Mae for what I had done.
2 Years later
“DADDY!”
“Yeah,” I shouted through the house as I pulled the bread rolls from the oven.
“Uhh….”
That single word made every single hair on the back of my neck snap to attention. I froze, the baking tray burning through the oven gloves until the scorch became too much and I tossed it on the hob. “Annie?”