C11 A sister's Promise

Kristen Sanders knocked silently on her sister's door to avoid waking their mother. But there was still no answer from the other side. She wondered if Rhea was still in the shower.

On second thoughts, she became frightened of what her sister might attempt to do to herself after what happened to her tonight, so Kristine panicked at the thought of that and banged the door harder. Her mother's worries were no longer her current concern, compared to the worse thoughts of what Rhea might do to herself behind a closed door.

At the moment, all Kristine cared about was her sister's welfare.

Luckily, she remembered an extra key, their Mom made for them, because of Rhea's habit to lock herself up in her room, most of the time. Kristine headed to the key hanger by the door to get the extra keys. She nervously opened the door and went directly into the bathroom to check up on Rhea. But, she found her sister almost drowning in the bathtub.

Amidst tears, Kristine hoped she was not too late. She lifted her sister's head from the tub with the hope to find her well and maybe, fooling around. But no! it was too late. Her Sister wasn't breathing!.

Kristine patted her sister's cheek continuously to bring her back to consciousness. But when all her actions bear no results, she began to panic! She was about to run towards her Mom's room to call her when she heard Rhea's violent coughs from lack of air. She was near suffocation but seemed alright.

"Rhea! Rhea...what did you just do to yourself?" Kristine landed a harsh slap on her sister's cheeks to get her into her senses, and Rhea turned to look at her in tears.

It seems Rhea had frightened the life out of Kristine, from her attempt to drown herself to death.

"Do you really want to die? To leave me and Mom all alone?" Kristine hugged her sister tightly while questioning her.

"Yes! sister... I really want to end it all. I am tired of getting betrayed over and over. Why was it always me who have to bear this brutality from men?" Rhea's harsh sobs frightened Kristine to attention.

She wonder what Jason had done now to get Rhea this broken, after she tried everything through countless therapies to help Rhea to pull through all the unfortunate happening in her life.

How did Jason manage to squander and crushed Rhea's hopes in simply one night, after all the three years of care and hard work she desperately pulled to make Rhea alright?

"Tell me! Rhea...what really happened to you?" Kristine uttered in comfort.

"Please Kris...don't ask me. I just want to forget everything and end it all once and for all." Rhea replied through her sobs.

Kristine couldn't help her tears from her sister's broken comments, she found it hard to believe she nearly lost her sister...again!

When Jason's atrocities happened to Rhea for the first time three years ago in the drug overdose case, using the right channel was Kristine's only option to bring down her sister's culprit to justice. But it seemed the right way was not always what one expected. So one had to result to taking the law into one's own hands to get true justice.

People say it's called revenge when a person decides to take retribution against their offenders, but to Kristine, it's what she would call true Justice from now on. And she wouldn't settle for anything less than that, especially when it happened to her sister, the second time, by the same culprit, after her life was finally back on track. Jason had finally found a way to ruin the little hope in life her sister was now holding unto, after three years in hell to forget her past.

As if suddenly coming to her senses about all the rubbish she uttered a while ago about dying, Rhea broke free from her sister's embrace to apologize to her.

"I am so sorry Kris...I didn't mean to. I didn't know what came over me. Please don't say anything about this to Mom! It will never happen again.....I promise!." Rhea pleaded as she held tightly unto her sister's hand in regret.

"That's okay...Stop crying and tell me what exactly happened at Camp. Was it Jason? what did he do?" Kristine simply wanted to hear how it all happened.

Kristine held tightly to Rhea's shoulders in a soothing manner, but the tears in Rhea's eyes and her sobs made it harder for her to talk. But Kristine refused to give in, she insistently questioned.

"Tell me! and I promise...He is going to pay double the price for what he did!." Kristine encouraged.

However, what Kristine just said frightened Rhea into silence. She simply didn't want Kristine to go through that trouble. Jason was a heartlessly cruel soul! It's like she never knew him...He had no boundary to his cruelty and even involved Sam in a three-year plan...It was still a shock to her, so awful she just wanted to forget everything.

Rhea's body began to shudder from Jason's threats to never tell a soul even her sister, or else, he promised to do worse to Kristine if she got involved in his business once more.

Kristine, on the other hand, hugged Rhea tightly and comforted her until she was finally calmed enough to talk. Rhea's tiny voice after her calmness echoed in the bathroom.

"What hurts me the most was Sam's involvement...I can't believe he was part of them. He knew about their schemes all along. I thought he loved me, and that was why I agreed to go out with him, but it turned out, It was all Jason's plot from the start. He was a scheming bastard too!"

Rhea wiped her tears with her hands, then held her sister's shoulders firmly.

"You were right all along Kris...Jason had some strong big-shot behind him who always covered his crimes the entire time...I listened on one of his phone calls to his boss when he uttered 'Mission accomplished' into the phone with one of his deadliest smirks." Rhea found a little strength from her sister's comfort to report this to her.

However, Rhea took Kristine's hand into hers and made her promise to never trust any Man. Rhea advised her sister to continue her hatred and spite against Men entirely, like Kristine was doing till date, after her cruel betrayal from her ex-boyfriend...Caleb Donnells.

After Rhea's never-ending warnings to her sister, she became determined to make sure her sister never falls prey or ends up in her shoes. She won't allow Kristine to ever go through what she encountered tonight. In the hands of her ex-boyfriend and her current boyfriend. They came together and plotted to destroy her. She would never forget their betrayal or forgive them ever! She would do anything to stop Kristine from going anywhere near them, even if it meant she had to hide everything about what happened from Kristine. To keep her safe from getting involved. Her sister was all she had now, she didn't want to lose her too.

"Never let any man take you for a fool or degrade your worth. Promise me Kristine...please!" Rhea insistently pleaded, to keep her sister out of this matter.

"Okay, Rhea...I promise! But tell me what exactly happened." Yet, Kristine wasn't willing to stop herself from knowing.

Kristine's insistence to know made Rhea worried. So instead, she postponed saying anything about what happened to her. Rhea lied to her sister to stall her, she convinced Kristine to wait until she would no longer feel any agony or pain in telling her.

Rhea even pleaded with her sister to understand her and not ask her about anything anymore.

"Of course...Who else would understand you if not your sister? I won't ask until you are ready to tell me. But..... I won't promise not to pay them back for putting you in this condition." Kristine threatened, very determined.

"Pl..ease... don't! " Rhea stammered! She needed to talk her sister out of her objective to seek revenge too, but she didn't know how to go about it. Especially when her sister mentioned her worse mistake to her face. Her near attempt to commit suicide. She was so stupid before to even think of it, but she wasn't in the right state of mind then.

"What do you mean by...Don't! I won't listen to you on this. I nearly lost you...remember? what do you expect from me as your sister." Kristine scolded.

Rhea had no option but to stall her sister on her aim to avenge her demise. So she had to pretend to agree with her, and later find a way to talk her out of it.

"Okay Kris...But promise me that, we will both do this together when I am finally over all this". Rhea urged.

To calm Rhea's worries, Kristine also agreed to wait. But at the back of her mind, she had other plans.

She helped Rhea out of the bathtub and dressed her wounds to prepare her for bed. The water from the tub had long gone cold from all their talks.

Kristine rushed to get the First aid kit and helped her sister sterilize the bruises. She plastered bandages on all her wounds and tucked her sister into bed. She covered Rhea warmly with a blanket, then kissed her forehead before she got ready to leave her to rest.

"Promise me you will never attempt what you did a while ago, or else I am going to follow after you! I know you don't want that right? Because Mom will be left all alone in grief and sorrow. Then she might join us too." Kristine's final threat before leaving was to convince Rhea to never attempt her suicide mistake again.

" Suicide isn't the best way out. Instead of dealing with the enemy together, we will end up ruining ourselves instead. Is that what you want?" Kristine emphasized convincingly.

"I will never attempt it again. I was a fool before, to even think it. Men are not that worth it...they can't cost me my life. My life and my family are far more precious to me." Was Rhea's reply to soothe her Sister's worries.

"Good! I am very happy to hear that!" Kristine hugged Rhea affectionately then added "That's more like my sister talking!

They both smiled and held each other for a long time before they whispered their goodnights, and Kristine finally left her sister's room, looking very relieved about the outcome.

Kristine was also relieved their Mother didn't hear all their commotions and panics, or else she would be so worried.

"Thank Goodness!" She whispered as she entered her room to prepare for bed.

A few steps behind the wall was Mrs. Rachel Sanders, the girl's mother...was hiding behind a wall. Rachel couldn't stop the tears flowing from her eyes. She heard everything outside Rhea's door, all their conversations and what actually happened to one of her daughters.

Rachel's suspicions about the crying she heard a while ago bothered her. She knew it wasn't the television as Kristine would have her believe. The cries sounded familiar, It kept nagging her about something not right, so she couldn't go back to sleep until she heard loud noises from Kristine's panicked cries and door bangs.

She was preparing to come outside and find out when she saw Kristine take the extra keys and opened Rhea's door. Then later, Rhea harsh coughs when she neared Rhea's bathroom door.

Kristine left the door open in her haste to get to her sister. So their Mother entered and stood outside the bathroom door.

She never wanted her daughters to know of her presence until there was a need to. But she ended up eavesdropping on their entire conversation behind the door and quickly exited the room when Kristine stood up to get the first aid kit.

Her tears wouldn't stop flowing even though she felt proud of her daughters, of how they pulled through it together.

She was always proud to have raised her daughter Rhea along with Kristine. Kristine had become a solid pillar for Rhea to lean on...A brave independent girl. Soo much like her Father!

"Oh, Steven...Our girls are all grown up now!

Rachel Sanders smiled amidst tears and made her way silently toward her room, to prevent any of her daughters from hearing her. She has to investigate this incident and get to the roots of what actually happened to Rhea. Her only hope was that, that woman...Clara Johnson, didn't have a hand in whatever happened to her daughter or else...

Rachel finally calmed her thoughts and drifted to sleep! Tomorrow would be another long day.