Page 5 of Brek's Obsession
She sobbed with joy, knowing that he was alive, but as the days passed, and no one came with the good news that he was alive, she felt the bubble of hope shrivel and die inside her chest.
They came days later, telling her that while they searched the woods for days, bringing in dogs and looking for miles, around the cabin with no sign of him, finding not a single trace of his body, that he was gone.
They signed his death certificate, and with that, Sienna was all alone in the world.
She had no parents, no brother, and no voice.
One doctor said it was a result from the trauma she suffered, and she believed him. He told her that he thought she had Traumatic mutism and that it had turned into selective mutism.
He told her it meant that her voice could come back, but he didn’t know when. They even put a camera up in her room and tried to get her to make noise.
Nothing came from her. Even though she did her best to make any kind of sound.
They had a psychologist come speak to her, but she could only write her answers back.
Day after day, as she healed her broken leg in the hospital, the doctors and psychologists tried to figure out why her voice was gone.
No one had any other answers, just that her voice would come back one day, and by the time her grandparents were located and had come to take her home, she was no closer to finding her voice.
When her grandparents came to collect her, they had more to do than they realized.
And they reluctantly paid to put her parents' bodies to rest, not happy with being put in the position of having to bury their daughter, her husband they didn’t approve of, and being stuck with raising their granddaughter in the process. The one they didn’t know even existed.
They didn’t like having to deal with the police, the doctors and all of the people who tried to give them updates about her brother’s disappearance.
They had disowned their daughter long ago and having to be put in this position now was not something they relished, and her grandfather complained about it daily.
Her grandmother cared that her brother was lost without a single trace, but her grandfather wrote the boy off and made them leave as soon as they knew he wasn’t found.
Sienna hated knowing that her brother had survived the entire ordeal, only to be killed later when he tried to find help.
Standing in the cemetery with her grandparents who neither hugged her, nor tried to comfort her, while her parents were laid to rest beside each other was the hardest thing.
The headstone that had all their names etched into the stone was so final and she hated that more than she realized she would.
It was hard on her, going from her loving parents to the grandparents that had kicked their daughter out of their lives for getting pregnant before she graduated from high school.
Sienna struggled with them because while her grandmother wasn’t the kindest and most loving to her, she tried her best. But her grandfather certainly wasn’t. He was rude and short with her.
Always made fun of her and her lack of a voice. Anytime her grandma was gone, her grandpa always had something to say about that.
She hated the man. Hated living there, where it was cold, quiet and lonely and not the place she was used to.
Each night she cried in her sleep. She missed her mom. Her warm hugs and how she just loved Sienna.
She missed her dad and how supportive he was of her dreams. Even though she was just young and naive, he never made her feel as if she was too young.
And she missed her big brother. He was always so wonderful to her. He never fought with her and she had looked up to him, more than she did anyone else.
And now she had to navigate this world all alone.
She lived in a new place, in a small house where she had a tiny room, no toys, no friends, and no voice. No family.
All of it was gone. She would cry for days on end in her new room and try as she might, her voice never returned.
Her grandparents eventually made her go back to school, wanting to get her back to normal or some semblance of normal, but it didn’t work out the way they wanted it to.
She walked into the school on the first day and she was bullied endlessly for her lack of voice.
