Speaking Of The Devil

Frozen to a spot, Miranda's heart began racing fast, "Tell me I am in a dream", She murmured in a shaky voice. Lord, please tell me this is a dream just like the others'' Miranda added, her voice slightly raised.

The bangs on the wall continued, but it wasn't moving in her direction, just like the dream she had on her first night here, and amid the bangs, she could hear voices. Miranda quickly turned around and tiptoed quietly down the stairs, the voices she was hearing growing louder with every step she took.

On getting into the living room, Miranda could tell whose voice she was hearing. It was Andrea and Sarah. Miranda moved towards the direction of the voice, following the side of the stairs, and she found herself in another hallway.

"This house is too big for a family of three", Miranda whispered as she took a right turn after passing the laundry room because there was a dead end.

The hallway that opened up before her was just like the one upstairs with orange lights etching out of the wall, but this was narrower than the one upstairs, and its narrowness was nothing compared to the one back at the orphanage.

"It is actually a family of four now, how do I always forget such delicate details?" She rhetorically asked as she began moving into the hallway.

There were doors on both sides, but Miranda ignored checking them out, as she was heading straight to the room the voices were coming from. Miranda heard another thud again, and the banging of the wall that had subsided as Miranda walked toward the room started again.

She gently leaned on the door to listen to what was happening, and she could clearly hear Sarah sobbing, "You can't keep pushing at me all the time, sometimes you should also get on up to the situation". Miranda heard Sarah's voice from inside the room, breathing heavily.

"Why should I take the blame for what you caused? I warned you, I tried talking you out of it, but what did you do?" Andrea barked out, "You told me straight to my face that you were going to carry on with it without me and my opinion wasn't needed", he said.

"Yes, I wanted it, but you also got excited about it after a while, so don't stand there and act like you continuously tried talking me out of it."

"I was getting excited about everything because I chose to. I had no other choice. Your decision left me with nothing else other than to be happy because there was no need to weep over spilled milk."

"It is so unfair and insensitive to have a solid stand on the fact that all this is my fault when I was only looking out for my family and my happiness.

You are making it sound like I knew this is how everything would turn out, and I still went ahead with it" Sarah lamented bitterly. Miranda could hear her soft sobs in between her words.

"I'm sorry if you see it that way, and I am also sorry about the fact that you have to live with the decision you made, because Miranda is not stepping her feet out of this house", Andrea said with a note of finality in his voice.

Miranda, who had been standing in front of the door, lost in what they were arguing about, suddenly started getting the hint of their argument from the last statement Andrea made, "She wants to take me back to that creepy place?" Miranda questioned herself, shocked to the bones with the news she just received.

"Here you go again," Miranda heard Sarah yelling, followed by a bang on the wall, "Here you go again Andrea, what exactly is your problem?" Sarah asked, her voice still very much raised.

"The fact that you all think you can make whatever decision that pleases you and get what you want, then go ahead to drag someone else along with you into the mess you created, is my problem" Andrea replied, his tone was also a match for Sarah's.

"You are always forcing me to drag you along because you are never willing want to help me go through tough times. Now let me tell you, we are taking Miranda or whatever she is back to where we picked her up from, and there is nothing you are going to do about that", Sarah stated.

"I was patiently waiting for you to make that statement, that is all you always do, play the victim card.

Before you go around acting like you are the only one with a broken feeling about this, I want you to ask yourself why exactly did Miranda do to warrant your decision of wanting to toss her away just like that?" Andrea asked, at this point, the crescendo in his voice had dropped to a gentle soft tone.

"You are not seriously asking me after everything that has happened today, are you?" Sarah questioned, her voice still the same, sharp and cold piercing straight into Miranda's heart, who still had her ear pressed on the door.

"That is the reason why I am asking you such a question, because I experienced everything. I saw the event playing out with my eyes and I didn't see anything odd in whatever happened today.

The only thing I saw was a little girl battling with her traumatic past". Andrea responded, "Don't act like the head of the orphanage didn't fill us in on this. She gave us everything in detail and I seriously don't understand what you were expecting", he said further.

"Good and fine, I agree that she filled us in about her past life, but she never mentioned anything about exhibiting any traumatic behavior back at the orphanage home", Sarah pointed out.

"She did, she told us Miranda kept to herself during her arrival at the orphanage and how to. For weeks, she started running around tirelessly with her mate, and that is exactly what she is doing now. Why don't we wait for a little while? If things don't get better, then we can figure out what to do", Andrea said.

"Back at the orphanage, she was only keeping to herself, but here she is exhibiting all manner of scary behaviors, trying to drown herself, smashing the mirror in her bathroom, throwing our baby, my baby, to the floor, can't you see that it is something Lady Vanessa didn't tell us?" Sarah asked.

"What are you doing here?" A voice asked Miranda from behind. It was Grace.

Moving away from the door, with her gaze shifting to Grace, "Not you again, why are you always everywhere in the house?" Miranda cursed to herself, irritated with the fact that Grace was always catching her eavesdropping on Andrea and Sarah's conversation.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Grace asked again, a hardened expression on her face.

"Sarah" Andrea called slowly from inside the room, "Why would Lady Vanessa choose to lie to us and keep such things away from us?" Andrea inquired.

"Look Andrea, I am done having this conversation with you, there is no point trying to convince you when you are not ready to see beyond what is going on here" Sarah said, walking out on him.

Her eyes widened in surprise as she opened the room to meet Miranda and Grace standing in front of it. She moved a questioning look from Grace to Miranda and back to Grace, wanting to understand why they both were standing in front of her room door, looking like a lost sheep.

"She."

"Speaking of the devil," Sarah said in a husky voice, interrupting Grace.