Lana Pipes

Even with all the advanced technologies and machines we posses, it is said that we have only discovered 5% of our oceans. It's engrossing and mysterious. We see and use water everyday in our lives and yet very little of its home and secrets we are acquainted with. 

Just like that no matter how close you are with a person yet you fail to analyse them. No matter how good reader you are, there always will be a chapter about them to read. A secret to unravel. A fact to unfold. 

"Lana, you look so lost. Is-, is this alright? Are you intimidated?" My mom shot a row of questions at me. She is wearing a white cardigan on a grey jeans. Where as I wore a decent red floral patterned frock.

"Mom, this is kinda intimidating but also I am intrigued. I ought to know this," I blurted, looking at the Shady vale jail. This is where her dad Hans Cornelle was sentenced to a life time prison. 

"Lana, before you go. Take my heed, there might be a million things where you can find faults in his present circumstances but  he still very much is your grandfather. The love I bear for him is impeccable and irrevocable. It would mean alot to me if you can show compassion and concern instead of critique and comment on his past conducts," Michelle's eyes expressed. I nodded. 

We filled the necessary details in the log book and it turned out that she had paid her father a visit almost every month. Just like how that crazy warden Ava Allies said, he paid her a visit every month when she was in juvenile school. 

"It would have helped if you had told me about him before handed you know, I grew up thinking I have no maternal grandparents," I sighed. 

"I didn't know how you would take and react," She replied. 

"Let me guess, dad doesn't know about him either, does he?" I quirked. 

"Let's go," She said plainly. 

We entered the jail and found him in an orange jail clothes. He resembled my mom so much. Brown hair, eyes and a sharp jawline. And a charming face. No wonder why that warder I visited back in Shady vale Juvenile was head over heels for him. 

"Daddy," My mom uttered. Her tone expressed with affection. 

"Michi, how have you been my dear daughter," His brown eyes glammed. "I see you have brought a company. Who might this lass be? Is there any chance of her being my dear grand daughter, Lana?" He gushed. 

"Daddy, this indeed is your dear granddaughter and my daughter Lana," She cried. 

"Finally this old man is blessed with your presence, young lady. My greetings to you. Isn't your birthday is in 2 weeks? My hearty wishes to you," he snickered. 

Well, that was unforeseen. I didn't thought he has any knowledge about me. 

"Hello there and thank you for your warm wishes. It really means a lot," I gave a bright smile. 

"So spill the beans. To what do I owe this pleasure? I think a teenager wouldn't want to meet her old convicted gramps unless there's something to it," He gave me a smile back. "Forgive my straight forwardness," He added.  

"No, you are actually right, Mr. Cornelle. I came here hoping you would help me find some answers to a few unsolved questions," I said the truth. 

"You are straightforward as well. I like it but I would like it more if you could find it in you to call me your grandpa instead of just acknowledging me has your mama's dad," He bawled. Fair request I suppose. 

"Tell me. How can I be of any use to you?" Hans Cornelle asked me. 

"When you slain your wife Moe Cornelle, did you-, did you hear any voices? Voices persuading you with perturbation. Almost insisting and controlling you to commit a crime? Did you feel chills going down your spine? Everything going blank and your brain only pivot on malevolence?" I frowned. 

"I felt every inch of it. I had been there. Your mother had been there in her time too. It's like a curse we carry. Its like we almost cannot live without this bellicose and pugnacious. I tried to brawl with my belligerent too. But the voices got the best of me and I ended up here. Michi was bright. She didn't mess up very bad like me," He answered looking me right in the eye. 

"What do you mean by the curse we carry?" I cried. 

"It goes way back to our ancestors. As far as I am aware, it started with my grandpa Diego Cornelle. He and my grandma Brittney were high school sweethearts. They tied the knot right after graduating from school. Brittney and Diego were inseparable," He stopped looking at my mom. She nodded as if she is allowing him to continue. 

"Soon they had triplets. Raquel, Samantha and Tanya. Everything was perfect until Diego filled himself with insecurity and covetous. His love grew into desirous lust and yearned that only he should have a place in his beloved wife's heart. He was convinced that his progeny were standing in middle of his wife and him," Hans coughed. 

"He decided to murder his daughters in cold blood. He poisoned Raquel in her food and drowned Tanya. When it was Samantha that was left, he wanted to drive a stake into her but then he recognized himself in her bitter cold eyes. She was fearless and didn't move an inch. Brittney found him and she divorced him. He spent his remaining days in a mental asylum and turned into dust," He gasped. 

"And it gets much worse," He warned. 

"Go on," I insisted. 

"Samantha Cornelle is my mother and she married my dad Bruce. She was a wonderful pianist. Her music was a soothing balm and she was exquisite. She got into a music school and there was a competition. Where she worked her ass off and yet she was given 2nd place. Her heart couldn't digest that and she killed the girl Ellie who won the first place," He sniffled.

"I think that's where she inherited and triggered the serial killer genes, MAOA and CDH13 of violent crimes and it continued with me," He stated. 

"I loved your grandma Moe eternally and caught her cheating on me. I ended her. I triggered that too," He concluded. 

"You know, I torn my classmate Sheri Weeks ear with a compass because she made fun of me as a cobbler's daughter," Michelle added. "And all of us heard those voices Lana. Every one of us. I am- I am worried that even you-, you are," She couldn't complete and burst into tears. 

"So, we are a family of serial killers, murders and convicts?" I Broke down. "Diego, Samantha, Hans, Michelle and now I, Lana? Who's next in line to go to prison? Little innocent Ben? It's like a cursed family heirloom that is passed to every generation." I sobbed. 

"How do I stop it? Is there really no escape from this? Oh my god, our family is so sick and I am doomed," I wept. 

"Dearest granddaughter, make no weep," He said trying to hold my hand yet reconsidering himself to hold me or not in denial. I let him hold me.

 "Our family might be blighted with this malice but Michi told me, how gentle and good of a person your father is. You inherited his genes too. We all might be beyond doomed but you still have you. I believe in you that you will end this for good," Hans, assured me. 

It made me reminisce the quote which I read in a book along time ago. 

'No matter how much you ignore, your family genes follows you but also no matter what. you can always choose your path. It depends on you.' 

Could it get anymore relatable? I finally understood what that quote meant. It felt like, that quote was written just for me. 

"You talk just like Jaro," I smiled. My Mom gave me a death stare. 

Shit. 

"Thank you grandpa," I genuinely called him that. He gave me a bright smile and we left. 

"What was that?" My Mom arced a brow.

"What was what?" I am pretty sure she indicates about me mentioning Jaro's name out of no where. 

"Jaro. You said Daddy just talked like Jaro. What the hell's that supposed to mean? Are you still talking to him? I even warned him to stay the hell away from you even yesterday. Lana you know how much I loathe him coming anywhere you, my precious baby." She placed a hand over my shoulder. 

Well, your precious baby is now dating the person you loathe, Mom. 

How could I ever say this to her?

"Yup, I know. Forget it. It's just Jaro was the reason Roger dropped his charges on me and  I was- I was just being, you know grateful. It's no big deal," I lied. I hate this. I seldom lie to her even when I screw up real bad, I always tired my best to reveal the truth. 

"Why did he wanted to meet you yesterday, when you were leaving for school?" She finally questioned. I was expecting this question. 

"He just wanted to know my Chemistry grades. That's it," I lied again. "I need to go to church, you drive to the hospital, you have a cat surgery, don't you? See ya at home," I said leaving and unwilling to tell anymore lies.

Q/A

Q. Do you have any family heirlooms? If so, what is it?

A-

Q- Do you like this storyline?

A-

Author's Note:

Please comment your views and let me know what you think and it hight motives me to do the best.

👻