Chapter 2

“Are we going to visit Jade tonight?” Maralyn bit her lip in frustration.

“Natalya, you saw her last night,” she muttered.

“I know, but I want to see her again.”

“Can you just be quiet for once and stop going on and on and on about Jade? She’s not your freaking mother! I am!” Maralyn slammed the steering wheel. “Now get out of the car, the school’s over there. I’ll be picking you up at 4.” Natalya nodded mutely as she got out of the car and walked towards her new school. “Ungrateful child,” Maralyn stepped on the accelerator and the car screeched away.

She arrived at her office 5 minutes later, breathless and angry. Ignoring her assistant, she walked into her room and slammed the door yelling, “I don’t want to be bothered,” at her stunned secretary. Sitting down, she calmed herself and sipped on a bottle of water. “Jade this and Jade that. It’s always Jade. You’ll never be number one in her heart, Jade will be,” the voice in her head taunted. Maralyn crushed her plastic water bottle as rage threatened to consume her.

Ѱ

“Thank you Jade,” Catherine Harris hugged her tightly.

“You’re welcome Cat, I’m glad you’re happy in your new home now.”

“She the most amazing child, talking with you has certainly helped her state of mind,” Mrs. Elizabeth Harris smiled. A widowed mother, she had found peace in the little 6 year old who had been abused her entire life. “Joshua loves her as if she was his real blood sister,” Elizabeth beamed as she referred to her fifteen year old son.

“I’m so happy for you,” Jade hugged Catherine again. “I’m free to talk anytime. If Cat just wants to drop by and say hello, she’s welcome to do so. Even if I have other kids here; it’s helpful sometimes for new kids to see others who have been through exactly the same thing and survived.” Catherine nodded as she took Elizabeth’s hand.

“Thank you so much again, Ms. Erik.”

“Anytime,” Jade held the door open as they walked out. The minute she closed the door, it flew open again revealing Maralyn, her face white, her eyes red. “Maralyn, what happened?”

“I got a ticket,” Maralyn said ruefully.

“You got a ticket? That’s why you were crying?” Jade stared at her in disbelief.

“I forgot to pick Natalya at 4 so I sped, but when I got there, she wasn’t there!” Jade stood up staring at her, “Yeah, you heard me right. Natalya’s gone!”

“Oh my god, what are you talking about? Natalya’s gone!”

“Yes, she’s gone!” Maralyn wailed. Jade grew pale as she reached for her phone to dial 911. “No, don’t call the police!”

“Are you insane?” Jade snapped, “What are we supposed to do if we don’t call the police!”

“If you call them, Natalya would be taken away from me. I would die if that happened!!!!”

Ѱ

A figure outside listened to the conversation, smirking when Maralyn’s voice reached hysterical. “How pitiful and stupid,” the figure thought. Maralyn was so pathetic, hyperventilating over a child, a child. “I always thought she had more sense than that.”

Ѱ

Saralyn ran into the room, “I just got a call from your neighbor Jade, Natalya’s sitting outside your house.”

Jade leapt up, “How did she managed to find her way to my house?”

“Does that really matter now? Natalya’s safe!” Maralyn raced out of the room grabbing Jade along, “She’s safe!”

“You know, maybe I should drive,” Jade commented as Maralyn got into the driver’s seat.

“No, I’ve got this covered,” Maralyn was literally jumping up and down in her seat. Jade held up her hands in surrender then clutched the side of the door, “Oh chill, seriously, I’ve got this covered.”

“Stop bouncing and I’ll believe you,” Jade muttered. Maralyn flashed her a weak smile. A silver Camry pulled up next to them.

“I’ll meet you there,” Saralyn shouted. Maralyn gave her sister a thumbs up and drove away.

Five minutes later they pulled up in front of Jade’s home. “Natalya!” Maralyn ran out of the car and up the steps. The little girl sailed into her arms.

“You forgot about me,” she sniffled.

“Oh, honey I’m sorry,” Maralyn gripped Natalya tightly, “I’m so sorry. How did you know to walk to Jade’s house?”

“The nice man brought me here,” Natalya pointed to the figure still sitting at the doorstep.

“Man?” Maralyn turned to stare at the figure. Slowly, the figure rose, his features covered by the hat that he wore.

“Seth,” Jade whispered.

“Who?” Saralyn frowned.

“Seth, my brother,” Jade replied.

“You have a brother?” Maralyn stared at Jade.

“Yeah, my blood brother, we shared the same father.”

“Then how come when you were rescued, the police didn’t find him as well?”

“That’s because I was a coward and ran away when Jadrienne was four years old because I was terrified. I never should have done that.”

“Jade?” Maralyn stared at the stranger distrustfully.

“He’s telling the truth, he left when I was really little.”

“Then why are you back?” Maralyn demanded, glaring at him.

“It’s been a while I guess. I’ve called her over the years, but I’ve never seen her face to face. That was my mistake. She’s changed so much.”

“No duh,” Maralyn muttered.

“Seth, why are you really here?” Jade asked.

“Can’t I see my sister without being grilled?” he asked sadly.

“Seth,” Jade bit her lip, “Why are you really here?”

“I wanted to see you again. I wanted to see how much you’ve grown. Listening to your voice on the phone wasn’t enough.” Seth smiled slowly, tears reflecting in his eyes.

“Seth, I never hated you for leaving me,” Jade walked over and hugged him tightly.

Seth responded naturally, “But I always did.”

“Oh god Seth, you’re going to make me cry,” a voice commented dryly.

“Conley?” Jade’s jaw dropped down.

“Con-who?” Maralyn whirled around, her arms tightening around Natalya who hadn’t made a single sound.

“Conley, I dated him for a while before I moved here. He helped me find my brother. Conley, what are you doing here?”

“I’m just visiting for old time’s sake,” Conley replied smiling easily. “It was hard not to want to tag along when Seth made the decision to come visit you. My offer’s still, well, up you know.”

“What offer?” Saralyn asked, speaking for the first time in a while.

“He asked me to marry him, that’s why I left. I said no.”

“What the-? Man, you never told me you popped the question on my sister,” Seth stared at Conley in shock.

“No big deal, she turned me down,” Conley shrugged.

“Okay, can we just get to the point now? We’re here for Natalya, not to discuss my ex-boyfriend,” Jade muttered. “Natalya, how did you meet up with Seth?”

“I was sitting in front of the school waiting for Mara-Mom to come pick me up. Then Seth drove up and called to me asking if I knew where Jade Erik lived. I told him I didn’t, but I knew where the post office was if he wanted to go there to ask around. Then I told him that you were my social worker and I needed to find you as well. He told me to get on the car.”

“Didn’t your mother teach you not to get in the car with strangers?” Saralyn teased, mock glaring at Maralyn.

“Oops, guess I forgot,” Maralyn shrugged innocently. Everyone chuckled as Saralyn just shook her head sadly.

Ѱ

Catherine walked into her brother’s bedroom, her eyes wide with terror. “Joshua?” she whispered weakly.

“Cat?” Josh turned halfway on his chair and froze when he saw her face. “What’s wrong?”

“Lilies, everywhere; Mother always loved lilies,” Catherine smiled dreamily.

“Mother loves lilies? Oh, that mother. What made you think of them?”

“Everywhere Joshua, everywhere. My room smells like Lily Heaven.” Joshua pushed himself away from his desk and scooped Catherine up. “Everywhere,” she continued on, her voice slowly fading away.

“Mom, something’s wrong with Catherine!” Joshua yelled. He paused when he bumped into Elizabeth in front of Catherine’s room. He peeked over her shoulder, “Whoa, that is a lot of lilies.”

“Someone’s been in the house while we were out,” Elizabeth murmured. “Jade showed me her files once, Cat and her father used to bring lilies to her mother’s grave every month before he started drinking. Someone looked into her file and found that info out, it’s classified. Only Jade and the people from her department are allowed access to her file.”

“Jade would never do this to Cat,” Joshua defended.

“I know, but someone wants to bring Jade down. Go back to bed, I’ll tuck Cat back in.” Elizabeth took Catherine from Joshua and gently nudged him towards his room. “Go on, good night.”

“You sure Mom?”

“Yes, go on now.”

Two hours later, a scream sliced through the air. Elizabeth leapt up from her bed and ran towards Catherine’s room, her heart pounding. She collided with her son again at the doorway. “Mom,” Joshua pointed at the ceiling. There were knives strung from the light and the crib chandelier hanging above her bed.

“Oh my god,” Elizabeth choked out. “This is insane.”

“And smell the air, it stinks of alcohol,” Joshua wrinkled his nose disgustedly.

“There,” Elizabeth pointed, right beside Catherine’s bed was 6 open bottles of beer.

“Her father was an alcoholic, and he used to cut her with knives.”

“Joshua, call the police.” Elizabeth walked in, breathing heavily, her heart racing miles. Catherine screamed again, her eyes glazed with terror as she stared at the way the moon played with the knives that hung above her, aiming for her heart. “Joshua!”

Ѱ

“You have no idea what is going on?” Detective Nathaniel Coulter asked.

“No idea, the lilies were the first to appear. I was downstairs so Cat went to find Joshua,” Elizabeth replied.

“Elizabeth,” Jade pushed her way, shoving aside a couple of officers as she made her way towards them.

“Stop, who are you?” Nathaniel placed himself in front of Elizabeth.

“Move it bro, let me through. I’m Jade Erik, Catherine’s social worker.”

“What business do you have here?”

“You stupid, idiotic man, I’m Catherine’s social worker. I have a right to be here, go do some research on social workers, go on, scat.”

“Jade!” Catherine pushed away from Joshua and ran towards her. Nathaniel tried to stop the child, but she ducked and ran straight into Jade’s arms.

“Shh, I’ve got you honey.” Jade whispered. A car door closed, drawing everyone’s attention.

“Who are you?” Nathanial asked sarcastically, earning him a glare from Jade.

“Conley, what are you doing here?” she asked.

“Seth called me and told me what happened. I got here as fast as I could. He’s coming with Maralyn and Natalya.”

“Great, now let’s all have a party,” Nathaniel muttered.

“Jade!” Seth, Maralyn, and Natalya ran towards them. Nathaniel groaned in frustration.

“How’s Catherine?” Natalya asked concern on her little face.

“Can you talk to her; I’ve never seen her so shaken.”

Natalya nodded and crouched next to Catherine, “Hey Cat, I’m Natalya.”

Catherine turned slightly, “Hi Natalya.”

“What happened?”

“I went to my room and the first thing I saw was lilies everywhere. We used to take lilies to Mama’s grave every month before Papa began to drink. He said they were her favorite flowers. Lizzie told me that Mama put them in my room so I wouldn’t forget her and I should be happy. She helped me clean them out and told me to sleep.”

“That’s cute; I never knew what my mother’s favorite flower was. Maralyn, what’s your favorite flower?”

Maralyn smiled, “Carnations, they are my month flower.”

“I’ll always remember that,” Natalya promised. “Then what happened?”

“Then I heard my window slam shut and I jerked awake. That was when I saw knives hanging from the ceiling everywhere all pointing at me. I smelled alcohol and saw the six opened bottles of beer on my nightstand. I was so scared, so I screamed and yeah.”

“That sounds horrid!” Natalya wrapped her arms around Catherine and hugged her tightly. “We’ll find a solution to this psychopath’s mind.” Everyone stared at her after she said that; Natalya shrugged, “I heard some nurses call my daddy a psychopath for running me over with a car.” She turned to face Nathaniel who was beginning to look extremely annoyed, “Sir, will you get to the bottom of this?” Nathaniel jerked out of his reverie and nodded stiffly. “Good, you better.”

He raised an eyebrow, “Is that a threat Miss?”

“No, that was just statement.”

“So, now that the little Miss has asked me to take care of everything, may I assume that I can get back to work?”

“Not without me,” Jade replied stubbornly. Impatience flitted across his face, but he said nothing.

“Then come on,” he growled.

Ѱ

“Catherine, I really don’t want to leave you at home,” Elizabeth bit her lip.

“I’ll be fine, Jade and Natalya have helped me a lot, besides, Joshua’s at home.”

“Yeah, but he’s in front of the computer and you know how attentive he is when he’s in front of the computer,” Elizabeth frowned.

“I’ll be fine Lizzie,” Catherine assured, a small smiled on her face.

“Okay,” Elizabeth bent down to kiss her forehead. “I’ll be back in one hour,” Catherine nodded, smiling.

15 minutes later…

A knock sounded making Catherine look up from her dolls, “Come in Joshua.” The door opened slowly, but it wasn’t Joshua standing in the doorway, it was a figure whose face was covered by a large hat. “Who are you?” she asked, fear shaking her little body.

The figure only smiled as it walked closer, Catherine scrambled back until she felt the wall against her back. She opened her mouth to scream, but the figure moved with surprising agility and slammed a hand over her mouth. Catherine felt something prick her neck as her world darkened, “Sleep tight darling,” she heard before she collapsed.

Reviews

[JadeForever]

Wow! This chapter was great. Really caught my attention. Write more!

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