“Wow.” they said.
“Adoption?” they said.
“Be careful.” they said.
“You can end up with some pretty dodgy foster parents.”
I didn’t know what they meant until a few hours ago.
Me and my sister Cassidy (she likes to be called Cass) have been in the foster system since I was ten and she was a baby. Our mom passed out blackout drunk on the sofa with a lit cigarette in her hand and set the house on fire, killing our dad.
After that, she was deemed an unfit parent and seven years later, we’re still being bussed from foster home to foster home. Or rather, we were.
Fewer and fewer people have adopted us lately, and it’s because of me. I mean, Cass is a cute little kid with her orangey-red hair that’s always in pigtails (even though she hates the colour red), glasses and the fact that she’s covered head to toe in freckles.
But adopting her means adopting me, and I’m just a great galumphing seventeen-year-old who’s nearly of legal age anyway. Where’s the fun in adopting me? No one wants the teens.
Once I turned 18, I was planning to secure Cass’s adoption rights myself.
But all that changed eventually.
It all started when Robert, a police officer from Blackthorne, Ohio, agreed to adopt us. He was a sweet, soft-spoken man who seemed a lot more interested in Cass than me, but that was normal. So we packed what few belongings we had and set off to his house.
His house was nice enough. Roomy enough, with a kitchen and a bathroom and a garage and everything. The only downside I can think of is that per the norm, me and Cass had to share a room.
But at least we weren’t sharing a bed again. A seventeen-year-old boy sharing a bed with his seven-year-old sister? Hell no.
He even had the money to buy us the occasional treat. We lived a simple but happy life, until…she came.
She was a red-haired kindergarten teacher who looked almost fake, in a way. She had perfect curly waves of hair that fell down her shoulders again, perfectly. Her eyes were beautifully magnetic, her lipstick didn’t have one smear or fleck out of place, and her teeth were just so…white. Her skin didn’t have one wrinkle or crease or blemish either.
Robert introduced her as ‘Aunt Carolyn’. “Is she your sister?” I asked. “In a way.” he said, and I decided not to pry any further.
Of course, from day one Carolyn loved Cass and ignored me. She would spend all her time over fawning over her and plain adoring her. “She’s perfect!” I heard her squeal to Robert one time. “Where did you FIND her?”
And soon, it wasn’t just Carolyn. There were three women and two men who Robert introduced as Aunt So-and-so or Uncle So-and-so who would come over and adore Cass and ignore me. But Carolyn is the only one who truly stuck out to me.
Cass wasn’t touch-starved or anything. What’s more, she’d already made a friend here; a girl named Jasmine who was a bit older than her and was convinced her house was haunted.
But being the little sister she was, Cass teased me for the ‘aunts’ and ’uncles’ liking her more than me. And I put up with it.
I did occasionally wonder how all these people were Robert’s siblings ‘in a way’. Maybe they were adopted, just like us.
But last night, everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, started coming to an end.
Carolyn was staying over once again. In the night I got up to get a glass of water, and on my way back I passed Robert’s bedroom and heard the following conversation:
Carolyn: “And you’re sure you have this under control? This won’t be like our last big move?”
Robert: “This will go just as planned! And about our last big move: I didn’t know Tom would interpret ‘leave it somewhere someone will find it’ as ‘plant it in a newbie cop’s backyard’!
C: “Never mind Tom. We killed him. But you had better be right about this going as planned. And once we get back, we tell the other kid something about how his sister disappeared and we couldn’t find her, you called in the rest of the force, yada yada yada.”
R: “And then I’ll return him to care. Honestly, I’m kind of nervous. We’ve been waiting for this day for who knows how long, and now it’s finally gonna happen tomorrow…”
C: “This is essential, Robert. Your feelings hardly matter here. I’ve got everything set up for tomorrow, we can’t postpone it another day.”
I had heard enough. I ran back to our room and didn’t sleep, just watched Cass for the rest of the night and replayed the conversation over and over in my head. They were planning to do something to her, and whatever it was, it was bad. Very bad.
This morning at the breakfast table, Carolyn started talking. “Cassidy, darling,” she said, “Robert and I and all your aunties and uncles have a surprise planned for you tomorrow!”
“Is it a good surprise?” she asked.
“The best!” replied Carolyn. “But your brother won’t be coming with us.”
Cass turned to me and shrugged. “Maybe next time.” she said. “Sorry, Kelsey.”
I didn’t want to scare Cass, so I didn’t tell her about what I had overheard last night. But I was determined to protect her no matter what.
That night, Carolyn drove up to Robert’s house, blindfolded Cass, and put her in the back seat. I hid in the boot just before they drove off.
It was cramped and hot in there, but it was worth it to save Cass from whatever they were planning for her.
It took a while, but eventually they stopped. I quietly opened the boot a bit and saw the still-blindfolded Cass be led by Carolyn and Robert into the woods near the border of Blackthorne.
I eventually opened the boot all the way and followed the trail they had taken into the woods.
I caught up to them just in time to see Carolyn tug open a rusty trapdoor a little ways off the trail and lead Cass down, with Robert following close behind.
Once I couldn’t hear footsteps anymore, I tugged open the door and went down.
I went way down a long dark hallway, before coming to a big wooden door.
I tugged that open a bit too, just enough for me to see inside.
And what I saw was possibly the single most horrible thing I have ever seen in my whole life.
The inside of the room resembled a church, with pews and stained glass and a big raised platform in front of everything.
Carolyn and Robert and all the ‘aunts’ and ‘uncles’ were in there, but they had changed into identical red robes with gold braided belts. Except Carolyn, who stood on the raised platform in front of everyone and wore a dark bluish-black robe with what appeared to be pictures of a bunch of stars and constellations and crescent moons. She still had the same belt on though, plus a pair of white gloves that the others weren’t wearing. There was a big thing on the platform with her, covered by a grey cloth.
“As you all know.” she announced. “My aunt Thelma will receive her vessel tonight!”
There was a resounding cheer, except for one grey-haired woman with a purple headband who had her head in her hands, as if despairing what was to come next.
Carolyn pulled the cloth off the big thing on the platform.
I very nearly gasped.
The big thing was a table, with a red tablecloth with purple patterns of suns and moons and stars on it. There was a ring of red candles on the table and in the center of the ring…
There was a picture of a little girl who looked dead-on IDENTICAL to Cass. Same orangey-red pigtails, same glasses, same light blue eyes…she was even covered head to toe in freckles, just like her.
She wore a white shirt, a red pinafore, white knee socks and red Mary Janes. All that red was the only reason I knew it wasn’t Cass. Like I said before, Cass HATES the colour red.
That and I didn’t like the way the girl in the picture was smiling at me. It was as if she was planning to do something to me, and I wasn’t going to like whatever that something was.
Carolyn lit the candles and clapped her hands. “Bring me the vessel!” she declared.
Robert went into another room and came out leading Cass, who was still blindfolded. “When’s the surprise?” she asked.
“It’s coming, dear!” said Carolyn.
She pulled out a dagger from under the table which had a black handle and what appeared to be intricately-detailed astrology charts painted on the blade in dark purple. She grabbed Cass’s wrist and stretched her arm out over the table, about to stab her through the wrist when…
I couldn’t take it anymore. I burst into the room. “CASSIDY AUDREY JOHNSON!” I screamed. “TAKE OFF THAT BLINDFOLD RIGHT NOW!”
I don’t know why I used her full name. I guess I was just that panicked.
Everyone stopped and stared at me. Cass must have been frightened by the panic in my voice, because she immediately ripped off her blindfold.
And when she saw everything, she screamed out loud.
I ran in and tried to run to her, but Robert grabbed me, grabbed the dagger out of Carolyn’s hand and attempted to stab me.
I dodged and kicked the blade into his shoulder, pushing it in further with my foot, making him scream out loud too.
I grabbed Cass’s hand and we ran out of that awful place.
Right now, we’re hiding in who knows what part of town, in a dumpster. Cass fell asleep a while ago, and I’m typing this on my phone, which I brought with me just in case.
I still don’t know what that cult was planning to do with Cass. But it sure wasn’t anything good. And who was Carolyn’s ‘aunt Thelma’? Some kind of deity? They clearly worshipped ‘aunt Thelma’ to some degree.
I don’t know where we’ll go or where we’ll hide.
But we do need to hide from that awful cult.
If not for me…