Meals on Wheels.
It was a good business. It wasn’t our full time jobs of course, but we were volunteers.
Of course, you always meet some nutty people on the job, as it is with every job.
But neither me nor my sister anticipated this. And the situation we’re in right now is the reason I’m putting this out on the Internet, as one last desperate plea for help.
On the unlikely chance that anyone looks for us based on this, my name is Brandon Karkett and my sister is Cindy Karkett. And we both work for Meals on Wheels. And recently…we got our first customer and quite possibly our last, a 78-year-old homebound woman from the town of Blackthorne named Polly Adeena. Her husband is dead and her only caretaker is her 32-year-old daughter, Carolyn.
Carolyn. If I ever get out of this situation alive, I’ll be cursing that name every chance I get.
Anyway…
Mrs. Adeena had signed up for Meals on Wheels service, and we were set to deliver her first meal.
We were told she had lost the ability to walk, needed glasses, and had trouble talking – I think she had a stroke or something. And when she answered the door in her motorized wheelchair, we were greeted by a wrinkly white-haired woman with a lavender nightgown and sad eyes.
“Hello.” said Cindy slowly. “Are you Mrs. Polly Gabriel-Adeena?”
She nodded slowly and reached into her pocket, pulling out a pen and a scrap of paper. She started to write something on the paper…and that’s when she came to the door.
Carolyn Adeena.
Long wavy red hair, smooth, almost flawless skin, teeth so white they seemed almost fake, and bright red lipstick to match her hair.
“Hey.” she said to us. “Who are you?”
“Um…” I said. “The Meals on Wheels workers? Surely your mother told you she signed up? Wait, you are Carolyn Adeena, right?”
She nodded quickly, and I noticed Polly suddenly looked almost panicked and started writing faster.
Carolyn smiled down at her mother. “Mom.” she said, almost teasingly…playfully, even. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Polly avoided her gaze and said something in her garbled speech that we didn’t understand.
Carolyn turned back to us. “I’m sorry.” she said. “Mom didn’t mean to sign up. She was just having a…senior moment, is that what they call it these days?” She laughed. “Anyway, goodbye. I’m sorry she made you waste your time.” And she shut the door, but not before Polly managed to slip the paper into my pocket. Thankfully, without that goddamn Carolyn noticing.
Cindy and I just stared at each other for a few moments before leaving, and it was only when I dropped off Cindy back at her apartment that I found the note in my pocket.
“What does this even say?” questioned Cindy. Polly’s handwriting wasn’t exactly the best either.
We stared at it for a while, I’ll admit, but we were finally able to make out something that looked suspiciously like…
BACK AT MIDNIGHT DON’T TELL HER
…….
I, of course, had my doubts.
“We are not breaking into an old lady’s house at midnight.” I said. “We could get arrested, and that’s only the least of it. Besides, she’s probably not all there in the head judging from what Carolyn said. We are grown adults, Cindy. I don’t know how I can explain this any further.”
But Cindy…Cindy was scared. Scared for Polly. She was certain that the ‘her’ in the message was Carolyn, and was worried about what Carolyn could be doing to her. “She could be abusing her, Brandon.” she said. “If that’s the case, this might be a chance to save her.” “SAVE her?!” I exclaimed. “We’re not superheroes, Cindy! Carolyn was probably right!”
Even now, I hate myself for ever thinking Carolyn was right about anything.
Eventually (I don’t know whether thankfully would be the right word to use), Cindy won that argument. But I made her promise that if there was any sign that anyone didn’t want us there (which I thought most likely there would be) we would leave immediately.
…….
When we drove back to the house that night, Polly was in the front garden.
We walked up to her…she looked almost relieved.
“Where do you want us to go?” whispered Cindy.
Polly pointed an old, withered, shaky finger at the attic window. She mouthed something that looked like, “Careful. Bad girl up there.”
We assumed she was referring to Carolyn, and now even I was a little bit convinced of Carolyn’s possible abuse.
But now…I don’t know if she was referring to Carolyn or the other girl we found up there.
‘Bad girl up there’, indeed…
…….
We quietly opened the unlocked door and found the ladder to the attic, sneaking up as quietly as we could. I peered over the ledge while Cindy stayed behind me on the ladder.
And lo and behold, there was Carolyn, dressed in the oddest outfit I have ever seen.
A long, flowing robe decorated with what looked like stars and moons and astrology imagery, with a braided golden belt. I couldn’t see her shoes.
She kneeled down in front of a crate with a ring of red candles resting on it, with a picture I couldn’t quite make out in the center of the ring. I wondered what she was doing…some kind of weird religious thing?
She clasped her hands together, as if praying, and said, “Thelma, I request your company!”
For maybe two seconds I wondered who Thelma was, but then the sound of a little girl’s laughter filled the room and my heart practically started beating out of my chest, spinning with too many thoughts to comprehend.
And suddenly…someone appeared in the room.
It looked like a little girl, maybe six or seven, with pigtails and a dress and glasses and all that jazz. But she…I don’t quite know the right way to describe this. She looked like she was made out of the sky, in a sense. She was transparent and looked rather like a living shadow, but with little lights all over her, occasionally glowing. It was as if someone had cut out a girl-shaped piece of the night sky and given it life.
The strange shadow-girl-thing giggled. “You know, you don’t have to put it that way all the time! You could just say ‘Please come here’ and I’d come!”
Carolyn took no notice of this. “I have a favour to request, Thelma.”
Thelma spun around in the air a little. “Uh-huh. And what’s in it for me?”
Carolyn smiled. “You already know what I’m going to say to you. Another…friend, perhaps?”
Thelma grinned a bright, glowing, Cheshire-cat-grin back at her. “Perfect! And what’s the ‘favour’?” Her voice dropped into an almost mocking tone when she said ‘favour’.
Carolyn stared her in the eye. “As much as I revere you, please do not mock me.”
Thelma rolled her glowing eyes. “Okay, first, you’re no fun, and second, I don’t even know what revere means, so shut up!”
Carolyn bowed, still on her knees. “My deepest apologies…”
Thelma once again giggled. “What is it with you and the others? You never talk normally! It’s always ‘blah, blah, saviour’ or ‘blah, blah, justice’ or ‘blah, blah, fancy boring words I don’t know!’”
“Enough!” said Carolyn. “I shall talk to the others about this. But for now, this favour is a matter related to that girl who escaped, Cassidy Johnson-“
“Hey, look!” interrupted Thelma. “Someone’s watching us!” And that’s when I noticed…she was pointing at me. And Carolyn was looking me in the eye.
I screamed, jumped off the ladder and ran. Cindy, not really knowing what else to do, followed behind me.
But we were intercepted in the hallway by Thelma. “Hey!” she exclaimed. “Were you playing a spying game?”
Cindy screamed. ‘WHAT IS THAT THING?!”
Thelma’s expression soured. “THELMA! It’s THELMA GABRIEL and you’re MEAN!”
We ran in the opposite direction, only to see Carolyn glowering at us.
“How dare you spy on me?” she questioned in a dangerous whisper.
“We’re sorry!” I screamed. “We’ll leave!”
Thelma floated over to Carolyn and whispered something in her ear. Carolyn smiled a fake, sweet smile at us. “Well. Thelma has decided to be merciful on you.”
Our surroundings suddenly started shifting, and Cindy grabbed onto me.
When it was done, it looked like we were in a maze made of transparent glass, walls, floor, ceiling and everything. Through the glass, even below us, we saw what looked like space, with shooting stars going by. It was scary enough seeing it below us even with everything that had happened to us.
“Thelma will be in this maze searching for you.” Carolyn’s voice echoed through the maze. “If she does not find you by the end of twenty minutes, you may go with a simple memory wipe. If she finds you, she will decide your fate.”
And with that, a horrific mess of her and Thelma’s laughter echoed through the maze and died down.
I’ve been hiding for I don’t know how long. I brought my phone just in case, and typing this out is a last resort.
Please come find me and my sister.
I don’t know how much time we have left.