Coming home? [Cameo, Brit]

There is something weird about the woman in front of me. Something about that smile or her tone is offsetting. Annabelle had a sweet disposition before she took me to her father whom I had met previously and did the one thing that has me absolutely terrified right now. I don't want to walk into a new house. New houses are nothing but danger. Run! Get out while you can... while you can still walk. While you can still move for yourself. Get away from here. An internal voice screams at me so vividly. How can I get that voice to shut up?

Mrs. Rose shakes her head at me from what I can see after she apologizes for my inability to speak nor the want to extract the voice that could possibly deem me 'perfect' for one of her special kids. Maybe... just maybe, if I don't talk, she'll lose interest in me? What if I don't do everything she asks and she gives up and finds someone new? Someone better? There we go. The plan... don't talk. You are not allowed to say one word to her. No matter how hard she tries.

"Now, she's not eaten anything this morning. I tried on the way over here, but she'd have nothing of it, Ms. La'Vie." I listen to the woman talk as if I wasn't even there, but I can't muster up enough courage to try to defend myself. Silence. Silence will protect you. In response to the social worker, I can shake my head just a little bit, almost as if I'm denying her words. It's not that I don't want food, it's just the simple fact that I have to make it myself. I feel the absolute need to make sure that nothing is funny about it.

"Don't worry about it. She'll talk when she wants to. Come in." The new foster lady nods her head and offers us entrance into her home but the social worker is first in before I even take a step closer to the front door. My eyes are scanning hard for anything unusual, but it seems to look like just a regular house and a regular family like atmostphere.

"I brought you all her paperwork and if you'll look through it, it'll better guide you through the update. Is there anywhere we can privately talk?"

I tense up my eyebrows and see Mrs. Rose look at me and turn in my direction and reaching her hand to smooth out my hair as she bends over to look me in the eyes. My gaze shifts quickly as she gives me a warm, quick smile.

"Don't leave me here." I whisper solely to her. I don't want the other woman to hear me cause I really don't want to hurt her feelings but what am I suppose to do? You've been lied to. Hurt. Manipulated? Will this lady hurt me? Will I end up another puppet in this place. Mrs. Rose, I'm frightened! I plead to the woman with open eyes but she pats me on the cheek and raises back up and looks to Ms. La'Vie. She even leads the way to the living room looking place and she makes a motion for me to sit down on a random chair.

"Shall we Camille?" She changes all of a sudden to a first name basis with her.

That's the chair that will start this whole process. Once I sit down, it'll be one step away from becoming another victim. How many kids does this lady have in his huge house? How many kids are she keeping prisoner in this place? Five? Ten? Will I be this new addition like the last time? You have to get out. Just run. You can make it. How do you even know Quincy is really here in this house? What proof is there? I plead with Mrs. Rose when she disappears in with the new lady, Ms. La'Vie. There's only a slight bit of comfort being here, but I can't get used to this place. I want mom and dad back. I want my home back. I want my rabbit, Summy. I want to go home...

For a moment, I blackout. My vision fades slowly away and I see nothing but my past. The horrific images that I remember when I was under the influence of those drugs, when I couldn't move. If breathing wasn't an automatic thing I'm sure it would have effected that as well and I would have suffocated. Luckily, that power to breath and my own thoughts were my own. I survived somehow so I have to survive this, too.

My head saunters backward suddenly, hitting the wall behind me and causes my senses to catch up to me. There I am. Sitting in this chair, in this quiet house surrounded by potted plants in this makeshift type of living room. Above me is a loft like quarters for people to sit on. It overlooks this living room and for a quick moment, I swear I think I saw something dart away from sight. They are here to watch you as the new girl. Don't let anyone take you anywhere. You have to be safe. You have to get Quincy out of this place. He needs you, Deja. I lean up in the chair and try to angle my head to the side to see if I can see further into the upstairs loft, but the person is gone.

Vanished.

Not a sound. Not even footsteps echo in the hallways. I can already tell I don't like this place. It's too quiet. Too dangerous to live here with shadows that dance through the hallways. Why is it quiet? Everyone is caged. They are locked up and away from sight? Does Mrs. Rose know this... you better tell her. You can't let her leave you here.

"This is a good place Deja, you'll be fine. I"ll check in." The woman's voice jerks me out of my trance but then I quickly realize that she doesn't want to stay at all. She don't stop to hug me. She don't even want to. By the time she reaches the door, she gives me a quaint little wave and then the doors shut just like that.

Fear runs down my back. Something jolts me from my spine and makes my fingertips tingle with a cold like acid that seeps into my bones, chilling me to the core of my soul. I'm stuck here. This will be my prison. This is my new home...

"Want to help me with breakfast? You must like french toast, right?" Why is she offering me food when I've just arrived? Is this a way to get to me? Is she just like Annabelle?

I shake my head 'no'. My eyes are hurtful and I feel the bile rising up into my throat that I force back down. If Quincy is here, I have to stay strong to get him out while I can. No one should have to keep us anywhere but our own home.

I walk with the woman though, staring at her as if she was my real enemy even though I've known her for a maximum of twenty minutes. In the kitchen, I stand beside here. My hands to my sides and my feet together. My lips never part, but I watch her every move. What is she going to put in the toast? What ingredients is she putting in there? I'm so careful about watching her that I don't even notice the happening around the house. The sounds of footsteps are drowned out by the pounding in my ears of my own heartbeat that feels like a war drum.

"I heard your brother lives with us, Quincy? You'll be in the room next to his."

"Why?" I question her suddenly, and my voice sounds like a meek little mouse being caught and intimidated by someone thrice my size. "Why can't I be in the same room with him? Where is he? I want to see him... please?" I beg her, now arching my eyebrows upward in an innocent way, pleading with her to help me out and to let me see my brother. I just want to see him. "Why do you keep him here? Is he free to leave if he wants? Me, too? Do I have to stay here?"

There is no time related moments when inside of a house. There's no reason that the lights outside can give you the exact time. For months at a time, I was forced into a cage and brought out to play only on certain days. No direct sunlight touched my face until the day that I somehow escaped that hellish prison. So, when she said that all the kids were still sleeping, can that reallly be a truth? Deny it. Don't you hear the voices up the stairs? The quiet murmurings of something?

"Huh?" My voice goes unnoticed as she declares a need for me to resay what I've already said. I don't stop and repeat for her to catch up. I only increase my questions until she tries to answer them all. There has to be answers and I have to be able to agree with those answers before I'll ever trust her.

"He's probably still sleeping. I'm sure he'll be down soon. It's hardly six." As if I don't beleive her at all, I turn my head around in each direction until I can see a clock and sure enough, she's telling the truth. One point for you. I nod slowly and try to understand her though. Why wake Quincy when he's still sleeping but the thing is... does he even know that I"m alive? It's been months since I've seen him. I've grown a whole new year older since I last saw him. Does he even realize I'm thirteen now? Does he even care? I need to know more about mom and dad. Why can't this lady go wake him up?

"Okay." I meekly whisper out as she starts to tell me something else about regulations. She says that I"m not allowed to room with my own flesh and blood? I've been caged in the basement of a house with different ages and genders for months... there's nothing that I've not seen before. They were strangers... Relax. Don't ruin this. If you do, then she might keep him from you. Calm down.

Again, I nod my head and to pacify her and me, I drop my eyebrows down and cower slightly to the woman, letting her know of my defeat. I'm not a strong person and I don't think I could physcially try to get out of here. If I do they will just send me back.

The smell of the food that she's making makes my stomach growl, but instead of saying anything, I only let my hand go to my stomach with a hunger pang and move to sit down on the chair by the table. What she answers next has my ears perking upward and she has my full attention.

So I'm not a hostage? I'm not a prisoner here? How sure are you? Are you just tellling me this to make me stay and do what you want cause I wont hesitate to run. I will take Quincy and leave if you try to make us stay.

"Yes'm." I say in responce, drawing one leg up and under my chin, leaving the other to touch the ground. It's control. I can feel the ground and I am making myself comfortable. So far, the woman seems to understand me. So far, she seems like someone I can trust, but I can only hope that I'm right. I don't want to be wrong again. "I wanna talk to Quincy." I draw out with a long sentence.

My growing need to talk to my brother is out there again. I'm hoping that she will understand. "It's been months. I miss him. I miss my mom and dad. I don't like it here. It isn't home." I feel tears starting to come to meet my eyes but I push them away with a gentle swipe from my sleeve and let my eyes lower to the ground and my cheek rests against my knee. "I just wanna go home, Ms. La'Vie."

To control my emotions is easier said then to be done. I've done nothing but cry and live in fear for so long it just is a natural thing. I feel desperate and scared to be here with somone I don't know. My cheek is pressed against my knee when I hear Ms. La'Vie doing something and makes my eyes move over to her as she scoops up two peices of the food that she just prepared and puts them on the table along with some butter and syrup. This commodity looks familar, but the food that I've been given was scarce and only available during meal times when it was playtime. Sometimes it would be a couple times a day to get a scrap or two or I remember a handful of times when I would go a day without food before Annabell would come back down to play. That was the darkest of my times. Laying in the cage with hunger pangs that would try to eat away at me and make me feel sick. The feeling always intensified when the drug was administered.

"Just water." I state when asked if I want a certain type of drink. I wasn't allowed those sorts of drinks like that but I've gotten used to water. It was life saving in my torture chamber. I've grown to need it more than the air that I breath, I conclude. "I'll get it though." I add in, my voice coming out just a tab bit harsh but very quiet and I get up from the chair. My travel to the cupboard is slow but I make my way to the cabinet that I had seen her grab something out of only moments ago and reach in for a glass and then fill it only half full before returning to my chair to look at the food that's been placed before me.

The pang in my stomach has risen with the smell of the food wafting into my nose but do I eat it? I quickly let my eyes dart upward to the woman to see if she's watching me - waiting for me to take that first bite but she don't. She's not watching. Why is she not watching? A trick? Could it be a trick? Smell it first. Is it tainted? Slowly, I take the fork and take a very small edge of the hot food to my nose, smelling the sweet aroma of the cinnamon. It's safe... I think. I'm so hungry.

I let the morsal touch my tongue and it feels my body up with a type of comfort. Something to hit my stomach, but once that small bite is gone, I lay my fork down and ask about my brother again and let some of my past out but in a needy way. Once again, she tries to console me by telling me that by a certain time, we'll go get him if he hasn't woken up yet. Darting to the clock, I see the time, calculate how much time I have before that happens and then nod. "Twenty-three minutes." I state out loud, just in case she didn't do it herself.

"Sweetie. Quincy told me your parents died in an accident. You have to stay here for now. But you might find that you like it. If not I'll help you two find a place that you'd fit better into."

"I know." I whisper out and put my hands into my lap. The way she tries to tell me that I can go to another place isn't what I want. If she's right, all that will happen is they'd place me and Quincy in a new home. Won't be your home. It'll be some other place. It'll be some run down place with kids kicking and screaming. Your best bet is to stay as long as she is not lieing to you. As long as she don't hurt you...

"Do you have a basement?" I question her all of a sudden. My eyes lift up to her, slowly looking her in the eyes and watching for any type of movement from her that would suggest unease or her responce to go away from my question. She's going to think you're crazy asking questions like that...

"Nineteen." I whisper under my breath as my eyes go to search the clock once more.