House of Spades

Chapter One: May 1st

Life has always been easy for the Thomsen family, with two loving parents and two perfect kids. Their oh-so pristine world consisted of Catherine and Griffin Thomsen, the devoted couple being "professors" at Barnard College. Kaia and Brooks, a year apart, are savants when it comes to school. Just your overall well-rounded, ideal lifestyle. But what if this isn't the whole truth? Things aren't exactly how they are painted out to seem and now it's time for the truth to unfold.

~

Kaia

May 1st

     The Thomsen family history has always been complicated, no one ever seems to notice but me. My parents married young and my father took my mother's last name. I've noticed I don't know too much about my mom's side of the family. It's not like I haven't tried, no one ever answers any of my questions. They're either working or traveling, just never around. I've only really met my immediate family. Who I haven't seen in probably 5 or 6 years give or take.

     The Thomsen name links back to an abundance of money. Far enough to maybe 100 years, I figured that out by connecting the dots. I have never been given the answer how it was earned, it's as if they're hiding something. I feel like I know nothing about them and everything about my father's side, whether I want to or not. They're way less problematic. Of course they live in another country so they only see us for vacations and holidays. They're my only close relatives, of course it couldn't be the rich ones but family is family.

     My parents aren't excluded from the distant gene. You wouldn't think so since their children are more emotionally stable than the average teens. But their jobs take up 70% of their lives. I thought things would be different once we got older and grew out of needing a nanny but nope. We still have one of those, she's like family anyway so it's nothing. And they're still working like their lives depended on it. 

     It's a long way home from the city. My brother had his varsity sports award show earlier today. The rain outside makes everything slower. Tonight marks my parents 15th anniversary, they're anniversaries are basically a holiday in our family. Their story is beautiful. They met in college when my father first moved to New York. They had a substantial amount of classes together and my mother kind of hated my father. She always thought he was "full of himself" and "too much" and he thought she was a quote unquote "uptight American princess" but one afternoon on May 1st he asked her to coffee and they've been married ever since. I've heard this story a million times, could recite it in my dreams if I had to.

     The streets in our neighborhood are always empty. We live in a gated community so things are normally serene and peaceful. The sun went down and the moon is ready to make its entrance, which means it's time for dinner. Getting out of the car, my mother gets a call. Whoever is on the other line has her worried, she gets back into the car and tells us to go inside and they'll be right back. My father winks at me before getting in the passenger seat, we watch as they drive down the street. They better be back in time for dinner. There's a card on the ground being swept up by the wind, when I pick it up a picture that wasn't there when I found it appears. It's an ace of spades.

     It's been exactly 2 hours since they left and I'm not sure if I should worry. They usually get pulled into work for things but at 8:00. They've missed dinner, they're not answering our calls. I should definitely be worried, right?

Brooks

May 2nd

     I'm not sure what to do. Kaia finally went to sleep, it's 4 am. We've been waiting all night and still not a word. I don't know what to do. Nothing like this has ever happened before, I'm not sure if I should call the police now or wait to talk to our nanny in the morning. Should I sleep? Or stay up all night and wait? Pray? We're not even religious in that way but it seems like the only sensible thing to do right now. All this is making me uncomfortable so I decided to clean, well organize. There's crates of comics that need fixing, might as well rearrange them or something, I don't know. Placing the crates off the shelves reveals a key sitting on top of the shelf. The key wasn't there before, I don't think. It's not mine anyway. It's one of those skeleton keys that no one uses anymore. There is a place that this key could go to.

     The basement of our house has always been off limits. It's been locked my whole life, never once seen my parents walk down there. I always assumed there was some type of creature down there. We never asked questions or once tried to open it, well can't say that anymore. I place the key in the lock and when I twist, it clicks. The door opens on it's own and exposes a flight of stairs that lead to another door. The other door has a keypad lock on it. Whatever's down there it's gotta be real fucking good.

     By now it's morning, Kaia's still asleep and I haven't. Our nanny is on her way, she's never come in this early. I'm surprised she answered the phone honestly. You can't miss her, she always wears these sunglasses that make her look cool and mystic and has her car blasting whatever music she's listening to. She pulls into the driveway in a platinum grey Volvo that she didn't have last week.

"New car?" I ask while I watch her walk up the driveway from the front door.

"You like? Got her yesterday."

"With what money?" I mean a nanny's salary isn't that large.

"Just a little bonus from your parents."

"Ah-"

"You've called the police yet?"I watch as she rummages through her purse for something, she makes me nervous sometimes. "No, this is what I wanted to talk to you about-" The rummaging stops. "What."

She pulls her sunglasses above her forehead pushing the front of her hair back.

"And why not?"

"It hasn't been 24 hours yet."

"Okay?"

"Okay so don't you have to wait-" I could've sworn I've heard this before.

"Of course not and if we have to then we can just pay them."

     Luci is difficult to read. She's serious then she's not and her jokes are just- "Cops don't take bribes, you know that right." "Trust me they do, get in the car we're going." She places her sunglasses back in front of her face. "Go get your sister."

     I wonder if this will be a complete waste of time. Most police do a shit job, especially ours. One time they took an hour after a woman's child was attacked by a dog, she left. Useless honestly. We walk in, a few feet away from Luci, she's ready like she's about to put on a show.

     "Hi... Harvey." He smiles, fool, she knows she has him. "I'd like to report a missing person or should I say people." "Who?" "Catherine and Griffin Thomsen, the children to those beautiful kids over there." Well how nice of her to say that. I can tell by his face this will not work out. Harvey has a terrible poker face. "When did they go missing?" "Last night around 8, why aren't you writing this down?" "Well they're adults, who I assume need no special attention, if there is no proof of their disappearance like a kidnapping for example then there's not much we can do for now, I say wait a few days or weeks." "I want an open investigation." Here she goes. I knew he was going to say something like this. I knew it was a waste of time coming here. "Ma'am." "Harvey." she's staring him down, I'm not sure who'll win. She keeps her eye contact as she goes in her purse and grabs her checkbook, there's no way. She rips a page out and slides it across the desk between them. His eyebrows rise and he gasps sarcastically. "On a nanny's salary?" She goes back into her purse digging for something else, at this point she'll pull out anything. It's a post it note, she writes something down and places it into his hand. His facial expression falls. "Alright, I'll see what I can do." When he walks into an office labeled Lieutenant Lucianne turns "You see how easy that was." "That's because you're you," Kaia says with a grin on her face. She looks up to Luci I think, she's the closest thing she has to a big sister. "Well be lucky to have me," she returns the smile. Harvey walks back out with a clipboard and a pen. "Alright we're gonna need to ask you guys some questions, Is that alright?" "More than all right, thank you," Kai responds nicely. "Great," I say with an attitude, it just naturally came out that way.