My Vindicators

Chapter 1-Home Sweet Home

I'm standing at the bus stop waiting for Beth to catch up so we can head home. We must come straight home every day after school, or our foster mom Pam will lose her shit. The school bus doesn't come to where we live. We have to take a regular city bus closer to the school and then get on the school bus. Pam has a friend near the school and uses her address for us to be able to attend school, so that is our route drop-off point.

Beth and I board the bus and take seats. It is starting to get cold out, and neither of us has a good winter jacket. Pam gets money for fostering us, but she pockets it all. Says we must work for what we need because "this isn't charity." We get settled on the but, and I lean my head against the window. I close my eyes and try to get a small nap on the 20-minute ride.

Too soon, I feel Beth shaking me. I open my eyes and see we are at our stop. We stand, collect our stuff, and get off the bus. Now we have a 4 block walk to the apartment. Pam has a really nice apartment. It is actually a penthouse. Her husband was some kind of investment banker for the vampire mafia. Yes, vampires exist, but that is a story for another time. He was killed doing business for them, so they took care of Pam.

She never wants for anything. Fancy apartment and car. Not that we ever get to ride in said car. A closet full of designer clothes while we wear threadbare hand-me-downs from previous foster homes. Jewelry box full of diamonds. She is also a master manipulator, playing the poor heartbroken widow. I don't buy it, but they apparently do and check on her occasionally, but we have never seen them. She hides us away. They don't even know we exist.

We wave at the doorman to the building as he opens the door for us. This is the 3rd doorman since we arrived 6 months ago. It begins with them noticing our bruises or the state of our clothes and starts to ask questions. Then they are fired, and a new one shows up the next day. We ride the elevator up, and when it opens, Pam is standing there pacing. That is unusual. When we get home, is normally three glasses of wine into a bottle. She sees us and rushes over.

"About damn time. Hurry up."

She ushers us into her apartment and down the hallway. At the end of the hallway, there is a door that looks like a linen closet on first inspection. But if you move the sheets and blankets, you can see a small door at the bottom. She points for us to go through the door.

"They just called and said they were on their way. Get in there and don't make a fucking sound."

She closes the closet door in our face. We climb through the small opening into a space not much bigger than a bathroom stall. We have an actual room, but you would never know kids live here. Everything is pristine. The few belongings we have are stashed in the back of the closet. I hear the doorbell and then voices. I have always been curious about who they were and their appearance. Today my curiosity gets the better of me.

"Beth, stay here and stay quiet."

"No, Amy, you are going to get in trouble."

"No, I'll be fine. I just want to see."

Little did I know that nothing would ever be fine after that night. I squeezed through the hole, which is no easy task. I am 17. One more month, and I will be kicked out on the street. Aged out, they call it. Beth is only 8. We have been traveling the foster care circuit together for the past year. This is by far the worst one yet.

I ease the closet door open and press myself up against the wall. Being quiet, I tiptoe down the hall towards the living room, where the voices are coming from. I get to the corner and peek around. I see seven men sitting around the living room. My jaw drops open because they are all drop-dead gorgeous. I internally snicker to myself. Drop dead. I mean, they are vampires.