Spooky Month: Lambs to the Slaughter

Chapter One: Letters Sealed With Stars

The man was frantic. Quickly grabbing his things out drawers and shoving them in a bag. He was sweating. The faster he moved, the longer he could possibly live. He looked in the closet. Nothing of use to him except one thing; a box. He looked inside and sighed. The contents of the box calmed his nerves. He put it inside the bag. He threw it over his shoulder and slowly made it to the front door. He heard a voice behind him.

"Daddy?" He turned to see his daughter looking up at him. 

"D-don't touch me! Just...just get away," he screamed. His wife came running out to the front of the house. Her mouth was agape.

"Lucas..what the hell has gotten into you?" She asked. He pointed to his daughter.

"That...thing is a product of the devil!" He turned and ran out the house as fast as he could. His wife stood, dumbfounded before she looked at her daughter with anger in her eyes. This child was of absolutely no use to her. She took the child by her arm, ignoring the screams of her, and threw her into a cramped closed. The woman held the door shut as the child punched and pounded the door, eventually giving up and falling asleep there.

[FRIDAY, September 12th, 20xx]

"Ms. Moore!" I heard Ms. Stacey yell. I looked back out her, realizing that I had been looking out the window the entire time. "Please, Gwendolyn. Focus on your work," she said, approaching me and staring down at me. I sighed.

"Yes, ma'am," I said, sighing deeply. She pursed her lips and turned away from me.

"Now, class. I hope you remember that I expect excellence, force excellence, and punish those who are not excellent. Do I make myself clear?" The whole classroom erupted into flurries of "yes Ms. Stacey!" And "Got it!" I looked down at my desk. This school year is already going horribly. Whatever. I guess I should properly introduce myself. My name is Gwendolyn Moore, I am 15, a devoted Christian woman, and a straight A+ student at my high school. I'm an over achieving child. A nerd, as some might say. But I want to get into a good college.

"Ms. Moore. Am I going to have to remind you to pay attention again?" My ears perked up. I hadn't been paying attention again. Shoot.

"N-no," I mumbled under my breath. I looked over to the girl sitting next to me. Cecelia Gonzalez. My best friend. 

"Good," Ms. Stacey said again, almost losing her cool.

"Hey!" Cecelia spoke up. "She's doing nothing wrong! I assure you she can still hear you!" She was almost out of her seat, pointing at me. I was shaking my head, as if to say I have absolutely nothing to do with this. Ms. Stacey looked as if she was about to faint.

"Cecelia. Are you going to have to go the principals office?" She crosses her arms and looked down at Cecelia as she spoke. Slowly, and angrily.

"Maybe, if you don't stop yelling-" the bell had rung just as Cecelia was talking. Ms. Stacey sighed and nodded towards the door.

"So, where do we go?" James, another one of my best friends asked as we left the school building.

"Well, my dads home, so that's out of the picture," Cecelia said, rubbing the back of her neck. "James...have you...?"

"Nope...Gwen?" James and Cecelia looked at me, hopefully. I smiled.

"Mother won't be home till 6, so we have 3 hours." I turned away from them and started walking,   backpack slung over my shoulder. There are reasons that we can't go to each others houses under certain circumstances. We can't go to Cecelia's house when her dad's home because he's an alcoholic with anger issues. He's been like this ever since her mom died. James has issues he doesn't like talking about, but we know it's something associated with his step-mom. My mom is...she's very interesting. She doesn't like it when I have friends other unexpectedly. When I was reminiscing about all this stuff, I heard Cecelia and James talking behind me.