The Devil Child

Chapter Eighteen

 Polly checked her house first. She didn't have much to go by, since she wasn't the one who found the compact. She trusted Minny when he told her he'd found it, but his vagueness hadn't helped her find out the truth. The first place she thought to look was her new home.

It was empty. Jenny was at school, and her aunt and uncle were at work. Still, she felt like she needed to know if it belonged to this family. She thought rationally for a moment; if it was found on the walk to school, then it would have been Jenny who dropped it. The elementary school and the high school were close to each other, and therefore forced all students to walk the same path.

The only thing about Jenny that wouldn't make sense is the compact itself. Jenny was too young for makeup, or to own makeup. She couldn't see her soccer playing cousin carrying around a makeup compact, though it didn't have makeup in it.

So then, Polly imagined that perhaps it had once belonged to her aunt, and Jenny had swiped it after it was empty and in the trash.

Polly searched her cousin's room. It was messy with clothes and toys, though there was not one picture of Polly in the room. Even after searching through everything, Polly found nothing that was related to her.

She switched tactics and moved downstairs to the family room. Her aunt and uncle kept pictures in a cabinet, all in books. She flipped through book after book, but didn't find much. There were some pictures of Polly, but none were school pictures. All were pictures of her when her aunt and uncle must have visited, though she never remembered any of the instances.

She must have been too young to remember.

Frustrated, Polly wanted to kick something. She had no idea why someone would own a compact with her picture in it. And the worst school picture, of all things. It was hideous and unforgiving.

Polly felt fear well up in her gut. If the compact didn't belong to her aunt and uncle, or her cousin, then Polly had no idea who it belonged to.

The only people who would own that picture was her parents. And they were miles away, in a different state. And she doubted that they'd come back for her after all this time. Doctor Higgins was her next guess, and the thought of him had Polly leaning against the wall, her stomach twisting uncomfortably.

She had no clues. Just a flimsy makeup compact with her picture on the inside.

She slid to her bottom, still against the wall, and banged her head hard against the wall. Again, and again, until her head hurt.

She looked at the compact again, and flipped it over in her hands. She didn't wear makeup, so therefor she knew nothing about it. The compact was black and had a strange symbol on the front. One she recognized, but didn't really know.

She took out her phone and plugged in makeup compacts in the search bar of the web browser. She waited for a moment, then sifted through the different pictures until she found one similar to the one she was holding.

That was surprisingly easy to find, she thought, but didn't know what she was going to do with the knowledge of which brand the compact was. Until she tapped on the link and found out how much the compact was worth.

She had to blink a few times to make sure she was seeing the right price. The small, black compact was $58.00. Far more expensive than she imagined a little black compact would go for. She was shocked.

Polly moved to the bathroom and dug through her aunt's makeup bag. She saw two compacts, and both were tan and cheap. Not like the one she held in her hand, which meant only one thing.