"I need to pee soooo bad," Liv whined, wriggling back and forth in the back seat.
"We're going to be there in literally thirty seconds. Just hold it." I pulled the car into the dance academy parking lot. Liv, Vic, and Emily each grabbed their bags and we ran inside, knowing that Liv's pea-sized bladder wouldn't be able to wait much longer.
After five minutes of listening to Liv sing and swing her legs back and forth on the toilet, we left the bathroom and headed to check-in where I signed in Liv for jazz and Vic for hip-hop. Emily would have to wait half an hour for her age group to start in order for me to sign her in. Until then, we sat on the benches out in the waiting room, playing tic-tac-toe and hangman.
"Hey Carter?" Emily asked, handing me the pencil for tic-tac-toe.
"What's up?" I took the pencil and sketched an 'O' in one of the squares.
"I want to tell you something," She started and then blurted, "But you can't tell Mom."
"What about?" I set the pencil down and watched her nervously twirl her black hair between her small fingers.
"I feel really bad for saying this," she paused, "but in a way I'm almost secretly happy that Jack and Sam are gone for a little while. Just until they get back, Mom has more time for us."
"What do you mean?" Then it set in. Crap. Like Teddy, Emily thought that Jack and Sam were gone for just a little while.
"I mean that now she plays Barbies with me and colors with me when I get home from school. She used to spend all of her time taking care of Jack."
Exasperated, I choked out, "Emily." But I didn't know what else to say.
"Yeah, I know." She looked down at her hands.
"What do you know?"
"I know that they were kidnapped and that they're not coming back." Her voice wavered and I didn't have to see her face to know that her electric blue eyes were welling up with tears.
"Why didn't you say that, then?"
"Mom doesn't know I know. But I heard her and Dad talking about it one night."
"Emily," I began but trailed off. My heart ached for her. She didn't need to be going through this.
"I'm so sorry," she sobbed, hiding her face in her hands. Tears streamed down her freckled cheeks and I gripped her hand to tug her out of the waiting room. We opened the doors and sat on the grass against the side of the building.
"It's okay, it's okay," I soothed, smoothing back her damp hair. She sniffed into my shirt.
"I miss them so much but when Mom was playing with me instead of taking care of Jack or Teddy, I was so happy to understand how it felt when the other kids at my school talk about all the fun times their parents play with just them. I used to be jealous of them Carter. Now, all I want in this whole wide world is to have everybody together as one, big, happy family." Her sobs quieted down but she neglected to wipe away the stains the tears made on her cheeks. I watched her eyelashes flutter open and close and did the best I could to comfort her by smoothing down her black hair.
Not that I would admit this to anyone, but I had those exact same thoughts. Especially when I was younger, the amount of jealousy I felt whenever Mom had obligations towards one of my other siblings before me, was extreme. But over time I grew used to it. I knew that Mom loved having a big family, it was one dream that she'd always had. She wanted those giant family reunions and the crazy memories and the busy weekends.
That's why all of this didn't make sense. I knew my mom would do anything and everything to protect our family. My dad would do anything to protect all of us, too, but my mom spent more time with us and was more protective of us. My dad, he was more of the working kind that focused on putting food on the table and always making sure we had more than enough money to spare. But if my mom would do anything to protect us, then why were my siblings disappearing one by one?
I had no clue. But instead of admitting that I had no idea what would happen, and that I was also scared out of my mind, I just soothed, "It'll be okay. We'll all be okay."
"How do you know for sure though?" Emily's trusting blue eyes flicked up to reflect mine, heartbroken and scared.
I don't. "I just do." I offered a meek smile.
There was a long pause before Emily spoke up. "You know I'm not little any more, right?"
I fought a smile, "Yeah...?"
She leaned away from me, pushing her shoulder against the side of the building, and faced me. Her eyes flicked back and forth between my blue ones. "Then tell me the truth. Are Sam and Jack coming back or not?"
In that moment, I didn't want to lie. But I didn't know what else to say. So I blurted out the closest thing to a truth to tell my eight year old little sister, "I have no idea."
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yeah I know this one is kind of short =-( but tell me what you think anyways!! school is taking away literally all of my time to do anything so I'm trying to update but as you can tell, they take a while
thanks for voting/reading/fanning!!! I love you all <3
-Scarlett Wilson ;)
YOU ARE READING
One By One (editing)
Mystery / ThrillerOne by one her siblings are taken, kidnapped. At first it seems like a nightmare, but nightmare doesn't even begin to cover it when Carter finds out the truth: that the kidnapper is closer than she thinks. cover by: @ZarahDreamer