Fairy Tale

Chapter 21: Sophie Johnson

I sat in my bed, waiting for the police to arrive. We had agreed with the Woods last night that we would call the police this morning and tell about the abuse.

Knock Knock.

I hopped out of bed, running to the front door, where I found my mom talking to an officer.

"Yes officer," she said, nodding her head. The cop seemed to be asking questions.

"Are you Sophie?" the officer asked, looking at me.

"Yes." I walked closer.

"When did you first notice the abuse?"

"Well, the Woods are our neighbors, and just recently I met with Autumn in the woods at the back of our house. I noticed she had quite a few bruises, but I didn't think anything of it until she told me the truth," I explained.

I looked at his name tag; his name was Officer Thompson. He nodded and scribbled notes down on his notepad.

"Would you mind leading us to their house, ma'am?"

"Of course not. Let me go grab my keys..." She hurried into the kitchen and took her keys off of the counter and walked out the front door with me close behind.

We arrived at the Wood's house and Officer Thompson knocked on the front door.

We waited for a moment...

No answer.

He knocked again.

"Hold your horses!" shouted a man inside the house. "I just woke up!"

Mr. Wood unlocked and opened the door. He seemed surprised to see the officer.

"Ahem. So sorry about that," he said, obviously embarrassed and worried.

"Mr. Wood, do you mind if we come in and ask a couple questions?" asked the officer.

"No, no of course not. Come on in." He glared at me as I walked by him.

We all sat around the kitchen table with a couple chairs separating us from Mr. Wood.

"Excuse me, sir, but where is your wife?" asked Officer Thompson.

"M-My wife?" he blubbered. "I don't know. I haven't seen her this morning."

"Mm." The officer took some notes on his notepad. "And where do you think she is?"

Mr. Wood shrugged. "Maybe she went to the grocery store to pick up some ice cream for the kids later." He smiled nervously.

Officer Thompson raised an eyebrow. I spotted Autumn walking down the stairs with Maya close behind. "Dad?" she asked, pretending to be surprised the cops were in her house.

"Ah, you must be Autumn," greeted the officer. Autumn nodded, sitting beside me at the table with Maya sitting across from her.

"Mr. Wood, are these your daughters?"

Mr. Wood's face went pale and he nodded.

"Are these the only ones?"

Mr. Wood shook his head. "There are two others upstairs and we have two sons, but they're at Military School."

Officer Thompson nodded and he scanned over Autumn's body, looking for any signs of abuse. This time, he aimed his question at Autumn. "Miss Wood, has your mother or father ever kicked, slapped, punched, or hurt you in any way?"

Autumn nodded. He turned to Maya. "Is this true?" he asked the young girl.

Maya nodded in agreement to Autumn. Mr. Wood's face turned bright red.

Officer Thompson turned back to Mr. Wood. "Is this true?"

He shook his head, trying to save himself from jail. "No, no, no, no, no. Of course not. I love kids. And my wife...I just remembered that last night she told me she was getting up early to purchase some new movies for the girls to watch. Yeah, yeah."

The officer raised an eyebrow again. "Is that so?" he asked slowly.

Mr. Wood nodded, bobbing his head up and down like a bobble head.

"Ms. Johnson, did you see anything strange last night?" He turned to my mother.

"Now that you think of it, yes. I saw Mrs. Wood go by our house last night. She looked like she was drunk or something. She was going west." Mom pointed west, making it look like Mrs. Wood had run away. "I didn't see her come back."

"What time was this?"

"I remember waking up around one o' clock to use the restroom. When I had returned to my bedroom, I looked out the window and, there she was."

I bit my lip, trying not to smile. My mom was a really good liar.

"Miss Autumn, would you mind if we inspected your body for any marks your parents might have left as proof of the abuse?"

Her face turned red, but she nodded.

A woman officer followed her to the bathroom, as Luna and Dot appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

"Ah you must be the other girls," guessed the officer. They nodded and sat around the table.

"I need you to confirm that you oldest sister has been abused. Is that so?" 

Luna nodded and gave him a blank look, her young mind not comprehending what he was wanting. Luna translated and Dot gave a curt nod, smiling shyly.

"Aright. We will have to inspect the house to make the confirmation." He radioed for the rest of the officers to come in to collect data.

Autumn and the woman officer returned. "She has various scratches, scrapes, bruises, and scars confirming someone has been harming her." She glanced at Mr. Wood, whose face was as red as a tomato and was turning even darker. I thought he was going to blow up, but it would be funny to look at if this guy wasn't so dangerous.

"Mr. Wood, I'm afraid you will have to come with us," said Officer Thompson as the other cops spread throughout the house. Mr. Wood stood up and upturned his chair, outraged. He looked at Autumn with a fire raging within him.

"You," he spat. "This is all your fault." I pointed a fat finger in her face as he got close.

"Sir," said the officer, pulling him back. "I'm afraid it's your own fault for making the decision of hurting your own daughter." He snapped handcuffs around his wrists and led him to the police car.

Autumn looked at me and smiled shyly. I walked over and hugged her. "It's okay," I whispered. "You're safe now."

"No I'm not," she answered hoarsely. "We'll have to go to foster care. We could be separated."

I pulled back and looked into her eyes. "I never thought of that," I admitted. I looked at my mother, who had heard the conversation. She pulled me aside and whispered in my ear her plan. I grinned and looked at Autumn.

She was going to be so surprised.

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Author's Note: How do you like it? Votes, comments please? Sorry I took so long to put up this chapter. I've been pretty busy lately. ;)  Tell me your guesses on what Ms. Johnson was thinking. Hope you love it!