No Help

Chapter Four

Sirens wailed through the night, approaching her. The blue and red lit up the trees around her as a female officer approached her. Angel knew she looked awful, the dirt on her body and the dried blood on her back and the bruises. The officer approached her and dropped down to her level.
"Oh honey, are you okay?" the woman asked with sincere concern. Deep wrinkles formed in her forehead and she assessed the child. "Where are you parents?" she said looking around, "let's get you down to the station. You're probably scared out of your mind." Angel sat in the back of the police car watching the trees fly by as Officer Pots talked random stuff. When they arrived to the station they lead her straight to an interrogation room. All grey walls with a steel table and two chairs. Angel sat uncomfortably as the silence peared in. After waiting for what felt like forever, Officer Pots returned. The petite woman had short blond hair and a caring smile. She was younger, maybe thirty-five. That means she's naive, too trusting, too hopeful.
"I'm Officer Pots," as Angel had read off her name tag, "can you start with telling me your full name?"
"Angel Sidney Smith," she said hesitantly, playing up her fear.
"And what's your age, grade, and school sweetie?"
"Ten, fifth grade, and Oakland Elementary," she almost smiled at the thought of the boy dancing with fire in the window, but kept her droopy eyes and her deep frown. Officer Pots frowned with sympathy at the mention of the tragic school fire, the fire that killed hundreds. A true devastation, at least in Officer Pots mind and societies.
"I'm sorry to hear about what happened to your school. Now I'm just trying to get to know you. What were you like in school? Did you get good grades? Did you have many friends?"
"Yeah I got A's," more like C's, "but I didn't have many friends," she said with a frown. "Most kids didn't like me because they thought I was different. But my teacher, she was a real nice lady, I'm just so sad I'll never get to see her again," Angel said with cold tears streaming down her face. Officer Pots eyes filled with sympathy as she watched the young child.
"You know, when I was younger kids also thought I was different. But you hold on, it all gets better," Officer Pots commiserated. "I know what it's like to feel like the odd one out, and it truly sucks, but you're a tough girl. You have so much life in you." Angel had her right where she wanted her.
"We've tried to contact your parents but we found that they had an unknown death. Do you know how they died?" Pots asked. Of course she knew how they died. The cutting off of each of their fingers and toes, one by one. Then holding their fresh cut tongues in their bare hands, and the scooping out of their eyes with her disney spoon. And then the slow slitting of their throats, the warm blood running down their chests, as they screamed. Her heart tingled at the horror her mother's brown eyes saw when she looked at her child. The way her father jumped in front of her mother to protect her, how they watched each other die. An unknown death, a true tragedy in the eyes of the media. In Angels, it was a blessing, of course a forced blessing considering she's the one who picked the sharpest knife.
"I was in my room, playing with my dolls when it got all quiet. I was so scared and I walked into the kitchen to find Mommy and Daddy lying in a pool of their own blood." She faked the shaking of her body and felt her eyes get red from tears. Over and over she repeated "so scared."
Officer Pots reached her hand out onto the child's shoulder with a "I'm sorry." She gave Angel a minute and handed her a used teddy bear that the police use to make children feel more comfortable.
"Then what happened to you?"
"My Grammy came and got me. I still went to school, of course until it burned down. And then I was kidnapped." Officer Pots eyebrows rose in surprise.
"Angel, honey, everyone thought you died in the school fire. That's why there was no kidnapping report," she explained. "Tell me about your kidnapping."
"These guys, they came up to me after the school fire and I was so scared. As the walked closer, I would step back. I begged them not to, I kicked and screamed. Please I did all I could, but they hit me on the head with a gun. And then I woke up a few days later and they would whip and beat me," she said fake wincing at the painful memory. Emotionless tears filled her eyes, "and then today I woke up to the sound of a gun and the ties holding me in the chair were undone. I got up and ran as best as I could away. And then you found me," she lied, leaving out so much. She was so innocent. I mean how could a ten year old be a psychopath?
"I'm so sorry sweatie. You're so brave, no kid should have to go through that. A report just came in about three dead guys in a small house near where I found you. That might have been them so you won't be able to press charges."
"I'm just so scared. I miss my Mommy and Daddy so much. And then my teacher and my school. I wish none of it happened. The guys were so scary. They were huge and they would hurt me over and over. They felt no mercy," she sobbed while trying to become small and disappear in her seat.
"Honey, it's all okay. It's all over, you're safe now. Your grandma is on her way to pick you up and you can go home to your bed." Officer Pots rose, as did Angel, and she lead her out to the front to wait for her grandma.
"We'll type up your report, once again I'm so sorry you had to go through all that. Nobody that young deserves anything like that. You never did anything wrong," Officer Pots said as a goodbye.
Her Grandma walked over, her grey curly hair bouncing as she hastily approached her granchild. She pulled Angel strongly into her arms. Angel could feel the beating of her heart with her head pulled into her chest. She could just imagine the blood flowing from her grandmother's neck or the joy of cutting her open and pulling out all of her organs.
"Oh I missed you Grammy," she cried into her arms.
"Me too Darling. Now let's get you home. I thought you were dead! I'll never leave you," the grandma said walking them out to the car. Angel sat in the grey passenger seat and Grammy turned the key. The reave of the engine as Grammy buckled the seatbelt around her. The belt so close to her neck, holding her whole body captive. She couldn't control herself, without thinking Angel reached over and twisted the seatbelt around her grandmother's neck. She pulled as tight as she could, putting all her strength into it as her grandma's eyes budged out of her head and her face turned red. Grammy pulled at the seat belt desperate for life, then she stopped. She stared into Angels eyes with pure horror. A monster sat inches away from her, a monster that has been there her whole life. So close, yet never known. Who knew what all Angel had done. The breathing slowed and eventually stopped as her grandmother's lifeless eyes stared into her face. The corners of Angels lips turned upward in delight. She felt so satisfied seeing the seatbelts cut into her Grammys neck. She poked her grandmother's lifeless eye with her finger and giggled at the feeling. And with that she hopped out of the car, a little pep in her step. Another completed list and another won game. She paraded into the woods near the police station, leaving behind her only family left. Angel approached a tent to the sweet voices of a family laughing. Her heart beat picked up and her eyes filled with light as she hunted her next prey.

THE END