Broken Promises {Brendon Urie}

Chapter 2

~Brendon~

I took Rilynn back to her foster family. She stood in front of them, clutching her stuffed toy, looking at the ground. Her foster father grabbed her by the upper arm roughly.

"We told you to stay over here!" he growled. She winced and tried to take her arm out of his grip, but it just tightened. "You know the rules!" He threw her over towards the others, and one of the older kids caught her. "We'll deal with you later."

"Sarah, I think we should adopt her," I whispered as we watched it all unfold. "I felt something when I was with her, y'know?" Sarah nodded.

"Excuse me?" Sarah asked Rilynn's foster parents. "My husband and I were wondering if we could adopt one of your foster kids?"

"Which one?" the man asked.

"Rilynn," I replied.

~Rilynn~

"Rilynn," the man replied. My head snapped up. 

"It'll take time to get the adoption to follow through," my foster father began his speech. "There is paperwork, home checks, background checks, we need to know if you have animals, what you each do for a living, how much you make on average every year. We also need to see how well she does in your home. It's a long process, and many couples come to these events unaware of all the trouble it will cost them. Are you positive you want to begin the process?"

"Of course, we do," the woman replied, smiling at me.

"Okay, then," my foster father said. "Rilynn will have to come back with us, but we can begin the process as soon as you are available."

"We'll see you tomorrow then," the man said. My foster father shook his hand and I was herded out with the everyone else. We were loaded up into the van and taken home. 

When we got back, I was taken roughly by the arm and dragged around to the back. My foster father opened the cellar door and pushed me inside. I stumbled down the stairs, but I didn't fall down them like the first few times.

"You're lucky they're coming tomorrow, or you'd be in here longer," he growled before slamming the door shut, leaving me alone in the dark. I groped around in the dark and stood up on my toes, reaching up and pulling the chain. The light turned on and I curled up on the bed with the thin blanket, my stuffed dog held tightly next to me.

The next morning, my foster father came and dragged me out by the hair. I yelled as he dragged me up the stairs, but I knew no one would hear. Even if they did, they wouldn't help. When we got into the house, he threw me on the kitchen floor and told me to go upstairs. I didn't dare ask for anything to eat. I knew better than to disobey my foster parents. I didn't want to get into more trouble than I already was. And anyways, the man and woman would be here soon. It wouldn't look good if they showed up and I had a mark on my face. They probably wouldn't want to adopt me if they thought I caused too much trouble.

I walked upstairs and into the room I shared with one of my foster sisters, Aria. She's thirteen, and hasn't been in the home quite as long as I have. My old roommate, Julia, got moved into a different foster home about two months before Aria came. Sometimes I missed Julia, but Aria takes care me after particularly brutal nights in the cellar. When I walked into the bedroom, Aria handed me a granola bar she'd nicked from the kitchen. I sat on the floor and ate it, sweeping the crumbs under the dresser so they wouldn't be found. I stored the empty wrapper in a box Julia and I had hidden in a hole in the wall.

"I'm glad you'll be getting adopted," Aria stated as I closed the covering over the trash bin. 

"If I get adopted," I corrected. "I'm sure they'll back out before the paperwork is finished."

"Is that really what happens?" She asked, unsure.

I shrugged. "Depends. You'll probably get adopted pretty quickly, even though you're a teenager. You rarely get in trouble with the foster parents, so they'll say decent things about you. Me, on the other hand, will not get adopted easily. I get into too much trouble. They want to get rid of me, but they will refuse to say nice things to all my potential parents. So I'll probably be stuck here until I'm 18 and am legally an adult."

Later that morning, I was called down to the offices. I brushed my hair and walked down to await my fate. The man and woman were sitting across the desk from my foster father. I sat beside him, tense, the couple across from me. My foster father handed them my file to look over. I didn't know what was in it...

~Brendon~

Sarah and I were given her file. I opened it and looked at the scared little girl in the photo.

Name: Rilynn

Gender: Female

Age of abandonment: approximately 2 years old

Cause of abandonment: orphaned

Medical Conditions: unknown

Notes from foster parents: "Rilynn is a troublemaker. She's constantly getting in trouble.", "She has no respect for her superiors.", "Rilynn has little chance of actually getting adopted. She's too much of a handful for anyone to deal with."

Those  notes from her foster parents made me wonder. She didn't seem that bad. Sure, she could get into trouble, but she's a kid and she's misunderstood. And I honestly didn't believe that she didn't have any medical conditions. Most foster kids suffered from something. Especially if they were orphaned. She had to have suffered some sort of trauma. I looked at Sarah and I could tell she was thinking some of the same things. 

"Shall we begin. The paperwork is easy. I'll just give you the folder that has all of Rilynn's paperwork that you keep and another one that has all the contracts and forms you'll need to read through and sign or fill out. In about five to seven days, we'll hold a home check. After the home check is completed and you've been cleared, you'll be allowed to spend one supervised day with her. It's only supervised so we can see how Rilynn does with her potential family and settings." The man handed us two folders, one thicker than the other, before continuing. "Do you have any questions about anything in her file or the two folders?"

"Is her medical record up to date?" I asked instantly, flipping through the pages in one of the folders. I was looking at her medical records. Something was off about them.

"Not entirely," he replied. "It's a few years outdated, but we've been trying to schedule an appointment with the doctor to get it updated." I nodded, but I had a feeling he wasn't telling the truth. He didn't seem the type to care for the children's well being. Which was why I wanted to get Rilynn out of there.