Forlot: The Mom Who Lives Next Door - Book Twelve

Chapter Twenty-Five

The room grew silent. We all stared down at the knife that had been discovered. It was a large one, and the end of it was caked with dry blood.

Mom got on her knees and picked up the knife, careful to not accidentally cut herself. She examined it.

"Oh my gosh," she said softly. "It cannot be..."

"Oh, but it is," Gabi Dollson stated. "I was hurrying past this room when I noticed something shiny in the corner of my glassy eye. It was inside the purse, and I scrambled onto the couch."

"And that is when you saw the knife?" I questioned.

"Yes. I did not have to do any searching though. It was at the top when I unzipped the purse."

Clutching the knife, my mom stood back up. Her eyes were still trained on the object.

"Why would Kira have a knife in her possession?" she questioned.

"The real question is why does it have blood on it?" I commented.

"Hold on for just a second," Milo piped in. "Donna, Jackson told me that you told him that you saw Kira with a knife. Correct?"

She nodded. "I most certainly did. And that is what I was thinking back to, Milo. Back to when I spotted Kira. She was outside and running, holding a knife in her hand. And...it was clean."

"No...blood?" Vincent spoke up once again.

"Not even dry blood, Vincent. Which leaves me to believe..." A couple of tears raced down and fell off her face.

"That she killed Stacy?" I finished her sentence for her.

"...yes. Kira killed Stacy."

"Who is Kira?" Gabi wondered.

"Kira is a psycho who is trying to get back at me. What makes it worse is that she and my ex-husband are getting married."

The doll scrambled off the couch. "Dang. That has to hurt."

"It does."

"You do realize that she will become Jackson and Amy's new mother."

At that moment, Amy started crying. I planted a kiss on her forehead and whispered to her, comforting her.

"Shh. Your big brother is here. Look at me."

Tears covered those puffy cheeks of hers, and she glanced up at me and sniffed.

"Brother..." She reached up and gripped my nose. "...nose..."

Without realizing what I was doing, a big smile spread across my face, and I brought her close to me, hugging her carefully.

Why was I suddenly happy?

"Baby girl, you said the word 'nose,'" I said. "That is the first time that you said that word, cutie. I am so proud of you."

No longer was the baby sad. She gave me one of her sweetest smiles and grasped her little feet.

I smirked and lifted up her dress, revealing only her diaper and adorable belly. I lowered my head to her belly and blew on it, and as always, my baby sister laughed.

She loves when I blow on her belly.

"Jackson," Mom said my name. "I need to ask you something."

"Sure, Mom." I pulled back down the dress, covering the belly and diaper. "What is it?"

"You have been around Kira more than I have. First, does she go down the basement? Like, a lot?"

"Goodness, yes. Also, she stays down there for long periods of time. She hardly spends time with me and Amy. She even leaves Dad alone."

"Hmm. Okay. Second, does she let any of you go down the basement?"

I shook my head. "Nope. Not even Dad. And every time that any of us wants to grab something from the basement, she would insist on going instead."

"So you do not know what is in the basement, huh?"

"No!" Amy spoke.

"I see." She smirked. "How would you all like to do some investigating in the basement?"

"Yeah!" Milo accepted such an offer. "Kira would not even allow me to go down there. Because of that, I had always been curious."

"Excellent. And you, Jackson?"

I shrugged. "I do not mind going, but what if there are scary things hidden down there? I mean, I will able to handle it, but what about Amy? She will get scared."

"You have a point. Hmm..." My mother glanced at Vincent, and then at Gabi. "...I do not trust either of them watching her while we are absent."

Gabi looked angry as she strolled up to her boyfriend, and Vincent wrapped a wooden arm around her wooden shoulders, also looking angry.

"Sorry, guys," Mom said. "It is the truth. Besides, you are coming with us. We need all the help that we can get."

The dummy turned to his girlfriend. "Maybe...we find...new friends," he told her.

"Yes, yes," Gabi agreed with him. "Dolls and puppets who desperately need help. And we can help them."

Mom kissed the side of my head. "You can shield Amy's eyes if you see something that could scare her, Jackson."

Minutes later, we found ourselves descending the stairs of the basement. Mom had switched on the light, and the bright, yellow light chased away the blackness.

When we reached the bottom, we took in our new surroundings.

The basement was huge, but it was basically empty. There were only two shelves on either side and a table in the middle.

The table was long and narrow. It was made of wood, and there was nothing on it.

The shelves were against the walls and also made from wood. However, there were plenty of things on them. Toys. Books. Though, most of them were dolls and parts of them.

Gabi covered her glassy eyes, and Vincent kept her close to him.

"This is a horror movie...for dolls," she commented.

"You can say that again," Mom said.

She walked over to one of the shelves and examined the objects that were on it. Doll arms. Doll legs.

"These dolls are not being put together. They have been pulled apart."

"So?" Milo said.

"These dolls...they were alive. I know it."