They Are Not Human

Chapter 15

I take a deep breath emotionally preparing myself. "I never told anybody this, but my mom was kind of a local hero in our little town."

"Oh yeah?" Arlo asks surprised.

"Yeah, she was actually one of the few brave women who helped hide the extra children that were born".

"What do you mean by 'extra' children?" Arlo asks confused.

"Ya know" I say hesitating on how I want to phrase it "She helped families if they had more than 2 children".

"Ah" Arlo says understanding what I was saying. "The fourth and final rule".

"Yes." I say closing my eyes. All the memories from my childhood came flooding back to me. I remembered the countless families that came to my mom, at all hours of the night, begging for her help.

"So what happened?" Arlo asks, urging for more information.

"Well, the whole situation started off with my mom just helping out a couple of families as a favor. She was such a kind hearted person, and everyone knew she could never say no to those in need". I say smiling at the memory. "In the beginning, she kept it simple, and would just pretend different children were hers when the government would check up on us. I was an only child, so it was easy enough for her to do, and the government really didn't notice that 'my sibling' frequently changed".

I pause and look at Arlo to make sure he was following along. "After a while though, the government became suspicious. There were anonymous tips from different people trying to alert the government of the underground scam my family was running."

"Why would people do that?" Arlo pipes in, disgusted that people would consider doing that.

I shrug my shoulders at the question. "Different reasons I suppose. Sometimes people wanted some sort of financial gain out of it, others would be allowed special privileges from the government if the crime they turned in was severe enough. Whatever the case may be though, my mom knew there would only be so long she could keep up the charade, so she enlisted the help of others".

"And?" Arlo asks, fully engulfed in my story.

"And it went well, until I messed everything up." I say angrily.

"Don't say that". Arlo says his voice forceful.

"It's true Arlo" I snap. "You have me painted as some martyr, but the fact of the matter is, is I'm no better than the scum who took her life."

"Hey, hey! Don't talk about yourself like that! Whatever happened, you were just a child at the time. None of this can possibly be your fault."

Arlo looks at me his eyes intent, as if he was trying to drill this message into my head. "It is not your fault" he says again, his voice quiet.

I look from his intrusive stare, not wanting to continue on with the story of my mother's demise. "So what happened?" Arlo asks demanding for more information.

I let out a loud sigh, knowing I needed to talk about this. The guilt had been eating me alive for so long, it was nice to just talk about it with someone who wasn't going to judge me for it.

I run my feelings through my straw like hair, anxiety getting the best out of me. It was a tangled mess, and it hurt to even brush my fingers through. "There was a girl that went to my school." I say continuing on shakily. "I overheard her talking to one of her friends about her mom being pregnant with her third child. Of course I wanted to help, so I told her about my mom, and the families she had been helping. At the time I didn't realize how grave of mistake this was. I just wanted to help, and follow in my mother's footsteps." I smile at the bitter memory.