||Series Removed|| OTB

5 - Baby On Board

5

Throwing my entire body into the door that Beth had disappeared behind, I found it to be barricaded on the other side just as Joyce came huffing and puffing up the stairs. "Get... Get out of our house!! Leave my daughter this instant, or I'll head to the gun cabinet and make you leave myself!"

"Do you even hear what you're saying?! Beth is not your daughter!! She's mi-"

Stopping myself, I shook my head from the confusion of the last five minutes. "She belongs with us. Her aunt is waiting for her, and I don't know what kind of sick game you and your husband are playing here... but it ends right now."

Banging against the little girl's bedroom door, I called out to her as the old woman grumbled to herself before pottering off, most likely to fetch me a present from the gun cabinet.

"Beth, it's me!! She isn't here anymore... We don't have time for this, let me in!!" The gravity of the situation only dawned on me when I realised that she still wasn't speaking to me, even without her 'mother' looming around.

After a short moment of silence, I almost strained to hear her sobs on the other side. "...Go... Go away, Mister. I'm going to get in trouble if I tell you..."

"Tell me what?! Beth, you know me, don't you? We need to get you out of here! Why do they think that your name is Caroline?!" There seemed to be an air of hesitation, although it lifted as soon as the furniture blocking the door dragged itself out of the way.

Pushing it open warily, I was surprised to see Caroline Todd's bedroom decorated right down to the dollhouse and sticker-emblazoned dresser with the brightest shade of pink. It was as though someone had exploded a large ball of bubble-gum all over the walls, coating it with various glitters and childish drawings.

As I glanced around the girly room in bewilderment, I could tell that Beth was equally uncomfortable staying in a place like this. It was the kind of room she might have had when her parents were still alive, but living in such a place now would only bring sad memories.

There was a framed picture beside her frilly bed. It showed a familiar couple on a sandy beach with their child, the only oddity being that the photo was grainy and faded-yellow...

A young Joyce and Harold, with their arms joined around a small blonde girl. Her features were similar to the current 'Caroline', although this one was dressed in drab 70's clothes. As I expected, she looked to be a ten-year-old, the same age that Beth claimed to be downstairs.

"I have to be her..." Beth mumbled at my side, causing me to jump a little. "If I don't do as they say... I'm sorry, Mister. You need to leave before someone else gets hurt."

"Someone... else...?" Before I could question her, an audible click snapped at me from the doorway, and I knew to raise my hands in the fashion that I was used to by now.

Joyce shakily poked me with the double-barrel of a shotgun to the pink wall of the room, carefully scrutinising my proximity from her fake daughter. "I thought we'd met some nice kids for once... but you're just like the rest of those hoodlums out there. Now, go on... out with you."

Shuffling my legs along the floor carefully, I stole a glance from behind her at Beth, who couldn't make herself watch the tension. I resisted the urge to spit at my captor venomously. "Lady, you've done something... You're threatening her to stay here, aren't you-"

"Enough!! We're just trying to get by with these riots going on, we don't need you spreading these lies to our daughter!" I could see the anger swelling between her eyes, and I knew that it was time to get out of the way.