Blake Pierce - Once Forsaken

“What’s going on?” Mom called out again.

Dad turned to see her. He seemed to be having trouble saying anything.

Finally, he blurted, “Call nine-one-one.”

“Why?” Mom replied.

Dad didn’t explain. He headed into the garage. Mom darted forward, and when she reached the open door, she let out a scream that paralyzed Tiffany with fear.

Mom rushed inside the garage.

For a long moment, Tiffany stood frozen in her tracks.

“What is it?” Tiffany called out.

She heard Mom’s sobbing voice call out from the garage, “Go back inside, Tiffany.”

“Why?” Tiffany yelled back.

Mom came running out of the garage. She grabbed Tiffany’s arm and tried to turn her around to go back to the house.

“Don’t look,” she said. “Go back inside.”

Tiffany wrestled loose from Mom and rushed into the garage.

It took her a moment to take everything in. All three cars were parked there. In the back corner to the left, Dad was wrestling clumsily with a ladder.

Something was hanging there by a rope tied to a roof beam.

It was a person.

It was her sister.

Riley Paige had just sat down to dinner when her daughter said something that really startled her.

“Aren’t we just the picture-perfect family?”

Riley stared at April, whose face reddened with embarrassment.

“Wow, did I just say that aloud?” April said sheepishly. “Was that corny or what?”

Riley laughed and looked around the table. Her ex-husband, Ryan, was sitting at the far end of the table from her. To her left, her fifteen-year-old daughter, April, was sitting next to their housekeeper, Gabriela. To her right was thirteen-year-old Jilly, a newcomer to the household.

April and Jilly had just made hamburgers for Sunday’s dinner, giving Gabriela a break from cooking.

Ryan took a bite of his hamburger, then said, “Well, we are a family, aren’t we? I mean, just look at us.”

Riley didn’t say anything.

A family, she thought. Is that what we are really?

The idea took her just a little bit by surprise. After all, she and Ryan had separated almost two years ago, and had been divorced for six months now. Although they were spending time together again, Riley had avoided giving much thought to where that might lead. She had put aside years of hurt and betrayal in order to enjoy a peaceful present.

Then there was April, whose adolescence had been anything but easy. Would her desire for togetherness last?

Riley felt even more uncertain about Jilly. She’d found Jilly in a truck stop in Phoenix, trying to sell her own body to truck drivers. Riley had rescued Jilly from a terrible life and an abusive father, and now she hoped to adopt her. But Jilly was still a troubled girl, and things were touch-and-go with her.

The one person at the table Riley felt surest about was Gabriela. The stout Guatemalan woman had been working for the family since long before the divorce. Gabriela had never been anything other than responsible, grounded, and loving.

“What do you think, Gabriela?” Riley asked.

Gabriela smiled.

“A family can be chosen, not just inherited,” she said. “Blood isn’t everything. Love is what matters.”

Riley suddenly felt warm inside. She could always count on Gabriela to say what needed to be said. She gazed with a new sense of satisfaction at the people around her.

After being on leave from BAU for a month, she was enjoying just being here at home in her townhouse.

And enjoying my family, she thought.

Then April said something else that surprised her.

“Daddy, when are you going to move in with us?”

Ryan looked quite startled. As she often did, Riley wondered whether his newfound commitment was too good to last.

“That’s kind of a big topic to take on right now,” Ryan said.

“How come?” April asked her father. “You might as well live here. I mean, you and Mom are sleeping together again and you’re here almost every day.”

Riley felt her face redden. Shocked, Gabriela gave April a sharp poke with her elbow.

“¡Chica! ¡Silencio!” she said.

Jilly looked around with a grin.

“Hey, that’s a great idea,” she said. “Then I’d be sure to get good grades.”

It was true—Ryan had been helping Jilly get up to speed at her new school, especially with social studies. He’d actually been very supportive of all of them in recent months.

Riley’s eyes met Ryan’s. She saw that he was blushing too.

As for herself, she didn’t know what to say. She had to admit that she found the idea appealing. She’d grown comfortable with Ryan spending most of his nights here. Everything had fallen into place so easily—perhaps too easily. Maybe some of her comfort came from not having to make decisions about it.

She remembered what April had called everybody just now.

“A picture-perfect family.”

They all certainly seemed like that at the moment. But Riley couldn’t help feeling uneasy. Was all this perfection just an illusion? Like reading a good book or watching a pleasant movie?

Riley was all too aware that the world outside was full of monsters. She’d devoted her professional life to fighting them. But for the past month, she’d almost been able to pretend they didn’t exist.

A smile slowly crossed Ryan’s face.

“Hey, why don’t we all move into my place?” he said. “There’s plenty of room for all of us.”

Riley stifled a gasp of alarm.

The last thing she wanted was to move back to the big suburban home that she had shared with Ryan for years. It was too full of unpleasant memories.

“I couldn’t give this place up,” she said. “I’ve gotten settled in so comfortably here.”

April looked at her father eagerly.

“It’s up to you, Daddy,” she said. “Are you moving in with us or not?”

Riley watched Ryan’s face. She could tell that he was struggling with his decision. She understood at least one reason why. He belonged to a law firm in DC, but fairly often worked at home. There wasn’t room for him to do that here.

Finally Ryan said, “I’d have to keep the house. It could still be my local office.”

April was almost bouncing from excitement.

“So are you saying yes?” she asked.

Ryan smiled silently for a moment.

“Yeah, I guess I am,” he finally said.

April let out a squeal of delight. Jilly clapped her hands and giggled.

“Great!” Jilly said. “Please pass the ketchup—Dad.”

Ryan, April, Gabriela, and Jilly all started chattering happily as they continued eating.

Riley told herself to enjoy this happy glow while she could. Sooner or later, she would be called upon to stop another monster. The thought sent a chill up her spine. Was some evil already lurking, waiting for her?

The next day, April’s school had a shortened schedule to allow for teacher meetings, and Riley had given in to her daughter’s pleas to let her cut the whole day. They decided to go shopping together while Jilly was still in school.

The rows of stores in the mall seemed endless to Riley, and many of the shops looked very much alike. Skinny mannequins in stylish clothes held impossible poses in every window. The figures they were passing right now were headless, adding to Riley’s impression that they were all interchangeable. But April kept telling her what each store carried, and which styles she’d loved to wear. April apparently saw variety where Riley only saw sameness.

A teenage thing, I guess, Riley thought.

At least the mall wasn’t crowded today.

April pointed to a sign outside a store named Towne Shoppe.