Chapter 43
“Come away with usss,” the voices hissed.
In the dark, Adriana could feel their breath on her neck, making her cringe and hug her leg tighter into her chest.
“Leave all the children who tease you. Leave all the adults who won’t adopt you. Leave your parents who don’t care about you.”
She tried ignoring them, but couldn’t.
“We love you. We will take care of you.” The voices became shaky with need, frightening her. “You are ssspecial … beautiful … very beautiful. We like you. We want you to be happy. We want you to be your best. Come with usss and we can make it happen. Be with usss.”
She felt dizzy. She wanted to be loved, so much. For as long as she could remember, she had hoped her father would care about her. After being taken from him, she had hoped with all her heart that other parents might love her, would at least try to love her, or if they couldn’t then at least pretend to love her. Someone had to. Anyone.
Now Adriana could feel tiny hands touching her arms and leg. They pulled and pinched her dry, painted skin, cracking it. “Come with usss … leave them … and be beautiful. You are ssso intelligent.” Reaching underneath the paint, their fingers felt like tiny icicles.
She stood up feeling unbalanced. Black forms, darker than the unlit room, shifted and swayed around her.
Light rain ticked on the roof.
“You’re sssmart ... you’re ssstrong … and we like that. We like you.”
It wasn’t fair what the voices were doing. She needed to be loved, and she couldn’t help but to fall for their promises, whether they were true or not. Since placed in foster care a year ago, she had been on the adoption list, but no family wanted a crippled, emotionally scarred girl. No one even came to see her for a trial visit, just to see if she would be a good fit for them. Nobody gave her a chance.
She thought she was at least worth a chance. Just one chance. But no one else thought so. She became teary just thinking about it.
Foster care wasn’t a replacement for a real home, no matter how much they tried. The first two foster homes she stayed in, she stayed less than a month. They must have seen the burden she was and given up. Nobody wanted to commit to her. Nobody wanted their long walks at the mall, bicycle rides at the beach, trips to the carnival and amusement parks, to be cut short by her single leg. Nobody wanted her.
She cried as she squeezed her leg harder into her, never wanting it to be taken like her other had been, forever staining her life, forever making her unlovable and rejected by others, forever crippling her more than she already was.
Maybe these creatures were the goodness that had escaped from the box. They believed she was smart, loving, and worth something. Maybe she should let them take her.
“We like you. Come with usss. Don’t be afraid.” Their tiny little hands climbed up her arms and leg to her body and pulled on her stomach and chest, digging fingers into her, hurting her. “Come … we love you. You are the best. We like the best … and we want you. Come …”
Her breaths rasped. “Where? Where do you want to take me?”
“With usss … it’s okay. It’s good.”
“Where are you?”
“Here … not far. It will only hurt for a moment … come ...” Their fingers submerged into her now, pulling on her guts, bones, and reaching for her heart. “Come … it’s not far. We are right here. It will only hurt for a moment … then it will be all better … all over. You are the best. We like the bessst.”
Adriana asked, her speech slurring, “It’ll-only hurt for-a-moment?” She was really dizzy now. But it was a pleasant kind of feeling, like everything painful, the loneliness, the emptiness, all disappearing. Her uncaring father, her absent mother, her lack of a consistent home, rules, and way of life, her stress from having been around violence for years—it was all getting better, it was going away, slowly, nicely.
“Yesss … hurt only a moment.”
She swayed and caught herself on a stack in the dark. “Where?”
“You are making it. Just a little further … a little further.” She felt one of their fingers reach her heart. It was terrible. The iciest, emptiest feeling ever. It was everything bad she knew in her life coming at her at once. She shook herself, but they were inside her now and wouldn’t leave.
“It’s okay … it only hurts for a moment.” Their whispers grew faster, rising with intense joy. “You are almost there. It’s all right. You’re doing fine.”
“Who are you? Get out of me!” she screamed. “I don’t like you. This isn’t good.”
“It isss … don’t worry. It’ll be all right. You’re the bessst. We love you … and we need you.”
She threw herself on the floor, and the box fell from her hand. It didn’t matter since these creatures probably came from it anyway. Cindy was right. It was bad.
Her body trembled violently, trying to get the little creatures out of her. They were crawling around inside. She couldn’t believe she had let them get this far. It was terrifying now, and they wouldn’t leave, their fingers holding tight to her heart, pulling, pinching, tearing.
“It’s okay … don’t fight.”
A deep blackness soaked her like she was falling asleep, but deeper. Lying on her back, she kicked her leg and tried to keep awake, keep life in her, but it was draining fast, not just her bad memories but everything she loved as well. The field behind her backyard, playing trucks and climbing trees with Johnny Daggermouth, the special times with Cindy—all were being dragged out of her and destroyed, one by one, faster and faster.
Her kicking became weaker, but just before she felt like passing out, her foot connected with the box and smacked it into something, then it crashed onto the floor, cracking the lid open—just a sliver of a crack.
But that was enough.
A white light showered from it, so bright in the dark.
Tiny fingers released her insides, wiggling back out her, screaming and desperately pulling their way to the surface of her skin, and then shadows in the room ran, flying fast in the air.
“Ssstop the light! Get it closed. It isss bad. We love you.”
But she was glad for the light.
It bathed her skin and felt healing as more fingers popped out of her and flew back into corners of the room and under chairs, boxes, and tables.
The ceiling light began to flicker back on.
She looked to that mysterious little wooden box. What was inside? It must be wonderful. She crawled closer to it.
Its lid was being pushed open by something inside, more wholesome light spilling out than the bland fluorescent bulbs above her. But where was Cindy? She had to be here when it opened, otherwise she might not snap out of her daze. Quickly Adriana grabbed the box and closed the lid, fitting the latch back onto it.
The ceiling light immediately began to flicker again, and shadows in the corners of the room and under tables and cartons began to stir, but they held their ground, evidently wary for the moment.
If the spooky creatures didn’t come from the box, where did they come from?
Feeling the need for speed, she stood up and hopped to the door.