Wood Sprites

“Shopping.” Louise eyed the fitting room’s mirrors. She barely recognized herself. She hated how little and scared and fashionable she looked. She turned around to face the blank door. Four black dresses hung from a hook, waiting to be tried on, just in case Anna “deemed them stable enough to attend the funerals.” By the way she phrased it, Louise wasn’t sure Anna would actually allow them to go to the funeral home, let alone the burial. “The school called Anna Desmarais, because she’s our grandmother. She got her name on our records as emergency contact. She’s taken us clothes shopping.”

Apparently Aunt Kitty knew some of this because she didn’t ask how Anna was their grandmother. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

My mommy and daddy are dead! Louise closed her eyes tight on the tears that wanted to come. “I’m scared. I don’t like her, even if she’s our grandmother. She’s not letting us go home. She says we have to wait for someone called an executor to go through everything first.”

“I’m your parents’ executor,” Aunt Kitty said. “I’m at the house now. I’m trying — I’m trying — God, I don’t know what I’m doing. I can’t believe this is happening.”

Aunt Kitty seemed close to crying.

Louise huddled in a ball in the corner of the changing room, trying to be brave. At least it wasn’t some stranger going through all her parents’ things. “Can we come live with you?”

“Oh, oh, honey bear, you’re going to have to be patient. I’m trying to get hold of my lawyer. It’s a holiday. And — and I need to set up the funerals.”

Louise whimpered. It hadn’t seemed completely real until Aunt Kitty mentioned funerals.

“Oh, honey, I’m so sorry.”

“Can she really just keep us?”

Aunt Kitty was silent for a minute and then said reluctantly, “Lou, I know this is hard for you. I’m going to do everything I can so you two can come and live with me, but that doesn’t mean that your grandmother is a horrible person or that you shouldn’t love her. She wants you because she loves her daughter so much, and she wants to love you, too.”

“You don’t think you can get custody.”

“I might not be able to.” Their mother had always loved Aunt Kitty for her honesty. It wasn’t, however, what Louise needed right now. She really wished her aunt would lie to her, paint everything as something less frightening.

“After Grandma Mayer died, our parents changed their will. They made you our guardian if something happened to them. It’s in their will!”

“I know, but Anna has DNA test results proving that you’re her granddaughters. The clinic doesn’t have any paperwork showing that Esme donated her embryos. It means your father used his position to steal you and Jillian. Her lawyers can make what your parents did seem as if they snatched babies out of the hospital.”

“It’s not the same! It was just a few little frozen cells. We would have gotten thrown away if they hadn’t used our embryos. We were leftovers that only our parents wanted.”

“I know, but it’s up to the courts to decide who you’ll live with.”

“Why do we have to live with her until they decide? Her husband is scary. We don’t like him.”

“What did he do?” Aunt Kitty growled, her voice suddenly full of fear and anger.

It would be an easy card to play to say that Edmond had somehow molested them. Aunt Kitty would come down on him like a she-bear protecting cubs. But what would he do in response? These were people that casually discussed killing people.

“He’s albino.” Louise tried to make her fear sound stupid. “He’s scary-looking. His hair is white and he’s really pale, like a vampire, and his eyes are weird.”

“That’s it?”

“And they eat weird food. We had a fish with its head and tail on it for breakfast. You had to peel the skin off it before you could eat it. It’s creepy. We’re going to starve to death.”

Aunt Kitty breathed out. “Oh, Louise, I’m sorry. I know you two have to be scared. I really wish that you didn’t have to go through this, but you’re going to have to be patient. Since I’m not your aunt by blood, I can’t do anything until a judge settles it. In the meantime, promise me you’ll try to be good.”

“We will.”

“Don’t run away. That will make things worse. And don’t blow anything up.”

33: Fortress Of Evil

“I feel like I’m trapped in Dracula’s castle.” Jillian sprawled in the loft bed, high above the bedroom floor. They’d been living at the mansion for ten days now, held by Louise’s promise to Aunt Kitty.

Although they bought the black dresses, in the end Anna refused to let them attend the funeral. She thought it would be too much for the twins to bear, and Louise was starting to wonder if Anna was right. Every time she fell asleep, she had vivid nightmares. Jillian rarely left the bed and had slept almost endlessly. Louise was worried that something might be wrong with her twin. Even Joy sensed that Jillian was somehow broken and kept her constant company.