Madness Is Going On

 Although I certainly didn't get any sleep the night after Malcolm's car was found, being the loyal worker I am, I dragged myself out of bed, pulled on my blue vest, and reported for duty down at the Walmart. The night alone in my old family home knowing that someone was targeting people I love had taken a toll on me and I decided it might be a good time to ask for a favor. On my lunch break, I strolled over to the electronics department to talk to my sister-in-law Therese. She and my brother Bailey had been married since I was just a kid.

"Oh, Lord, Abby!" She exclaimed before I could even open my mouth. "I heard about it... them finding Malcolm's car down there... How are you holding up, darling?"

I returned her sympathetic smile and replied, "I'm doing fine, I guess. Just scared... It's times like this I'm glad I never sold mama's old six-shooter, being alone in the house and all-"

"You want to stay with us tonight?" She cut me off before I could finish. Her generosity never ceased to amaze me. "Lord knows we've got room!"

"Um... yeah, that would be really great," I told her, relieved that I hadn't been forced to ask. I'd been raised to put a high price on my pride.

The rest of my workday was uneventful. I would have tried to talk to Donny before I left, but for some reason he had skipped his shift. He was probably still fuming. He did have quite a temper.

 Their house wasn't far from the Walmart. It was right across a little bridge in some well-to-do neighborhood. It was common knowledge that the only reason Therese even worked was because she'd inadvertently max out all of Bailey's credit cards if she was left alone. That was a bit ironic to me because it was her family that had the money and Bailey had been lucky enough to marry into it. It most likely boiled down to Therese being a bit too loyal and subservient and Bailey being perfectly willing to take advantage.

 It was certainly a spacious house, although I wasn't crazy about all of the pink adornments. I'm pretty sure those were all from the previous owner, though. Therese was nice, but she was no cream-puff.

"Hey, Aunt Abby," Their daughter, Jean, greeted me at the door. I said hello to her and she and let me into the lavish house. She was a pretty girl of about thirteen with dark, kinky hair. She certainly took after her mother more than Bailey. I had to admit, it made me feel old to be someone's aunt.

Although I had to take the couch in their den, I still got a much better night's sleep than I would have alone in my house. The sun was just beginning to spill through the window, it was a beautiful morning. That's when it hit me. The sun was nearly all the way up. I was going to be late for work.

I scrambled to the bathroom to take what my mother would have called a "whore bath" in the sink and I resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't be able to wash my clothes. However, when I reached the door, there was a note waiting for me. It read:

"Abby, called in and took over your shift. Clothes on the counter for you.
-Therese"

Sure enough, next to a clean towel that had been left for me, was one of Therese's old sweaters and a pair of yoga pants with an elastic band in the waist. Well, at least I knew they would fit.

After a hot shower and a change of clothes, I strolled into the kitchen with wet hair and found my brother.

"Morning, Abby," He greeted me. It was the first time I had seen him in a while, since I had been asleep before he returned the previous night. "You sleep alright?"

"Oh, absolutely," I replied. "I'm sorry to put you two out like this, but it was nice to have some peace of mind. I've gotta do something nice for Therese, I can't believe she would work my shift for me."

"Well, you know her. Always willing to help," He told me. Looking at his extravagant lifestyle, I would say she helped him plenty. I couldn't help but wonder how much those ugly pajamas cost. "Anyway, I was thinking that since I'm off today and you're free, how about I fix us some cereal and we head up to the cemetery and see mom and dad?"

"I think that's a great idea. It's about time I got over there, again."

It didn't take long for us to finish eating and start on our way to the cemetery. It was a beautiful place. My father died about five years before my mother, and my half-sister (Daddy got some woman pregnant before he met my mother), Katalina had hooked up with some old rich man and inherited his estate when he died. Although I personally thought she was gold-digging trash (no different from her mother), she had at least been charitable enough to have a special burial site set aside for her father and my mother. It truly was beautiful and I couldn't dislike her as much after that.

Bailey and I stopped dead when we reached the steps leading down to our parents' graves. There was a strange woman with long hair kneeling down in the middle of a bunch of lit candles. Her clothes looked worn and it looked like she'd been there for a while, just kneeling and talking to herself.

When I got a closer look at her face, I immediately recognized her. She was the girl I had seen at Shawn's apartment complex when she had first gone missing. She was Mr. Pierce's sister.

As soon as she saw us, her trance-like state was broken. She scrambled to get up, knocking over a few candles and spilling wax all over the ground. It was all a blur as she dashed up the steps, shoved past Bailey and I, and took off through the graveyard.

"What in the hell was that?" Bailey muttered, dumbfounded.

I echoed his sentiment completely.