Chrysalis

Chapter 79

Frank and Martha Evans Residence, Denver, Colorado

The air in the Evans' living room was decidedly hostile, but Carrie had known it would be. She glanced at Kim, unsure how to start the conversation with the twins. All she knew was that she saw pain in Eric and Sami's eyes. Pain that she knew so well herself. It was the pain that came with being a child, and knowing something was wrong, while also knowing you were being lied to. The helplessness that came with those emotions was overwhelming. Roman had done that to her. Her grandparents had done that to her. John... John was the one who was always honest. In whatever capacity he could be, he was honest with her.

Kim sat on the couch between the twins, and Carrie sat on the beige velvet chair with the wooden armrests covered in rust colored flowers that sat near the television. Sami's eyes darted between them with a growing sense of unrest, as Eric whispered, "Something bad happened?"

Carrie couldn't manage to take the sadness from her eyes, "Yeah. Yeah, something bad happened, but we're–we're going to talk about it, and then you're coming home... to Salem. No more hiding things from you."

All of the rage that Sami had saved up, all the things she'd wanted to say, and the way she'd wanted to hurt someone with her words seemed to fizzle out. They hadn't been ignored... at least not in the way she'd thought they'd been ignored. "You're going to tell us now? No more lies?" She felt so much older than her eleven years.

"When your mom was supposed to go to the conference in Oklahoma, she never made it there. We're not sure what happened, but somehow she was taken," Kim said gently. "Your dad thought maybe it was best that you didn't know. He worried that you would be scared, and he thought we would be able to get her back quickly... before you came home at the end of the summer."

"But we never came home!" Sami cried. "So why didn't he tell us then?"

"I don't know," Carrie stumbled.

Kim started, "Your dad–"

"--he's not my dad," Eric mumbled. He wouldn't look up from where he sat staring at his hands. It felt good to say it aloud. It felt right to say it to someone besides Sami. He said again, louder, "He's not my dad."

Kim, coming from the perspective of a therapist, changed her phrasing, "Roman made some choices that in hindsight weren't good for any of us. Carrie and I want you to come home, and we believe that you need to know what really happened... what's still happening."

"Who took our mom... was it–was it the man? The one... the one who took her before?" She wanted to ask if it was the same man who hurt her daddy and Roman, but she didn't. Because her daddy was John and Roman was simply Roman, and she was tired of being corrected. She sometimes had bad dreams about that man coming back, and taking her mommy. Sometimes, she dreamed that he was taking John, or even Carrie. They were dreams where a man in the shadows laughed, and one moment someone she loved was there, and the next they were gone. When she woke, she would be gasping, and covered in sweat. Even knowing it wasn't real, the dreams would sit with her all day, making her agitated and nervous. The same nervousness she was feeling right then. "Are we... is mommy going to come back?"

"We're trying really hard to get her back." Kim reached out cupping Sami's rounded cheeks in her palms. Staring into the little girl's wide blue eyes, she said, "We're doing everything we can to get her home." Kim was quiet for a moment, and then she said, "There's something else..." She wasn't sure how to tell them. No matter how she said it, they would be upset. "John is with her."

Eric was confused for a moment, "Why?" But then, very quickly he realized what she meant. Whoever had his mommy had his daddy too. In a small scared voice, he asked, "He... the man... he took Daddy too?"