Forsaken (The Night Children, Volume 1)

Chapter 8

“What?” I screeched. “You killed Sister Jane?”

“No!” he hurriedly corrected. “No, I just made her have a dream that you’d been adopted. And I made it realistic enough that she’d believe it really happened. We’ve also got all your transcripts so that you’ll be set to transfer and attend school with Cain, Kali, and I.”

“Okay… but what about my things? I … I need my clothes, my ballet stuff, my books… I don’t have any money to replace all of that!”

“If there are certain things that you need… sentimental things… I guess I could retrieve them for you. But we can provide money for whatever you need, right Dad?” His dad reached into his pocket, pulling out a wallet, then retrieving a sleek black object and sliding it across the table to me.

“What’s this?” I asked, picking up the thin plastic. “Oh, a credit card?”

“There’s no limit on it, so go crazy,” he shrugged.

“Well, does this school that I’m going to attend have a dance program? I need dance to help me get a college scholarship.”

“You won’t need a scholarship,” my father assured me. “Trust me when I say that our family has more than enough money to send you to any college of your choice.”

“That doesn’t change anything. I’m sorry, but I can’t possibly take money from people that I don’t know.”

“Astrella,” he pleaded. “I want to change that. I know that this isn’t an ideal situation, and I know you have reservations about all of this, but please try to make this work. It was always our intention to take you back into our family when we felt the time was right. It was just so much safer for you there, away from us. We couldn’t bear the thought of you getting hurt because of us.”

“Don’t call me that,” I snapped, mainly just to hurt him, but also because the name made me cringe. “And what difference would it make? I got hurt anyway, didn’t I? Why didn’t you send Gaidrian away?”

“We didn’t send him away because it would have been pointless. They knew that he existed, so they had an idea of what to look for. And it really wouldn’t have been too hard to find him, no matter where we hid him. It would’ve been a matter of time before they found him and killed him. Your mother and I knew that his only hope would be for us to take him and run together, so that we could protect him. But there was still a chance that we’d fail, and then we’d all die. By sending you away, we could ensure your safety for the most part.”

‘What happened tonight was a fluke,” Gaidrian added. “Nightmares do that kind of stuff all the time, right Cain?” We all turned to look at him, but he’d disappeared, leaving his now empty bowl in his place.

“Where’d he go?” I gasped. “I didn’t even hear him leave!”

“He’s slippery like that,” Gaidrian mumbled. “As I was saying, they do it all the time to humans. As part of the Law that my mom commissioned, they can only take people who no one will miss, like orphans, prostitutes, homeless people… it’s not ideal, but at least it controls it a little. The Nightmares think it’s shameful to attempt to do it to a weak human, so they tend to wait until absolutely necessary. Like I said before, to them it’s like eating and drinking, so they basically fast until they simply can’t anymore, and at that point it’s quicker to take easy pickings. It’s against the Ancient Law for them to be seen by the general public, so sticking to the underside of bridges and dark allies is safer.

“The ones that attacked you didn’t seem to be starving, so they must’ve just been looking for some fun. Don’t get me wrong, they would’ve killed you. But they would have tormented you first. Tortured you with your worst fears until you were begging for them to kill you. They’d feed off of your fear. It’s what keeps them alive.”