Temporary Home

Chapter 8

I opened the door. Char, Rob, and Dan were there, behind them was Blake. I would have called Ren, but we had that huge fight and I’m still not entirely sure that he isn’t connected with the whole ‘Santana thing’. 

“Okay everyone take a seat. I have something really important to tell you guys. When I lived with my parents I had a deaf best friend, Her name was Sarah Adams. Her family was deaf so we were really good friends. She was four years older than me. At eighteen or nineteen, she got pregnant. I was fourteen. She couldn’t keep her kid because she was so young and just couldn’t finically keep him. His name is Joshua. He is deaf. Her parents wouldn’t talk to her because she got pregnant so young, her grandparents were dead, and her boyfriend left. She left him to me. However, I was fourteen, I was underage, I was moving from foster home to foster home, I couldn’t care for a kid. So, I made sure  my babysitter from when I was younger, Lucy, adopt him.” Lucy made a surprised face at this, never knowing that part, only knowing she adopted him from me, not that I didn’t even have him in the first place. “But the other day, I got a letter stating that the guy who killed my family knows I’m alive and he wants me. Lucy was tied in her closet and the man took Josh. I don’t know what to do, and I’m really scared.” I ended and looked at everyone’s faces. 

Char began to talk. “Look, honey, we’ll figure this out. I don’t know how and I don’t know how long it will take, but we’ll figure this out. I promise you.” 

I opened my mouth to contradict her, when Blake said something. “What do you mean foster home?”

I quickly explained my story to him. “Oh my gosh, I am so sorry. I didn’t know.” 

“It’s okay. You don’t have to apologize, it wasn’t your fault.” 

I looked back at Char. “Char, you don’t understand. If this... man... killed my whole family, on purpose apparently, what makes you think we have time? We don’t have time! If he could kill four people like that and not feel guilty, then he would have no trouble killing Josh. And, frankly, I don’t want to see what will  happen if we wait to long.” 

I saw everyone’s face. They were all depressed. I sank down the wall behind me. Muttering, but loud enough for others to hear, “After all of this time, I thought their deaths were my fault. I blamed myself this whole time and now I find out that it was on purpose. I find out that this killer knew what he was doing, he wasn’t drunk. I find out that he knows I’m still alive and that he’s looking for me, taking all of the family I have left. You know what? I want him to find me; I want to find him. And when I do, I’m going to look into his eyes and I’m going to make him pay. Pay for all of the damage he’s done to me. When I find him, I’m gonna kill him.” I looked up with rage in my eyes. I saw everyone’s surprised and horrified faces. 

Blake came over to me, sitting down next to me. “Listen Annabeth, I know that you’re angry, sad, and you want revenge, but you should let the police handle this. Let them take care of this guy properly and you will get justice.”

“And what? Let him go to trial and then find him not guilty and have him still out here in my world. Or let be found not guilty but just let them put him in a blasted jail cell. I want justice and if it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen my way. The right way. The way my family will want to be avenged.” 

“Really? You think your mom and dad, or your brothers, would want you to kill a man. Do you realize who you’ll become if you do that? You’ll be him. You will be a killer. Do you want to be the person that takes a life and makes people go through the same emotions that you went through? Do you want to be him? If you kill him, you aren’t any better than him. You may think that would be avenging them, but it’s just being childish and trying to be a hero. Come back down to reality and handle this rationally. You’ve been through too much to stoop this low, Annabeth, too much.” He told me, looking into my eyes the whole time and then stood up and pulled my along with him. I gave him a questioning look. “We’re going to get started. Now. Do you have the notes?” He added the last part as an afterthought. I nodded numbly and took out the notes handing them to him. Everyone gathered around him and read them, while I just took in everything he said to me.