The money, drugs, and temptation - my life on the bad side

Eating at your soul

"Trina, is Cocoa back from the post office yet?" I call. "I have someone I want you two to meet."

"OK, we'll be there in a minute, close the door you'll let the heat out!" I smile and do as she asks, though the house is practically steaming.

Kiki eagerly squirms out of my arms and beginnings running around the house, gleefully touching each and every one of our possessions. 

"Whoa!" I hear from the kitchen. Bouncing up from the couch with a laugh I run over to where Kiki has collided with Trina and is now sitting on her knees with her forehead on the ground, making small sobbing noises. 

Trina looks at me. I shrug, bending down to my sister. "Kiki, darling, what are you doing?"

Another sob escapes her throat, but she does not move a muscle. 

 Anger flares in my heart as I realize this is another one of those stupid punishments Andrew had set up for her. In a fury I grab her by the arm and pull her off the floor, holding her arms tightly above the elbow.

"He is not here anymore, Karanna!" I scream at her. "Stop it, do you hear me? STOP IT! You are not his slave!"

She breaks down sobbing in my grip. I don't realize how tightly I am holding her until Trina pries my hands from her and I see the deep red finger marks circling her tiny arms. 

"Laura, get a hold of yourself. Take a deep breath." Trina orders. I can feel myself shaking, and try and calm down. "You're scaring your sister. I know Andrew was bad, I know he hurt you both but he's gone now. Done. He can't hurt you anymore."

I begin to sob again, knowing how wrong she is, and she grabs me in a tight hug.

Hesitantly, I feel another pair of arms wrap around my legs. Reaching a hand down I wrap a piece of Kiki's hair around my finger, twirling it gently, calming us both.

After a few minutes Trina releases me, gives me a very stern look which I cannot help smiling at, and then gestures towards Kiki.

"Oh, of course, yes, um, Kiki, this is Trina, and Trina this is Kiki." I pull her up onto my hip as Trina smiles at her, winning a grin from Kiki.

"And I'm Cocoa," coming into the room with Baby on her hip, Cocoa smiles at the three of us. "And this is Baby." We let the girls down and they slowly approach each other. I wish I had a video of it. They closed the gap and stood so close their toes were touching, examining each other without a word.

Though nearly the exact same hight and shape, the two children could not look anymore different. While Kiki's hair is long and brown, well cared for after her few months living lavishly and cut straight across the bottom with sideswept bangs, Baby's is so short and tightly curled it's flat against her head, and it's white blonde. Baby's face is much more round than Kiki's, and her nose is slightly smaller. Kiki has bigger eyes, and they're light blue, while Baby's are very dark blue with an even darker ring around the outside.

Kiki then breaks the silence.

"That is my shirt." she states, touching the fabric. Baby looks at her under her long eyelashes, waiting for her to continue.

"I have new dresses. They will look nice on you. Come on, we can play house!" their excitement grows until they are both bouncing, and without another glance to us they are running down the hall into the living room to dump Kiki's suitcases on the floor and look at all of her dresses.

I glance at Trina and Cocoa. "Well now we don't have to worry about getting them new clothes," I say dryly.

"Do you want to talk about it?" They ask. I shake my head.