After the Turning [c o m p l e t e d]

Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Danger

"So you left her here?" I asked. Angie was sitting next to the dining table, having snacks with my mother. It was quite a sight--the relative of my murder victim eating casually with the woman that raised me. When we stepped into the living room, Angie flashed Hollie a toothless grin and excitedly ran up to her.

Hollie bent down and squeezed Angie's cheeks. "How was your day?"

Angie scrunched up her nose, and then giggled when my friend released her chubby flesh. "Mrs. Gressner took me to watch a movie, we just got back."

Hollie beamed at her. "Did you enjoy the movie?"

"Yeps! It was about a superhero dog. It beat up all the bad guys." The girl pushed herself from Hollie's arms and pretended to punch the villains. It looked like she was trying to swat imaginary flies with her fists. I tried to stifle a laugh. Hollie had managed her very well. It eased my worries a lot.

The ancient demon ruffled Angie's hair and chuckled. "Seems like you had a lot of fun."

The little girl slackened her posture and pouted. "I wished you were there with us though."

"I'm sorry." Hollie heaved the girl up into her arms and carried her. Angie was probably felt as light as a feather, considering that Hollie had super strength and all. "I'll watch another movie with you this weekend how about that?"

Angie nodded her head vigorously. "Yes!"

I was simply a bystander watching the both of them. Hollie had done such a great job cheering Angie up. Nobody would have guessed that Angie had just lost her father. She was a bundle of joy. One look at the both of them and anybody would have thought that they were sisters. I resented myself for not being the one to be there for Angie, but I never could have done better than Hollie.

I glanced at my mother. She looked normal. No signs of insanity yet. What had Hollie compelled her to do?

"Who is she?" Angie asked, eyeing me warily across Hollie's shoulder. The girl had finally noticed my presence. She sounded very hostile. Her personality underwent a complete change.

Hollie patted her head. "She's Evelyn, you've met her before right?"

"I'm called Jane around here," I corrected her. It was too confusing to be called two different names all the time. I didn't know why Adan and Hollie couldn't just accept that I wanted to be called 'Jane'. Perhaps my biological father called me by 'Evelyn' too much.

The little girl gasped. Her face paled as she stared at me with a horrified expression. "Evelyn?" She looked away. "H-h-hello," she whimpered, and tightened her hold on Hollie. My heart sank. Angie was terrified. I wondered if it was because she knew what I truly was, but I dismissed the thought at once. There was no way that she could possibly find out without suspecting Hollie as well.

The room fell silent. I shifted the my weight from one foot to another and pressed my clammy hands together. It was awkward. "So... umm.." I said, trying to remove the tension in the air. "Where are you guys staying tonight? If you want I can ask my mom if you can stay here."

Hollie laughed. "Oh that won't be necessary, she's already allowed us to." That was odd. My mother was nice but she didn't warm up to complete strangers that easily. She might have been a ditz but she wasn't that stupid.

I shot her a questioning look. "You asked?" Come to think of it, Angie and Hollie were already welcomed into my house. I never remembered telling my mother that they were my friends. And she never let anybody that claimed to be my friend into the house without confirming it with me first. Not that it happened before. In fact, it was more likely to raise suspicion than anything else--my mother never believed me to have any friends.