2 days later, assuming that the kids were automatically Kayson, Madelyn, Lily, and Iyana, the local police held a funeral for the kids that were burned to death inside of the home. When me, Kathy, and my parents touched down in Cali, the feeling was everything but bittersweet. When I arrived to the funeral home, damn near everyone in the Schaefer area were at this funeral. I knew because damn near everyone inside of that church had on RIP shirts from some other gangbanger in Schaefer that was killed. When I walked inside, the first thing I could hear was Donna's screams. She no longer had a grandchild that represented Taylor. She was going to crazy and screaming so loud that it took over three women to escort her out. Kayson was her pride and joy, and her losing him was her losing her world.
And the tension was so thick that no one spoke to me when I sat behind everyone in them in the church. Isaiah sat next to Tyler, clenching his jaw and staring off into space as Tyler held his hand, weeping her eyes out. Noah and Asha wept as well, and so did Aunt Shay. Q cried his eyes out as well because he loved little Lily and Kayson. He didn't know Madilyn, and Iyana was a new member to the family. Carlos and Stacey sat aside, looking just as angry as Isaiah was. The gang members had the ultimate look on their face as well.
The look, of vengeance.
"And I say here folks as an officer that NO child in this world deserves to die the way that these children did!" The officer growled as the church started clapping after him. "It doesn't matter how 'bad', 'disobedient', or uncooperative a child may act towards their parent at a time of combativeness. These were tiny children, damnit! And I will work this case until the bone!"
Everyone inside of the church applauded after the officer. Everyone, accept for us. It was so fake and so shocking that it took for four of our own to get murdered for them to realize the dangers of fucking Schaefer. They weren't gonna work this case at all. To me and everyone else inside of there, everything that came out of their mouths were complete and utter bullshit.
Something that Asha noticed also, is that Antoine didn't show up for the funeral. In fact, she hadn't heard from him in almost 4 days.
"Antoine he........he said he'd be here..." Asha whispered.
Noah looked around the church, then shook his head.
"I don't see him."
"I'll check in afterwards." Asha mumbled, wiping her tears again.
After the long funeral, everyone just decided to go on home. No one had an appetite for anything after losing children that were closest to them. The people who seemed to be bothered by it the most was Aunt Shay and Donna, mainly because of their undesirable love for their grandchildren. Asha drove Noah home as he called in for work and called off a few days. He needed some time to himself. Anyway, Asha drove over to Antoine's house and knocked on the door. There was no answer. But Antoine's car was still in the driveway. Worried, Asha pulled out the key to their home and opened the door. When she stepped in, the smell of Antoine's body hit her nose. She knew by multiple killings in Schaefer that that indicated that someone was dead.
As Asha stepped into the living room, she saw Antoine lying on the living room floor in a pool of blood. His pistol was still in his hand. As his eyes lay open, Asha screamed out loud and helped him up. But based on how his body hardened over the last few days, it was obvious that he wasn't alive anymore. Asha clutched onto his body and cried hard like she'd been doing for almost a week.
Beside him, was his suicide note.
"Mercedes, if you found me here, then I've taken my own life because my daughter was killed in Schaefer. I cannot fathom what it's like to live without my little Lily, whom I've raised since she took her first breath at the hospital. So is it that I beg of you to please sell the house since there will no longer be two payments on it, and give half the money to Asha to support her please. She'll need it after losing her little baby. PS: I love you more than you will ever know.
-Antoine."
As Asha read the note with her mascara dripping down her eyes, she could hear someone coming in from the backdoor. Wanting to avoid seeing someone else so distraught, Asha jogged out of the front door, got into her car, and sped from in front of Antoine's home.
It was Mercedes. She was back from a business trip. As she stepped into the living room, she dropped everything and crouched down by his side.
"Antoine!" Mercedes wailed out loud, clutching onto him. "Oh my god!"
As Kathy waited at our hotel room, I sat inside of an empty and rural bar, drinking. I usually don't drink, but I needed one after everything that was going on with my family. It seemed like none of them could catch a break. When things went good, everything would go bad. And when everything went bad, all of a sudden things would start to get good. As I slowly drank and babysat my beer, the news bulletin came on on the TV at the bar.
4 Schaefer kids murdered.
I looked down and zoned out, not wanting to hear anymore of it. The fat white man at the bar watched the whole minute and 30 second coverage, threw his towel over his shoulder, then shook his head.
"Murdering children....." The man whispered, shaking his head. "What type of world do we live in?"
As if I wasn't hit with enough, I would return to my hotel room for another devastating blow. When I walked inside of my hotel room, I was expecting to see Kathy waiting on the bed for me, or taking a shower when I got there. But when I looked around for any signs of her suitcases, I found none.
Instead, I found a note on the bed with Rose petals around it. It was from Kathy.
"Dear Josh,
You are an amazing man and this has truly been one of the best relationships that I could ask for. However, at this rate that it's going, I don't think that it's going to work out. The situations with people close to you dying, disappearing, and being hurt scares me because I could be in their position. If people in Schaefer can murder children, I'm pretty sure that they won't have any problems taking me out considering the fact that we're close as well.
Also, I feel that I am falling for another man, so I won't do you wrong and cheat on you again. Instead, I've decided to come forward and tell you that I would rather be with someone else at this moment. Someone who is a bit safer and a little bit more comforting.
I apologize, Josh. I really do hope that you forgive me and that we can be friends in the future. -Kathy."
Wow. This made my insides turn and twist more than they have throughout all of these situations. Kathy left me. Even though we had our fights and were a little disconnected at times, Kathy was my everything. She was the one girl who made me feel complete. She was my best friend. And now, she just straight up told me that she is interested in dating other man. I'd just been friend zoned. I'd just been betrayed. I'd just been broken up with. Call me weak or whatever, I cried. I loved Kathy to death. Unfortunately, she just didn't feel the same way about me like I felt about her.
While everyone seemed to be grieving with their own problems, there were other people that were dealing with theirs.
Like Kays, Lily, Maddy, and Yana.
"Here." The man growled as he three men bought the kids inside of the home. "I've got all four of them."
All of the kids were asleep. As the men walking inside of the halfway home laid them all down onto the floor, the buyer glanced down and examined the kids faces.
Who was the buyer?
The buyer was an Indian Man from Saudi Arabia. He was 35 years old. The man lost his wife, and was unable to have children of his own with the one woman he wanted them with, so he decided to buy kids of his own from America. He glanced down at the kids, then glared angrily up at the men.
"I said I wanted three boys and one girl, not three girls and one boy." The Arabic man growled. "What is this!?"
"Look, it ain't easy to find a family that got three boys and one girl that you want!" One of the sellers growled. "This is America, not them lil' war zones that y'all be in!"
"We can cool it with the racist jokes, sir." The man growled. "Thanks."
This isn't what the Arabic man wanted, but after traveling for so long, he had no choice but to settle. The man stroked his small beard, glancing down at the sleeping children.
"I guess I can make the three girls the servants to me and my hardworking boy...." The man whispered to himself. "I'll take them!"
"And where's the money?" The third seller asked.
The Arabic man pulled out three separate briefcases. Each of them held a half a million dollars, amounting to 1.5 million dollars total. The man then pulled out the makeup kit that his wife kept on him and prepared to start touching up the kids. He pulled out some clippers, plugging them into the wall.
"Wait a minute, what are you doing?"
"Cutting some of their hair off and applying make-up to their face." The Arabic man said. "We can't afford to anyone at the airport to know their identities."
After shaving Kayson's full and curly hair down to a buzzcut, shaving Madilyn's long and curly hair down to her shoulders, slicking Lily's hair back and applied enough makeup to distort their faces, the four men grabbed the children and headed to the airport to board the kids onto the flights.
And the next time Kayson woke up, he would be 8,120 miles away.
"Wake up, Kaysin!"
When Kayson managed to creak his eyes halfway open, all he could hear was the sound of rattling. Loud rattling. His eyes met with the dust and sand that was lingering in the air of the area. His body moved around in the station wagon as Madilyn stood up, staring out of the open area. Lily was staring too. Kayson stood up in between them and glanced out with them as well.
One by one, the kids passed by an open desert land. On the side, they could see small markets and people selling fruits on the open land. Madilyn and Lily appeared fascinated with everything that was around them, thinking that they were still at home.
But Kayson, Kayson was worried.
"Wer.......wer r we?" Kayson asked.
"In da desurt." Lily cheesed. "I tink?"
Kayson glanced in the window in the back of the one seater truck. In the front, Iyana laid there, sucking on her pacifier. Kayson scrunched his eyebrows, then looked back at the kids.
"Wer's mommy and daddy?" Kayson asked.
"I askd da man in da front seet and he sed dat dey sent us heer." Madilyn said. "Da man sed dat weer goin' to a diffent home."
Kayson glanced around at the on the street fruit markets, wondering what was going on. Since he had no clue, he decided to take Madilyn's word for it.
The drive to the city in Saudi Arabia was going to take a while, so the kids winded up falling asleep on the way to their destinations. An hour later, the truck came to a hard stop, waking all of the kids up inside of the truck. All four of them rubbed their eyes, lying on the hay and the sand that was under them. As Lily lifted up, the Arabic man opened the back of his truck and gave the kids an agitated look. He was holding Iyana in his arms.
"Get out." The man growled. "Now."
The kids gave the man a stunned look, all stepping out of the back of the van. Kayson glanced around and noticed that this house was on a large farmland. There was so much grass around the area that you could see no sign of the city besides the long freeway in the distance. On the large grassland, were large houses that were around the area. There were gates in front of the farmhouses in the area, and there were cows and pigs in the area as well. One house that was the closest to the one that the kids were staying in, was a middle aged Indian woman who was in her mid 30's.
"Come in through the back." The Indian man demanded, opening the backdoor to his home.
The kids walked inside of a home that was spotless from head to toe. It was so tidy and neat that it looked like one of the homes you would see out of a magazine. Of course, it was large enough too. The Arabic man built the home from scratch, so it was exactly how he wanted it to look.
"Hey!" The man barked. "Don't y'all dare step on that carpet with y'all shoes on! Take them off now!"
The kids jumped, taking off their shoes by the door.
"Go into the living room and sit."
The kids walked into the neat living room, sitting down on the couch. They all glanced around, appearing nervous. The man took off his shoes, walking into the living room with the baby.
"You kids are going to be staying here for a while." The man growled, stepping in front of them and pacing back and forth.
"Wa........wat do you meen?" Kayson gasped.
"I wan my mommy-"
"HEY!"
The man gave the kiss a serious look, scaring them straight.
"While you're here, you will abide by MY rules!" The man barked. "I will not tolerate disrespect and disobedience that you American's portray! Not in my house!"
Lily started silently crying, terrified of the man that they were staying with. The man took a deep breath, explaining even further.
"In this home, the girls will be the ones who clean up. You and you will be responsible for learning how to cook, clean, and wash for me and the oldest boy." The man demanded, pointing at Kayson and Madilyn. "As for the boy, you will help me farm, grow crops, and harvest the vegetables and meats in the farm."
"But-"
"You will be raised like a man is supposed to be raised, young man. And that is with the highest authority and leading role of the household. The breadwinner." The man continued. "As for you young ladies, you will be raised how a young woman is supposed to be raised. Taking care of the men and the breadwinners of the family like a woman was put on this earth to do. It says so in the bible itself. Do you understand?"
The kids gave him a sad look, nodding their heads.
"Good." The man smiled. "Let's get to work."