Chapter 33

11:37 p.m.

Lynnette sat in the backseat of the cab, huddled in the corner like a horrified child. She wanted the cab
driver to take his sweet time getting back to her parents' house. She prayed that every traffic light they
came across would hold for the longest time. All the woman could see in her mind was the
disappointed looks on her parents' faces; not once did she even entertain a single thought of Isaiah.
She couldn't even speak the boy's name inside her own head.

With every stop the cab made Lynnette's heart dropped to the floor. She didn't even have the courage
to glance out the window at the nighttime scenery just to see where she was. All that mattered to her
was time and how much of that time she could possibly waste inside the span of one evening.

"Here we are." The cab driver announced as he stopped and put the vehicle in park.

Lynnette finally looked up and out the window to see her house which was completely blackened. She
knew that someone was inside and that those people were usually in bed by ten p.m.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a five dollar bill which she promptly handed to the driver.

"This is only a down payment." She said. "I need to go inside and do something. Could you please wait
out here for me? I won't be that long."

The young, white man took the bill and replied, "No problem; I'm at the end of my shift anyways."

Then, with as much skittish mettle as she could assemble Lynnette rolled out of the cab and began for
the front porch.

"All I need is a hundred and nine dollars." She murmured to herself. "I promise I'll be back before the
year's end. I'll give the money back to you when I return. I just need to go and do something for a
while."



The slower she walked the more she recited her ill-fated speech. Before long, however, she found
herself face to face with the front door.

Just as Lynnette was about to pull out her house key, her eyes caught sight of the door which looked
somewhat odd. She noticed that the door itself appeared as if it wasn't closed all the way. Immediately,
what she had to say to her parents didn't seem to matter all too much.

Lynnette lightly shoved the door open and said out loud, "Mama! Daddy!"

From outside on the porch all Lynnette could see were a few shapes and outlines of furniture. She
clutched her aching stomach at that stage, wondering just what on earth was happening.

"Lynn." A frail voice called out.

Lynnette nearly went into cardiac arrest at that instant. She recognized her mother's voice, but the way
it sounded wasn't normal. Lynnette rushed her way inside.

"Mama, where are you?" her voice stuttered.

"We're over here." Wilma replied. "Your father's flashlight is lying next to the stairs."

Lynnette searched in the dark for the flashlight until she eventually stumbled upon it. She then clicked
the thing on and pointed it in the direction her mother's voice was coming from. The light shined on
both her mother and father who were seated on the floor in front of the couch. Her mother was cradling
her dad in her arms.

Lynnette slowly crept upon her parents. She first focused upon her father who had a deep laceration
across the right side of his face. She could see his hands shaking, while in his eyes was a vacant stare
that was off in another world. She saw his lips move while soft, incoherent words came out of his
mouth.



"They hurt your dad really bad." Wilma uttered while stroking the man's hair.

Lynnette then tuned the flashlight to her mother's face. Her look was worn, yet somewhat at ease.
Lynnette knew that something had taken place, but by her mother's lackluster appearance one would
believe that she was either settled or at least in a state of complete shock.

Getting closer with only her flashlight, Lynnette, with trembling hands and legs asked, "Mama, what
happened?"

At first, Wilma only shook her head from left to right. Becoming more disturbed by the second, Lynnette
went over and attempted to cut on the lamp that sat on the end table next to the window.

"They cut off the power, child. The phones don't work either."

Coming back over to her parents, Lynnette questioned, "Who cut off the power?"

"Those people," Wilma continued to shake her head in dismay.

Kneeling, Lynnette persisted, "Mama, what happened here? What happened to you and dad?"

Wilma's bland eyes at last connected with Lynnette's. The women stared at each other for a few
moments before Wilma opened her mouth.

"They came here and took your child."

"What?" Lynnette lost her breath. "What are you talking about?"

Wilma only dropped her head to look upon her husband. "Those people came in here. They hurt your
dad, and then they took your baby."

By then Lynnette was starting to get a headache, not only from the weariness of the days that were
wearing her nerves thin, but by her mother's cryptic ramblings.



"Mama, I don't understand who you are talking about!" Lynnette raised her voice.

Wilma then looked Lynnette in the eye again before saying, "The woman you and your sisters attacked
in the park. The man she was with, and that devil, too."

Lynnette's eyes nearly fell right out of their sockets at that moment from sheer fright. She fell
backwards onto the floor, dropping the flashlight.

"They came in here, and they all took him away."

Lynnette then jumped up from off the floor before reaching and grabbing her mother's shoulders. She
violently shook the woman back and forth while screaming, "Mama, what is wrong with you? What is
going on?"

"It's like a disease that branches out to everything...and everyone." Wilma only mumbled in a distant
tone before refocusing her attention back to Julius who was still muttering sweet nothings.

"Where did we go wrong?" The man ever so gently purred.

Lynnette gradually got to her quaking feet. What was ironic was that thanks to where she had dropped
the flashlight she was able to watch her parents as she backed out of the house. Neither of them
looked like the people she grew up knowing all her life. They too, had been plagued.

Lynnette stumbled out of the house and down the porch steps, nearly tripping and falling along the way.
She was hyperventilating all the way back to the waiting cab.

"I thought you forgot all about me." The cab driver snickered.

Lynnette sat in the backseat wheezing in and out. She couldn't stop herself from shaking and
slobbering.



"Are you okay back there?" The driver looked back.

"Can...can you drive me to the...police station?" She stammered uncontrollably.

"Uh...sure," he oddly replied before turning around and pulling away.

Her mother didn't have to specify who had invaded the house. There was no more explanation or
storytelling to be deliberated upon. From out of nowhere, and after so many months, Lynnette had a
son all over again, and she couldn't stop shaking while remembering him reaching out for her back
inside the bathroom way back in February.

She couldn't recall anything her mother said to her back at the house but that her child had been taken.
It grieved Lynnette's already queasy stomach to know that deep within her, she actually hoped that
whoever they were, would take Isaiah and themselves far, far away from her.


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