Chapter 3

The wallet, the picture. It was all dad's stuff. Why was his stuff down here? I took the candle, and flowed deeper into the cellar. More of dad's things were down there, and soon, I saw some glasses. Mom never wore glasses, and Joshua keeps his on the desk in the living room. I never wore glasses. So, it must be dad's.

"Honey, it's ok to come up now. The angry people are gone." It was Mum. She had something in her hand, but she dropped it and threw it over the fence. Tiger Lily followed Mum. I heard her soft meows and felt comfort again. I would look more into the whole "Dad" thing later. I climbed out the dirty cellar, and preceded to follow Mom up the stairs, outside.

It was quiet when I entered the house, although Dolly was barking softly, the house was still. Peaceful.

"Mom. What was that about? Why was there so many upset people outside?"

"Sweetie. I need to tell you something I should've told you long ago. There's something about you, that no one else has. And they're trying to take it away from you. I've locked you away to protect you, and I think you already know that. You're never. EVER. Leaving your space. I don't know if we're still going to live here or not. As you can see, people might already have a clue on what's going on."

"What?! You can't do that! I mean, I'm fine, but what about the others? They've grown up here. They can only make so many friends in the world. You can't take that away from them. I won't let you."

Mom looks confused. Then she blinks. "OH! No. The kids won't live with us. WE're moving. Not them. If I decide to move YOU then the others will stay here. In this house. I'd live with the others. I'm thinking of buying a tiny apartment, and you'd live there. I'd visit you, at least 10 times a month. Maybe less though. I'm sorry, but at this point, the options are limited. We cannot really stay in this house. I know your siblings will miss you, but if we go into the apartment, others will know that someone's living there and try to get to know you. I cannot fully trust you, so I'm going to have to find a way to get you to not leave, maybe an ankle monitor so I can track you. You'd probably get beaten with something, like a belt as a consequence."

A...consequence? I haven't had one of those before. But consequences cause bruises so...

"Yes mother. I will do as pleased." (respectful is always pleasured)

Mom looks like she was expecting it. "Good. I'll go apartment shopping tomorrow. Get some sleep. Try to rest. I'll see you in morning light."

The night felt cold. I wanted to leave, although I had just done so and it ended in complete disaster. I've settled in bed, and have almost dozed off, when a familiar knock raps on my door. It was me and Venessa's "secret" knock.

"You may come in Venessa."

She looks around my room, full of confusion. "Venus, what was all that about? I'm scared now, and can't go bac to sleep. And I had the best dream! There was this merman-" She hops on my bed, without giving me much time to hesitate. That's Venessa for ya. She starts telling me about her dream, where a merman told her she was a mermaid, but it disguise. She needed to find out what the "bad" huans were plotting, but in the end it was a huge misunderstanding. Humans weren't spilling oil into the ocean, they were trying to remove it. She said that there was a huge party, but she couldn't finish the party because of the "incident".

Soon, she fell asleep on my lap. The sound of her sweet snoring, filled my heart with relief. It was safe, It wasn't going to leave. Soon, I was in the land of dreams, thinking about the recent turn of events.