The Squad

“Ooh, aunty Roxy you scared me.” Aunty? No one has ever called me that before. These people are so weird, including their kids.

“You still haven’t told me what you’re doing down here.” I’d looked for and found the darkest, loneliest room in the whole place, not expecting to be disturbed by anyone.

“Uncle Hank lets me work down here when we’re on the island.”

“Work? What kind of work?” I can’t help my suspicions; sue me. I’m well acquainted with the so-called cream of society who hide the darkest deeds behind their money and charitable personas. Sure these people talk a good game, and their women and children don’t have the shadows in their eyes that I’m accustomed to. But you just never know.

She looked around at my question as if expecting to find someone else hiding behind me.

“I’ll show you, but you can’t tell daddy.”

“Oh, really! And why is that?”

“It makes him nervous.” I raised my brow at that. If her daddy is the big tattooed guy who looks like he gnawed on granite instead of a pacifier as a kid, then I don’t see much of anything making him nervous.

And then her words registered, and I felt a dip in my gut. Here we go, this is where she’s going to burst my bubble, because what could she possibly be doing that would make her dad nervous and who with? I felt a deep sense of disappointment and betrayal and recognized it for what it was.

Because somewhere deep in the very recesses of what once made me human, I’d been holding onto a slim hope that these people were what they seemed. That they weren’t hiding behind a façade. I’ll give it to them; they’re much better at hiding what they really are than the people who’d fostered me. It hadn’t taken me long to recognize the monster behind their smiles, and by the end of my first year, I was able to see them coming. Both the ones I knew and the ones who just visited when the need arose.

What about Jason? How could I have fallen for his good looks and smooth tongue? I called myself all kinds of fool for letting myself get trapped here. What do they want with me? Had the other sent them? Why am I only thinking about this now? Because I’d heard Cierra’s name and lost all common sense.

I started following her down the long cool hallway, still unsure what to expect but thinking the worst. I have to find a way to get me and the little ones off this island. How many of them are here again? I’d lost count, stupid. My mind was already in survival mode. I know there’s a plane here. Uncle Mike flew fighter jets in the army; maybe he can talk me through it. It’s a stretch, but it’s better than doing nothing.

We walked a few doors silently down, and I was even more convinced of what I would find. Why else would this child know about this darken forsaken place? And then she stopped. When she looked over her shoulder at me, I could’ve sworn it was a whole different person standing there.

Everything else was the same. The dark brown ringlets that still held a hint of the blonde they once were, the tiny frame that made her seem younger than her age. But her eyes, they were not as innocent as they had been two seconds ago. Maybe I’m imagining things. Then she smiled, and I felt a shiver run down my spine. This kid!

She carried on walking with me now, wondering who exactly it is that I should fear here. Her smile wasn’t sinister, but there was a wealth of shit in it that I can’t unpack. I don’t know her well enough yet. She stopped once again before the last door on the left at the end of the long hallway and pressed some keys on a pad to open it.

I looked over her head before stepping inside. Beyond was a room that looked like a very high-end laboratory. It took me a second to bring myself back from where my thoughts had taken me as I walked in and looked around the room. I’ve never seen anything like it outside of a movie screen, but just with the naked eye, I could tell that everything here was top notch. It goes with the men and women upstairs, I guess. First-class all the way.

“What is this place?”

“Come!” Her innocence was astounding, the way she just grabbed ahold of my hand and pulled me along with her. When I was her age, I was learning the consequences of what would happen to me and others if I engaged with strangers. It was then, at that moment, that I realized the folly of my earlier thoughts. Now I feel as if I’d tainted this place and them with those thoughts.