Chapter 13

A Not So Silent Night

 

After that night, I didn’t see Stripes again. Everything was finally normal. Stripes' belongings were packed away in a box and stored in a cupboard to most likely never be looked at again. The family photos always felt a little bit empty without him, but it was as if he never existed in the first place.

I always prepared myself for him to come flying up the stairs each week that passed, ranting on about how we had ruined him, but it never came.

Stripes was gone.

Even though we were a family now, I still couldn’t bring myself to call these people ‘Mum’ and ‘Dad’.

What if they didn't want me, like my real mother; or tossed me into the back of a van, like Stripes? I didn't want to get too attached, just in case.

Royce and Rolf had the same issue, but only because they still had their parents around. The man with the black fingers who had been at the Base doors before my Hunt turned out to be their ‘father.’ Gerald was the one who found the twins out on