It was still dark outside.
Getting to my feet, I quickly put on a pair of sweats Momma Roxy bought me when I was in Tennessee. Looking about the room, I made sure he wasn’t sitting in the dark. When I couldn’t see him, I left the room. Making my way down the long hallway, I was a bit apprehensive at how quiet the clubhouse was. Where was everyone?
As I descended the stairs, the main room was dark. All the lights were out. It looked ominous as a shiver of dread trickled down my spine. Something wasn’t right. I could feel it. Moving deeper into the darkness, I found myself at the back door in the kitchen. Opening it, I stepped outside into the dark, only to hear a muffled cry. Looking around, I spotted a small child sitting on a picnic table not more than a few feet away from me, holding a stuffed elephant in her arms. Walking over to her, I knelt before her. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”
She was a beautiful child. Not more than four or five. Her dark hair and silver eyes reminded me of Balthazar. It was then I remembered he had a daughter. A daughter I had yet to meet.
This had to be her.
Rebekah.
“My daddy is mad at Uncle Grimm.”
“And that upsets you?”
When she sniffed, nodding her little head, I sighed. I didn’t know what to say, let alone do. She had every right to be upset. She apparently loved her Uncle Grimm.
“Where is your daddy?” I asked, looking around the compound.
“In the shed.”
“The shed?” I questioned, looking around.
She pointed in the dark. Looking, I spotted a small concrete building far off in the distance. Just looking at that building, I knew there was no way I was going over there. I could feel the evil emanating from it from where I stood. Looking back at the little girl, I asked. “Where is your momma?”
“She’s in heaven with the angels.” And just like that, my heart broke for her. She was too young to know that kind of loss. I should know. I lost my own mother at an incredibly young age, and I never truly got over it.
“Uncle Shadow?”
“With Daddy. He’s mad too.”
I didn’t know what Baltazar and Shadow were doing, but I cringed when I heard someone scream.
“They are very mad,” the little girl cried, looking over her shoulder at the shed. Not thinking, I picked her up and headed back inside. There was no way I was staying outside with her to hear the moans, cries, and pain of her Uncle. That was between them and God, not a four-year-old little girl.
Back inside, I placed her on the kitchen counter and turned on the lights. With my hands on my hips, I sighed. “Okay little miss, what are we going to do until your daddy gets back?”
“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “We could play Go-Fish.”
Shaking my head, I sighed, biting my nail. “No, it’s too late for that.”
“Watch a movie?”
“No. I cry too much when I watch them.”
“You can read me a book,” she offered, and I grinned. “Now, that I can do.” Walking back over to her, I picked her up, placing her on my hip as we headed upstairs. Not knowing which room was hers, I should have realized that she would be close to him when she pointed to the room next to Balthazar’s.
Smiling, I carried her into her room and placed her on her pretty pink bed. Her room was a little girl’s dream, with pink and purple splashed everywhere. Though I wasn’t sure, she needed a picture of a Golden Skull with a tiara on its head, saying ‘Golden Princess,’ but what did I know.
Looking at her not-so-little bookshelf that went all the way to the ceiling, I turned to ask, “Which one should I pick?”
“Which one is your favorite?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, looking at all the books I never got to read. There were so many of them.
“I like ‘The Neverending Story.’ Momma was reading that to be before she went to heaven. You can read it to me if you want.”
Finding the book, I laid down next to her small frame, letting her snuggle close as I opened the book to the first chapter and began.“The inscription could be seen on the glass door of a small shop…”