"Ma'am, ma'am can you tell if the child is breathing?" The operator asked again.
"She's not there." Was all Violet could say.
"What do you mean she's not there?" The operator inquired.
"She's not on the couch where we left her. She's gone!" Violet exclaimed in disbelief. The child appeared to be too wounded to move and was exhausted to the point of collapsing. So how did she disappear into thin air?
"Ma'am I'm dispatching an officer right now to your location, in the meantime I will stay on the phone with you. Can you spot the child anywhere in the room?" The dispatcher asked still tying away filling in the information on the other end of the line.
Scanning the room Violet didn't see her. She started looking behind the couch and around the tables letting the person on the other end of the line know that she had not yet found her. Violet began to panic. Violet had a scary, hurt, and lost child loose in her house. She began searching quicker looking in the kitchen under the table. Up the stairs and in all the open rooms and the hall closet.
"She couldn't have gotten too far." Violet thought to herself. She looked back toward the open door. "Did she leave back out into the rain?" she thought to herself. Sadness and worry started to fill her core at the thought of the small girl running in the rain. searching for help. At that moment a shrill scream came from the back of the house making Violet's blood run cold. Violet took off running toward the noise phone still in hand.
Violet made it to the source of the sound which apparently was the sun room. Throwing open the door she saw Samuel and the ghostly child standing on one side of the room and Marcus looking stunned on the other. The small child was clinging to Samuel for what seemed to be for dear life and what shocked Violet the was he was holding her back. Violet guessed he noticed her because he looked over at her tears streaming from his eyes, as he was trying to comfort the little girl.
Heavy breaths sounded from behind Violet making her turn around and see Harmony running full speed from behind her and then stopping next to her. "I heard a scream what's going on?" Harmony asked Violet with a pile of towel in her arms.
Violets only answer was, "I don't know." Violet could understand what she saw, but what she didn't know was why. Why was the strange, battered, little girl clinging to someone she didn't know? Was it because she mistook him for someone that she did know? Was she just that out of it? Violet looked at Samuel as if trying to pry some kind of answer out of him. But he kept his gaze down cast at the little figure that had attached herself to him.
Violet faintly heard what sounded like a voice echoing in her ears. She started looking around for the noise only to realize that it was coming from her hand where she had the phone. Violet quickly put it back up to her ear.
"Ma'am are you till there? What was that commotion? Did you find the missing child?" the woman asked. Her voice frantic.
"Yes I'm here, we found her, yes she's still here." Violet said watching as Samuel was holding the child still.
"The officer and EMS are in route miss, they should be there soon." the woman said.
"Ok, thank you." Violet said and then hung up the phone. Turning her attention back to the sight that had the three out of four of them confused. Seeing no one else try and make a move Violet decided to try and get some answers.
Violet cautiously walked over to Sam. "She seems to trust you." she said looking at the quivering child. As she clung to him her tear stained eyes darting in every direction. Looking at Harmony, then Marcus and finally stopping on her. Violet could see terror in her eyes, as if she was frightened of the world around her. A loud boom of thunder shook the ceiling of the sun room, making her hide her face once again on the other side of Samuel's leg.
"Oh I got this like you asked." Harmony said to violet. She then brought over the towel and laid it across the child, whom flinched from the unexpected contact. Violet felt her heart hurt, the poor thing. She reminded her of an abused puppy. Who would do something like this? Violet wondered to herself. An answer came to mind and it made her feel sick to her very soul.
Violet looked toward Samuel. At this point he had stopped crying yet, his face was still red and covered in streaks from the tears that had dried. Even though there was still sadness still swirling in his blue eyes, the main emotion that they reflected was pure unbridled hatred.
"Samuel what's up?" Violet asked.
Samuel was silent for a moment then looked at Violet. "You said that she seems to trust me." Samuel said his voice rattling a bit. Violet could tell that he was fighting the rage that was swelling up inside of him. Violet hadn't known Samuel for more than a day but she knew how to read a room. Right now Samuel was far from being friendly.
Violet nodded "Yeah I did, I didn't mean to upset you." Violet replied trying to soothe the tension in the room. Taking a step closer, toward him ready to get the little girl away from him in case he went off.
Shying away from her, he held the little girl closer to him and said, "She should she's my baby sister."