Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Victoria, British Columbia
August 20, 2018
9:30 AM
Hayley couldn’t believe her luck! She’d only been in kindergarten for half an hour, but she’d already made a friend! She and her new friend, Jasmine, sat near the back of the room, and even through her excitement at having a friend, Hayley fidgeted nervously. She’d never really spoken to anyone other than her moms or her little sister, so they’d mostly been sitting in silence.
“I wanna go home.” Jasmine groaned. “This is so boring.”
“We’ve barely started!” Hayley pointed out. “My moms say not to judge a book by its cover, whatever that means.”
11:00 AM
Holly and Aurora were admittedly anxious about being without Hayley for the first time in five years. They’d spent the morning playing with Calliope, trying to distract themselves from their nagging anxiety.
“How do you think she’s doing?” Aurora asked her wife.
“I’m sure she’s doing fine.” Holly reassured her. “We’ve raised her well. If anyone hurts her, then I know she’ll kick their head in.”
12:30 PM
At recess, Hayley and Jasmine had chosen to curl up under a tree, rather than playing on the playground with everyone else.
“It’s too loud.” Jasmine complained. “They’ve all been so loud the whole day! It’s even worse than my little cousins.”
Hayley nodded softly. “They all act so weird, too, they act like they’re my baby sister’s age.”
Jasmine laughed. “Especially the boys. I can’t believe we have to come here every single day!”
Hayley slowly inched her hand over and put it on top of Jasmine’s.
“At least we can do this every day, right?” Hayley asked.
Jasmine nodded. “Definitely.”
3:30 PM
Holly and Aurora sat in their car by the front of their daughter’s elementary school. They were nervous. They’d both been bullied for years in school, and they really didn’t want Hayley to have to go through what they did.
“Do you remember your first day of school?” Holly asked her wife.
Aurora shrugged. “I remember crying for 90 minutes straight because I couldn’t be in your class.”
“I remember that.” Holly said with a chuckle. “If anyone made her cry today, I’ll gut them myself.”
Before Aurora could respond, Hayley came walking slowly down the school steps, talking to another girl. In a shock to her parents, Hayley gave the girl a quick hug, before running over to the car.
“How was your day, kiddo?” Aurora asked with a tentative smile on face.
“It was amazing!” Hayley squealed. “I made a friend!”
Aurora turned back to look at her daughter, her eyes wide. “Already? That’s awesome!”
Hayley nodded. “Her name’s Jasmine! She’s super nice.”
“Well tell us about her!” Holly insisted.
Hayley leaned back and kicked her feet. “Well, her favorite animals are cheetahs and tigers! She's an only child, and she’s really good at drawing!”
“She sounds wonderful!” Aurora said. “I’ll give you an extra cookie tomorrow so you can share with her.”
“Thanks, Mama!” Hayley squealed gratefully.
11:00 PM
Lying in bed late at night, Aurora and Holly had time to think about their new lives with their older daughter going to school now.
“I’m glad we didn’t homeschool her.” Holly admitted. “This Jasmine girl seems really sweet.”
“She’d better be.” Aurora sighed. “I don’t want our baby girl to end up getting treated like how we were.”
“If she gets bullied, can we go back to killing people?" Holly asked with pleading eyes.
Aurora giggled and playfully shoved her arm. “No! We’d have to move again and that would be a pain!”
August 21, 2018
10:30 AM
With Holly at work, Aurora had the apartment to herself, with only little Calliope there to keep her company. She was playing with her on the living room floor, with the mid-morning news on the TV in the background.
“...Six years ago today, the FBI headquarters experienced an explosion that killed 37 individuals…”
Aurora choked on air at the mention of what she and her wife had down. She picked Calliope up and held her against her side as she focused her attention towards the news.
“...Still no solid suspects… Multiple departments were seriously damaged…”
At the mention of no suspects, Aurora was able to relax greatly. It did mildly surprise her, though. She thought that she and Holly would’ve seemed like obvious suspects, considering who the recipient of the package had been.
“Dumb cops.” She said under her breath, with a big smirk on her face.
August 22, 2018
2:00 PM
Ryan’s visit to his mother-in-law in Victoria had been… uneventful so far. In the several years that had passed since his and Laura’s failed pursuit of Holly & Aurora, he’d been promoted to be a corporal, while Laura had moved on to be a lieutenant.
He and his husband had decided to spend the afternoon at a local bowling alley, having nothing else to do before they went home the next day.
The employee behind the front counter was a girl with dyed purple hair and a slight smile on her face.
“Hi.” Ryan greeted. “Can we reserve a lane, please?”
The girl blinked, as if she was in deep thought about something, and then smiled.
“Of course!” She said. “Lemme get you started.”
5:15 PM
“AURORA!”
Aurora and her daughters all jumped at the sound of Holly’s shout as she raced through the front door.
“What the hell is your problem?” Aurora asked.
Holly’s face turned slightly pale, but she giggled nonetheless. “You won’t believe who showed up at the alley today.”
Holly picked Calliope up and embraced Hayley with her free arm as Aurora gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“Who was it?” She asked.
Holly giggled. “One of the cops from back home.”
Aurora gasped softly, quickly rushing the kids off to the other room before returning to her wife.
“Did he recognize you?” She asked.
Holly shook her head. “I doubt it. It’s been six years, I barely recognized him. My hair is a completely different color now, anyway.”
“We’ve worked so hard for this.” Aurora said, gesturing around the apartment. “I don’t wanna risk it.”
“We can’t kill him.” Holly sighed. “Way too risky. We’d probably still be prime suspects, and then they’d have our location.”
“So what? We just let him get away?” Aurora asked, her voice short.
“We kinda have to.” Holly argued. “The girls are so young, we need to think about them! I mean, we can’t just go around killing people anymore! Our little spree was so fun, but we can’t do it again. I know you don’t wanna leave here, and I don’t either. This is our home now.”
“You’re right.” Aurora conceded. “I just am scared that we’re not doing enough to protect the girls.”
“I literally bought you a shotgun last year…” Holly said. “Look, if I see him again, then we can talk about actually taking action. If I don’t, then we just leave it at that. He’s probably just visiting for whatever reason.”
August 27, 2018
9:00 AM
Laura was in her office when she saw Ryan coming back from his week-long trip. She got up to greet him almost immediately, leaving a mess of papers on her desk.
“Hey, Ryan.” She said warmly. “How was Victoria?”
“It was nice.” He replied. “Except there was this weird girl working at the bowling alley.”
“Weird how?”
“Well… she kept staring at us. It felt like her eyes were boring holes into the back of my skull. She smiled whenever I looked at her, but I swear there was no warmth in it whatsoever.”
“That is kinda weird.” Laura agreed. “Maybe she’s just weird, a lot of people are.”
“Maybe she’s one of the Collins sisters!” Ryan’s coworker said from across the room.
Ryan rolled his eyes. “I highly doubt I’d run into the Collins sisters in Victoria. Hell, I bet they’re dead by now.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it.” Laura said. “I’m sure she’s just some stoned teenager with a part-time job that she doesn't really want. There’s nothing more to it.”