Marvin Zillner's POV; 14 years ago:
I enter the bedroom silently, as I've done too many times to keep track of. This is a new room for me, the kid just became old enough to get a monster. If I remember correctly, I'm here for a 4 year old girl that's afraid of loud noises. Phonophobia, I think, common for young kids. I take a look around the room and am taken back by the appearance.
The room has two beds and a crib in it. The floor is barren of the toys I normally see and the walls are empty of decorations. I take a closer look at the beds. The crib holds a baby covered with a blanket far too big for it to belong. One of the beds has two small kids sleeping curled up into each other sharing a thin blanket. The last bed holds the girl I'm supposed to scare. She's wearing a faded nightgown and has a blanket that doesn't cover her in the slightest. She switched her blanket for the one in the crib, I realize.
I try to move closer so I can do my job, but a floorboard creaks under my weight. The girl wakes up and looks directly at me. I can make out her features a little better now. She has long golden hair and wide brown eyes. This is most definitely my kid. She doesn't look scared of me though, more surprised than anything.
"Are you here to help us?" she asks. Her voice is soft, as though she's afraid of alerting someone that I'm here. "I don't want them here anymore." She looks over to the other bed and the crib. The "them" must be these children.
"What do you mean help you?" I question. I search my memory for her name, something we mostly ignore when examining the files of kids. Brooke, I remember, Her name is Brooke. "What help do you need, Brooke?" Her face lights up at hearing her name.
"You know my name!" she quietly exclaims. "You have to be our hero." I notice a small storybook sitting next to her on the bed. It's a fairytale. "I knew we had to be princesses. Someone would save us from the witch soon enough."
"What witch?" I ask. I move closer and she sits up. We're now looking each other in the eye.
"Our auntie," she whispers. "She took us after mommy died. I don't think she wanted us. She tries to lose us at the library all the ladies there taught me to read while we waited for the police to come and take us home." This girl sounds like she's suffered a bit. "But I take care of the girls. She won't split us up if I keep them out of trouble."
So the other kids are girls, too, I think. "What about your daddy?" I ask. She has me asking more questions than I should.
She shrugs. "I never met him. Auntie says that he only came when he wanted something mommy would give him and then left her with another baby because mommy was too stupid to say no to him." She scrunches her face up as she repeats her aunt's words. She obviously doesn't like to talk about her mother in the way her aunt does.
I know I can't stay here for too much longer, but I can't just leave these poor girls in this situation. This girl doesn't seem like the toxic creature they always told us humans were. "Do you want to come with me?" I ask her. It's a rash and risky decision, but I'll regret leaving them here more than if I take them with me and get caught.
"I can't go alone," she says. She looks at the other girls again. "My sisters have to come with me. They're princesses, too." She knows the other girls won't be safe here, but she'll face the dangers with them if I don't take them all.
"Of course," I whisper. I start for the crib, deciding I'll carry the baby rather than let one of these kids do it. I watch Brooke go over the other bed. She shakes the two girls in it awake. The first one has long black hair and big blue eyes. The second has short auburn hair, cut unevenly as though done unprofessionally, and tired green eyes.
"Twi, Beck," Brooke says to them, "get up. We're leaving and we're taking Hannah with us." I'm guessing they've thought about leaving before, but didn't know how to handle the baby and abandoned the idea in favor of their sister.
I look at the baby I've just picked up. Her eyes are closed, but her hair is shockingly white. I lean down to the girls' level. "Now I'm going to need you three to listen to me carefully and do exactly as I say," I tell them. They all nod. "Before we leave I'm going to need all three of you to scream as loud as you possibly can. Once we walk through the door, I'll need you three to do your best to hide behind me and not be seen by anyone. Can you do all that?" They nod again. "I'll have you hide under a table with your sister until it's safe to take you all to my home." They seem to understand. Please go well, I think to myself as I lead them to the closet door. I hide the baby with my fur a little hoping that she won't wake up from the screams. "Alright, now scream."
The three girls scream louder than any child I've ever heard before. They all stop when I reach for the door knob on the closet. I leave with them close behind. As soon as I'm back on the scare floor, people start applauding me. "That was a good one, Marv," someone says. I look over at the next station and see Bill Sullivan.
"Thanks, Bill," I respond doing my best to keep the four human girls hidden. "Turns out there were three girls rather than one. Scared all of 'em." Everyone laughs before going back to work. I carefully lead the girls to my desk and hide them while my partner gets the next door ready. "Now remember to stay quiet and hidden," I whisper as I hand the baby to Brooke. She nods and pulls her sisters closer to her. I sigh and go back to work.
~Time Skip~
After everyone's left for the day, I finally take the girls out to my car. I hide them in the back seat and drive to the only person I know that could help me now. An old friend of mine has a son about Brooke's age, so I'm sure that she'll have some advise. I finally arrive to her house, which just happens to be next door to mine. The girls have fallen asleep, so I decide to leave them be while I talk.
I go up and knock on the door. It's not long before it opens. "Marvin," Ethel, my friend, greets. "Isn't this a pleasant surprise? Come on in." She gestures for me to enter her home. "Bob is putting Mikey to bed right now, but I'm sure he'll be happy to see you." She leads me to that ugly floral print couch I've made fun of since she got it. I take a seat.
"Ethel," I say, "I need your help." She gives me the go-on signal to continue what I need. "I might have done something illegal at work today."
"What did you do?" she asks. I see Bob come around the corner. He looks concerned. I guess he heard the start of my confession.
"I was assigned to scare this girl," I start, "and it turns out that she and her three sisters were in a really bad situation. She woke up and asked if I was there to help them before telling me their story. I couldn't just leave them there, so I snuck them out and now their asleep in my car."
"Is that all?" Bob asks. He's moved further into the room during my story and is now standing next to his.
"The youngest one is a baby," I add. I have no idea how to raise children, but these two are raising one right now. They have to be able to help us.
"We have Mikey's crib in the basement," Ethel says. "We could get beds for the other three tomorrow morning. That is, if you want to keep them with you."
"I don't think I could do anything else with them at this point," I sigh. "I just don't know anything about kids. How am I supposed to become a father all of sudden?"
"It's not easy but we'll help," Bob tells me. "You're already Mikey's favorite 'uncle' so I'm sure he wouldn't mind having some cousins. I think I've even got something that will help them blend in." I hadn't even thought of making sure no one knows their human. That would be disastrous if anyone found out.
"Ooh, go get it Bobby," Ethel says. She seems excited about whatever it is he's talking about. He leaves the room to find whatever it is. Bob works on making experimental treatments for the medical field.
"Here it is," I hear him say. He comes out with a large bottle of some liquid. "This was supposed to help burn victims heal without any scars, but all it did was leave our test subjects all scaly. It wears off after a month, but I can easily make more."
"The girls will look like normal monsters with this," Ethel tells me. "Now why don't we get that crib and find a place for those girls to sleep while we come up with a proper story for them."