"HOLLY CLARK! GET OUT OF THAT CAR AND MAKE YOURSELF USEFUL!" her mother scolded.
"Awwww." Holly complained.
"Holly..." Mr. Clark warned.
Holly, seven years old, hopped out of the car belonging to her adoptive parents and picked up a bag of groceries from the trunk. She carried it inside the house and set it down on the kitchen floor. Then she went back outside and got another bag to bring in.
After she and her parents were done bringing the groceries inside, Holly asked " Can I go play outside?"
"Yes." Mr. Clark replied. "But you have to stay in the backyard. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yessir." Holly replied. Usually, her parents weren't so rough when it came to small things like going outside in the backyard, but Holly had a bit of a habit of leaving the yard and going to the woods.
She really couldn't help it. Sometimes, it felt like the woods were calling her, and sometimes, that pull was too hard to resist.
But Holly had been teaching herself control to avoid the consequences of leaving home without permission, and so far, it was working.
Holly went into the backyard while her parents brought the last of the stuff inside. Holly sniffed the air. For some reason, Holly had always had abnormally strong sight, smell, and hearing, and although she wasn't quite sure why, it came in handy when she was doing something she wasn't supposed to. Her parents never, ever caught her because she could always hear them coming.
Today, Holly smelled someone than her parents. Do I really smell that bad? She wondered, turning her head and trying to smell her armpits. But it was not herself in need of a shower. It was someone else.
Holly looked around. The leaves rustled, and someone stepped out of the bushes.
"Mr. Addison?" Holly asked.
The person was James Addison, Holly's former neighbor. He'd lived near them before the Clark's moved about a year ago."Hello, Holly. I see you remember me. Would you like to take a trip?"
"To where?" Holly asked.
"That's a surprise." Mr. Addison.
Holly jumped up and clapped her hands. "Yay! I love surprises!" she exclaimed.
Mr. Addison smiled. "Good."
"I have to go pack!" Holly exclaimed, and she ran towards the house.
"Wait!" Mr. Addison yelled. Holly turned around. "There are two things. This is a no-packing trip, OK? And second of all, you have to very quiet, because no one else is allowed to go on the trip. It's a private Holly trip. And we don't want to upset anyone who wasn't invited, would we?"
Holly shook her head. She followed Mr. Addison out to his truck and got inside with him. "Now you have to lie down and not get up until I tell you." Mr. Addison instructed.
"Why?" Holly asked.
"Because otherwise, you can't go on the trip." Mr. Addison replied.
"OK." Holly replied. She got down on the floor, but an uneasy feeling was beginning to rise in her stomach. Her mom and dad had always told her never to get into a car with a stranger. But Mr. Addison wasn't a stranger, was he?