"What are you doing?!"
I turned my face away when I felt an intense heat. I stepped back, shielding my eyes from the thick, black smoke that bellowed from the car that my dad had set on fire. I looked as the fires danced around the interior of the car, the tips flaming out the windows. I turned to look at my father. He looked solemn and his face was unreadable.
"Why did you do that?" I questioned forcefully. How where we supposed to make it back to the Agency with no fucking car? "How are we supposed to get back to Travis now? Walk?" he turned around and walked away without giving an answer which only fueled my frustration. "Dad." I called to him hoping to gain his attention. No response. I let out a low growl, giving up on trying making sense of him. He just continued to walk forward, so I reluctantly followed. I knew where we were. We were on the border of Chicago. We along the side of the highway with silence cascading over us until we reached a sign that was decorated with neon lights blinking with age with a good number of letters already burnt out.
"Welcome to Chinatown!"
. . .
I picked my way through the bustling crowd of Chinatown. Chinatown was a market place full of Chinese marketers trying to sell their goods. God, it was deafening. All I could hear were nasally voices calling out shit like, "The cod be 2.50." I was beyond annoyed now. I had brainless people running into me, Asians screaming into my ear, and I still had no idea what the freaking fuck we were doing. Before long we came up to a large building with gothic style architecture. Above the front door there was a gigantic sign that read "Rosewood Hall." I felt my blood run cold at what it said underneath it. "Catholic Orphanage."
I shook my head as my father climbed the steps and used the huge doorknocker. I came up slowly behind him, trembling. "Wha…What are we doing here?" I asked, my voice quaking uncontrollably. He turned slightly to me and answered. "You'll be staying here…" He didn't get the chance to finish his sentence before I interjected. "WHAT?!" I screamed at him with tears falling down my cheeks. "WHY? Is it because of Diana? I get it, you kill her and you and then you get tired of your own daughter too, huh? You are the fucking worst dad in the world, you know that? God, why can't I just have a normal life and a normal dad who actually cares and loves me. Why'd I get stuck with you?" My rant was interrupted when the gigantic doors swung open and a blinding light came from the inside. I felt the tears stinging in the corners of my eyes as a nun stepped through the door way. I quickly wiped my tears away as she smiled at my dad.
"Ah, so it was you who called." She said. My dad nodded in agreement. "This is Piper." He said motioning to me. "I need you to take care of her temporarily." My heart fluttered in relief at my dad's use of temporarily. But I still felt angry and very hurt at the idea of being left behind by my own father.
"Ah yes. Come in child, please come in." the nurse reached out towards me. I took a step forward so that I was closer to her. My dad held out an envelope with cash sticking out to the nun. She looked at him and pushed the money back towards him. "We'll take good care of Piper. You don't need to worry." "He won't" I thought bitterly to myself while my dad put the money back into his coat. We made eye contact briefly before I quickly looked at the ground, feeling bad about the things I had said to him.
"Will you come back?" I asked weakly. I waited for a few moments for him to respond, and when he didn't I finally looked up. He had been staring me down. "Do you want me to?" he asked emotionlessly. I met held his gaze. "Well…yeah. You are my dad. Of course I want you to come back." He just kept staring at me. "That's not what you were saying just a few moments ago. Would you rather me leave you here so you can get the "normal" family you want?" I felt my face flush red in anger.
"You know what, screw you!" I spat at him. I turned and walked towards the doorway of the orphanage. When I got there I stopped and turned around, meeting his eyes again. I knew I was crying but I was too stubborn to wipe away the tears. "Come back, don't come back. I don't care, dad." I yelled bitterly at him. I knew I was lying to myself. I did care. A lot.
"Fine." He muttered and turned and started to walk away. "Love you too dad!" I yelled after him fully sobbing then. The nun came to me and ushered me inside and closed the door behind us. She wrapped one of her robbed arms around me. "Don't worry. He'll come back. No doubt about it." She put a hand on my shoulder and guided me down a hallway. I was still sobbing uncontrollably, already missing my dad despite the anger I felt towards him. I heard the nun speak.
"My Name is Sister Mary." She said smiling towards me. I didn't smile back. I couldn't even if I wanted to. She patted my back. "Come on Piper. Let's go get you a room setup."
I was heartbroken. But little did I know that on that day, my dad was heartbroken too.