Jeremy took care of us for only a few months before we finally caught on to his strange behavior. The jittery movements and hypersensitivity seemed to have just come off as stress. That's why we never said anything when we wouldn't see him for long periods of time.

"He must be overwhelmed," Bonnie told me "It's best to give him his space."

We also took Jeremy's stuttering and racing thoughts as anxiety. Being older and wiser, Bonnie and I pitied the man. He could barely even stomach the food he made for us, which made him even more skinny. However, when his nose started bleeding while he was talking to Mike, that's when the truth came out.


"What the hell is this?!"

A block wrapped in brown paper slammed down on the kitchen table. I didn't want to believe it, but there was no mistaking the minute white clouds that flew out of the slits of the brown paper from the force of Mike's hand.

"I-I-It's not what you think—"

Before Jeremy could stammer out a half-assed excuse, Mike viciously ripped open the paper, revealing just what I had dreaded.

I could hear Foxy telling Chica to go upstairs from their position in the living room. They probably heard the commotion and instantly assumed that it was nothing to stick around for. God, didn't Mike at least have the decency to wait until we had gone to school to interrogate Jeremy? Didn't he think of the fact that although we weren't in the same room as him, we could still hear the chaos?

They yelled at one another all morning, Mike scolding Jeremy for his irresponsibility and blatant lying while Jeremy tried desperately to defend his case. When my siblings and I were finished getting ready for school, Jeremy was in tears. When we got home that day, he was gone.

I didn't know whether to feel upset or relieved.


When we heard that Fritz would be taking the place of Jeremy, we were paranoid, needless to say. If he was in the same family tree as Mike and Jeremy, he probably was no better than them, but Mike reassured us that Fritz was far different from Jeremy.

Unlike Fritz, Jeremy had a history of drug addiction (apparently, it had also sparked the argument at out mother's funeral; he was caught snorting coke in the bathroom) that Mike knew about. However, Jeremy had promised that he was clean, now. Clearly, that wasn't the case.

However, Mike has never had any problems with Fritz in the past. According to Mike, Fritz had always been a "goody-two-shoes", and that behavior had followed him into adulthood. He apparently also had a wife and two adult kids in college, which showed he was already experienced with children. Recently, he and his wife divorced, but Mike says that they're still on good terms.

With all of this in mind, we had a little bit more faith in this new babysitter. Even his physical appearance was the exact opposite of Jeremy. He was a chubby man with a much more cheerful appearance. His thick-rimmed glasses, carrot orange hair, and freckles complimented his overall nerdy presence.

"Kids, I'm sorry you had to see what happened to your cousin Jeremy," he told us in his most sincere tone "He's not a bad person. He's just sick. I know what you saw was probably really scary, but trust me, we'll take care of him. He's family, after all. We'd never leave him behind."

That was probably what immediately earned my trust. He had done something that Mike had neglected to do: heal the scars left from seeing Jeremy's true colors.

He was the closest thing to the father figure Mike once was that we had seen in years. By now, our hunger for paternal love had rendered us ravenous. We practically clung onto Fritz like leeches. Luckily, he seemed happy to oblige and give us all of the attention we desired. He catered to Chica's Daddy's Girl tendencies. He tended to Foxy's needs. He paid attention to Bonnie's silent communication. Even I admit to sharing my teenage woes with Fritz more often than I probably should have, but he didn't mind listening and giving me advice. His sympathy was about as addicting as opium.


When Fritz wasn't at work, he was in our home. Even when Mike was home, himself, Fritz was there to grace us with his presence, something we all appreciated. He would eat meals with us, spend the nights in the guest room, and help with the chores. That's around the time that things started getting strange.

Eventually, we found more and more of Fritz's clothes mixed with ours. His toothbrush regularly stood beside Foxy's and his bath towels were piling up. Our food was running out faster than usual, along with things like toothpaste and soap. Even the natural scent of his presence stuck around the house and mingled with ours. As much as we hated to admit it, Fritz was overstaying his welcome.

At some point, Fritz had spent five days in a row with us, never leaving the house once. We were all thinking the same thing, so one day, Mike offered to drive Fritz home, seeing as we've never seen him drive to or from here.

Fritz kindly declined, claiming he needed to walk to lose weight.

Mike then went on to ask where he works and how far away it was. Whatever answer Fritz had given him, Mike said it was a lie.


Fritz's disappearance was a soothing relief compared to Jeremy. One day, he walked out that door and never came back.

Turns out that he had a gambling problem, which not only resulted in his wife leaving him, but him gambling away his house and his car. He was also unemployed, which didn't make anything any better.

I was kinda sad to hear that. Fritz genuinely seemed like a good person, even though his frequent stays had become a nuisance. He was homeless now and just walking the streets to God knows where.

When I went to bed that night, I came to the realization that had let his cousin roam the streets, knowing that he hadn't a penny to his name. It downright sickened me. I would have gotten out of bed to argue with him, but I was much too tired. Tired of the lack of trust. Tired of having to fight. Tired of everything. So I went to bed with scorching hot words turning lukewarm in my throat.


Mike got a promotion at his job, which is great. But one of the consequences of that would be that he would be away from us every day and for many more hours. He even said that there would be periods of time where he had to travel and be gone for days on end. Even though I was nearly eighteen, I couldn't take care of a household for that long. I was still in school, too. So, Mike called one last person, someone he initially didn't want to bother because his job involved working with kids. But, being a family member, Mike had hoped that his cousin could extend a helping hand.

His name was Vincent.