Chapter One

The young girl stood stock still in shock at her uncle's words to a strange man, "She isn't blood, a bastard child from my wife's sister who passed over seven years ago. She is more of a burden. If you are still looking for a young girl. You can have her."

"I am." Spoke the man.

The thirteen-year-old couldn't believe her ears, and she jumped a mile high in fright. She turned to see who put their hand on her shoulder and looked into her aunt's forest green doe-like eyes, the same eyes that she and her mom have. Her aunt tilted her head to the stairs, and the girl followed after her.

They climbed to the second floor and down the hall where her aunt pulled down a ladder that leads into the attic. They climbed up the stairs once they reached the top. Her aunt pulled the ladder up and walked over to a corner and kneeled down. She followed suit.

After a few moments of awkwardness, "Aunt Aoife, what is going on?"

She looked at her niece for a time before turning her attention to the wall of the attic she removed a piece of paneling and set it aside and brought out a small box and set it down between them.

"I took you in, not because I love you, but for my sister."

"I know Auntie."

Aoife closed her eyes and reopened and took her niece's hand. "I do care about you, but I can't allow myself to love you through the last seven years. It wouldn't have been good for us both."

The girl looked over the cramped full attic of deserted memories and broken items, somehow Autumn felt she did belong among the lost treasures of time that her family left behind. She glances back at her aunt who was waiting for a response and gave her aunt's hand a squeeze unable to do so verbally.

"What your uncle is doing is wrong. I will not allow it to happen to you. I will pack your school bag tonight and another bag. You will go to school tomorrow; you will act sick or needed to go to the bathroom."

The sound of a ladder was heard by both as her aunt went silent. Her uncle's voice shouted up, "Aoife is the girl with you?"

"Yes, she is. Helping me to sort through a few things I need her to give to the school theater. We are just coming down now."

Standing up, they moved to the stairs, Aoife, turned and shook her niece hard, "Promise me, Autumn, you will do as I tell you."

"I will." At her niece's words. They moved back down the stairs at the end of them stood Autumn's uncle.

"To bed." He barked at his niece who nodded her head, and she dashed off to her small bedroom.

Last edited on January 1, 2020