Chapter 1
September 21st, 2020 - Mulberry Grove, Illinois

"That'll be $18.75," the bored teenage girl sitting behind the cash register at the service station said.
"Thanks dear," a frail looking blond woman in her mid-sixties replied, handing the girl a twenty dollar bill. "Do you know anywhere we could buy lunch around here?" she added, looking back at her husband who was sitting in their beat-up, twenty-five year old car.
The girl nodded. "Sure. We actually work as a restaurant on the side."
The woman looked surprised. "How charming...." she said. "How charmingly quaint." She called to her husband through the window. "Skipper! We can eat in here!"
Her husband, also very frail and in his mid-sixties, climbed out of the car and made his way into the service station.
"This place works as a restaurant on the side," the woman said happily. "Isn't that sweet... just like old times."

The man nodded. "It's lovely dear." He turned to the girl, who was staring at her nails. "We've been looking for places like this everywhere, but they all seem to have disappeared."
The girl tried to stop herself from yawning. "I've never seen another one since I was a little girl," she said, humouring the old people. "What do you want? We have meat pies, sausage rolls, burgers...." She gestured to the small heating cabinet behind her. The old people looked at the cabinet with interest. Weirdos. "So, are you traveling?" she asked. Anything to make this boring day go faster.
The woman nodded. "Yes... I think I'll have a burger. It's been so long since I've had one."
"I'll have a sausage roll," the man said.
The girl nodded and picked up her tongs. "Where are you going?" she asked, pulling the sausage roll and soggy burger from the cabinet and putting them into paper bags.
"We're going to see our children," the woman said. "It's been so long since we've seen them." That was true. They'd actually been released from jail four and a half months later than they'd supposed to be released, because of an article Grubbery had written about child abusers begin let off too easily.
"In Oklahoma," the man added. While they certainly weren't pleased with Grubbery, considering the article he'd written, they still reserved their largest amount of hate for Tweedle-Tay and Michaela. They knew Tweedle-Tay well enough to know that he wouldn't leave his brothers and sisters and probably wouldn't leave the house, and while Michaela *was* a problem... They'd done their research and knew that the twins were carrying on that great Manson family tradition.
"How nice," the girl replied. "$4.80 please," she added, holding out her hand.
The man handed her a five dollar bill. "Keep the change," he said generously, turning to leave with his wife.
The girl rolled her eyes. Twenty lousy cents. You couldn't even buy a jelly baby with that. "Thanks," she said anyway. "Have fun seeing your children."
The man turned around and smiled eerily. "Oh, we will. You can be sure of that."