"Look, this boy is clearly crying. Don't you recognize him?"
"Yes, I recognize Billy Reyes."
Matilda was lost in thought, so lost in thought even that she hadn't even put up a fight when Cynthia put her back in a diaper with only one of Hortensia's shirts to cover it.
"Let's stay in your room." Matilda said. Hortensia looked at her hesitantly.
"Only if you promise not to shit in my bed." Matilda rolled her eyes.
"I believe you." Matilda said when they were left alone. "About your friend." The name had been driving her nuts. She knew she had heard it before, but she never connected it to the missing boy Hortensia had told her about. One of several, she remembered. "I don't think he ran away either."
Hortensia perked up. "I knew you were smart."
"When Miss Honey had her, um, episode, we were at her aunts house cleaning it out. She found a box full of dirty magazines and, uh, adult toys. One of them actually fell open on top of her, it was pretty hilarious." Hortensia wrinkled her face in disgust.
"No wonder she had to go to the hospital. I would too if something that had been in the Trunchbull touched me. Miss Honey probably has leprosy now."
"That's not how you get leprosy, it's not an STD, anyway, when she was putting them away-"
"What's an STD?" Hortensia asked.
"Oh," Matilda bit her lip. It was one of Miss Honey's cardinal rules-She let her learn about anything she wanted to, including human biology, but only on two conditions. She couldn't ask Jenny any more personal questions about her private life, and she couldn't share what she learned with the other kids. It was strictly for educational purposes only. "It's nothing, it's just a family of illness, like viral or bacterial." Hortensia narrowed her eyes at her.
"You're lying."
"Do you want to hear what happened or not?" Hortensia grumbled but waved a hand to go on. "When she was picking up everything off the floor they found a couple pictures. I didn't see them, but then Miss Honey and Mrs. Rodger's started freaking out and called the police. I may have, sort of been eavesdropping and heard them mention one of the pictures had been of Billy Reyes."
"Why would she have a picture of him?" Hortensia asked with a scowl. Matilda had a good idea why. The timing of Jennifer's escape and Billy Reyes abduction was a little too coincidental. It also explained the crushing weight of guilt Matilda had been feeling via Jennifer. Miss Trunchbull was a woman who had demanded absolute control and having her live in play thing slip out of her fingers must have been a crushing blow to her pride. If Billy had been anywhere near as troublesome as Hortensia, what better way to feel in control again than to flex her power over a student she saw as a nuisance.
"As a trophy." Matilda said.
Hortensia remained silent for a long time. If real life was like a cartoon, Matilda was positive she would have been seeing smoke coming out of her ears.
"I knew it. I knew she'd accidentally kill someone some day. You can't just throw kids out a window or over a fence and expect them to be fine."
Matilda didn't have the heart to tell her it most likely wasn't an accident. She had a feeling he was targeted. From what she had overheard, he was locked in Jennifer's room, and he had been crying when the picture was taken. Matilda felt a horrible sick feeling. There was a reason the picture had been in that box.
Matilda winced as she slowly situated herself into a more comfortable position. She didn't want to think about this anymore. She didn't need the reminder of what Miss Honey had gone through and how powerless Matilda was to help. Jennifer tried so hard to keep the truth from her, but Matilda knew. Matilda had always known. It was in the way the woman carried herself, and the way Miss Honey shied away from another's touch. It was in the way she couldn't make eye contact, and most of all, it was in her nightmares. The first time Matilda heard Jenny beg in her sleep for her aunt to stop, she had silently cried in bed next to her.
"Would you read to me?" Matilda asked without looking up.
"Uh, what? You can read just fine on your own." Hortensia said after a long pause.
"Just until I fall asleep. Please? It doesn't matter what, I just don't want to think anymore." Matilda would listen to a microwave manual if that's all Hortensia was willing to read. Without saying a word, the older girl got up and rummaged in her closet for a bit before coming back with a comic book.
"X-men is one of my favorites."
Hortensia read awkwardly at first, but after a few minutes she seemed to forget she had an audience. Matilda was in and out of consciousness as she listened. At one point she could have sworn the door had opened, and a voice had said something along the lines of "adorable." By the time Matilda had lifted her head, the door was closed and there was no one else in the room but her and a red-faced Hortensia. After a few more minutes, she was gone entirely.
…
Jennifer was sitting at the kitchen table, her face resting against the cool wood. She had the worst headache she had ever had in her life. The lights in the kitchen were dimmed to only a small glow, and she had been nursing a cup of tea Carol had made for her.
"What have we learned?" Carol asked with an amused look on her face.
"You're not a real nurse." Jennifer mumbled. Carol chuckled.
"I was going to say drink more water next time."
"No next time." She felt nauseous and shaky. Jennifer had a hard time believing people did this for fun.
"These will help." Jennifer was reluctant to take anything Carol offered her at this point, but when she looked up, she was relieved to find it was just a bottle of Excedrin. She poured two tablets out and took them with her hot tea. "I was going to bring you some water."
"I'm not sure if it was from, umm, what we were doing last night or what, but have you ever had a memory, and you're not sure whether it really happened or if it was just a dream?" Jennifer asked after a moment of silence.
"Probably from what we were doing last night, especially if it was your first time, although those joints were the weakest things i've ever had. I didn't even get high. I doubt you did either given how old they were. We most likely just smoked an empty wrapper and dust." Jennifer frowned. Then why all the spinning? "Placebos are a powerful thing." Carol said as if answering Jennifer's unspoken question.
"Then I was just drunk?"
"If you were, you've got the lowest tolerance to alcohol I've ever seen. That wine was only 4% alcohol." Carol said amused.
"I have no idea what that means." Jennifer admitted.
"A normal wine is around 13%. You drank the equivalent of one, maybe two light beers. You may have been a little buzzed, but certainly not drunk. Just enough to get you to drop your guard a bit and loosen up."
Jennifer scowled. "You tricked me?"
"You think i'm going to bring you over and get you drunk and high after having a mental break-down? I didn't even intend for you to get buzzed."
Jennifer hid her face in her hands. All those things she had told Carol, and she hadn't even been under the influence of anything. A horrifying thought crossed through her head.
"And the lotion?"
"That was real. I wouldn't give you anything to put down there that wasn't meant to be. That's a good way to get an infection."
Jennifer let out her held breath.
"Why do I feel so sick if I didn't do anything?"
"Some people have a bad reaction to alcohol, even in small amounts. You could be one of them. So what was this dream you weren't sure was a dream?"
"I think," Jennifer paused to try and remember more. She had been positive it had been a memory when she had woken up, but now it was fading back into her subconscious. "I think there was a time I did ask for help. I wrote a letter and gave it to someone." Jennifer frowned. "I gave it to a giant." Maybe it had been a dream after all.
"A giant?" Carol asked.
"Not a literal giant, I was a little girl then, and he was the tallest man I had ever seen. I must have given the letter to him because he looked like he could take my aunt. In my dream, or whatever it was, I had put so much hope in him coming to rescue me, but in the end, nothing had ever come of it."
"Where did you see the man? Out shopping, or at a bus stop?"
"He was at school." Jennifer said. "Although I don't think I've ever seen him since."
"It could be a memory," Carol said after thinking about it, "or a mix of both. The mind can't make up faces in a dream. They're always people you've seen before."
"We never did find what she did with the missing money." Jennifer said. "Or the missing kids."
"I don't think you should be thinking about that right now." Carol said.
"Mr. Trilby's set up a meeting for tomorrow with the board of education to go over the missing funds. He wants to introduce me as next year's new headmistress." Jennifer said. There was a sour taste in her mouth at the thought.
"Or that." Carol chirped. "How about once you're feeling a bit better, we go pick up Matilda and play some board games here. Something to keep your mind off current events."
She felt another pang of guilt. She had forgotten about their fight. Fight? It was Jennifer who had shoved her away. Jennifer rubbed at her temples and sighed. Best to get it over with as soon as possible. Maybe she wouldn't be too angry with her… she hoped. The memory of Matilda, tears streaming down her face while mouthing her safe word played over and over in her head. It was hard to believe it had only been yesterday.
Jennifer had been so lost in thought she hadn't noticed Carol get up from the table until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She jumped on instinct and nearly spilled her half drunken cup of tea.
"Relax." Carol whispered. She shuddered again when she felt something make contact with the top of her head, before gently sliding down. Jennifer sat in the chair feeling both on guard and puzzled. It took her a near solid minute until she realized what was happening. Carol was brushing her hair. She wasn't sure how to feel. She felt irritated at the invasion of her personal space, and yet, she felt touched. No one had ever brushed her hair before. It was such an odd, yet intimate gesture. Jennifer was surprised to find she felt disappointed when Carol had finished.
"Thank you." Jennifer said quietly unsure of what else to say.
"Scalp massages increases the blood flow and helps with headaches."
"Oh, I see." Jennifer said, rubbing at her upper arms in an attempt to lower the goose bumps that had risen there.
"Well, let me know when you're feeling up to going over there." Jennifer picked up her cup and downed the rest of its contents in three large gulps before setting it back down.
"Let's go."
When they knocked on the front door, Jennifer was surprised when a stranger, and not Eve, answered the door. She did a double take at the address to silence the intrusive thoughts which told her she really was high from last night, and was now standing naked in a random neighborhood inquiring about a daughter she didn't have. She subtly padded her blouse just in case.
"Are you here for Matilda?" the stranger asked before Jennifer could formulate a sentence.
"Yes!" Jennifer said a bit too enthusiastically. She inwardly cringed and silently chastised herself to act normal.
"You must be Miss Honey, come in." The stranger beckoned them in. Jennifer wrinkled her nose when they stepped inside. The house smelled strongly of cleaning products. The stranger led them into the living room where three or four rags were laying on a large wet patch of carpet in front of the couch. "Sorry about the smell, there was an incident this morning."
"What kind of incident?" Carol asked. The stranger looked glum.
"I've been trying to potty-train my youngest son, but he's shown little to no interest until today." The stranger shifted her feet, now looking more uncomfortable. "Matilda had a bit of an upset tummy this morning and couldn't hold it until she got to the restroom."
"Oh no, not on the carpet." Miss Honey said with a wince.
"Umm, no. She ended up using my son's training potty."
"Oh." Poor Matilda, she must be sick again. "She must have been positive she wouldn't have made it."
"And my son saw this, and, tackled her off." The stranger admitted with a grimace. Carol let out a snort of laughter.
"I'm sorry, I'm just picturing her getting blindsided by a baby." Carol said. "He must have really caught her by surprise."
"He sent the whole thing flying, both the kids and the carpet ended up getting covered in…yeah." she gestured to the rags and damp patch on the floor. "Hortensia's been a big help with her today, got her all cleaned up and calmed down for me." The stranger lowered her voice and leaned in. "I'm honestly still in shock, I haven't seen this side of 'Tens in years. I even walked in on her reading out loud to Matilda. It was adorable."
Jennifer smiled. Matilda had a way of getting past the walls people erected. Jennifer herself had always wondered what Matilda saw in that foul-mouthed troublemaker, but she must have seen past Hortensia's hard exterior. Who knew the school bully would have a soft side?
"She left on her bike saying she was going down to the corner store to get a ginger ale for Matilda's stomach but," the stranger looked at her watch and frowned, "that was nearly an hour ago."
"Where is Matilda?" Jennifer asked. She was growing increasingly anxious the more she put off their reunion.
"She's sleeping in Hortensia's room. I'll go wake her up and let her know you're here." Jennifer was tempted to go get her herself, but she felt going into one of the students rooms without them was crossing a line somehow. Suddenly, she felt an elbow bump her. She turned to see Carol pointing something out to her-no not something, someone. A very large someone.
"You don't suppose he's the one who knocked her down, do you?" Carol asked. Jennifer stared at the massive child and felt a wave of worry. Looking at him from the back, she would have assumed he was nearly eight, but when he turned around, she saw he barely had any teeth and a line of drool and snot were trailing from his mouth and nose.
The young boy turned and made eye contact with them. His eyes narrowed in a glare, and he stomped his foot.
"MINE!" He yelled. The two women watched taken aback as he stormed past them, before turning around and giving them another dirty look. He stopped at the foot of the hall before dropping his pants and sitting on what Jennifer could only assume was the training potty the stranger had told them about.
"Well that's one way to mark your territory." Carol said. "Possessive little booger, ain't he?"
"Oh! You're using it without being reminded? Mommy's so proud of you! You've made so much progress today!" they heard coming from the back of the house.
"Mine!" The toddler shouted, still glaring at the two intruders.
"You cheated." Carol leaned over and whispered to her. "You got to completely skip this phase."
"You haven't seen her when she loses control. There's self-help books for the Terrible Two's, but none for So You Adopted a Stephen King Character. I gave her detention once, and she shattered all the lightbulbs in the hallway." Jennifer whispered back. Carol made a silent "O" with her lips. "I wouldn't trade her for anything."
"Just don't let her go to prom."
They stood in the living room for a few more minutes before Jennifer began to wonder if something was wrong. She could hear the frantic opening and closing of doors and footsteps pacing from room to room.
"Is everything okay?" Jennifer finally asked when no one had emerged. Finally, the lady from before appeared with a deep frown and guilty expression.
"I can't find her, I just checked on her fifteen minutes ago, and she was sound asleep."
A knot began to form in her stomach. Matilda was hiding from her. She didn't want to see Jennifer.
"She's still angry with me." Jennifer said sadly.
"Hey, she was probably just having too much fun and isn't ready to come home yet." Carol said. Jennifer shook her head.
"I knew she could walk." the stranger muttered under her breath.
"Do you mind if I have a look?" Jennifer asked. Hortensia's privacy be damned. "Where did you last see her?"
"Down this way, Oh, I'm Cynthia by the way, Eve's neighbor." Cynthia led her down the hall to a bedroom in such disarray she wasn't sure if it was robbed or her daughter had had another supernatural fit. "She was sleeping in the bed."
"She's still in here." Jennifer said. She didn't know how she knew, but she knew just the same.
"I looked everywhere. Under the bed, in the closet, in the other rooms."
Jennifer picked up the blankets before looking under the bed. Not enough room even for someone as small as Matilda with the storage bins underneath. She eyed the closet before letting out a sigh. Matilda was in there. She was positive. Matilda knew she hated small spaces, but even then, something was calling her to it. She couldn't explain it any more than she could explain how Matilda could move things with her mind, but she knew what she had to do.
Jennifer went to the door and opened it, ignoring the other woman telling her she had checked there three times.
"Yeah, I guess you're right, she's not in here." Jennifer said before putting a finger to her lips. She crept inside and closed the door behind her. She waited patently, standing as still as possible and listened intently. There, to her left. She heard something crinkle.
"Come on out, Matilda. I know you're there." Jennifer said softly before lowering herself onto an unknown pile of clutter. "Come on out and let's talk." She sat in the dark and listened. There, in the far corner came a quiet voice.
"I don't want to leave."
Jennifer let out her held breath. Was that all this was about? Was it like Carol said? She was simply having too much fun? No…
"You don't want to go home?" Jennifer asked confused. She frowned even more when she heard a quiet sniffle.
"I don't want to leave home." came the strained emotional reply.
"Matilda, I don't understand. Where are you? Won't you come out and talk to me?"
"I can't." More sniffling. Jennifer was sure now she was crying.
"Why not?"
"I'm stuck."
Jennifer stood and reached around blindly for a light switch. Once the closet was illuminated, Jennifer could see a tiny arm reaching out from a large pile of clutter. She brushed aside boxes of puzzles, clothes, stuffed animals and comic books before uncovering the small girl underneath. Jennifer eyed her up and down. She briefly wondered why she was in a diaper, but that didn't matter much right now.
"There's my girl." Instead of opening the closet and ushering her out, Jennifer scooted as much stuff out of the way before sitting down next to her. "Come here, sweetheart." Jennifer patted her lap.
"You told me not to touch you." Matilda whispered. Jennifer sighed.
"I'm sorry, dear, I'm really truly sorry. I wasn't myself. I wasn't in the present."
"Please don't send me away." Jennifer watched in confusion as Matilda dissolved into a wave of fresh tears.
"Matilda," Jennifer said softly. "I would never send you away. Why would you think that?"
"You don't want me anymore." Jennifer let out another deep sigh and bent over to scoop her up but froze when Matilda flinched. Now it was Jennifer's turn for her eyes to water.
"Please don't be afraid of me." Jennifer whispered through her constricting throat. More slowly this time, she hoisted Matilda up by the armpits and set her down in her lap where they were facing each other. "I love you, Matilda. Nothing's going to change that. I'm your mother now, whether you want me to be or not. I can't just send you away, nor would I ever want to."
"I want you to." Jennifer's heart sank. She was almost afraid to ask.
"You want me to send you away?"
"No, I want you to be my mother." She could feel a wave of calm relief wash over her.
"And I want to be your mother. Forever."
Jennifer repositioned the two of them so that Matilda's head was resting on her shoulder with one arm under her cold and damp diapered bottom and the other on the back of her head slowly combing her fingers through Matilda's hair. No amount of rocking, humming or soothing words seemed to comfort her though. Jennifer frowned in concern as she took in Matilda's trembling frame.
"What's the matter, baby. Are you cold?" She put a hand to Matilda's forehead to check for a fever and was relieved to find it felt normal.
"My body hurts." Came a pitiful sounding response.
"Where does it hurt?"
"Everywhere. When I heard you coming I panicked and crawled in here even though it hurt to move, and now it hurts even worse."
"Why did it hurt to move?"
"From yesterday." She felt Matilda pull away and lift her shirt. At first Jennifer didn't see anything until she pulled up the T-shirt more. She let out a gasp.
"Matilda," Jennifer said. Tears were now blurring her vision. "D-did I do that to you?" Matilda shook her head. "Please tell me the truth," she begged. She was terrified of the answer, but she needed to know. She hadn't thought she had used that much force, but Matilda seemed to get hurt so easily.
"No, it happened last night." Matilda filled her in on all the details. Hortensia seemed to be full of all sorts of surprises lately. After taking a moment to process everything, Jennifer let out an exasperated sigh.
"I swear I can't let you leave the house without covering you in bubble wrap and making you wear a helmet. How is it you keep getting hurt?"
"I don't know." Matilda moaned.
"Well, I'll have to take you to the hospital today."
"No!" Matilda said, burying her face into Miss Honey's neck and crying anew. Jennifer rubbed her back feeling puzzled. Sure she had had a few rough visits, but this sort of reaction over seeing a doctor was new.
"I need to make sure you're okay, sweetheart. It looks awfully painful." Matilda nodded in agreement. "The doctors can help you feel better faster, you know that, so why all the tears?"
"That's w-where y-y-you take kids you d-d-don't want anymore!"
"Matilda, where on earth is this coming from? I'm not going to abandon you, you understand? Look at me." She could feel the girl bury herself even further down. What had happened to make her think Jennifer didn't want her anymore? Was this all about the incident yesterday? Jennifer scrambled to try and come up with something that would calm her down enough to get her willing to talk, but her mind kept drawing a blank-except for one thing. There was a song she often hummed when the two of them were cuddled up together, but she had never outright sung the words, even though they encompassed the very thing Matilda made her feel. So with a shaky breath, Jennifer began to quietly sing.
"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are gray
You'll never know just how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away"
She could feel Matilda violent sobs begin to ever so slowly ebb away. It was progress, so Jennifer sang it again and again, until Matilda's wails were nothing but quiet sniffles.
"Can you tell me what's got you so upset?" Jennifer asked after a few minutes of silence. "Where is this line of thinking coming from?" She waited patiently, unsure if she would get a response or not, but a small muffled voice from her shoulder spoke.
"Because of what I did." Now they were getting somewhere. Relief rushed through Jennifer. It wasn't yesterday, at least not entirely.
"You're feeling bad because of something you did?" A small nod. "Would you tell me?" Silence. "I promise, no matter what you did, I'm not going to abandon you." More silence. "I bet you'll feel loads better if you get it off your chest. It might not be as bad as you think. You know, the reason I had that issue yesterday was because I was carrying a lot of guilt too, and it finally caught up to me. I had a good talk with Mrs. Rodgers about it last night, and she assured me this bad thing I thought I had done had only been in my head. I probably would have gone on punishing myself forever if I hadn't opened up about it."
"What did you think you did?" Matilda asked.
"Well, I, umm, my aunt, you know, she did some inappropriate things to me, and I thought, I was doing the same to you, in a way."
"It's not like you molested me like your aunt did to you." Jennifer froze, unable to respond. "What?"
"H-how do you know about that?" She could feel her mouth going dry. "W-who t-told you?" She had tried so hard to keep this from Matilda. She didn't need to know life was full of monsters just yet. It was bad enough she had seen the scars of the years of physical abuse, but it was the sexual abuse which left the open festering wounds, only they were invisible to the naked eye. At least she thought they were…
"I've always known. It's not hard to put two and two together. You could have just talked to me about it, I would have told you you weren't doing anything weird."
"You make it sound so simple."
"Maybe it is that simple."
"No, Matilda, it's not. It's like there's an infected open sore inside me that refuses to heal. I can always feel it throbbing just under my skin and if I address it or acknowledge it in any way, the infection will spread. If I show it to you, it will only cause you to be infected too, that's why I have to keep it from you. It's nothing personal, I just can't risk doing irrevocable harm to you."
"Mom," Matilda groaned pushing off from her, so she could look her in the face. "If there's an infected open sore inside of you, you're doing exactly what you're not supposed to do. You can't just seal an infection and expect it to get better. It's going to hurt, but you have to cut it open and work the puss out, or it will never get better."
"I didn't mean there's a literal infection inside of me."
"I know, but it's the same idea really. Don't let this eat you from the inside out."
"Enough about what's eating me, I want to know what's eating you? Out with it. What did you do?" Matilda looked away, mumbling something Jennifer couldn't make out. She tried to bury herself back in Jennifer's chest, but she stopped her with a palm to her forehead. "No, no running away, time to come clean."
"Only if you answer mine." Jennifer bit her lip. That sneaky little…
"Depends on the question."
"Mrs. Rodger's said you pushed me because you thought I was someone else. Is that true?" Jennifer sighed. Carol had left her the perfect out, but she had a sinking suspicion Matilda would know if she lied and was testing her.
"No," Jennifer said after giving it some thought. "I knew it was you, but I had no intention of pushing you down to the ground and hurting you. I had what's called a flashback. In my mind, I was eleven again, and Miss Trunchbull was telling me I was just like her, and I was going to do these very bad things to you. I wanted you to stay away from me, not because I didn't want you with me, but because I wanted you to stay safe. Does that make sense?"
"Yes." Matilda said quietly.
"Alright, my turn, does what you're feeling guilty about have anything to do with what happened the last few days?" Matilda shook her head. "Hmm, then does it ha-"
"It's my turn." Matilda said before she could finish. "Are you sad about your aunts' death, despite everything she did to you?" Jennifer should have known these wouldn't be typical five-year-old questions like, "What's your favorite color?" and "What's your favorite dinosaur?"
"I don't know." Jennifer answered honestly. "I don't miss her, but it was very sudden, and I don't think i've given it much thought. Ok, i'll change it up before I go for the big guns. Did you wet the bed again? Is that why you're wearing a wet diaper?"
"That's two questions." Matilda said with a scowl. "No, I didn't wet the bed. Are you afraid of being in this closet?"
"As long as you're with me, no." Jennifer said giving Matilda's hand a squeeze. "Why are you wearing a wet diaper?" Jennifer laughed quietly as Matilda's face began to turn a shade pink.
"Because Eve and Cynthia think I'm a walking accident waiting to happen." she grumbled. "I tried yelling for Cynthia like a hundred times to take me to the restroom, but she couldn't hear me from out there. Okay, this is going to sound weird but, were you drunk last night?"
Jennifer sputtered. The question had caught her so off guard she began to choke on her own saliva. "Why are you asking me that?" she finally managed to get out.
"Were you?" Matilda asked again.
"I, umm, wasn't drunk, I was just, well, I had a couple glasses of wine. How did you know?"
"Because I swore I woke up today with a hangover. My head was pounding, I was nauseous, my stomach was upset." Matilda narrowed her eyes. "Since when do they serve wine at the hospital?"
"Since the person who took me pretended to be my mother to break me out and took me back to her house to talk." Jennifer said with a guilty expression on her face. "They let me go last night, but Carol wanted to talk just the two of us."
"You mean I could have avoided being tackled by the Not So Friendly Giant out there?"
"Sorry." Jennifer said with a pained expression. "Alright last question before I ask you the main thing. How would you have a hangover if I drank alcohol?"
"Because I can somehow feel what you do, if you feel it strong enough." Matilda said with a frown. "You already knew that."
"Yes, but I didn't realize it was also physical sensati-" Jennifer stopped. Oh no. Oh no. If she knew she had been drinking, did she also know she had… "Matilda, did you…umm." Now it was Jennifer's turn to grow a shade darker. "Did you feel anything else strange, last night?" Matilda's eyebrows shot up.
"Were you doing something else at Mrs. Rodger's besides drinking?"
"N-no, I was-I mean, I didn't mean to, it just sort of-" Jennifer sighed. "Pass."
"Oh, no no. No passing." Matilda said with a grin, now a flash of her usual self shone in her eyes. "You only get this flustered when someone brings up s-" Matilda's eyes went wide.
"No. No. No. Not that."
"With Mrs. Rodgers? And you?" Matilda asked, face scrunched in confusion. Jennifer's face felt like it could light the bulb in a lighthouse.
"NO!" Jennifer said firmly. "We. Did. Not."
"I was going to say… she's kind of old." Matilda whispered.
"Alright, alright, enough of this. Spill it. What made you think I was going to leave you at the hospital?" Matilda gave her a pained look. "Come on, it can't be that bad."
Matilda took a deep breath. "I- think, I think." She stopped and took another breath. "I think I'm the one who killed your aunt." she whispered. Jennifer's eyes went wide. She stared at Matilda. What? "I didn't mean for her to get hurt…badly! It was just a prank to scare her! I was so angry when you were in the hospital and-"
"Slow down. Start from the beginning." Jennifer said. She listened intently as Matilda told her story of the spiders and the cotton ball that wasn't really a cotton ball.
"Are you mad at me?" Matilda asked once she had finished. Jennifer sighed. It was a lot to take in. It wasn't likely the cause but… maybe they should keep this between the two of them just in case.
"No, I'm not mad at you, Matilda, but I am disappointed in you. I told you several times not to mess with that woman, she's dangerous. It's probably why she had it out for you in the hospital. If anything had happened to you, I don't know what i'd do. I thought I taught you better than that. Revenge is never the answer."
"She had to be stopped." Matilda mumbled, head back in between Jennifer's chest.
"Yes, she did, but that was the police's job, not yours."
"I couldn't let her keep hurting you." Matilda said. "I didn't mean for her to die, just get sick like you did. I thought, maybe there was a genetic link between you two. I couldn't stand to see what she did to you. How could I not fight back?"
"Matilda, you have a brilliant mind, and abilities that shouldn't even be possible. Don't ever let me hear of you using either one to hurt someone else again or you'll need that diaper just to sit comfortably. I know you had good intentions, but this didn't involve you-"
"How can you keep saying this doesn't involve me?" Matilda said, tears streaming down her face. "I feel everything you do. I feel your anger, your guilt, your disgust, how much you hate yourself. I feel it all, and I don't know why. It does involve me! I watch you have nightmares almost every night and there's nothing I can do to help! I have abilities, but I've never felt so powerless."
"You do help me." Jennifer said, placing her forehead against Matilda's. "I'd still be in that shack alone if I hadn't met you. You think the old me would have hit her with a chair? As for the nightmares, every time I wake up and see you, I know I'm safe. Just having you in my life has been the biggest help of them all. Now come on, let's get out of this closet, my legs are falling asleep, and I'm afraid to know just what we're sitting in."
"If you're hungry, I found a snack." Matilda said with a slight grin as she held up a moldy sandwich. Jennifer wrinkled her face in disgust before giving Matilda a kiss on her forehead.
"Still not getting rid of you." Jennifer whispered.