Marie's father claimed he had a business trip for a month. Something seemed CUTTLEFISH-y (pun off of fishy, queue bad pun drum noise) about the situation. It was just the girls and their wicked step mom. Things were getting worse and worse. The windows of their bedroom were boarded, some weird lock system was put on their door, and their step mom was always on her computer for some reason…

It was a long day at school. The girls didn't have lunches to bring, but they got a lunch detention for not paying attention in history class. Basically, they didn't get to eat. When the day was finally over, they felt like running the entire way home just to get out of the stupid school. When they got outside, however, there were four really buff-looking squids that claimed the girls' step mother sent them to pick them up. They could easily identify squidnapping scams, but anything was better than a wicked step mom. Then squid men forcefully escorted them home, making them really disappointed, knowing that it wasn't a kidnapping scam. When they got back, their step mom was waiting on the porch looking unusually chill.

"What's going on?", Marie asked.

"It's better you stay OUT of this," the wicked lady snapped. "Escort this you lady to her room."

One of the buff squids grabbed Marie's arm and pushed to her room, locking the door. Marie was trapped. Suddenly, she felt the room get colder. Much colder. She tried to find a blanket, but their beds had been stripped. Drat. Luckily, she could find a hoodie, but that was it. She was trapped in a freezing cold room. Alone. Leaving a kid this cold could give them pneumonia. Wait a minute… Didn't Callie's parents… Uh oh. Marie tried as hard as she could to open the door. It was no use. She would just have to freeze.

Meanwhile for Callie, she watched as her cousin was dragged towards her bedroom. Something was going on here, and Callie didn't like it.

"What are these guys here for?"

"Something," the evil lady responded. "Hey," she said to the buff squid men. "Where's the money I asked for?"

"What did you sell this time," Callie whined, trying to pry her arm-nub-thing free from the buff guy's grasp. She couldn't.

"Eh, you'll find out sooner or later," the wicked squid responded. "So, do you have the money?"

"How much was it again?"

"Not a lot"

"What EXACT about," the guy asked.

"Only 2,380."

"Oh, okay."

One of the squid men grabbed a wallet and pulled out a bunch of cash. Clearly the thing her step mom just sold was valuable, cause that was some cash (I'm doing the amount equivalent to equivalent to American dollars, sorry).

"Now can you tell me what it was?", Callie asked, noticing the guy holding her arm was now grasping it even tighter.

Callie could feel her pulse in her stomach. Something weird was going on. She swallowed hard. This entire thing had seemed sketchy. Was Marie okay? What had been sold? Why would their step mom send others to pick them up from school? Why was Marie sent to their room but she wasn't…? Things didn't make sense.

"I said you'll find out LATER," her step mom shouted. "Anyways, GIVE ME THE MONEY."

Marie overheard the shouting from her room. She felt a little nervous, but had to pay attention to her current motive: don't get pneumonia. She was trying to warm up when she heard something: Callie was shouting Marie's name over and over again. Marie could also hear crying in her cousin's voice, followed by a single scream.

"CALLIEEEE", Marie shouted as loud as she could from out her window. "CALLIE WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Marie's heart raced. "ARE YOU OKAY?"

"Don't worry she'll be fine," their step mom's voice called back.

Something inside Marie told her that her cousin WASN'T fine, and that something wrong was going on. Marie looked around her room restlessly, trying to find something to break her out of her room and save Callie. She didn't know what was happening to her, but she knew it was probably bad. Finally, she found a chopstick. She stuck it through the hole in the door where a doorknob used to be, and the door opened with ease. She ran outside of the house, but her cousin wasn't there. However, her step mom had a huge stack of cash. Their step mom noticed Marie and looked angry. "

"How did you…"

Marie sneezed. "Where's Callie," she asked in between breaths.

"Funny you ask," the wicked squid said, chuckling. "I don't know."

"Don't lie to me!", the seven-year-old inkling shouted.

"I'm not."

"What did you do to her?!"

"Me? I didn't do anything. Well, sort of, but she hasn't been harmed. Yet."

"What do you mean y-"

"Relax, young green thing."

"Stop it. Where's Callie."

"Listen, I said I don't know."

"Yeah right." Marie stopped moving and gulped hard. "Where… where did you get that money?"

"The usual. Sold something."

"Did you…"

"Yes, Marie?"

Marie came to a realization. She couldn't move. She could barely breathe. Her heart felt like ripping out of her chest. All of her life and energy drained out of her face.

"What's wrong, Marie? 3"

Marie breathed out and tried shaking her head. Hard. No, no, no, no…

"You… y...yo...you did…"

"Marie, calm down," the rotten to the core squid lady said, stroking her stack of money.

"You sold my cousin," Marie whispered. "Didn't you."

Marie finally let it out. It felt weird to say out loud, and scary. Wow. Their step mom was crazy and wicked or whatever, but she DEFINITELY had not seen this coming. Marie was trembling. She slowly walked backwards away from her step mom. She was crying.

"Maybe."

"YOU-"

"Relax. Just relax. No harm was done to her."

"You mean physical harm," Marie snapped back. "You probably did more mental damage to her than there already was!"

Marie was still shaking. Hard. She couldn't stop trembling. She was terrified. No inkling being would do such a thing. Green tears cascaded down her face. She tried to calm herself, but it was no use. Her small brain couldn't comprehend what to do. The house only had one telephone, and it was in her step mom's room. She wouldn't be able to call 911 without getting stopped. All she could do was think about Callie… What could've happened? Why wasn't it me, Marie thought. Why.

"Why wasn't it me," Marie asked quietly.

"Callie's more obedient. Remember what I said about the kind one and the pretty one?"

"Yeah," Marie muttered. She hated being judged by appearance.

"People who buy children off of the internet are usually looking for a pleasant, kind, obedient child to keep them company. You, on the other hand, are a smart-ass no one really wants. All you have is your beauty. Unlike Callie, I can use you as a trophy child."

Marie knew what that meant because she was smart. Basically, for people who don't know, a trophy {insert relative} is someone who you have with you for no reason other than they're young and attractive, and you want others to view you the same way. Marie was looking up to a life of misery, until she could call 911 or child protective services or something like that.

And then Marie hatched up a plan: Tell the teacher in school about the situation, and things would be all better.

Meanwhile, on Callie's side of the story...