Chapter 8
Firefly
...a month later
Audrey went to the mailbox. She hasn't heard from Drake for over a month and was starting to
get worried. The bills went on the kitchen counter, the circular for $5 off your next haircut went
in the trash, but it was the remaining letter in her hands that made her stop in her tracks.
The address on the legal-sized envelope was typed in an elegant font.
There was no return address in the left hand corner. The name Firefly was written in lowercase
and in soft pencil that it appeared like a watermark. The letter was written on yellow legal-pad
paper and the writing instrument was still the same barely there pencil. The writing was hurried
and almost unrecognizable. Drake forged many doctor's notes and parent's signatures over the
years. If this was supposed to be from Drake, it wasn't her real son.
I'm happy.
I've been saved.
Lord Cameron is love.
Lord Cameron is light.
firefly
Audrey almost dropped the letter out of her hands. She knew there was something wrong
about this whole Cameron situation, and it was only when she saw her son's very different
handwriting and pseudo religious and robotic words that she realized her son, her first-born
child, was in a cult.
How did she not see the signs?
If only…she didn't nag him about getting a job so soon after graduation.
If only…she let him have a summer vacation.
If only…she let Drake be Drake instead of wanting him to grow-up and be like Josh.
If only…she didn't feel like she pushed her son into a corner.
If only...she hadn't insisted that Cameron take him in
"Drake, where are you?" Audrey wanted to run to the phone or better yet break all sorts of
speed limits and go to the police station, but there was no real proof.
She held the letter to her chest and cried. Megan came in from the living room and felt that she
had to say something. Every time she was in that living room Megan felt chills go up her spine.
She couldn't tell anyone about that, but even wearing a sweater didn't help.
The young girl hated seeing her mother all worried like this.
"Mom---"
Audrey looked up and wiped her eyes, "Megan, what do you need, honey?"
"Did you hear from Drake?" She noticed the letter in her mother's hand.
"I don't know," she handed her youngest child the letter, Megan was beyond-her-years-smart,
"What do you think of this?"
"Drake is definitely in a cult." She felt her own young eyes fill up with water.
Firefly?
What the Hell?
She could sense that Audrey needed a hug in the worst way. "I'm sorry, Mom…."
"W-hy are you sorry, Megan?"
"Because there is something I kept from you and Dad…."
She sat down at the kitchen table.
"What is it?"
"The next day after Drake left to live with that creepy Cameron guy—he came by the house.
He talked in short quick sentences and flew out the door."
"What did he come home for?"
"To sell his guitars and amp."
That was a definitely a red flag warning sign about teenagers (and adults) who get seduced by
cults. They give up their possessions and their money and blindly give it all to the leader.
"You should have told us, Megan! That evil man is probably drugging him and brainwashing our
Drake! We're never going to see him again!" Audrey started sobbing again.
Megan hugged her tight. "Don't say that, Mom, we will, we have to. Now that we know he is
in a cult, we can do something about it."
Audrey wiped her eyes clean again. Megan was growing up and was a wonderful and
supportive daughter.
She knew all along that Megan really loved her brothers and her pranks were just an extension
of showing that love.
"I hope so, Megan, but what if we're too late?"
"We've got to try, Mom. We've got to do it for Drake."
The events happening in her family made Audrey think of the cult headlines, sure some people
get out of cults, but some never did. Audrey had to come to terms with the fact that the only
way Drake would get out of Lord Cameron's dangerous grasp was when the police carried
him out in a body bag.
The poor, harried, guilt-ridden mother was partly right.