WARNING! There will be gruesome details in this chapter. Bear that in mind before reading onward.

Chapter 4: In the Bag

"One of our fellow orphans has been adopted and will be leaving us after dinner tonight," declared Mommy.

"Who is it?" asked Nathan.

"Tell us!" Rez demanded.

"All right, don't get too excited!" Mommy assured. She then reached her stretchy arm out to Kayla and tapped her on the shoulder. "Go ahead, Makayla."

"Um, well, I've been adopted by the Hyssop family," Kayla said. "So from now on, you may call me Makayla Hyssop!"

While the kids around the table cheered, Kayla started to cry.

"I'm...really going to miss you guys," Kayla said, squeezing a green bunny toy in her hands. "And I promise I'll write everyday."

"You'd better," said a boy with short black hair. "Or I'm coming after you once I get adopted."

"Shut up, Dale!" a girl with glasses smacked the short black-haired boy in the shoulder. "You're ruining Kayla's special moment."

"No, it's okay, Gaby," Kayla muttered, drying her eyes. "I'm good at keeping promises."

"That you are," Elli said, putting on a happy face for her friend. "Now let's toast to Kayla and wish her good luck out there in the world!"

Everyone picked up their glasses of sparkling cranberry juice and cheered for Kayla. After dinner, the kids went up to Kayla and said their individual goodbyes with hugs and hand-holding. Then Kayla went to get her stuff from underneath her bunkbed and came into the foyer with a small suitcase wearing a green top over a white skirt where she met up with Elli.

"Hey, that's the outfit you were wearing when we posed for that poster with Mommy and the big Huggy toy with Nathan and Rez," Elli remembered.

"It is," confirmed Kayla.

"Didn't the factory workers take away the outfits we wore after we were done posing?"

"They did. But I found this in my room just before I started packing."

"Well, that's nice. It does look good on you."

Elli looked down to hide her upset face, but Kayla held her hand.

"You'll be adopted soon," Kayla said encouragingly. "I know it."

"All right, Makayla Hyssop," Mommy said as she opened the front doors to Home Sweet Home from the outside. "It's time to go!"

Kayla hugged Elli one last time and joined Mommy outside. As Kayla waved back, Mommy led her by the hand down the steps toward the cable car. Elli smiled as she waved before heading to the dining hall. She helped Nathan and Rez clear the dishes from dinner before heading to Kayla's bunkbed on the lower rung.

To her surprise, the bed was completely clean like no one had ever slept in it before. But what caught Elli's attention was the green rabbit toy Kayla held earlier had been carelessly thrown under the bed.

"Hoppy Hopscotch?" Elli exclaimed. "Why aren't you with Kayla?"

Clutching the green rabbit to her chest, Elli ran up the stairs into the foyer where Nathan and Rez were watching a cartoon on the TV.

"Hey, we were just about to look for you. It's time for Smiling Critters!" Rez said. But immediately, he noticed Elli's concerned expression. "What's wrong?"

"Kayla forgot Hoppy," Elli said, holding up the green rabbit toy. "She'll be devastated when she finds out she left her behind."

"Maybe you can still catch Kayla before she gets on the cable car," Rez suggested.

"Aren't you worried about running into CatNap?" Nathan pointed out. "He doesn't like it when we're outside the house around nighttime."

"That overgrown tabby doesn't scare me," Elli said confidently. "I'll give Hoppy to Kayla and be back before he knows it."

"I'll come with you," Rez offered. "Just in case you need me to distract CatNap."

"Thanks, Rez," Elli sighed.

So the two left Home Sweet Home and dashed across the park. The light above had moved to the western side of the dome to mimic a sunset, which bathed parts of the Playcare in shadow. DogDay was too busy telling the toddlers to get out of the playhouse to notice Elli and Rez as they made it to the cable car. But to their dismay, the cable car was gone.

"We're too late," Elli muttered. "How will we ever get Hoppy to Kayla now?"

A rustling noise made Rez look down to the right of the cable car. He noticed a door with a red light over it and a large duffle bag in front.

"Do you see that?" Rez said, pointing the bag out to Elli.

"Yeah."

"The bag wasn't there before, right?"

"I don't think so."

"Let's check it out."

Heading down the stairs from the cable car, they ascended a nearby hill up to the door with the red light. They approached the bag slowly before Rez opened it. What they saw nearly made them pass out as a growing sickness overcame them.

Inside the bag was the body of a child, but it wasn't complete. Parts of its spine were missing from the back, and its chest was cut open revealing no organs inside. Even its eyes were gone while blood oozed from its sawed-off head where a brain should have been. The only thing covering the body was the rags of a familiar green top.

"What is this?" Elli murmured as she dropped Hoppy. "It can't be…."

"That was Makayla Hyssop."

Rez flinched from hearing a quiet female voice. "Who said that?"

"Me."

From behind a bush emerged a short doll with red hair in pigtails wearing a blue dress.

"How do you know what's in here is Kayla?" Elli demanded angrily. "Who are you?"

Suddenly, the red light over the door turned off.

"You need to hide," the red-haired doll urged. "Now!"

While the doll hid behind the bush she came from, Rez dragged the shocked Elli under a table further down the hill and they lay perfectly still. From their position, they saw Mommy emerge from the door followed by a giant purple cat toy wearing a moon-shaped charm around its neck. Mommy noticed the bag and frowned.

"CatNap," Mommy said as she faced the cat. "You were supposed to dispose of the body."

"But I did," the cat said in a low staticky voice.

"Then what is it doing here?" Mommy demanded. "Either you didn't do your job right, or someone dragged the body out when we weren't looking!"

To be continued…