Penelope

“Hello.”

I heard it before I heard her hello. The soft, incoherent, cooing of the baby held securely in Liza’s arms. An exact replica of the several childhood pictures I had seen of Liza. That same blonde hair, that same innocent smile. Her eyes, an exact replica of the misty green that I feared and despised both.

“Can I come in?” Liza laughed a bit as she readjusted the baby in her arms, who looked up at her mother adoringly and then looked back at me again.

I was too shocked to say anything. So many things that I wanted to ask her, but all I could do was step aside and stare at her unblinkingly. The time had really come. I knew it would be someday, but nevertheless, I wasn’t prepared for it. I never would have.

“Can you please look after her for a moment? I need to take a massive pee. Like my bladder is literally going to burst.” Without waiting for my answer, she quickly placed the living, breathing, creature in my arms, who didn’t resist either but giggled instead and said something in unintelligible mumbles. I opened my mouth to say something to her, but before I could even look at her to do so, she was out in a second.

I looked down again and stared down at her, in those deep green pits again, and felt the worst trembling shiver run down my spine. The uncanny similarity they held to the man that turned my world completely upside down was too much for me, and yet I couldn’t look away. Like always, they hypnotized me, froze me to my very core.

“Wow. That. Was. Just. So. Relieving!” She smiled broadly and then went towards the kitchen, leaving me to follow after her. I was growing, nothing but more confused by her behaviour. The way she was acting like she has been here all along and not abducted by two heinous men.

“Let’s see what you have in the fridge and please don’t disappoint me because I might end up eating you instead if I don’t find anything.” She laughed a laugh that was everything fake an ddipped down her head, disappearing behind the fridge door.

Something was terribly off. And soon enough I felt it. The daggering gaze that stabbed me again and again. All to familiar to even doubt it. They were here as well.

“Liza, why are you here?” I set the baby down on the counter top as softly as I could. She was wrapped in warm blankets, a pink sweater and a little beanie, keeping her warm and safe against the freezing cold.

“What do you mean? Shouldn’t I be here?” Her face still hidden from me, she spoke very slowly. She avoided answering my question completely, and I knew what she was trying to do. This time I won’t let her keep me in the dark.

“How did you escape them?” I pulled out a stool and made sure that it made as much chaotic noise as it could so that Liza could understand my side of the situation. I was happy, yes. But at the same time hugely skeptical. The way she just walked in to the house like she just went to grocery shopping and just returned, was definitely not plausible. Not a single scratch on her body or any visible injury on her from the last time I saw her. Just a new addition to her, her baby.

She stood straight up, her back facing me, and sighed softly as she closed the fridge. And then there was just silence and the clicking of the clock as time flew by as rigidly as it could.

“I followed your plan.” Finally, she turned around and pulled out a stool for herself as well and placed both of her hands on top of the counter. Her eyes not meeting mine but her baby's instead as she smiled a small smile.

“Of course I didn’t do it when I was still pregnant because like I told you last time, it would have been a death-wish to do so. It was after three months that I gave birth to Penelope when I decided that it was time. That both of us ware finally ready to leave.” She let her baby, Penelope, grab her index finger in her little palm as she too looked at her mother with nothing but innocence and adoration in her eyes. Oblivious to the psycho she had as a father.

“I had to wait to gain their trust, as they were on high alert after you left. I expected them to be harsh on me, but I suppose since I was not siding with you in front of them, they went a little easy on me. Nevertheless, the house had become more of a cage than it was before with Ivan tailing my every move” She frowned a bit at an unshared memory which quickly faded away before I could bring it up.

Not that I was able to move by myself at all because these little angels were not easy to carry around.” Another crack in her story that I noticed but couldn’t bring up yet again as she zoomed past realizing her second mistake of the night. “Anyways, I finally got out.” She faced me but didn’t look me in the eyes, my forehead instead. It was clear that she was trying to desperately hide something and knowing Liza, it will only come out when the situation deeps so.

It was silence after as I pondered on all the things she said, and she was doing the same as we both looked at the smiling baby. The clock ticked in the background with not so much of a  quietness and I could feel the tension growing in the air by the minute. The environment only got more quiet and even Penelope’s playful mumbles and coos did nothing to brush of the heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

It was just the silence before the storm.