Chapter four

Kaya sat down dejectedly, annoyed out of her mind that John decided to make her Opal's personal babysitter. 

"Can't this man find somebody else to babysit his kid?" Kaya thought to herself, upset that he had just out of the blue chosen her to watch his kid like that.

Kaya began to make observations about the room she was in. it had no windows and only one door, the only way out. The walls of the room were a whitish gray. The ceiling was white also, with lights hanging from chains, flickering occasionally. The floor was made of tiles, usually the ones that are the cheapest to obtain. 

As Kaya began to silently think about her current situation, her eyes fell upon Opal. Opal looked just as sad and dejected as she did, in fact worse then she felt about this situation. Kaya then could make out bruises on her arms and legs, and even on her neck, as if someone had grabbed her like a ragdoll and choked her.

"Hey, Opal." Kaya whispered, so as not to spook her.

Opal turned around and looked at her, still holding that sad look in her eyes.

"Yes?" Opal whispered.

"Did Jerald give you those bruises?"

Opal's gaze fell upon the ground, not daring to look at her.

"I won't tell anyone, your secrets safe with me." Kaya said reassuringly.

Opal lifted her gaze from the ground; Kaya could see the hint of tears in her eyes.

"Y-you Promise?" Opal said cautiously, really considering what she was going to say.

"I promise Opal, you have my solemn word."

Opal then started to tell the tale of her story, tears threatening to break free from her eyes.

"When you grow up in a home like mine, you surely know that my father is a busy man. Like anyone else who fights on the streets of Balderdash at night, you have to prepare all the time. This usually leave you no time for you to watch every little thing your family does. My mother had gotten sick, she is usually the only one who can protect me at home. Now that she had fallen ill, Jerald could do whatever he wanted to me. I am terrified of him Kaya! I want to live in a normal family where your sibling doesn't beat you all the time! Jerald always hits me! What did I ever do to him!" 

Opal now started sobbing, clearly in complete ignorance as to why her brother wanted to harm her. Kaya knew the answer to that: He was sadistic, and the definition of a person who is sadistic is someone who enjoys hurting others or seeing them in pain.

Kaya got closer to Opal, embracing her.

"Hey, its ok." Kaya said, trying to comfort the crying child.

Opal kept crying; she hadn't had anyone besides her mother who wanted to hear what she had to say. 

Opal soon finished sobbing, quieting down to a whimper here and there.

The night soon passed and a knock on the door startled them both.

John walked into the room, surveying it before taking his daughter out of the room.

"Kaya, your payment is located by the desk, oh and, feel free to take today off on paid leave, I figure you must be exhausted." John announced, looking at her warmly.

"Thank you sir, it was a pleasure watching Opal, if you need anyone to watch her, I will gladly do so for free." Kaya said, smiling at him.

There was truth in what Kaya said, she absolutely wanted to continue to watch Opal, but she also had another plan, a plan that might get her killed by John.

John just gave her a thoughtful smile.

"That is perfectly alright with me I suppose, but if I don't pay you, how will you pay the rent?" He said teasingly.

Kaya smiled at his joke, maybe John wasn't all that bad.

As Kaya headed over to the desk to collect her well-earned money, she saw that the bag seemed to be bursting. When Kaya entered her car and started driving, she couldn't help but think about Opal. That poor girl! Maybe just maybe she could somehow sneak the child over with her when she planned to escape.

Kaya soon pulled up to her apartment complex, still thinking about Opal. She stepped out her car and headed over to where her apartment door was. She stepped in and made a beeline straight for her couch. She sat down, looking for a moment at the bursting bag and promptly emptied the contents onto the coffee table.

Her eyes grew as big as saucers as she unlocked her phone and called her friend Rick up.

"Rick! Rick! Oh my God! I know you're at work right now, but I think I have enough money for us all to leave!" Kaya said excitedly, absolutely shocked at how much money John had paid her.

~

"Kaya, this is more than enough for us to finally leave." Rick said, observing the cash he was looking at in Kaya's apartment. As soon as work let out, he called Dickey and Skyler over to her apartment to discuss what the gameplan was. he had the two thousand dollars with him, adding it to the total of money Kaya had received.

"But we still need to act like everything is normal; and, on top of that, we still need to contact the smugglers."

"Ok, you know them, don't you?" Skyler asked, clearly annoyed at his hesitance to leave.

"I most certainly do know some, with this ten thousand dollars, we can all leave with our savings and be fine! All I'm saying is I need time to contact the smugglers and that we can't rush that process."

"Fair enough." Everyone mused together robotically.

As everyone began to leave the apartment, Rick turned to Kaya and smiled.

"Thank you, this money will help us greatly."

"No problem, I wanna leave this crappy old dump of a town too you know!" Kaya said teasingly, smiling at him.

As soon as everyone left, Kaya began to think to herself exactly what he had said before.

"Three thousand dollars a person."

Kaya continued to think to herself until she shot up from the couch with a wonderful idea.

"Three thousand dollars a person! We have enough for all four of us! Three thousand dollars a person! We have twelve thousand dollars now! With my savings, four thousand dollars, I can take Opal with me!"