The halls of Carl Sandburg High School filled with jubilant shouts, raucous cheers, and a generalized mayhem celebrating the end of another year of school. Students emptied lockers of books, folders, and laptops. Old spiral-bound notebooks, filled trashcans lining the halls along with mounds of papers no one cared about anymore. And while Elsbeth’s classmates rushed to say their goodbyes, she walked in a cocoon of silence, gripping the contents of her locker tight to her chest and keeping her gaze set three feet forward avoiding any and all eye contact with her peers.

But she couldn’t avoid all attention.

Mr. Peterson leaned against the doorframe leading into his chemistry lab. He was talking with Scott Masterson, a junior like Elsbeth. Scott was wildly popular, a jock with a brain, straight A’s, and working toward a football scholarship and a ticket to his future. She envied him the freedom to pursue his goals.

“You’d better behave this summer.” Mr. Peterson’s voice was stern but caring. “We need our star player if we’re going to make State next year.”

“Yes, sir,” Scott said, combing his fingers through the mop of bangs covering his forehead. He noticed her then. “Hey Ellz,” he called out. “Got plans for tonight? Marvel is playing and a bunch of us are going. You want to come?”

Scott had been trying to get her on a date for the better half of last semester. She’d always been too busy. Not a complete lie, but other things filled her evenings and weekends. It simply wasn’t cheering, or band, being a member of the volleyball team, or dating.

With a shake of her head, she declined…again. “Sorry, but I’ve got plans, and my foster father isn’t keen on the whole dating scene.”

“Ah, it doesn’t have to be a date, just a bunch of us kicking it around.”

Hugging her books, she stamped down the wave of anxiety building in her chest. “I’m sorry. I’d love too, but…” But she simply couldn’t.

The hopefulness of his expression fell. “Maybe another time?”

She gave a fractional nod. “Sounds good.” Moving to the center of the crowded hall, she made a move to escape the awkward exchange, but Mr. Peterson stopped her in her tracks.

“Elsbeth.” His words hit her in the chest and stopped the trudge of her feet.

“Yes, Mr. Peterson?” The softness of his gaze tunneled straight to her heart, destabilizing her shields.

“You weren’t going to leave without saying goodbye to your favorite chemistry teacher, were you?” Mr. Peterson spread his arms out wide, welcoming her into his personal space.

Elsbeth curled her lower lip inward, biting hard. While she adored Mr. Peterson, and he was without a doubt her favorite teacher, to be that close to a man had her insides churning. But with his arms outstretched, she couldn’t refuse, not without raising eyebrows, or worse.

“Be safe this summer.” He folded her into the briefest, and most platonic, of hugs. “Do you have anything special planned? Did you enroll in that summer program at the University I mentioned?”

The observership? No. Definitely not on the allowed list of summer activities.

She loved how he encouraged her, and adored him even more for slipping the lists of colleges with undergraduate pre-med programs inside her lab notebook. He’d been the one who’d told her about the highly competitive, six-year medical school programs as well.

“Goodbye, Mr. Peterson,” she said, and he finally released her. Perfect timing too, already her breathing accelerated.

A glance at the clock hanging over the doors leading outside counted down her fate. Less than an hour remained. She should stay and linger within the halls to memorize every detail. Those images would serve her well in the months to come, but staying meant risking unwanted conversation. And while she remained a frustrating mystery to her peers, she didn’t care. A pretty girl who was too school for cool, Elsbeth’s brain would determine her future, not her standing within the social hierarchy of a mid-rate high school. She brushed off the advances of boys, and kept those rare girls interested in befriending the geek-girl an arm’s breath away. Friends were liabilities.

With a heavy sigh, she followed her fellow students out and into the embrace of summer. To them it represented freedom, but for Elsbeth the endless days would be nothing but a stretch of time to endure.

Home.

The word conjured many images. A home should be a place of light. A place of love. A place of sanctuary and hope. Home was where weary souls rested their heads as day deepened to night and slumber brought peaceful dreams. Home was a place to recharge and recuperate from the toils of a difficult day. Elsbeth’s home was located at a crossroads where reason fled and insanity took root.

The Tudor monstrosity which the state foster care system assigned as her ‘place of residence’ dominated the middle of a three-lot spread at the end of a long cul-de-sac. The owner had purchased the lots to either side for the privilege of setting his home apart. Not that Clark Preston needed more space. It was the status which came with the message.

Despite everything the house embodied, Elsbeth looked forward to coming home if for only one reason. Her foster brother, Forest, bounced a soccer ball from knee to knee, his tall, lanky form a mess of spindly limbs too long for his growing frame. She called him her little beanpole for good reason, but this last year he’d started to sprout into the nickname. An odd bird, his quirky personality hid a brilliant mind. He wasn’t the only one with too few friends.

He glanced up, his shock of blond hair glowing in the afternoon sun. Forest let the ball drop where he kicked it back and forth in a blinding array of footwork. “Hey Ellz.” He stopped kicking. The ball rolled a few short feet away until it came to a stop against the azaleas. He turned his gaze upon her, an old soul looking out from behind the palest blue she’d ever seen. “Guess it’s officially summertime.”

With a deep breath, she clutched her school books against her chest. Yes, summer, but she had the classics to keep her company. Moby, Shakespeare, and Jane Austin would smooth out the dark times ahead.

“What are you doing outside?”

Forest was more of a computer geek than a jock. He was happiest with the glow of a retina display lighting his room and stimulating his mind. Her foster brother didn’t play video games. He made them. Self taught in the language of code, Forest tinkered and created his escape, while she read herself into one.

Forest jerked a thumb toward the house. “He called the maids,” he said with a grimace. “We’re having company.”

Her stomach turned in knots. “Tonight?”

“Yeah, told me to let the maids in, and then said to stay out of their way.”

“Did he say who was coming?” Please don’t let it be the fat, slobbery judge.

With a shake of his head, Forest retrieved the ball, and then drew her into a hug. He was tall enough for her to rest her head against his bony chest. When Forest had first entered her life five years ago, he’d been shorter than her, small and fragile. She leaned into his embrace, shaking.

He kissed the top of her head. “Ellz, we’ll get through it. We always do.”

A tear leaked from the corner of her eye. She brushed it away. “But, you know what he’s like with company.” She was supposed to be strong for Forest, but the mention of visitors on the first night of summer had her trembling.

Pressing his lips against her forehead, he tugged her in tight. “It’s a moment in time, my sweet Ellz, but only a moment, and like everything else, it will pass.”

Clark Preston was a demon she understood. She’d learned how to survive his trials and tests, but when he invited others to share in his appetites, her coping skills struggled to keep up. And while it would be easiest to lose herself within the insanity, she had Forest to protect, and one other. Still naive, he believed in the possibility of a brighter future. Forest would be eighteen soon, and she would follow a few months later. Freedom beckoned, but first there was senior year to endure. She worried what would happen when faced with the possibility of graduation and a man who would refuse to let them go.

An accident had stolen her parents and separated her from a baby brother. Forest had lost his family to something much worse, and yet somewhere within that tragedy, they had found each other. Forest’s resilience astounded her, because he believed they would be delivered from the evil which filled their lives. Even when she’d held him on that very first night, when he’d been broken, battered, and left bleeding on the basement floor, Forest had believed. She hadn’t had the heart to tell him the truth.

Neither of them were escaping this hell.

The front door opened and two cleaning ladies exited. The older one walked over, her black and white maid’s uniform impressively immaculate after her labors. “We’re all done,” she said. “We couldn’t get into the basement to clean. If your father wants us to clean down there next time, he’ll need to remove the lock.”

“Yes ma’am,” Forest said with a gulp, his grip around her shoulders tightened. “I’ll be sure to tell him.”

The women secured their gear in the cleaning van and pulled out of the driveway, waving as they drove off.

With a sigh, Elsbeth walled off her mind from what her body would soon endure. “Come on, Beanpole.” It was half-past four. Clark Preston would be home within the hour. “We have to prepare.”