The Last Visit

Lilith: I don’t want to see her again!

Mallory: You don’t have to see her if you stay in your room.

Lilith: But my room isn’t the same anymore. She took all my stuff.

Mallory: Yeah, mine too.

Lilith: Can’t we just get out of here?

Mallory: I don’t think they’re ready for us yet.

Lilith: Why not?

Mallory: Because no one has come to get us.

Lilith: Why do we have to wait for someone?

Mallory: Just because I’m your twin brother, who’s older by one lousy minute, doesn’t mean I know everything all the time.

Lilith: Well, you’re supposed to. Did you know it was Mom?

Mallory: I didn’t think so at first.

Lilith: Is that why you didn’t warn me?

Mallory: I had no clue what happened until after.

Lilith: You never pay attention.

Mallory: What is that supposed to mean?

Lilith: You couldn’t tell by our names that she hated us?

Mallory: By our names?

Lilith: Yeah.Yours means unfortunate.

Mallory: So?Yours means night demon.She said they were the only two names she liked from the movies she watched as a kid.

Lilith: And you believed her?

Mallory: What wasn’t there to believe?

Lilith: I never thought this would happen to me.

Mallory: Yeah.Me neither.

Lilith: I was so careful and trying to be so cute to make her happy all the time, but she was never satisfied with anything I did or said.

Mallory: Not for lack of trying on both our parts.

Lilith: What did you do to try to make her happy?

Mallory: I didn’t know what to do, so I just went to my room last night.

Lilith: Why did you think that would make her happy?

Mallory: I didn't!I just wanted to get away from her.

Lilith: Did you worry about me?

Mallory: Not really.Most moments with you, she was calm.She never did that with me. She always yelled that I acted and looked too much like my father.

Lilith: I wonder if he will know.

Mallory: I should have looked for him ages ago.

Lilith: She never even told us his name. How could you look for someone you didn’t even know?

Mallory: I don’t know, but he could have been better than Mom.

Lilith: Maybe.

Mallory: But it would have been nice to know who Dad was and what he was like.

Lilith: I saw a photo of a man in that old photo album she kept in her drawer.

Mallory: You went into her room?

Lilith: Yeah, but she never knew. It was one of the days she went out to the store to go get her medicine.

Mallory: You mean her drugs?

Lilith: Mom didn’t do drugs!

Mallory: Are you kidding me? Of course she did! You must've been living in a fantasy world not to notice that! And you talk about me not paying attention!

Lilith: What do you mean?

Mallory: Every Friday night, she would go into her room and lock the door for half an hour.When she came out, she was nice as pie, and then, two hours later, she would turn her mean ol’ self again.

Lilith: That’s just the way Mom was.

Mallory: No, it wasn't, Lilith! I saw her one night meeting a guy in a car at the 7 Eleven down the street last year.

Lilith: Last year?Last year, when she locked you in your room for a month for getting an extra helping of dinner?

Mallory: Yes!I was going crazy in there and snuck out my window after I heard her car leave. I was going to go to the store with the two dollars I had stashed in my room just to get something to eat because she was only giving me crackers and water.

Lilith: What?Only crackers and water?

Mallory: Yeah.You know how Mom's punishments were.Remember when you got to wear the same unwashed clothes to school for a week because you forgot to do her laundry that weekend?

Lilith: I was sick!

Mallory: And did that stop her?

Lilith: No, but I deserved it. I should have done my chores like I was supposed to.

Mallory: No, Lilith!You were her child. She was supposed to take care of you, not punish you!

Lilith: She did take care of me. She gave me medicine.

Mallory: That's not what I meant. I meant she was supposed to at least not expect you to do chores when you were running a 102-degree fever and could barely get out of bed.

Lilith: Whatever, Mal. That's your opinion. Go back to your 7 Eleven story.

Mallory: Once I approached the parking lot through the woods, I saw Mom talking to a guy in a blue van.

Lilith: Were you scared?

Mallory: Of course, I was scared! I couldn't risk getting caught, so I stayed in the shadows of the trees. She gave him money, and he gave her a small brown bag.

Lilith: Did you see what was in it?

Mallory: No, I didn't see what was in it! All I know is that she walked back to her car, and I hauled ass back to the house to get inside before she got home. Thirty minutes after she got home, she came to my room and said she was lifting my punishment. That little baggie must have given her the fix to put her in a good mood again.

Lilith: Now it makes sense! She had told me I would wear the same outfit for a month when she grounded me, but then she changed her mind that Friday night after she came out of her room from being locked in there for a while.

Mallory: Now, do you see what I mean? Tell me more about the photo you found.

Lilith: Well, I snuck in to see if there was any money to buy lunch the next day at school, and when I opened the bottom drawer, an old album was in there, so I looked through it. There was a picture of us as babies being held by a man with blonde hair, a beard, and a mustache, and he had the biggest smile on his face.

Mallory: Was there any name on the picture?

Lilith: No, but I always wished that man was our Dad. He looked happy to be holding us.

Mallory: Maybe he was.

Lilith: Who’s knocking?

Mallory: I don’t think we can answer the door.

Lilith: Why not?

Mallory: I don’t think we can open it.

Lilith: Well, whoever it is has just opened it for us.

Mallory: Stay behind me. You'll be safe.

Lilith: I wish you had been here to say that last night.

Mallory: Can you see him?

Lilith: Wait!That's the man from the photo!The one who was holding us when we were babies!

Mallory: This guy approaching us now is the same guy from the picture?

Lilith: Yeah!That’s him!

Mallory: Maybe the same thing happened to him.

Lilith: What do you mean?

Mallory: Like what happened to us.

Lilith: Mallory, what really happened to us last night?

Mallory: Lilith, Mom killed us last night just like she killed Dad. He’s come to get us, and we can leave now.