Dark Fantasy, Volume One

Chapter 1
Dinner Invitation

Chapter Description: Mrs. Roger's daughter is invited out to dinner, along with her and her husband.

The rain was pouring down against the window. Jenna nodded her head in agreement to the other person on the line. "Yes, Thursday at five-thirty would be great... See you then." She looked over at her husband and smiled, "We’re having dinner at the Stevensons’ Thursday at five-thirty. I don’t think we’ll have to worry about dressing up for it."

Doug nodded in response. Jenna hadn’t married a particularly sociable man, but he was very supportive of his family. "What are we having for dinner?" He stared off into the rain.

"I think she mentioned her husband would grill something. I’m guessing burgers..." Jenna paused as they both heard light footsteps approach.

"Mommy! Mommy! Sarah invited us over to dinner Thursday night!!!" The six year old standing before them exclaimed. Doug and Jenna both turned their attention to their daughter.

"Oh? What time Thursday night?" Jenna asked as she tried to mimic her daughter’s enthusiasm.

The girl paused as she confirmed the details with her friend. "She says five-thirty!!!"

"Five-thirty? Sounds great. Tell her we’ll be there at five-thirty." She smiled as her daughter wandered into another room as they continued their conversation.

"Is her homework even done yet? We wouldn’t want her to grow up to be like that one friend you had in college..." Doug began.

"Samantha!" Jenna called out.

"Yes Mommy?" her daughter returned to the kitchen.

"Is your homework done yet?"

"No, Mommy."

"Well, you need to say good night to your friend and get your homework done before bedtime."

"Yes Mom..." Samantha apologized to her friend as she headed off to her room to get started on her homework.

Jenna turned to Doug. "You know, Kindergarten is a little early to start giving her homework."

Doug only shook his head. "Come on Jenna, you remember Rebecca. Worst mooch I’ve ever seen. No life skills, no discipline, and no future. I don’t want that for Samantha and neither should you. Have you even heard from her since she left?" Doug broke eye contact with her and returned his gaze to outside the window, the rain was coming down heavily.

"No, Doug. She went missing, remember? They still haven’t found her and I haven’t heard from her since. None of her family even talk to me anymore since they think we have something to do with it." Jenna also looked out at the rain. She remembered that it had been raining a lot like this the day Doug kicked her out.

Doug gave a sarcastic laugh, "Like her unconfirmed suicide?"

Jenna gave him a dark look. "We don’t know that. Even if she did, there’s no reason to talk about it so lightly." While it was true that it was suspected that she had done something drastic, based on her phone records, nothing led to the discovery of her whereabouts and it was impossible to determine whether she was alive or dead, so the investigation closed in a missing persons case, which Doug knew was a rough topic for Jenna.

"Then why are you so soft on her? We don’t want her ending up like THAT." Doug turned from the window back to his wife, the seriousness of his voice almost sharp enough to cut through her desire to spoil their child.

"No, Doug, I don’t. Samantha is not Rebecca and it’s unfair to push our anxiety onto her. We don’t need to stress her out. It’s bad enough to have this conversation in the kitchen of all places, but Samantha is nearby and doesn’t need to hear us argue about her."

Doug shook his head and left the room. This would not be the end of it. Jenna glumly stared out the window at the unrelenting rain.