Dark Friends by Mark Butler

Amelia got dressed and cleaned her room. She then waited patiently on her bed for someone to permit her to do more.
                  Catina was an early-riser by nature. She loved the crisp, newness of the morning. She liked to rise with the sun and do her yoga routine, a sweaty thirty-minute series of poses and lunges designed to stimulate circulation. Near the end of her workout Steven woke up and made coffee, then ate his breakfast while Catina finished. Steven waited for Catina to pour her cup of coffee before he spoke.
                  “Good morning. How was your session?'
                  “Sufficient. My mind is distracted.”
                  “With good reason, too.”
                  “Should we wake her up?”
                  “I'd let her sleep, she's probably exhausted in more ways than one.” Steven smiled.
                  “You're right, of course. So, are you ready to be a parent?”
                  “No. I'm ready to learn to be a parent. I think this girl is very unusual, and I wonder if there is a subconscious reason that you chose her. Were you thinking that I am bored professionally and need a fun, new project?”
                  “What are you talking about?”
                  “You can tell as well as I can that she's been abused. She has none of the other characteristics of a normal child who just happened to grow up in an orphanage. She's aggressively private, sarcastic and insightful.”
                  “So?”
                  “So, I've seen abused kids before. She has several classic symptoms, except of course that she is smart enough to hide them from us.”
                  “Not you, apparently.”
                  “Of course not. I've been a psychologist for seventeen years, six of them with pediatric patients. This girl is textbook, Catina, except of course for her unusual intelligence.”
                  “She is smart, isn't she?”
                  “She seems like it. I guess we'll find out when she starts school next Monday. But my real interest is in you. Why choose this girl?”
                  “She needed to get out of there. All those kids do. I don't know...I guess I thought she had potential. Maybe I just liked the way she looked. I don't know, Steven, but I chose her” Catina said, turning back to her coffee. She could tell that Amelia was special. The girl answered questions too fast. She said nothing trivial. Her orphanage-education would not have done so much for her, Catina thought, she must be auto-didactic.
                  “You know, I read in an adoption book that sometimes kids are terrified of their new homes, their new families.” Steven ventured.
                  “So?”
                  “I hate it when you say that. So, Amelia is probably going to feel timid to do anything around here. She doesn't feel like this is her home, yet. She's probably already woken up, and is just sitting in her bed waiting to be told when to eat, when to dress.”
                  “I'll go check on her.” Catina said.
                  Catina ascended the wooden staircase to the second floor, the stairs creaking with every step. The house felt quieter than ever even though there was a third person there now. Catina paused at Amelia's door, feeling a chill run down her spine. She couldn't explain it, but it was as though Amelia was not what she appeared to be. Like she was an intruder. Catina opened the door and saw Amelia, sitting on the edge of her neatly-made bed, staring into space. She didn't look up when Catina entered, and her stillness was strange, unsettling.
                  “Do you wanna come downstairs and eat breakfast?” Catina said, her voice involuntarily