What did I do?
Why did she wander off? She wasn't that sort of girl to just leave home without telling anyone.
Why had they taped her face? Taken her dress?
I ripped her skin taking that tape off too. She had been crying for me and trying to gnaw her way free....
The others hadn't seen. They couldn't see that.
"Dad?"
Ethel pressed a hand to my shoulder to try and get my attention.
My face, laying on the table, tried to see through strained eyes.
I still held that dress to my body, even when I formed my skin and dragged myself to our table I didn't leave.
"You need to eat" she insisted.
Her hand slid across a cup of noodles still soaked in boiling water.
Her eyes pleaded with me, trying to make me move.
There was no point. I freed Maisie, but was she really free when she had died like that?
"I'm not hungry" I muttered out "you eat it."
"Dad" Ethel sighed and pulled up a seat beside me "you need to get up. Avery and Astrid are worried about you. I'm worried too. You can't starve yourself."
Her hand reached for mine and I gripped the dress tight.
"I'm not taking it. I just need you to eat. Just a little."
She looked broken. Her eyes glistened with tears when her hand ran over my back before sliding the cup toward me.
A few bites. For her.
"It's Laksa" she smiled when I twisted the noodles onto the fork stabbed into them "I got them myself."
She left the house?
I lifted my head.
"When?"
"We needed food. No-one knew I was anything else" Ethel insisted "the grocer even gave me a few free pears when I said I was there for my sick dad."
She smiled at how smart she had been. Venturing out, alone, through the woods....
"I took Astrid with me" she spoke when she saw my concern "so I wasn't going by myself. It was fun."
Fun? It was too dangerous.
"Don't do it again" I warned her "you need an adult with you."
"You were here. Avery stayed with you. We were fine."
"You could have died" my voice choked and I laid my head back onto the stained table "I can't lose you two as well."
"Dad" Ethel soothed with a hand on my back that ran circles "We were OK. Next time, you can come with us."
No, it was safer here. Nothing could get us in our home.
But Maisie.... She had been lured from it so easily....
My hands scrunched the dress between them.
"I'll leave these here if you want them" Ethel stirred the noodles for me "please try to eat them. I kind of bought bulk, so I need to know if I got the right flavour."
That got a little smile out of me.
"I love you, Dad."
"Love you too" I mumbled back to her disappearing from sight "don't go outside again!"
"Alright" her voice smiled.
I had to keep them where it was safe. I only had three left....
Maisie should have been here too.
Oh, God.
My tears stained the already tarnished table. I didn't have the strength anymore to give myself to the agony pulling me apart.
I just let the tears slide down my sticky face and onto the wood that had been my support for the last five days.
My baby. My poor Maisie.
There was no use carrying on like I hadn't seen her dangling and drained like some slaughtered pig. She was a little girl, hunted down and strung up like a savage animal.
She would have been so scared. She would have waited for me to come save her as she bled out.
And I didn't protect her. I had left them all alone while I played games and drank.
They could have all died and I wouldn't have known.
I let her die so horribly.
"Dad?"
Hands shoved my shoulder frantically.
Was that Astrid?
"Dad, someone is here."
Her voice whimpered to me. She had my head pulled from the table once more, before my body hauled itself up.
I could smell fuel from exhaust fumes. There was a human stench too.
Was it the same one that had been stained on Maisie's things?
"Go to your room" I muttered while pushing her towards it "get all of you in there."
"I'm scared" Astrid sobbed.
"Go" I demanded.
The dress was still pressed to my clothes when I saw my children come scurrying out of different parts of the house and into their room. I heard the door slam shut, and hands dragging over a bed to block it.
I had to save them. I couldn't lay there and let a human take them all.
Extending my arms, I stiffened and waited for the car door to slam and the running feet to burst through the gate.
Poised to strike, I heard a brief knock on the front door before it burst open and I snapped my hands around the intruder.
"Fuck!" Carter cried out when I squeezed his arms and throat "It's me! It's me!"
He slapped my hands that recoiled and lingered around me.
What was he doing here?
It looked like he had thrown on the first things he had to speed here. An open jacket and long pyjama bottoms were all he wore. There wasn't even a shirt or shoes.
"The news" Carter rubbed his throat and coughed "I saw what happened. You need to get out somewhere safer."
"They aren't coming here" I growled back "they can't."
I didn't have the strength to fight anyway. As much as i wanted to defend my children, as soon as I saw there was no threat, my body sagged under the weight of the grief.
My arms dropped to the ground and I searched for the table to relieve the burden.
"You need to come" he urged, blocking my path so he could place his hands on my shoulders and force me to look at him "you need a shower, something to eat, and to look after your kids. You're a mess, Quinton. Have you slept?"
I didn't need to do any of that. I just needed to lay down at the table and keep my ear out for intruders. I couldn't leave the house. I couldn't leave Maisie behind.
I couldn't face that room. All her books, her bed, her clothes; she was still here when she wasn't.
"I'm not letting you stay here" Carter spoke seriously to my tears running down my cheeks "you need somewhere to grieve. This isn't the place."
I couldn't leave her. I couldn't just go.
My body dragged itself to the relief of the table I laid my head back on. I saw Carter speaking through the bedroom door and waiting for it to crack open to my children peering at him.
Avery fought back, the brave boy, but Carter put a stop to that and coaxed them from within.
They were all so good. My precious children.
Their eyes all turned to me when they passed with stuffed bags hauled over their shoulders to cautiously head out the door. They wanted my guidance and protection, but I couldn't lift myself up to give it to them.
"Quin" Carter sighed when he walked over to drag up the chair beside my dripping face "I know what happened, everyone does. It was disgusting and she really didn't deserve something like that" he whispered to my sobs "but you need to get up. You have to save what you have left."
I snorted at his delusion. My tears still ran freely into the wood beneath me.
Carter sighed at me before his eyes darted down. They looked to me before his hands seized the dress to rip it from my grip. Even though I had it pressed to me, I wasn't expecting it to be torn away. I was too weak to even keep it close.
"Give it back."
"Get the fuck up!" Carter stood with the dress clutched in his arm held high "I'll tear this thing apart! I will!"
I couldn't take a chance on his empty threat. My arms snatched weakly for him, but he easily stepped backwards out of the way.
"Get up!" he snarled to me.
"Give it back" I begged.
That was hers. He was going to ruin one of the last things I had of hers.
"Quinton, I'm not messing around" Carter backed up into the bedroom "you can cry all you want at my place, but you need to move. Your kids are waiting for you out there, alone, probably being watched by the killer right now."
I lifted my head and tried to see over the fence blocking the view. I could hear the car still running but couldn't see them.
Were they....?
"Get in the car" Carter demanded "please."
I turned to him, seeing that he had stuffed Maisie's things into a box he was holding.
That was her box. She put all of her interesting items into it that she found.
She kept that under her bed. Why was he near her bed?
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF HER!"
Hands snapped around Carter to smash him into the wall beside the door. He dropped the box, and all of Maisie's belongings tumbled out to spill on the floor around him.
The wall behind him poured with liquid. It dripped onto the wood, just like Maisie's blood had over me.
Frantically scraping her things together, I closed the distance between us and cradled the box close. Her dress hung over the side that I nudged out of sight.
"Good to see you still have some energy left" Carter grinned from my restraint twisted around him "you kind of destroyed by back though."
That didn't matter. I couldn't have these things destroyed. It still has Maisie's scent and memories ingrained into them.
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"We need to go" Carter whispered and grabbed my arms around him to tap them "please."
I looked around at the house that had been fogging my brain. The stained table beckoned, but I ignored it and lowered Carter to his feet.
Realisation hit me first when I saw the liquid was accompanied by the tiny bodies of what could have been my family.
"What have I done?"
I had done everything to protect them, and one burst of anguish had destroyed it all.
In the moment it didn't matter. Now that I had the box, clarity was rattling my numb brain back to life.
My children. They were waiting for me in a place they didn't know. They'd be scared.
"I'll let you see it all for yourself, but it's bad" Carter explained when he gently pried my fingers from himself "they're saying all sorts of things on the TV."
"Maisie is dead" I choked out to him.
Carter paused, pulling himself through the tangle of arms to wrap his own around me.
They were warm against my stale clothes. It radiated through my skin that hadn't had proper contact in almost a week.
"I know" he whispered as my silent tears snaked down his head "and it's not your fault, no matter what anyone says."
He looked up at me with his own trickling eyes he wiped.
"Come on."
His hand grabbed mine so he could gently lead me to the front door. I stared back at the dripping wall, then to his soaked jacket, and the cold noodles left on the table.
Sunlight blinded me when I stepped outside and let myself by led to the fence where Carter's hand dropped from mine.
"After you" he stepped out of the way for me.
Even as broken, rattled, confused, and numb as I was, he still respected my image I portrayed to my family.
He could have quite easily led me out like a caring mother tugging along a sobbing child, but he didn't. He let me keep my dignity and make my own way to the car where everyone watched and waited for Carter to take us away from it all.
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My children stayed close when we pulled up and I led them inside. They noticed the broken door and the soaked back Carter tried to play off. Ethel raised her eyebrow when Carter zipped up his jacket to try and hide the bump under it. I gave her the box to keep with her. I felt like I was going to crush it under how tightly I held it.
There was no hiding the lengths I had gone to for this family. Coming with Carter was the first indicator.
What remained of my family was sat down at the kitchen benches and fed before given Carter's room to rest in.
They were exhausted too. From hunting Maisie to mourning her and wondering the extent of her shielded death. Even when I slumped down on the couch, they didn't complain. They had been fending for themselves so far and didn't get angry at my misery, like they should.
I should have looked after them but I was just creating more questions.
"I have to warn you, it's on every channel" Carter handed me the remote slowly "they aren't being very.... uh, understanding.... about the whole situation."
"Her death?"
He nodded, passing me a cushion I cradled close.
"I'll let you watch and listen" he just said.
I felt my gut clench when I turned on the TV and flicked through the channels.
I was nervous and afraid at the same time. There was anger squashed in there somewhere too.
But, it was there.
Reporters telling of a demon found on a road by a passerby in the gruesome murder. They even had footage of her discovery when they drove along and found her strung up.
Talk show hosts picked apart the murder and debated if it really was one since she wasn't in a human skin. Others quarreled if It should even be treated as a murder. She was an animal posing as a human.
There was sympathy for Maisie alongside hate.
She had been lured out and forced to strip from her dress. They didn't want her to look human when they killed her. She wasn't one of them. She was free pickings; like a hunter killing a wild piglet.
Back and forth went the morality of the situation. They dug up how it was similar to the death of my other children in the poppy field. They even connected the murders and came to the conclusion she was from my family; that I was vengeful and going to be on the hunt for humans.
I would strike; how I had when I attacked Carter. They knew it was me in both situations. They knew about the spider demon living near the town I had met Silas in. They spoke about how it would be easier to just get rid of me than play chance.
Maisie was just the start of a manhunt deeper than the first. Her death sparked hate I saw in people I didn't know. She got sympathy from others begging to save us.
It divided every channel broadcasting the shocking death of my little girl.
By the end of it all, my nails were piercing through the cushion. My teeth were bared at the screen and people moving so casually to lighter news.
"I said it was rough" Carter mumbled to me "you couldn't stay there. People will take matters into their own hands."
"What am I supposed to do?" I huffed to him "stay as I am? Live in the woods? Give up my home?"
"It's tough" Carter blew out a breath "I honestly don't know. They know what you look like naturally and like this. With Maisie...." he paused at my anger "with her.... they'll know what your kids look like. They aren't like you. They are going to be aware of that."
"They'll hunt them down too? Because my Maisie was lured away and forced to strip before they killed her?" I snarled to him, barely able to keep my voice quiet "what do my children have to do with that? What did Maisie have to do with that? She was a little girl! She was...."
I took a shaking breath to steady myself and blink away the tears.
"She's not a wild animal."
"And I'm not saying that" Carter agreed "you just have to be aware that you have a target on your back. They'll do anything they can to make you leave."
"They used fire last time" I grunted as I held my head "and before that, me and Reid were targeted by others. Our family had to split up just to stay alive. I just want to live in peace with my children."
"Maybe peace is out there" Carter swept an arm "as you are."
My natural form?
I had given my children so much more. They couldn't just live like that. They needed food for their Skins. Living in the wild wouldn't allow for that.
I could go without, but they deserved those comforts.
"Stay as long as you need to sort it out" Carter patted my back "I can always go back and grab anything you left behind."
He was being too kind. We were supposed to hate each other.
"Why are you being so nice to me?" I glanced to him.
He chuckled and leant back.
"It's the decent thing to do" he replied and grew serious "you just lost your daughter whose death is all over the news. I'm not going to sit by and say 'fuck it, it's not my problem'. You made your life my problem with this."
He jabbed the bump that I smirked at.
"Sorry about that" I chuckled.
"It'll be over soon" he shrugged "I'll be back to the way things were, and you'll be running around with too many kids to keep control of."
I smiled at the thought. Just like the way things were. Walking without fear with all of them waiting for me to guide them into the world.
Nothing would hurt them. I'd be whole and happy.
Silas was still out there too. Combined, I had three chances steadily growing. I'd have to return for the five I had abandoned back home.
"You aren't so bad, compared to Reid" Carter gave a small smile "I think you'll do great out there."
His compliments warmed my insides.
He reminded me of how Silas used to be.
Fuck.
"Silas" I groaned and slumped into the couch "I left him out there."
"You... left him?" Carter frowned to me "he was at the house?"
"He's in the forest not far from here" I grumbled back "I had to tie him up."
"Tie him up?" Carter tried to keep the laugh out of his voice "what the hell for? I thought you guys were done?"
"We were" I shrugged and rubbed my face free of the dread "but he's in the same situation as you. He's not as accepting of it as you are."
Carter leant forwards and smiled warily at me.
"I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or insult?" he snorted.
"Either" I huffed "now I've got to figure out what to do with him."
We were both silent, thinking.
"Do the kids know?" Carter finally asked with a quick look to the room.
I shook my head.
"He's not their dad anymore. That's all they need to know."
"And they'll get the wrong idea about us" he pointed out to my disgust "not that there is one. You toss Silas out for coming to me, then have me take you in with my skin all bloated like this? They'll think you're replacing him with the thing you hated."
"Hate" I corrected him.
"Well, whatever it is, it looks like you've moved from one to the other."
I glared to Carter who only shrugged back, leaning back so his swollen skin was my focus.
Maybe it did look like that after all....
I looked up to Carter who grinned slyly at my acknowledgement of his theory.
"I don't think you hate me like you did" he teased "I've got something you want, and that's made you see something that wasn't there."
"See something?" I scoffed at him "like what? A manipulator? I only can't touch you because of them" I jabbed a finger at his middle.
He really was pushing it being this cocky. He wanted my tolerance to turn into some sort of friendship.
Once I had my children, I was out of here.
He'd be dead to me, like he was before.
"I've got to check on Silas" I grunted, heaving myself upwards "we aren't anything, got it?"
"Sure, big guy" Carter held his hands up while trying not to find me amusing.
He wasn't taking me seriously at all. I couldn't do anything about it.
"I'll come too" he decided and got to his feet.
Like the hell he was. I didn't need Silas thinking the same thing as well.
"Look, I want to see what you've done with him" Carter smiled.
I huffed at him and snatched up a roll of sandwich meat and a bottle of water from the fridge before hesitating to grimace down the hall where my children slept.
Darting back, I left a scrawled note and quickly joined Carter who let me pass him out the door he held open.
The sooner we got Silas sorted, the sooner I could come back and keep my children protected.
"The gate's locked and the door is shut" Carter informed when he pulled his hand back through the fence to latch it "they're only after you, not me."
"How reassuring" I huffed back.
"For me" he teased.
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I led the way through the undergrowth for Carter to follow. He struggled behind me until my feet touched the start of the dirt path where I heard him sigh in relief.
"Its not much further."
"Good" he withdrew his arms from around his middle "that was hell."
He had shielded them? Just to stop them from being pierced by the sticks or sliced by the rough leaves?
"I'm doing this to keep you off me" he reminded me when I eyed his retreating hands "nothing else."
Why would I think he actually wanted to shield them like a loving parent would?
I'd carry them myself if I could. In a way, I envied the fact Carter had the perfect skin to brood them at all. Mine would kill them.
I wanted to be selfish and keep them to myself through the whole process. To feel little claws clutching into my fur or every subtle movement beneath it. I'd keep them safe from anything and wouldn't have to ever rely on humans again.
"Holy shit" Carter breathed "is that it?"
Lost in thought, I barely registered him moving past me. He stood right opposite the nest I had made to initially keep Silas trapped.
Where was he anyway?
"Silas" I snapped to the tree next to the oblivious Carter "food."
"You can't just call me like some fucking animal" his voice snarled back as the web tether moved with him "I do h....."
Silas emerged into view and stopped when he saw Carter standing there.
"Fuck, Silas" Carter breathed at him "why the hell are you half naked?"
"Ask him" Silas glared to me and scrabble for the wrapped meat I threw into the dirt at his feet "why are you here?"
I threw the bottle at his bound hands and chose to sit down myself so I could watch him shred the paper with his teeth like a savage animal.
Carter didn't answer as he watched him.
Ironic. Humans were the wild ones, not my family.
"You keep him on a leash?" Carter breathed, picking up the food so he could properly unwrap it for Silas and feed him "this isn't right."
"What isn't right is him trying to kill my children" I snapped back "he's doing what he owes me. You will be the same if you keep talking about how cruel I'm being."
"Yeah, right" Silas scoffed through his food "perfect father right there."
"I will take your food if you keep it up" I warned him "I'm not in the mood."
"In the mood for what?" Silas snorted back "sex? You don't want to come over here and fuck me whenever you want? Tie me up? Take my leg away? Take my own damn kids away and raise them like animals?"
"Silas, don't" Carter tried to shush him "not now."
They weren't animals! They weren't wild creatures made to be hunted! They weren't his to take!
"MAISIE IS DEAD!" I shook with rage as I got to my feet to round in on Silas and pull him up by the throat tether "she's not an animal! She's just a girl who wanted to see the birds!"
My voice trailed off and I saw my own anguish peel across Silas' face. His eyes trembled and stared at me blankly.
"No" he whispered out, looking between me and Carter "no, she's at home. She's..."
"She's gone" I choked out before dropping him down.
His body sank to the dirt and his bound hands pounded it, trying to reach my feet that stepped back from him.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!" he shrieked and tugged on the leash to choke himself "WHY DID YOU LET HER DIE?!"
"Silas!" Carter cried out and stepped between us, trying to calm his shaking body "He didn't do it. He didn't kill her."
"Let him blame me" I snarled back to Silas through my brimming tears "BLAME ME! THAT'LL BRING HER BACK!"
"YOU BASTARD!" Silas screeched around Carter pushing him back to stop him choking himself.
I wiped my eyes and tried to steady my breathing through my twisting chest threatening to snap my ribs.
"FUCK YOU! YOU KILLED HER! YOU LET HER DIE!"
I did, didn't I? I hadn't been there when she cried for me and died with tape over her face.
"HOW COULD YOU? YOU NEVER SHOULD HAVE HAD THEM! THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN WITH ME!"
I'd been distracted. The one time I let my guard down ended in my most innocent child being killed on a dirt road.
"WHERE WERE YOU?!"
"I WAS HERE!" I bellowed back, blind with rage and anguish.
Storming over, I shoved Carter aside and kept him pinned to the tree behind him with one extended hand. Another sized Silas by his leash to force him to look up at me from his knees.
"I was with him" I growled down to his accusing eyes swimming in my blurred vision "I was too focused on something that made me happy that I kept pushing her thing further back. I should have gone, but I stayed instead. I was late and I will always pay for that."
"You..."
"No!" I snapped and shook Silas to keep him quiet "you don't fucking get a say in this. You didn't see her like I did. You didn't have to keep your children from seeing what they did to Maisie."
Silas glared up at me, but whimpered for an answer he was too afraid to ask for.
"I need these children to be kept safe" I begged him "then, I'll take my family and be gone. She meant everything me. I'm not losing more. You or Carter aren't taking that from me."
Silas glanced at Carter and lingered when he finally found the stretched skin just like his own. His eyes glistened at mine spilling down my cheeks.
"I loved her" I breathed to Silas "I loved all of them. One time, I even loved you."
He choked, letting out his strangled sob.
"Silas, I need you to stop fighting me."
He only hung his head in my grip keeping it from dropping.
"Carter" I turned to him now "you took everything from me. You stole what was mine just because you could. Still...." I paused, heaving a breath "...I need you. Without you and Silas, I have nothing."
"I'm only here because you forced this on me" Carter spoke up first "but, I know you've changed. You've been much nicer to me because of all this."
"I lost my love for you the moment you tied me up here" Silas whispered "there's no coming back from this. I'm just trying to make it out alive so I can figure out what to do after it all..."
There's nothing I could say to make him stop looking at me like that. I had vowed to kill him if he ever went back to Carter or tried to separate me from my remaining family.
Things would have to change. If I wanted to avoid the mob hunting my head, I'd need to take my new family and run as soon as they were born.
There wouldn't be time for vengeance.
"I need to get back."
Carter's hands stopped trying to pluck my fingers tightened around him.
"What about Silas?"
My eyes ran over his silently weeping figure still on his knees in the dirt before turning away.
"We can't leave him like this" Carter pointed.
"Please" Silas begged "I'm hungry. I need a shower. I want clean clothes again."
He's tricking me. The moment I bought him back, he'd run or hold my family hostage until he got what he wanted.
"Leave him."
"Quinton! Please! You can't leave me like this! I need to see her!" Silas wailed and clawed for the dirt desperately as far as he could reach "don't just leave me here without seeing her!"
I stopped as his anguish stabbed my heart.
"You can't just keep that from him" Carter mumbled to me "he did help you have these kids to begin with."
I looked to Silas in the dirt, begging and crying like I had been, then blinked back the painful tears.
"I've only got her things" I warned him when I quickly rushed over to break his tether and slice off the binds "you'll do everything I say. Run, scream, try to talk to my children, and I will leave you in the woods alone."
Silas nodded, sniffling and rubbing his sore wrists.
He was still naked without pants. The clothes had been trampled into the dirt and were far too caked to wear again.
Just like Maisie's dress.....
"Come on" I urged with a shove "let's go."
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My mounting panic was put to ease when we returned to the house and I saw everyone was still nestled in bed together.
They looked so peaceful there. I wanted to curl around them and forget about everything else, but I had Silas outside the fence to think about.
One yell from him and everyone would know what I had done to him. To me, he was no higher than the filth covering his body. Even with my insisting, I still couldn't determine how any of my children would react if they actually did see who used to be their father standing right before them.
I saw Maisie's box resting just on the outside of Carter's cupboard. Carefully, I scooped up the box, then paused at the cupboard door.
Sighing, I opened it to see what I could find before leaving the room.
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"Clothes" I grumbled to Silas and threw him shorts he quickly pulled on.
Glaring, I cradled the box close that Silas eyed.
"Is that everything?" he sniffled.
"Be careful with it" I muttered and gave it a final squeeze before handing it over.
Silas burst into tears when it slipped into his fingers. He pushed through her things so carefully, touching the crusted dress and trying to smile at the leaves she had collected.
Her little shoes with the tred torn off the bottoms flashed at me as Silas pulled them up and sobbed over them.
She couldn't escape. She tried her best, but...
"That's enough."
I held out my hands and saw the box hesitantly fit between them. I took the shoe Silas gripped and slipped it back in to cover it with the dress.
"W-what happened?" he whispered.
I didn't want to say it again. To see how she died, to feel her blood over me, to listen to strangers deciding her disgusting fate was right.
I gripped the box and folded the top over so her things were protected.
"The news might help" Carter offered hopefully.
"No" I glared to him before aiming it at Silas "you aren't coming in."
"But..."
"No! None of you damn humans are going near them!"
I heard the panic in my voice that couldn't hide it. Both Silas and Carter picked it up too.
"I'm not having either of you hurt them!" I hardened to shield my fear "I've only got three left. Neither of you are going near them, ever."
I needed to keep everyone safe. It was getting harder with the assets right here too.
Silas wasn't trying to kill his yet. Who knew when he would find the right opportunity again?
"I won't go inside, but I'd be happy to have a wash under the hose" he piped up hopefully "and a seat. I really need to sit down."
Carter raised an eyebrow at me to see if I would fight it.
Technically, he wasn't going inside. He'd still be where I could keep an eye on him so he didn't try anything.
Left alone, he could ruin everything and run.
I let Silas pass, blocking the back door he walked past under the guidance of Carter who took him to a nearby hose he made sure was hooked up for him.
"I'll help" I spoke as I moved towards them "Carter, grab some soap and a scrubber."
He grumbled at the order but stormed off obediently.
I saw Silas watch him leave then turn to me.
"I'm not doing this out of love" I reminded him.
"I wouldn't expect it" he grimaced back. His eyes darted elsewhere "can I please sit while you help me?"
I left him to lift over a seat he took graciously. He stretched his leg out and started the process to unlatch his prosthetic.
"What are you going to do about Maisie?"
"What can I do?" I sighed back "sure, I can try and hunt down the people who did it by that smell alone, but that's all I have. I haven't seen them or heard them. It's hard to go off. I'd have them dead if I wanted to put my life on the line."
"So, you'll just leave it?" Silas accused.
I helped roll down the sock and took over wedging his leg free.
"I don't want to, but I have to. I can't put my three in danger because of something I want."
"I want it too" he muttered.
"Then you can deal with it" I replied while laying down his leg against the wall and sliding off his pants "but I can't."
"Quinton..."
"Don't" I held up a hand to block out his pain as I went behind him to pull up his shirt "I can't."
I heard Carter cough behind us and hold up a bar of soap with a scrubber. He also had a plate of sandwiches that caught Silas' eye.
How long had he been there?
"What are you going to do with him after this?" Carter handed Silas the food and me the soap "since you won't have him here?"
I still needed what was under his skin. I couldn't cut him loose just yet.
"I could go back home?" Silas suggested "I'll look after myself there and actually have some proper food and a decent shower."
"Where you can run off?" I snorted at him "nice try."
"Honest. I'll stay put" he insisted, turning, until I moved him back "I know you'll come after me if I do go anywhere. I'd like to stay there and have somewhere comfortable to sleep, a proper shower, food that is hot. It works for Carter, so why can't it work for me?"
"I don't trust you."
"And you don't trust me either" Carter shook his head at me "yet you let me just do my thing."
"Because" I growled to him "you haven't tried to kill them yet."
"I'll leave them alone if it means I don't get tied up again" Silas pleaded "I just need to get it over with so I can move on. I don't want to make this longer than it has to be."
Glaring to Carter, I saw him nodding.
"Same here. They're creeping me out with all the crawling in there."
Silas held in a laugh and I saw the genuine smile from him.
He never looked at me like that. Not in a long time.
"Finish your food" I grumbled to Silas while running the soap over his back "then I'll figure out what to do with you."
"Send him home?" Carter muttered and shrugged off my glare.
"I could stay h...."
"No."
"They're my children too" Silas bit back "I want to see them."
I scrubbed, pushing too hard into his skin that formed sludge under my hands. I could feel his muscles tensing and his bones beneath my force.
I could break him so easily. Then he wouldn't be here to harass my family.
"No" I repeated firmly "you already lost your chance when you only loved half of them."
"Quinton" Carter breathed when I moved from him to lather Silas' arms "are you scared he's going to take them? Or are you scared they are going to leave you for him?"
"Shut the fuck up."
"Quin" Silas placed a hand on my shoulder I pushed off "they can choose who they wa....."
"And have them die too?" I snapped back as I dug my way through his legs "you aren't taking them. They're mine, and I'll die before you even lay a finger on them."
Silas huffed then cried out when I blasted him with the hose. Dirt fell in rivers off his body and into the grass bubbling from his filth. There was a clear path of grime between what I blasted and what was still awaiting the water. The leftover food turned to slush on the plate that was flown from his hands.
I didn't want him anywhere near my children, knowing that they were still trying to process that he wasn't their father anymore.
Fuck. Fuck everything. Fuck him. Fuck Carter. Fuck everyone.
I needed what he carried. I couldn't let him just walk off and hope that he'd keep his word. I knew he was a snake.
If it were up to him, he'd burn it all down.
Fuck.
I snapped off the hose and let him shiver on the chair.
"Listen to me" I bent to his level "you aren't going near them unless I say so. You don't speak to them. You don't touch them. You don't give them gifts. You will have your hot food, bed, and showers, but nothing more. No Astrid. No Avery. No Ethel. If you even try to take them anywhere without me there, I will tear off your skin and hang your body on this damn fence until I get what I want from you. Then, I'll feed you to my babies. Do you understand me?"
"That's a bit excessive" he laughed nervously.
I rose, looking over him seriously.
I placed my hand around his jaw to lift it towards me. He flinched at the contact.
"Do. You. Understand?" I dragged out through my teeth.
He bared his own back at me.
"Yes" he muttered bitterly.
"Good. Go against me and I will keep my word."
He scoffed and winced when my hand tightened.
"Don't test me, Silas. You may have been my mate once, but I will kill you if I have to. I don't need you alive, I just need your body. It's been eleven days. Don't ruin it now."
"Only for three more days" he snapped.
"Three days" I agreed tensely "then you are dead to me. Both of you."
Carter met my hatred and shrunk under it.
"Same goes for you" I warned him "you'll keep us here and feed us in exchange for keeping your freedom. I will hang you like I did to Silas; and let me tell you, it isn't going to be without blood. Do you understand me?"
He opened his mouth, closed it, and looked to Silas in concern.
"Carter" I growled to him "are you going to enjoy your freedom for three days, or do I need to remind you in the same way I did to Silas?"
"It's not long" Silas reminded him around my hand "just say yes. Then, he'll be gone."
"He gets it" I grinned to Carter "do you?"
Carter grumbled and nodded. He kept his mouth shut.
"Good" I smiled to Silas and pushed his face away from me "we all get it. That wasn't so hard, was it? If we remember the rules, no-one gets hurt."
I grinned to both of them who looked away in silent anger.
Good. They were listening to me, Carter especially.
"How about you go grab Silas a towel?" I shooed Carter away as I approached the leg I left on the wall "Silas, leg up."
He gripped the chair and extended his stump I wiped dry with my shirt so I could roll back on the sock.
"You'll listen to me" I told him when it was in position "and you'll walk out of this no worse than before."
I snapped on the backing brace I tightened forcefully.
"Now, what do you say?"
He bit his lip, looking elsewhere. His fingers gripped the chair tighter. His knuckles were white.
"Yes, Quinton" he finally whispered to my smile.
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