Hidden Burdens (working title)

Chapter Thirty-Eight

As soon as they got back to the house, Kimmy went straight upstairs.

She at least made a pitstop first, but for the rest of the afternoon, until the kids were called for dinner, Kimmy laid on her bed and watched the charity stream.

With everyone tired and full from the fair, dinner was simple again. This time, Ben made ham and cheese sliders with a side salad. Dinner was also later than usual, and they cleaned the kitchen afterward so the kids could continue relaxing from their fun day. But the adults were just as tired as the kids, if not more.

After Miguel went to bed, Ben reminded Kimmy of their deal, but she just wasn't interested and declined the offer before turning back to her tablet.

"You can watch them any ol' time," he said, urging her to come down with them again and told Kimmy to pause it and finish the video later. Not all that familiar with what she was watching and assumed it was a YouTube video and not a live broadcast.

Though Kimmy could always catch what she missed later since Twitch kept streams up for a few days in case someone couldn't make it while it was live. But she had been looking forward to the event since the previous year's event ended. The day goes by so quick! If she had to waste her only chance to watch a real scary movie, then so be it.

-- & --

Ben eventually gave up and let her be, especially since he hadn't seen the kid put up this much of a fight over her videos before. It was one of those moments he wished they could have a conversation and see more into her world than what was on the surface. To him, it seemed like she was just watching what she normally watched. But what if it was something special?

Ben remembered growing up before the internet was as huge as it is today. Cable wasn't a thing in his household until he was around eight years old, and the internet didn't enter their lives until he was close to thirteen or fourteen. He remembered the cartoons he watched would have special episodes and TV movies that would only air once and if he missed it, Ben would be out of luck. Maybe this was something similar to that?

Regardless, Ben let her be, and let the older girls choose a movie. He still had to sit through a horror film, though, since they thought that had been a great idea, and squirmed throughout the entire thing.

"How are you all okay with this?" he asked all three of the girls at some point during the movie, including Kayla.

Kayla was squeamish herself but was able to recover from it a little better, while Mary admitted she was covering her eyes when she thought something was gonna happen.

Kimmy had fallen asleep watching her tablet by the time they went to bed just after midnight. It was apparent she was finally knocked out when Ben easily slipped off her headphones and took away the tablet to go plug it in downstairs.

On the way down, he caught a few minutes to see what Kimmy had been watching. The webcam in the corner showed a group of people. He recognized some of them from the horror game Stephen was playing. Between the two women on the couch, Ben noticed a stuffed animal of what looked like an alien snail creature and couldn't help but have several questions as to why it was front and center with them.

When he reached the kitchen counter where their phones and tablets were kept during the night, Ben exited the Twitch app before plugging it into the wall. Kimmy had taken the wall charger upstairs with her, so the tablet did not need to be charged. So, he unplugged the cord from the tablet and turned off the device so it wouldn't use power.

-- & --

Early, the next morning, Ben felt Kayla wake up to go on her morning run before he had to leave for church. He tried to fall back to sleep after she was gone but gave up after laying there with his eyes closed for a while. It also helped when Miguel came in, asking if he was awake yet.