A Town Called Briewood

Chapter five

(TW: this chapter does contain things like.arguing, slight blood, slight cursing, and fighting/slight violence. If any of these trigger or make you uncomfortable, I will leave a summary in the comments and in next chapter as well. Enjoy)

Millie

I woke up, I grabbed my phone to check the time, 9:53. I slept in, probably because I stayed up until three in the morning looking up things about "The Lord's Chosen Ones." I took a shower and got dressed. My roots were visible brown. I should have known mom wouldn't have bought me that black dye.

I walked downstairs. There was James, just the person I needed. "James, can you take me to a convenience store or something? Mom didn't buy the hair dye."

"Yeah, we need milk anyways. Skylar! Do you want anything from the store!?"

"Yeah, gummy worms!" Skylar yelled from upstairs. "Wait, no Skittles.... actually could I get M&M's?"

James sighed. "Do you just want to come?"

"Okay, let me put my shoes on." A few seconds later and Skylar trotted down the stairs. "Okay let's go."

The three got in the car and drove to the nearest convince store. While at the store, Millie noticed that similar to the kids at school, the adults would stare. Their eyes almost dead looking. She felt like a zebra in a lion den. She quickly got her hair dye and ran over to the check out.

She and James waited for  Skylar to pick out a candy. After a handful of minutes she settled with a Butterfinger. After paying for their stuff, they drove back home, but Millie felt something off. As she was looking out the window, she could see some towns people with sickning smiles. Mille knew something had happened.

When they arrive home they soon found out what. Millie's and Skylar's bedroom window was shattered, and it wasn't like a kid hit a baseball to hard, someone broke in.

James unlocked the door and slowly walked in, searching for intruders. Millie follows close behind. James had  gone upstairs to check before telling the other two that the intruder had left.

Skylar and Millie checked the room. Everything was there and the only damage was the window and Millie's smashed laptop. On the window shards that were still stuck to the frame, was blood. Possibly from someone scraping their arm when crawling in, but after looking closer. There was blood all over the floor and glass. Someone had used there bare hands.

James quickly called the police and then their mother.

***

The teens' mother and stepfather  had sorted out the situation  with the police and sat in the living room with the rest of the children.

"Millie... Did you get in a fight with someone at school? Were you being rude again?" Her mother asked.

James opened his mouth to speak but Gale shushed him. "Your mother is speaking to Millie, not you. Millie it's rude to ignore people."

Millie sighed "No I didn't get in a fight with someone."

"Then what did you do?"

Millie paused. "Excuse me?"

"What did you do? It's not just a coincidence that someone broke into your room and broke your laptop."

"I haven't done anything. I don't know why someone broke in but it has nothing to do with me."

"Millie do not tell at your mother. Calm down and tell the truth."

"I'm not yelling. I'm telling the truth!"

"Millie, I am tired of this ' I'm sad so I'm going to be rude and disrespectful to my parents. I'm gonna get in fights and lie to their faces' act. Cut the shit and tell the truth."  Her mother said sternly.

James cut in. "Mom, she's telling the truth though?"

"James I know your her older brother and you feel like you need to cover for your little sister to 'protect' her. But Millie can speak for herself, and your 'protecting' her is just making matters worse." Gale leaned back in his chair as he spoke.

"Mom, why is it always my fault? I haven't done shit and you're blaming me!"

"You don't use that language in my house! Millie I'm not going to take anymore lies, I don't want you to go down the wrong path, I'm doing this because I love you! Now tell the truth!"

"Because you love me?! You blaming me for nothing because you love me. Your yelling at me for telling the truth because you love me!? Let me guess you cheated on dad because you loved him?!—"Slap.

The teens' mother had stood up and slapped Millie. She looked shocked for a moment before her face hardened. Millie held her red, burning cheek.

"Fuck you." She ran to her room.

"Watch your language!" Gale yelled. "And your grounded!"

The door slammed and the children's mother huffed. Skylar stood up awkwardly and walked to the room, James following.

***
James

I woke up and got dressed. I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and I saw milli covering up a red mark that was slightly bruised. Tears threated to fall from her eyes as she continued to cover up the mark. Skylar helping her

"I'm sorry... about last night. I should have spoken up more." James was awake last night, thinking of all the things he should have said that could have stopped this from happening.

"James, it's fine. You not the one who slapped me." Millie winced as Skylar put foundation on the mark.

"Sorry." Skylar whispered.

"Still, I could have taken the blame. Or cleared your name."

"James, even if it was your fault, which it isn't. They would have blamed me. If it was your widow that was shattered they would have blamed me. Its just easier for them to blame me."

James felt his chest grow heavy, he wasn't sure what the feeling was. Was he angry, and if he was, at who? Gale, his mom, himself? Maybe the person who broke in? Or was he sad? Sad that his sister, who has enough to deal with already, always gets the blame. Or was he a mix of them? He didn't know.

"There all done. Now you look back to normal!" Skylar gave her award winning smile. It brought out a small smile from Millie but it quickly disappeared when she heard the creaking sound of her parents door being opened. She rushed out.

"I'll wait in the car for you guys." She when downstairs and grabbed a granola bar. James quickly brushed his teeth and drove him and his sister's to school.

Hi, it's Mads, I finally finished this chapter. I have been neglecting Skylar for a bit so next chapter I'll try to include Skylar's POV.I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you have a lovely day.🫶-Mads