Living in Cavetown

Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE 

*This chapter is inspired by the song The Juge by Twenty One Pilots* 

((Something soft and soaked in pain. I heard the echo from his secret hideaway)) 

"I told you not to do this with everything happening in her life!" Tyler yells as he repeatedly hits his brother over and over again. 

I watched in horror as Tyler continued to punch Chance and Chance just took it with a smile. Is he crazy? He spits out some blood as Tyler stops and looks at him the same way I am. "I knew you liked her," Chance chuckles as he spits more blood onto the floor as his smile turns into a grin. My eyes go wide as I looks between the brothers. 

   "I don't know what you're talking about you, psycho," says Tyler as he throws his brother back onto the couch and takes a few steps away from his brother. I pull my knees in on myself to make it look like I'm not here. 

   "You've loved her since the first day that Jamie introduced you to his little sister. Sweet 'Baby J'," Chance says in mockery. "You know, if you would have just told her before, maybe I wouldn't have fallen in love with the sweet quiet girl with the big blue eyes. Never would have fallen for the girl my baby brother already had eyes on. But no, you avoided your feelings and never gave her the time of day so I had to play hero. She started relying on me and became comfortable with me. I fell in love the first night she fell asleep in my arms and knew I could protect her," Chance sits up and looks at his feet as he continues to talk. Tyler looks like a bomb about to explode as he runs his hands through his hair and paces the room. 

   "If that's true, then don't you think she wouold have fallen in love with you too? Instead of regecting you?" Tyler says in a cold calm voice. I can see Chance stiffen as I cry quietly. Chance quickly gets up and pushes his brother against the wall. 

   "I don't know why Jessica doens't love me back, but I can tell she's keeping something from us. You and I keeping our feelings a secret and our life an even bigger one will not help her open up to us. We might not be anywhere near as secretive as she is, but you can bet damn well we've kept secrets alsmot as big as she has. I told her so she would open up to us. Not so she would say it back even though my heart bleeds for her," Chance says through his teeth. 

   I stand up and go over to the boys. I pull them off one another and it's as if they're just now remembering that I am here, too. I stand between them and look at the floor as they stare at me. "I can't put either of you in danger by loving you. I still have a legal obligation to live under my fathers' roof and if I stayed here he would hurt both of you before taking out his anger on me. I will not put either of you in that position. As long as he breaths he will keep coming after me and I refuse to put either of you in the danger it would be for me to love you," I say quietly before quickly walking out their front door and leaving them speechless in their living room looking after me. I feel tears roll down my face as I round the corner away from their street and towards mine. Time to face the monster in my closet. 

When I get home, the house is suspiciously clean and I don't see my father anywhere. I put up my guard as I walk into the kitchen where I hear noises. I quietly look around the corner and see a woman cooking at the old stove and my father at the bar behind her, with his back to me, laughing. He looks happy and is drinking a pop instead of beer. I feel paralized by fear, this will only end badly if something goes even the slightest bit wrong. 

   I turn around to go back to my room, but the floor board under me creaks loudly. I freeze in fear as I hear my father clear his throat. "Jessica! Come say 'hi' to my friend!" He calls out to me. I gulp and go into the kitchen. 

   "Hello," I say quietly as I look up at the woman. She's tall. At least six foot and three inches barefoot. My father with his five feet and nine inches looks small in comparison. She's extremely thin and her facial features resemble my mothers fairly close. She has bright green eyes, like Jamie's and light brown hair. Her features are sharp with a slight blur to them. She looks me up and down with no emotion and then smiles, before extending her hand to me. 

   "My name is Elizabeth," she says with a voice that sounds like honey. I shake her hand and she grins before going back to cooking on the stove. I look at my father in confusion. He smiles. 

   "Elizabeth is your mother's younger sister. I've kept contact with her sine your mother passed, Bean," he says making the nickname up on the spot. I cringe at the name and I see the woman glance at me from the side of her eye. No wonder she looks so much like mom. I nodd to my father and sit at the kitchen table, far away from my father. 

   Elizabeth, my aunt writes something on a piece of paper discreatly as my father watches the baseball game behind him. She hands me the paper with very little motion and I read it with a questioning look on my face. It reads, 'Your brother called me from jail. I know everything that has happened including how much the men in this house like to use you. The fmaily, your mother's family is taking your father to court to get you put into my house until you turn 18.' I read it over and over again with big eyes. This means they actually plan to save me? Why now? I write these things down on the paper and she looks at me with sad eyes before stirring what she is making and handing it back to me. 

   'My sister told me what he would do to her, but she never told me he hurt you children as well. The whole family was unaware of what was happening and we weren't involved until a few years ago at all.' I read it an feel a single tear go down my face. 

   Why wouldn't my mother tell her sister that my father was also abusing his children?