“I’m really glad you thought about them, and you’re right, they’ve seen way too much,” I replied.
“Want me to take them in the other room? I’ll untie them in there. I’m good with kids,” Brandon asked looking up at me.
“You have a good head on your shoulders. Thanks for being the responsible one.” I smiled down at him, grateful that at least one of us had thought of the children.
“No problem, I’m used to it,” he replied with a small smile of his own.
I don’t think Brandon or myself wanted the girls to see the three of us covered in blood. So he took the girls in the next room and closed the door. The three of us looked at the bodies and started the task at hand. I told the boys that I would take care of the woman once we had finished removing the bodies of the men.
“Why don’t we just put all three of them on a blanket and drag them out to the trees and bury them. It would be easier than taking them out one at a time,” Derek suggested.
“That’s twice tonight that you’ve fooled me. Good thinking,” Bo replied, slapping him on the back.”
“Ouch, that stung.” Derek made a face, reaching back to touch where Bo had slapped him.
“I agree, as soon as we get these...things out of here, y’all can bury them and I’ll get back in here and start cleaning this up. That way we can bring the girls by the fire. I’m going to put the woman in one of those back rooms so her family can come and give her a proper burial,” I added as I spread the blanket that Bo found crumpled by the couch.
Once we got the bodies into the middle of the trees behind the house, Bo and Derek started digging a shallow grave. I went back into the house, grabbed another blanket, and laid it next to the woman. I took out my knife and cut her hands free from the tight rope that bound them; her arms didn’t move due to the rigor-mortis, so I moved them down to her side and rolled her over and onto the blanket. I threw myself back so fast that I hit my head on the wall. Neither my eyes nor my mind could believe what they saw. The woman was pregnant; her swollen belly was a deep, dark purple. I looked up her nude body, seeing that her breasts were also a dark purple. The only difference in the woman’s breasts was one had the nipple horrifically bitten off. Her face was no face at all. Her lower jaw was all that was intact and it lay in a frozen, morbid smile. They had crushed the rest in so badly that she was no longer recognizable. As I lowered my gaze down her body I began to heave. What I hadn’t noticed while she was lying on her stomach, I wished I had never seen now. There was a tiny foot protruding from her privates. The men had forced themselves on her with such violence they had caused the baby to start its birthing process. I threw the cover over her and started throwing up and did not stop until my stomach was empty. I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes.
“No wonder Ashley was so messed up,” I said out loud without thinking.
“I was, and I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you needed me, I just...” Ashley said standing in the door way.
“No, no, please,” I replied getting up and taking her in my arms. “You can’t think of it like that. After seeing firsthand what you saw, no one’s going to think a thing about you not coming in. You did an amazing job in seeing what was going on, if you hadn’t, those little girls would have ended up just like her.”
“Can I see ’em? The girls?” she timidly asked.
“Of course, there in that room with Brandon. I’m sure he could use your help.”
“Want me to help you with...” she trailed off.
“No hon, I have this. You just go on in and help Brandon.”
She smiled and turned for the door. “I saw them die in my head. I’m glad, they were evil and deserved what they got,” Ashley claimed then opened the door.
I could hear the children crying for their mommy and saying not to let the bad men hurt them. Brandon was doing his best to reassure them that the bad men were gone, but he said nothing about their mother. Ashley went in and closed the door leaving me to care for the very person they cried for.
I wrapped the woman’s body tightly within the blanket and then lifted her as gently as I dared. I carried her through the kitchen and into the back bedroom. I laid her on the bed and placed another blanket on the top of her. I said a small prayer for her and the baby, then returned to the living room to start cleaning the bloody mess which was spread from room to room. I was mopping when Bo and Derek returned and started helping me. Before long we had it as good as we were going to get it.
“We better get ourselves cleaned up now, so we can bring everybody back in here. It’ll be dawn real soon, and we need to figure out what we’re going to do,” I explained as we headed for the kitchen.
Bo got the fire blazing, while Derek and I cleaned up. When we returned he went into the kitchen to do the same.
“Renee,” Derek said.
“Yeah,” I replied drying my hands in front of the fire.
“I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel. I ain’t ever killed a person before.”
“Don’t think of them as people. You saw what they did, think of them as animals.”
“Yeah, I know, but shouldn’t some part of me feel bad?” he asked looking down at his hands.
“Look, Derek, if that makes you think like this, how are you going to handle what I told you about, Cuba?”
“I can handle it Renee, it’s just not what I thought it would be like.”
“It seems like we all grew up a little tonight.” I looked over at him.
“Hell, I feel great, like superman. I hate bastards like that. The only thing I wish could have done different is,” Bo said then paused. “I would have killed that pig a lot slower, if I had a chance to do it again, that is.”
“I agree with Bo, they’ll never hurt anyone else, and just think what would have happened if Ashley hadn’t seen what she did,” I added glancing at Derek.
“I don’t want to even think about that. So, we’re really like heroes, for real?” Derek asked.
“Just like, and you should be proud of that,” I replied with a wink.
We gave each other a once over, but saw our clothes were stained with evidence of what had occurred. I found one of the woman’s shirts and put it on, and the boys just did their best to cover what they could with their arms. I went to the door and opened it. “Y’all wanna come out and sit by the fire?”
“Mommy!” the youngest screamed and ran straight at me. I bent and took the child in my arms.
“Their pa died a few months back, but that’s about all that Brandon could get them to say,” Ashley explained as she stepped out of the room.
I took the youngest child as the others followed and we all gathered around the fire. Once I sat down, I placed the smallest girl onto my knee. She held me tightly, shaking so much that I could see the material of my shirt vibrating.
“You look like my, ma. We’re gonna have a baby brother or sister. Is my ma gonna be okay?” the oldest asked.
I looked at both girls and my heart sank. How does one tell two children that just lost their father that they have now lost their mother too? I brushed the hair back from the youngest one’s face.
“Your mommy’s not going to be okay; she’s gone to be with your pa, in heaven.”
“No,” the youngest started screaming, burying her face into my chest.
“I’m sorry honey, but it’s true.”
“She was crying really hard when those bad men were hitting her,” the oldest said, as two lines of crystal tears started trickling down her cheeks.
“What’s your name, sweetie?” I asked.
“Deanna. My sister’s name is Angela, but everyone calls her Angel.”
“We call her Dee,” the youngest called Angel said in a voice almost too low to hear.
“My brothers use to call me ‘Sister’, but they’re in heaven with my pa and ma,” I replied past the lump that was threatening to burst in my throat.
“Like our ma and pa?” Deanna asked.
“Yes bab
y, but we’re here to take care of you until we can find some of your kin. Do you girls have family around, or maybe close by that we can take you to?” I asked.
“Aunt Jeanette lives in Gordon,” Deanna replied looking up at me, showing the first sign of a smile.
“Would y’all like to go visit your auntie?” I asked, smiling at the two.
Little Angela smiled from ear to ear, and it was breath taking, knowing what they had been through.
“Her, and pawpaw Jim have five dogs and I know all of their names.” Angela’s smile grew just a bit.
“Well, why don’t you tell us, so when we meet ’em we can say hello, proper like,” I replied in a very excited manner.
“Okay! Well Nanny...”
“That’s what we call my Aunt,” Deanna interrupted.
“Trey is my Nanny’s old dog, and he bites if you touch him when he’s asleep,” she explained with joy. After what they had been through, it was a welcome site.
“He does? That would scare me pea green,” I responded, acting a bit silly.
“Yep, then she has a real good girl dog named, Molly. She’s so good my Nanny calls her Prissy, but her bestest one ever, is Chochie. We can’t hold him, cause he’s too little and we might drop him on his head, and Nanny said, she would cry real tears if he got hurt.”
“You know Angel, you sure know how to tell good stories about them dogs,” Derek said, scooting a little closer to the girls. “Glad to know that one bites, I get a little scared of them biting dogs.”
“Yeah, but he won’t get ya, if you don’t touch him while he’s sleeping,” Angela explained, causing a smile to spread across all of our faces.
Ashley excused herself to go in and fix the girls something to eat, while Bo also stepped out to inspect the basement. The rest of us sat by the fire and listened to the little four or five year old, that just ten minutes ago wouldn’t say a word. Now she seemed to want to talk as if she had known us forever. It was good to see the young girls come back somewhat, to what might have been their normal personalities.
“My pawpaw has a really small dog, but she is so fat. Her name is Connie,” Angela said and both girls started laughing.
“Hey, what’s so funny, I wanna laugh too?” Derek asked, getting even closer to the three of us.
“My pawpaw calls her, Pooter,” Angela replied and covered her little mouth as if she had said a very bad word, and laughed even harder.
“I was named after my Aunt Dee, that’s my Nanny’s girl, she lives at home with them, because she gots stuff wrong with her. Her dogs name is...” Deanna had begun to tell her own little story, but couldn’t finish.
“I was telling them first, Dee,” Angela said giving her sister a puckered look.
“I was just going to tell them about Aunt Dee’s dog.”
“Can I, please?” Angela asked with a much softer look.
“Yeah, you go ahead, you ’member more better anyway,” Deanna replied, and then smiled up at me, me giving her a little wink in return.
“Aunt Dee’s dog is named Barbie; she’s a good dog until she’s eating. Know what?”
“No, what?” I asked.
“She bit me, ’cause I tried to love on her while she was eating, you don’t ever want to do that.”
“Thanks, I won’t ever try that for sure, because that must have hurt,” I replied widening my eyes.
She raised her tiny arm to show me where the dog had bitten her. My eyes filled with tears, not from what she had just showed me, but from what covered her arms closer to her hands. Her wrists were bloody and raw from the ropes that had held her and her sister. My eyes moved to her other tiny wrist, then down at her sisters. Both girls had suffered at the hands of those bastards. The young child must have seen the sorrow on my face.
“It’s okay, it didn’t hurt very long and my Nanny spanked, Barbie,” Angela said, putting her tiny hand on the side of my face.
I wanted to bring those bastards back and kill them all over again. Who could hurt anything so innocent, and vulnerable? “It’s not that honey, it just made me remember my old dog back home. By the way, my name is Renee. You know Ashley and Brandon, and this is Derek, and the tall one is, Bo.” I was trying to change the subject.
“It’s okay, Renee. We lost our puppy a long time ago,” Deanna added.
“What ya say we get you girls cleaned up and get some food in them bellies? Then you both can sleep in the basement with us,” I wiggled my brows, while making a goofy face.
“It’s dark down there at night. Will it be night for a long time?” Deanna asked.
“No, the sun will be coming up real soon, but some of us can’t be in the sun, so we sleep down in the basement when it’s bright outside,” I explained.
“Are you sure you won’t leave me down there by myself?” Angela asked. “I’m scared of the dark.”
“I promise. Now let’s go see what Ashley’s up to in the kitchen.” I stood, then both girls took a hand.
It was easy to see that Ashley was way ahead of me. She had water boiling on the stove for their baths and oatmeal almost ready to serve. The girls moved closer to my legs as we stepped toward the kitchen, both had one arm wrapped around one of my legs and the other hand in mine.
“Renee, would you grab that wash tub for me?” Ashley asked from the stove.
“Well, sure I will.” I replied looking down. “But one of you is going to have to let go so I can get it.” They both looked at each other from around my sides, neither letting go.
“I’ll get it, Renee,” Brandon said as he entered the room.
“I guess that means we have to go get some clean clothes,” I added, looking back down at the girls.
“Come on, we’ll show you,” Deanna said, releasing my leg, pulling me back toward the front room.
“I’ll show her where mine is, Dee,” Angela demanded.
After we had everything back in the kitchen and the girls had started eating, Bo came back in. “Excuse me, but we have a little problem down in the basement and the sun will be up in less than an hour, maybe sooner.”
“What is it?” Ashley asked.
“Windows—six of them. I think we’re going to need to get on that like, right now,” he explained.
“If you don’t have what you need down there to do it, you boys start taking whatever you need from up here. As soon as Ashley and I are done, we’ll be down to help.”
We hurried as fast as we could, but I had two small hindrances, and both seemed to have the need to touch me at all times. Even when I bathed one, the other held my leg or leaned down onto my back. I knew we had to get them to their aunt in Gordon, and first thing tomorrow night we would do just that. However, right now they seemed to think that I was their link to safety, and I wasn’t going to change that in any way.
Once we had the girls cleaned and fed, we went on down to help the boys, but they already had every window covered. The only thing we needed now was to make a soft bed for the girls. The rest of us could lay just about anywhere. I had Ashley and Derek run back upstairs to get the pillows and blankets just before the first break of dawn hit the side of the house. It was then that we all heard Ashley scream, followed by the two of them crashing down the stairs, making both of the little girls scream with fear. Both were crying.
“Is it the bad men?” Deanna closed her eyes and buried her face in my leg.
“I want my mommy.” Angela grabbed me from behind.
I stood up moving the girls aside and was just about to yell at both Ashley and Derek, thinking they were joking around. That’s when I saw the reason for their action. They both had a fine haze of smoke coming off their backs. I immediately rushed to their aid.
“It came through the kitchen window,” Derek explained.
“Are you two okay?” I asked.
“If Derek hadn’t pushed me, I think it would’ve been a lot worse,” Ashley concurred.
“Yeah, I saw the smoke on her back before I felt the burn on mine,” Der
ek continued, “So I grabbed her and knocked us both down the stairs.” Then he yawned.
“That was quick thinking, Derek.” I couldn’t help but grin.
“And you didn’t even drop your blanket,” Bo laughed. “I don’t know about y’all, but I can’t keep me eyes open.”
After I checked the backs of the two that had crashed down the stairs, I instructed everyone to find a spot to rest. I put the blankets and pillows in the corner and called the girls to my side. I cradled them both in my arms, doing my best to make them comfortable.
“If you wake up before we do, I want you both to stay right here. Do not go upstairs…do you understand?”
“Yes Ma’am,” Deanna replied.
“They scared me. I really want my, mommy,” Angela cried.
I pulled her to my chest and hummed a tune I used to sing to Johnny and Edna. I couldn’t tell you who fell asleep first. It wasn’t long before they were out, leaving me a short time to move about. I got up and went over to where the others were getting their beds ready.
“Y’all did a great job. I personally think we make one hell of a team.” I said as I sat down on the floor beside them.
“We’re better than a team, we’re a downright bad ass family and Cuba better watch out for the storm that’s coming their way,” Derek said.
“Damn straight, little brother,” Brandon added reaching over and rubbing Derek’s head.
“I wish I had as much faith in all this as y’all do, but these were normals. Everything we come up against in Cuba will be just like us, or maybe worse,” I replied.
“If we’re together, Renee, we’ll be just fine,” Ashley said sitting up to give me a hug.
I left them as they too fell into their day slumber and returned to the girls. I laid there for some time thinking about the past and the now uncertain future, before the day took me as well.
Chapter Three
That next night I woke to the girls doing just as they were told. They were sitting close together at my side, waiting for me to wake. They held each other very much the way they had been tied together, and both were staring down at me. I stretched my arms above my head and smiled up at them, but neither responded. I could tell by the look on their faces that something had frightened them since I had fallen under.
Bloodbreeders: The Revenge Page 3