The Devil's Order ||ON HOLD||

Chapter 14

I sat down at the dinner table munching my toast bread, Natalie came in her eyes red. She looked like she had just gotten out of bed.

"Good morning Chad," she yawned at me.

"Morning," I reply.

Natalie sat beside me and mom dropped three slices of toast on her plate. Her eyes grew wide. "Three slices of toast? What of the usual six?"

"Money's short," Mom replied. "You know how hard things are now."

"Yeah," Derek appeared from nowhere. "Work at my garage isn't going on like before."

He sat down opposite me and sent me a small smile, I give him a fake smile and munch on my toast.

"So Dad," said Natalie. "Have you gotten my guinea pigs?"

Derek sighed and slapped his forehead."Oh my God, I forgot!"

"How many guinea pigs again?"

"Six."

Derek's face fell. "Six guinea pigs?" Natalie nodded. "We have to get them ready for our project."

"And when's that?" Derek asked.

I didn't hear Natalie's response because I was busy scanning the morning newspaper.

"Chad?" Mom said. "You okay?"

"Yeah," I say. "Do I look as if I'm not okay?"

Mom didn't reply.

Derek stood up and slapped me on my shoulder. "Hurry up kid, I'm gonna go get the truck ready."

"I can walk to school myself."

"No you can't," Mom said before Derek could even open his mouth.

I sigh and throw the last bit of toast into my mouth.

"You're disgusting," said Natalie.

"So are you," I say.

She opened her mouth revealing chewed up toast. I groaned and felt like putting a bullet in her head.

I stood outside, my bag on my shoulders and staring at Derek hunched over the bonnet of his truck and working on the engine.

The Oethcox was still inside my bag, I was having second thoughts on bringing it to school. I don't have the balls to kill Frederick or anyone. But still, I left the box in my bag.

Derek got into the truck and turned on the ignition and the truck roared to life. "Yes!!" He cried. "Come in kid, get inside!"

I enter the truck and sit beside Derek. "You know, you have to stop calling me a kid."

Derek looked at me. "What?"

"I'm sixteen," I say. "I'm not a kid."

Derek shook his head and pulled the truck out of the driveway. "But you still behave like one."

The truck zoomed past the dull streets of our town, I saw Sheriff Brent at the police station, he looked up and waved at Derek who waved back.

"I don't have a son," Derek was saying. "But I know one thing for sure-- they're darn hard to bring up.

"And that's where I come in, your mother would never be able to raise you alone. I'm just here to help her."

I run my hands through my hair. "I understand. But we were doing just fine."

Derek scoffed. "Are you sure about that? Your mother was losing her mind, she was going into serious depression."

"Yeah," I say. "But now that you're here do you think things are better?"