Butterfly Wings

Hard Feelings

Day 12

Mitchell POV

I cannot help but shout my frustration as I pace the room, we have all gathered in, she cut the entire front side of her body, I knew letting the group agree to send Lauren down as a trick would bite me in the ass, I should have never told them about how I knew Hayley had the knife.

“Mitch honey, it is a sign, we just need to get rid of her.” Courtney says from our bed as I continue to pace only meeting her eyes for a second as I feel the anger build at her words.

“She is the only one we could use for Sarah, maybe she will help better than I think.” I say in a muttered voice as I continue my pace.

“She is not worth our time, why do you fight so much for this one girl.” Courtney gets angry as she stands to stop my pace.

I feel my anger boil over at her words as I find myself suddenly bringing my hand across her face, I am shocked at myself yet she needs to remember her place, the men make the decisions and I am the oldest of my brothers, I am in charge of how it all goes now. One mistake falls on me, then who protects everyone. How will they survive the world, they would not. We have only survived this long because of what we have been doing to stay hidden and to stay safe, to stay alive. She needs to remember this. I stare at her as her face pulls a somber look as she meets my eyes again.

“Do try to not overstep dear wife. I am in charge and I make the decisions that keep us all alive, you and our children. Do not dare to forget that again.” I whisper in her ear as I embrace her.

She embraces me back nodding gently against my shoulder. I feel like I am losing control, Hank is taking more enjoyment from this then he should be. What we are doing is murder. And he acts like it is just another day at work. He has Colin looking up to him wanting to be like his favorite uncle. And I just am so lost about how to approach any of this. The girl will have to die eventually but for the life of me I just cannot do it yet, something about her has me wanting to let her live a bit longer. I try to process my emotions and thoughts as I kiss my wife on the head as I pull away from her. I stare at her for a second before marching myself out of the room heading to where the girl is residing in the cellar, leaving my wife standing in the room where I had just dared to hit the love of my life. Something is wrong with me. I have never hit her or the kids, and I swore I never would. I just do not know how to fix this and how to stop this mess before it truly reaches a boiling point for everyone.

I walk into the cellar closing the steel door behind me with a small clink. I stare from my spot to where we have her now tied standing up. Ropes are not tied around his waist and neck to keep her from doing anything stupid again. I step toward her observing her, she was prefect for Sarah. The only flaw this girl had been a small birthmark under her left arm next to her breast. Her skin was flawless. Beautiful even. Now she has whip marks across her entire back from the group arguing with me, and a large cut down her front because I found it humorous that she was going to try to escape by herself this time. I get even closer as I let my fingers graze next to the cut, her head hanging down from the drug I pumped into her earlier. I slow lift her head looking at her face, she may be flawed now but I come to the conclusion she is still useful as her face is clean, no one will ever see the scarred skin. She will heal then we will finish this job once and for all. I sit on a stool that I brought down earlier while cleaning her wound. As I take a seat I can see a small tinge of blood between her legs, she must be due for her monthly soon, never kept any of our butterflies long enough to deal with this. I wipe her clean gently with a wet warm rag I pulled from the bucket beside me. I wash her several times, making sure there is not a sign or trail of blood. I sit patiently watching her breath, her body hanging from the ropes, her wrists are red and swollen from being tied hanging upright.