House on the Hill

Chapter 2

"Old man Terrance!" Someone yelled on the farm.

I got up from my seat in front of the canvas and walked down the stairs. I saw Owen in the kitchen staring at the door and not moving. The man kept banging his hand against the door and making me feel so pissed. I walked to the door, noting the flinch in Owen when I placed my hand on the handle.

I flung the door open, glaring at the man in front of me. He was bigger than me and trying to intimidate me. He moved closer but I blocked the doorway, crossing my hands over my chest.

"Move girly." He said.

"Who are you?" I asked him.

I noted the alcohol in his breath and the way he was slightly slurring in his speech. Why is this the Sunday everybody went to church?

"I don't have any business with you girly. Move." He tried to push me in, but I stood my ground.

The man glared at me and roared. He lifted his hand up in the air and slapped me right across the face. I stumbled a bit and felt the metallic taste of blood on my tongue. He cut my lip. I groaned in pain and noted he was going to kick me with his leg, but a cloud of black tackled him to the ground and Owen finally snapped out of his day dream and ran over to help me.

"Oh my God Eve. Are you alright?!" He yelled.

I nodded my head, the movement making blood start to flow from my nose. Owen panicked and I saw he was on the verge of fainting. He's weak on blood. I quickly wiped the blood from my nose with the back of my hand and tried to get back up, but the brother who should be helping me up, fainted.

The black blur passed the door, but stopped when his eyes locked with mine. In a mere second he was in front of me and his huge hand was cupping my right cheek. His thumb softly glided across my lip, making me blush.

"My poor Tuberose..." He leaned in and his cool lips touched mine. "... So sweet..."

He licked my cut and slightly sucked on it, while I was beginning to have a panic attack and was ready to scream. Out of fear or happiness, I'd say both.

He pulled back when he heard cars and gently brushed my cheek with his finger. He had a slight smile playing on his lips, while I was in complete shock.

"Be careful my Tuberose." He said and disappeared.

Soon gran was screaming for granddad and Eva was inspecting Owen. I was blindly staring in front of me while Dexter waved his hand in my face.

Dad soon walked in and hoisted me up by the collar of my shirt and glared at me.

"What did you do?!" He hissed.

"N-Nothing..." I had difficulty breathing.

"Don't give me that shit Eve! We haven't been here for a fucking day normally and your already making trouble for me!" He caught me by the throat and slowly cut of my air supplies. "I told Dharma we don't need another kid, but she really wanted another girl. Now I see that was a mistake." He slapped me across the face and slammed me into the wall. "Your only a good stress reliever."

And that's when it happened. Gran hit dad across the head, hard. He stumbled a bit, letting me go in the process.

"Eve wasn't at fault. He was in dept to your father so he took a few horses from him and he got mad!" Gran was yelling really loudly. "Not everything bad that happens in this family is Eve's fault! Most of it is yours!"

I stood up and slowly walked up stairs, gripping the railing with so much force I thought I'd break the stairs. Without another word I shut myself in my room and slid down the door.

My life sucks and my neck hurts.

* * *

After taking an hour long bath and cleaning out my painting tools, I got a new canvas set up, along with some brushes and thought hard on what to paint. For some reason I started painting the mystery man who helped me in the store and saved my life this morning.

Why did he even help me in the first place? Plus what's up with that nickname Tuberose?

Wait, gran said that it was a flower so does that mean I resemble a flower? I am so confused on so many different levels.

A soft knock came at my door and I groaned. Can't people let me wallow in self confusion once?

As I stood up, I saw it was dark out and my eyes went wide when I looked at the canvas in front of me. I unconsciously drew the mystery man in all black, surrounded by Tuberose flowers.
Another round of knocks came and I opened my door, but quickly cursed myself for doing so. Dad stood there with a guilty expression on his face. I mentally rolled my eyes when his eyes narrowed in on my canvas. I pushed the door so it shielded my art from him.

"Listen Eve, I'm sorry for yelling at you and hurting you..." He started.

"Yeah well that won't make the pain go away, now will it?" He sighed and tried to pry open my door, but I didn't let him. "What do you want?"

"Dinner is ready and for us to go back to the way we were... You know, the times we were happy together."

"Sure, let's include my new mother in there and her thirst for your money as well. We can all sip tea in the afternoon sun, while I paint her body on fire, like it should be." I smiled and he got red in the face from anger. "That time is gone. You killed it the day you blamed every single problem of yours on me."

He was mad I could see that, but for some reason he didn't hit me. He just turned away and with a string of curses left. With a raised eyebrow I closed the door and sighed.

I went back to my painting and added the finishing touches.

I should probably hide this somewhere.