Perfect (Rewrite)

Chapter Thirty One

Chloe woke up in her room without any memory of walking back to it. The sound of a baby screaming had pulled her out of her dream; how had the others not already gotten up and taken care of the disturbance? Collin was in Jacob's room, was he that bad with child care? The crying stopped for a moment and then started up again. Somebody groaned before Chloe finally decided against staying in her bed all day. She glanced to the camera in the corner and then pulled a fresh set of clothes out of the closet; then she changed in the bathroom.

    On her way down the hall, Jacob stepped out of his room, baby in arms, he looked to Chloe with puppy eyes. "Will you help me?"

    "Hang on," She told him before throwing her clothes into the hamper and returning to take Collin from him. Five seconds later, the screaming was done with, and Collin was giggling and spitting all over Chloe's shirt.

    "How are you so good at this?" Jacob asked, staring at Chloe as she bounced Collin up and down.

    "I used to babysit a few of my neighbors," She answered.

    "How do you remember that?" He asked, staring at her intently now. Jacob leaned against the wall, blocking the only real escape path for Chloe. "None of us can remember anything about our pasts, so how can you?"

    "I don't know," Chloe answered honestly, wishing he would move out of her way, so she could run down to the kitchen to get away from him and to feed Collin before he started fussing again. The others weren't awake yet, and there was no reason for them to be. "But there has to be a reason."

    Jacob let Chloe pass, at least somewhat pleased with her answer. She tiptoed down the stairs and scrunched her nose every time one of the steps creaked. Chloe knew how loud everything in the house seemed, it didn't matter where she was in the house. It was impossible to miss even the slightest bit of sound.

    Collin sat quietly on the table, swaddled in his blanket with his name printed on it, yawning as Chloe grabbed a jar of baby food from the cabinet and then a spoon. It was six thirty in the morning, too early to process anything. She wasn't even sure if her confrontation with Jacob had actually happened or not. It was possible that she was finally having hallucinations; the thought of losing her mind made her go still for a moment. Chloe didn't move again until the baby let out a yawn and spit out bubbles.

    David was the first one to join the two of them in the kitchen; he sat at the head of the table and read the same newspaper as always in silence. He didn't even glance to Collin. It was like he wanted to pretend the baby didn't exist. Chloe wished she could've done the same, she wished it was actually true even more.

    Melanie yawned as she entered the kitchen, unlike David, she couldn't take her eyes off of the satisfied baby as he swallowed down the second half of the jar of baby food. Chloe took out a bowl from the cabinet and poured herself a bowl of cereal. When she turned back, Margaret and Jacob were sitting down at their seats. For the first time ever, none of them were smiling. Everyone had turned their attention to Collin as he started to scream again. They all looked up to Chloe, and then she rolled her eyes. It wasn't her kid, so she didn't see why the responsibility of taking care of him was hers. David and Margaret were supposed to be the parents of the house, so wasn't this their job?

    She carried Collin up the stairs, trying to keep him calm and quiet on her way up, leaving her halfway made bowl of cereal on the kitchen table. Her plan was to return and eat it soon, but she had a feeling it wouldn't be there for much longer than couple of minutes. Chloe entered Jacob's room and asked, "What's wrong?" Then she had the feeling of wanting to slap herself in the face. Collin wasn't going to answer her, he couldn't even talk. Could he? No, every time he opened up his mouth mumbo jumbo spilled out. There were no words.

    The camera focused in on Chloe, so she placed a smile on her face and started to bounce the baby boy in her arms. The sudden jolt of movement made him burp and then he giggled. She leaned him against her chest before Collin started slobbering on her neck. Chloe wanted to wipe it off and complain, but she needed to keep the act up to draw suspicion away. She needed to play it safe to keep them safe.

    "Sing him a lullaby," Someone suggested in a whisper; Chloe turned around and found Jacob standing in the doorway, staring at her as she bounced Collin up and down.

    "Why don't you?" She retorted, walking towards him to hand the baby off.

    Jacob held his hands up in defense. "I'm not good with babies, or singing."

    He gave her a smirk, and then she shut the door in his face. Even though it was his room, he didn't bother her again. Chloe wished Jacob would have, because the second the door closed, Collin started crying again. She rolled her eyes before she sung, "Hush, little baby don't say a word, momma's gonna buy you a mocking bird. And if that mocking bird don't sing, daddy's going to get you a diamond ring," Chloe couldn't remember the rest of the song, so she hummed the tune instead. Collin reached up and grabbed her hair, pulled on it lightly, before yawning again. Were babies supposed to sleep this much? It didn't really matter to her as long as she got a break.

    Chloe placed the baby into his crib and then turned on a noise maker that was placed next to it. The loud sound of static filled the room, but it didn't seem to bother Collin, in fact, it almost seemed to lull him to sleep. She didn't argue over the weird noise, but she did leave the room in a hurry, slowly and quietly shutting the door behind her. Then she joined the others in the living room and stared at the TV with a smile. Each of them acting like a family, pretending to be happy for him.

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    "Kiss him," The man whispered into Chloe's ear after they were gathered at the kitchen table for lunch. Melanie had lost nose goes and had to retrieve the sleeping baby from his room; his screaming started the moment she reached the stairs on her way back. She tried to hand him off to Chloe, but she shook her head in disagreement. Chloe had had enough of Collin for a while, her arms were already sore and her ears were a few minutes away from bleeding. Then again, maybe her calming the baby down would've worked quicker. Melanie didn't seem to know what she was doing, and if she didn't resolve the conflict soon, Chloe was going to take matters into her own hands and keep the baby happy and quiet.

    Finally, Collin simmered down as Melanie spoon fed him baby mush. Margaret had worked up a nice steaming pot of tea to go with our pasta, which I thought was a rather odd delicacy to be eating here. How were these ingredients in the kitchen? Some of it was perishable and had to have been restocked on a regular basis, so when did that happen?

    "Nine o'clock?" David asked as a question and then we each nodded in response. He couldn't say the rest of what he wanted to, but he didn't even need to. They all knew where to meet when the power went out. They all knew what the topic of discussion would be, escape.

    "Kiss him now," The man whispered into her ear; Chloe checked the ear piece, it was still in place, even though she couldn't feel it anymore. It had become a piece of her, something she couldn't even tell was there until his voice came through. Then she remembered where she really was, what she was really doing, what was going to happen if they messed up. She looked down to her wrist, at the single X in one of the boxes before staring up at Jacob.

    He stood up and leaned over the table to take Chloe's plate; she jumped up and leaned forward, closing the space between them, locking their lips together. After Jacob realized what was happening, he pulled away and put the dishes in the sink. No one said anything, not until Jacob had gone up the stairs and loudly shut the door behind him.

    "Chloe?" Margaret asked, staring at her in disbelief. "What was that about? Are you trying to get yourself in trouble?"

    Chloe looked between the three of them and the baby before answering, "I won't get in trouble. He made me do it."