UNDECIDED OUTLAWS

Chapter 2.

Cadences POV'

           

When there is an unconscious guy tied out in the back of your barn and a police car is out the front of your house it becomes hard for you to settle down. As the blue and red lights flashed through the windows of our house everyone went wild, hiding the shotguns and all the other illegal things we had in our house. Bennet mopped up the blood on the floor from Craig's nose and Craig quickly changed his shirt and did a rough job of patching himself up.

The knock at the door put everyone to a stop and we all sat around the table peacefully like nothing ever happened. Craig calmly opened the door.

"Officer, Johnson."

The policeman was local. He had a long moustache like the guy from the monopoly game. His eyes were squinty and his hair was almost white.

"Good day, Mr Keaton." He'd said.

I watched as he peered into the kitchen and Craig put his arm in the way to block his view.

"Can I help you with anything?"

Craig's voice was impatient and his stance was abrupt. The officer smiled like he knew this and wanted to push his buttons.

                "There was a shooting at the supermarket last night and a robbery. I'm afraid a twelve-year-old girl was killed. I have been asked to check in to every house within the next two towns to see if anyone has seen anything, since her older brother is missing as well."

"We don't know anything."

Craig was a good liar.

"Well, if you see anything. Please let me know. We have confirmed the death of Esbin Adams and her brother Jasper Adams is on the run for a possible homicide. He is of Spanish. Please be safe and keep your doors locked. We are unsure of what this young man is capable of."

Craig waved the policeman away like it was nothing and like the culprit was not tied up in our barn but before the officer left he had a final question.

                "What happened to your face, Mr Keaton? You look a mess"

                "I got into a small argument with Robert. Didn't I brother?"

Robert nodded his head and acted like he was still sour from the brothel that didn't even happen between him and Craig.

                "Oh. Well, you boys take care of yourself and Cadence there. Be safe."

He walked away to his truck casually not knowing that he was walking away from a crime scene. Not just a scene of one crime, but a scene of many. When the car drove away and the front door was shut; another door was thrown open and my brother retrieved the bottle from the liquor cabinet.

I left the room before things got out of hand but I didn't go far enough to be out of earshot. I heard Lucas speak first. His voice small and defenceless, a clear sign that he was about to talk to Craig about something he knew that he didn't want to speak about.

                "They're going to find out, Craig. We need to let him go."

The glass bottle banged on the table and I heard Craig pace across the kitchen floor and Lucas gasping for air. I peered through the keyhole of the door to see Lucas, red-faced under the grasp of both of Craig's hands.

                "I've told ya to stay out of my business. I've told ya to keep your bloody mouth shut."

He kneed Lucas in the stomach and let him go as Lucas hurled on the floor and coughed and spluttered for air. He crawled on the floor as the others watched him suffer. As I watched him suffer.

I looked around the room for any kind of humanity but the only humanity this family ever had died in a seven year old girl that couldn't kill a cat and a bunch of brothers that couldn't say no to crime.

                "You killed a little girl, Craig. She was just a little girl."

Lucas words sliced through the air and the room was silenced, not because of his words but because I gasped. And Craig heard me. It was obvious everyone knew about this but me. I was supposed to not pay attention. I was supposed to remain a mushroom, kept in the dark and I was fed crap.

The door shot open and the door knob smacked me in the eye causing me to tumble backwards, pinching my arm so that I didn't have to feel the pain in my face. I knew there was more to come. I knew that I wouldn't make it through today without another scar to wear on my body. And I was ready to carry that scar like I owned it because I didn't own much else.

I kneeled up so that if Craig kicked me he'd be able to kick me in the face and knock me out.

My brother was a murderer and a kidnapper and that poor guy in our barn didn't deserve to be bleeding all over that nice white shirt he was wearing. He didn't deserve to have his sister taken away from him against his will and he didn't deserve to be blamed for it.

Just like I didn't deserve to know about it.

I wish I didn't know about it. I wish that I didn't because now that I do, I have nobody to tell.

                "What have I told you about minding your own business?"

I squinted up at him and I couldn't see the brother I'd known when I was a young child. He was gone and he was replaced by something else. Something I couldn't even describe. Something so dark that not even the milky way could put a light on it.

                "Answer me. Dammit!"

                "You told me not to eavesdrop."

I choked the words out of my throat and he had hold of my hair. His foot was robust against my stomach and I became the second sibling to empty my stomach onto the floor. The rooms of the house started to smell like bacon, eggs, rusty metal and stomach acid.

                "Leave it, Craig."

Robert had the second authority in the house and was the only person that could 'almost' talk Craig down. With a finishing swift kick to my face, Craig was done and he departed out the back of the house. I tasted the blood in my spit and felt the sting on my lips but this was no pain compared to other times before.

My brothers all stood around me and their eyes shot back and forth between one and other. Lucas was no longer on the floor but was now hunched over the sink, breathing heavy enough for his lungs to explode from the stress.

Our suffering was nothing compared to what Jasper would be feeling now. While we were in here with bleeding lips and a fear of telling the police the truth; Jasper was out there fearing that the police wouldn't believe it.

I wasn't going to live like this anymore but as much as I hated my brother for what he had done. I was too selfish to lose him, cause some sick part of me didn't know what I'd do without him. Some hopeful part of me was scared I'd lose the man behind the malicious smile but the wise part of me knew that he was already gone.

Sooner or later I'd be gone too. Far away from the four sets of eyes in the room.