Chainsaw

Chapter 14 Menthols

*segways into the chapter* *slurps tea* okay, lets do this.

"I sure do hope my precious boy is alright... I know he messed up a lot, but it doesn't seem to matter when it's ya baby." Luda Mae sighed while cutting a piece from her medium rare steak.

It had been a few days since Hoyt's demise. To me, it's almost as if his absence was paradise. No one was pushing me around. No one was yelling profanities at me. No one was making my life into a living hell... well okay I mean the situation IS NOT great at all. I know I'm preggers with a cannibal's baby and I was kidnapped and yadayadayada but at least the biggest nuisance is dead.

"I know Luda... He'll be home before you know it!" Monty reassured, our eyes barely made contact as the lie slipped from his tongue. "But until then, we just need to carry on with life. The work don't stop just 'cuz he's gone." Luda nodded in agreement, still chewin' on her dinner.

"That's true," she sighed. "At least I have my other boys here with me now! I sure do need the help." Wow, I thought. She almost looked pitiful. I sipped on my cup of coffee, quickly dismissing the humanizing thought of her. Drayten and Chop Top quietly sat in their seats, Chop Top picking at his dinner, and Drayten shoveling the food down his gullet like it was the last thing he'd ever do. The coffee had a sharpness to it. Bitterness covered my tongue and slid down my throat. It was pleasurable to have something so normal in such a menacing, ungodly household.

"Is that cup of Joe really the only thing you're gonna have?" Luda Mae noticed while stabbing her greenbeans with a dull fork.

"Yes. I don't think I can stomach much else." I gave a hint of a knowing look to Thomas who sat directly in front of me. Those who knew of the 'diseased' meat stayed clear of it. Thomas only ate a salad while Monty had a mountain of side dishes piled onto his plate.

"I really wish you would just eat somethin'."

"And I really wish that I could leave this hellhole and send you to jail for the rest of your miserable life but we don't always get what we want, sweetheart." I took a sip.

"See y'all, she's still muttering. She makes no sense whatsoever." She sighed. "Maybe we should call up Eugenia."

"She's an obgyn mama, not a psychiatrist." Drayten pointed out.

"But surely she can do somethin'," I rolled my eyes as they squabbled at eachother.

Looking up from my coffee, I noticed how the dull kitchen light made Thomas's healed scars almost glisten. He had been wearing his mask less these days. I believe because once he started to notice that I didn't give a shit about how his face looked, he became more comfortable. He winked at me while running a knife through a small chocolate cake that Luda made for dessert.

I crossed my eyes at him once he looked back up. A barely noticeable chuckle shook his body. He contorted his face into one of humor-able disgust. I fired back with my right eye crossed in and my tongue sticking out. Thomas and I developed a game of silly faces at the dinner table a few weeks ago. We had a point system and everything. A laugh was 15 points, a snort was 20 points, a chortle was 25 points, but laughing so hard that your beverage came out of your nose was a whopping 50 points and made you the automatic winner.

As I made fish lips and had my eyesight in two different directions, Luda slammed her wrinkled hand against the table, gaining all of our immediate attention.

"Don't you two have any respect for family meals?!" Thomas, shook his head up and down, swearing he did. With my lips still puckered, I shook my head side to side.

"No ma'am I do not." I answered, my voice raised several octaves higher than normal. As I answered, poor Thomas was taking a sip from his beer. He barely choked on his beer before it dribbled down his nose. He was loudly laughing as his mother gave him a glare hard enough to send him to his grave.