Cannibalized - book two

Chapter Eight: Knowledge Isn't Always The Best

Valery hadn't given up but she showed less fight, she thought she could work around him. If she could make him believe she had given up she was hoping he would give her more leeway. He thought she was willing to be a part of the family, he began to speak to his parents about the blood bath. She didn't know what she was getting into. Jace decided to make it a more special family matter he took Alex and Harlee to find the victim whos blood would become the bath.

Harlee followed his father to the car and Alex skipped along.

Carter was helping his mother get some lunch together and Valery slept, her one ankle tied to the beds end. When she woke she turned and panicked slightly. "Carter!"

Carter raced upstairs. "Baby girl?"

"Oh..you..you're here okay." She said less panicked. "I just haven't been tied to the bed in four days."

"Sorry I was trying to let you sleep in." He replied as he picked her up and removed the ropes. She nodded and he carried her down the stairs. Anika smiled and laid out a few plates.

"Hungry?"

"Can I ask what all the meat is? I just have felt like some of it isn't a meat I have had before. Like I thought it was ham or something at first but it just doesn't taste the same. Oh god..is it horse?"

Anika looked to Carter with a half hearted grin. "Uhm baby, its...its."

"Its horse isn't it?"

"No, its human."

She sat up quickly, the chair fell backwards. "Its what!"

"Honey its human meat." Carter said softly.

"No...are you serious..."

"Yes baby. Its okay its okay, you have been eating it since you arrived here babe." She pushed past him and ran up to their room, shutting the door than locking the door to the bathroom. She was looking around for something to harm herself with. Carter made his way into his room, and he saw the door was locked. "Valery! Valery!"

"You are crazy! I thought it was okay, I thought it was going to be okay...but you kill people, you murder them! You EAT them!" She screamed loudly through the door. Carter began to slam on the door, he pushed his shoulder against it. Valery was trying her damnedest to hide, but the bathroom was plain, the cleaning supplies were all downstairs, and she couldn't find anything that would end her life fast enough to evade Carter. He finally managed to get the door open and she was hiding in the corner of the shower.

He stood in front of the door, and looked towards her keeping a short distance"What is different between the moment you learned and when you didn't know?"

She hesitated, chocking on sobs. "I..I did..didn't feel guilty, I didn't think that I would ever eat someone. I never...never though..thought.. Car-carter it tastes good, fuck..I..I liked the way it tastes.." She rolled herself in a tighter ball and began to rock herself. "I can't...can't be a cannibal."

"You are just fine Valery, you are one. You haven't even killed someone yet."

Her head shot up, her eyes growing wide. "You are going to make me kil..kill some..someone?"

"Not anytime soon love." He said as he began to lower to the floor, he ran his hand down the wall as he squatted. She watched his hand, she looked like meek pray cowering in fear waiting to be torn apart by an apex predator. She was small and skinny, he was tall and his body rippled in muscles. She pushed herself father against the shower wall. He began to lean towards her and she lashed out, he leaned back quickly keeping himself from her. "Valery please."

"No.. no...no.." She just kept repeating it. "Why..Why do you do it?"

He sat on the floor across from her moving wood out of his way, he knew he would need to get a new bathroom door. "Can I explain it?"

"Go..go ahe..ahead I can't leave if I wanted..wanted to." She sniffled, she wiped her face, the little makeup she was allowed to have running down her face. Carter smiled reassuringly and Anika dropped off a few cookies and some juice knowing Valery was going to need something.

"So, its been a long running family tradition, dad says at least twelve generations I think." Carter began to explain, she sat back against the tub. She was rubbing her legs together, trying to distract her mind, it was her nervous tick, Carter smiled seeing her do it. "It started because of a famine, and a sickness was running rampant. We have lived in multiple places throughout the families history, and once we lived near many people. These people would take the families crops, and wouldn't stop if someone was around, often harming or killing the younger women. So at first young daughters would be killed, but we have changed it now. They are just as strong or stronger than the boys, so our daughters are not killed. There were a few men who would try and kill to protect themselves and our ancestors made a pact, they would provide them with food if they killed and helped them survive. This way they could eat and keep their family safe."

She hesitated and leaned closer towards him, she realized why, seeing the importance of what they were doing, at least then. "Why do you still..why do you still do it? We don't have famines like that, or have people randomly kill, normally." She said looking towards him. She snatched a cookie from the plate between them.

He smiled seeing her shoulders relax.

"Because its how we survive, we live this way, and our family can protect one another. You don't see it because you haven't lived her long enough. But throughout the time since our ancestors, we have had many people attempt to kill us and attack us. We have had people trespass, a few have tried to rape our girls, steal our animals. We don't harm children, we don't kill if we don't need to." He said looking towards her. She nodded softly, slightly fearful.

"I don't want to eat it anymore."

"You can't just stop eating. Its in a lot of the food you are eating and you just don't know it."

"More than just the bacon slices?"

"A lot more."

She gulped and lowered her head. "Don't make me kill."

"Not until you are ready." Carter said cheerily, she gulped once again. He set his hand under her chin, she understood but was still terrified. "Alright."

"O..okay." She began to get closer to him.

"One last thing, my father and siblings are going out to get us a sacrifice, I will slit their throat, and other parts of their bodies to bathe in the blood."

She sat back against the tub walls again. "Carter..Carter no."

"Its part of our family, it makes you a real part of the family. "

"What if I don't want to."

"You either do it because you want to, or you do it while I make you, and I would really prefer you to want to."

"I don't..I don't..Car..Carter."

"Shh..shh." He pulled her into his lap, at first she fought it but just gave up, she was stuck here. The only person who would have gotten her saved was dead, her mother dead, her father dead. Everyone she loved was dead, and now she just had to deal with it. She cried into his shoulders. She cried into the shoulder of a killer, her kidnapper. She finally understood what the others felt like. They took what you loved, they took the stability of their natural world and flipped their perspective. Its only safe here. "I will protect you for the rest of your life." He said.

"You hardly know me."

"We will get there." He said back. "We will."