We've been driving for an hour and no sight of anyone . We are safe .
Clever then suddenly hits the breaks and we all fall forward.
"Dude, why'd you stop?" I ask.
"Look. Over there."
He points to the forest across from our car, there was a boy , looking to be about twelve , with brown bangs across his forehead wearing a yellow sweater pounding at a tree with an axe.
"Come on." Cleaver says unbuckling his seatbelt.
"Where the hell are you going?" I shout .
"To go see what's up with that kid."
I follow him with everyone else behind me into the forest where the young boy was swinging away at the tree.
As soon as we approach him he holds his axe up in the air as if he was about to hit us with it. I look closer at the axe and there were blood splotches all over it.
"It's okay, put the weapon away. We aren't going to hurt you."
"Who's the girl here with no eyes?"
"That's Jovie...only she knows what happened."
Toby walks up closer to Jovie, investigating her. Jovie reaches down and grabs Toby's arm.
He then swings and hits Jovie in the arm. The cut was so deep she bled quickly and a pool of blood formed around her . She fell hard onto the ground and died almost instantly after.
"What the hell?" I shout. "Why'd you—"
"What do we do now?" Cleaver says to Toby, holding me back from lunging at him.
"Bury her. That's the only thing to do." Brace answers.
"With what?" Toby exclaims,
"You...what's your name?" I ask him with a glare.
"Toby..." he mutters under his breath,
"Can I see your axe for a second, Toby?"
He slowly hands the axe over to me and I use it as a shovel to dig a hole into the dirt.
"Put her in." I demand as Cleaver picks her up and throws her down in the hole.
—
"Well, we should get going. Nice meeting you Toby." Cleaver says beginning to walk to the car before I stop him.
"Wait-" I say.
"Avia no—."
"Toby, how long have you been here?"
"About a year."
"A year?"
"Yeah , you heard me right."
"How about you—
"Avia, we have enough people already—" Cleaver jumps in.
"As I was saying, how about you come along with us."
"I can't. I don't want to risk being caught."
"Funny how that's exactly why I'm here."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Come on...kids shouldn't really be out here alone."
I grab Toby's hand and we all race back to the car.
—
"Ow!" Toby shouts from the backseat.
"What? What happened?" I ask turning my head.
"She bit me! Really hard. She's got really sharp teeth for such a little girl."
"Embry?" I ask, looking at her smiling. Her sharp canine teeth showing. "Did you bite him."
She nods.
"No biting . Okay?"
She nods again.
Selah hands Embry her teddy bear and she bites it's ear causing it to halfway tear off.
Selah begins to cry and Embry hands her bear back.
"What now?"
"Bite." Embry giggles.
"No." I exclaim.
"Cleaver, are we almost there?"
"Yep. Just a few more blocks."
"Good. These kids are nuts."
—
We pull up to an old pink house on the countryside and we all get out of the car.
"What is this place?"
"My great grandma's old house. Hasn't been cleaned in fifteen years."
"Woah. It's a big house...it's going to take a while to clean it."
"Sure will."
—
Inside the house was just as abandoned looking on the inside. Dust everywhere, shelves falling apart, rotting food, bugs inside the furniture.
Embry runs into the living room and picks up a spider .
"No, no , no. Embry don't bite that."
I take the spider from her hands and throw it out the window.
"Where are we going to sleep?" Aiyla asks.
"Not sure yet. Cleaver can you go upstairs and look for the bedrooms."
"Sure." he says waking up the creaky stairs.
I found a sewing desk in the back corner of the laundry room. Opening the old floral printed metal box , I saw a singular needle and a spool of black thread. "Perfect."
"Selah, can I see your bear?"
She gives me her bear and I begin sewing the half bitten ear back together.
"There you go." I say softly as I give her bear back good as new.
She hugs me and then skips off into the living to where the others where looking around.
Cleaver comes back and approaches me "There are seven bedrooms and like what, nine of us? So I'll sleep on the couch and there are bunk beds in one off the rooms which the little ones can share."
"Good. Okay. Let's get to work , we really need to fix this place up."
"With what?"
"I'll run to a few of the stores down the road and get supplies , food, and tools. You all stay here and wait." Cleaver states as he walks out to the car.
-
After about two hours Cleaver comes back with all the supplies. "Okay here's the plan, I will work on fixing and sewing the furniture, you all wash the clothes and sheets and Aiyla and Avia, keep Embry from biting anything toxic and keep her away from the bugs, I got a large jar to put them in."
"Got it." Aiyla and I say at the same time.
—
Aiyla , Embry, and I were in one of the old bedrooms and were dusting away and gathering all the old clothes and sheets for washing.
"Woah, look at these old antique statues." Aiyla says picking up an antique princess statue. "They sure are dusty though." she coughs
I turn and see Embry biting the sheets.
"Embry, those are dirty!" I manage to pull her off, but she had a hell of a hard grip. However, her teeth did leave a deep mark.
—
After about eight straight hours we had everything looking new again.
"There, all done. Finally." I saw plopping myself on the newly sewn up bug-free couch."But, I'm going to have to go wash the little ones up . They're really filthy."
I took Embry and Selah upstairs to the bathroom and put them in the tub one before the other, which to my surprise still ran clean water.
—
Everyone but Cleaver and I were in bed. It was two in the morning and I had just put the little girls to bed.
"Avia, we can't hide here forever."
"I can , I mean, the little ones have to get back home but I can stay here as long as I want."
"Suit yourself , Avia. I have to go to bed now, goodnight." He says turning off the lamp beside him.
I decided to go to bed myself , so I walked upstairs to my new room and went to sleep.
