Man-Eat-Man World: a Texas Chainsaw Massacre Fanfic

Skeletons in the Closet

The silver fork dragged across the ceramic plate, scraping whatever bits of meat were left along with the marinade. Hazel eyes flicked up to occasionally look at Chop Top who was telling a story.
"And, an- and then! That's when he, he chopped the top of my head with his machete!" he exclaimed pointing to somewhere under his wig. Sunshine was fascinated and raised her eyebrows.
"Oh my God," she said astonished, "You're very lucky to be alive."
"That's what the docs at the VA said!" Chop Top laughed and folded his hands behind his head. From her experience with Nubbins and now his twin's story, Sunshine could tell that this was a family who took pride in injuries. No shame in that.
"Our war hero," Drayton beamed, standing from his seat, "Let's get this cleaned up, boys." Bubba scrambled over to Sunshine and picked up her plate for her.
"Oh, thank you, Bubba!" she smiled. Bubba babbled happily and hurried over to the sink. The twins pushed the chairs in and went to tend to Grandpa. Drayton stood back for a second, bewildered. No screaming, yelling or complaining. Is this what it's like to have a woman in your home? Grandpa nagged Drayton when he was younger to get himself a nice lady. Life with Grandma was very simple. No one dared to disobey or disrespect her. Maybe that's why it was so easy for Grandpa to raise the house and also go to work. That's probably why Grandpa told Drayton to find a nice woman. Everyone knew Drayton had to grow up too fast. There wasn't time for playing outside or chasing girls when he was younger. Work was too valued to even entertain Grandpa's words at that time. Now his time is long gone and he doesn't have much hope in his younger siblings. Grandpa always wanted to continue his bloodline; he had hoped Drayton might give him that gift, but it's extremely unlikely now. Chop Top is smarter than he looks, but it isn't a secret that he isn't great-looking. Nubbins is undeniably the best-looking Sawyer brother, but he couldn't be depended on to one day be head of a Sawyer household. And Bubba... well, Bubba is Bubba.
It troubled Grandpa and Drayton sometimes to think that their legacy might not live on. He shook his head quickly to shake the thoughts and shuffled to help Bubba with the dishes.
"Need help?" a soft voice offered.
Drayton smiled, "Nah, we're okay here. You jus' don't worry 'bout nothin'."
Sunshine frowned, "Alright, alright. Um.. where's your bathroom?"
Drayton turned around and headed to the doorway, pointing, "It's that door right there."
"Okay, thank you," she said smiling again. She couldn't exactly tell which door he was referring to, but she supposed it wouldn't hurt to guess. Her sneakers creaked across the old, wooden floor as she searched for the bathroom. Based on the direction Drayton pointed in, she thought she'd try the sliding metal door first. Her small, pale hand traced over the surface and pulled it aside, hardly making a sound over the sound of dishes rattling in the kitchen and the twins chatting away to Grandpa upstairs.
Her face was met with the skulls of different animals nailed to the red wall. They sure had a unique way of decorating, she thought. She slowly tip-toed inside, silently praying that this wasn't someone's bedroom; how embarrassing that would be! As she rounded a corner into the room, her face had dropped. Her eyebrows knitted together as her feet planted themselves on the ground.
The room had a very pungent smell that was similar to the slaughter house down the road but much worse. It reeked of bodily fluids and metallic liquids. In the center on the room was a table, stained with crimson and splintered with knife cuts. On the far side were rusted meat hooks suspended by a metal rafter. Underneath the hooks, a trough for hogs was half-filled with dark, murky redness.
"A butchering room..?" she whispered to herself. Well they WERE butchers. As she turned to leave, something that changed her view of her only friend came into her line of sight. In the right corner, was a meat cooler. Normal? Maybe if there wasn't a bruised arm sticking halfway out the door.
"No..." she whispered, cautiously approaching the cooler. She knew it might be a horrible decision, but she had to make sure it wasn't just a sick joke. There's no way. Drayton isn't like this. With every step, her heart sunk deeper into her chest. Sunshine hadn't even noticed that she had begun to tremble with silent tears rolling down her cheeks. The ambience was a stark contrast to the delicate girl who looked too out of place. She only noticed her body's reaction when she reached to lift the cooler lid away from the arm. She held her breath as she watched a boy's face being revealed by the dim, overhead light. It was one of the boys in the Amber Alert announcement; the face was caved in at the forehead with purple swelling about the cheeks and lips.
Her mouth contorted around a silent cry as she carefully lowered the lid of the cooler back down. Her knees wobbled like a newborn foal as she stumbled back towards the door, wondering what to do next. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't convince herself that this was an accident. She didn't want to believe that her only friend and his brothers were responsible for this, but no one "accidentally" falls into a meat cooler with a sledge hammer indentation on their head. There was only one thing left to do.
She let the tears fall down her freckled face as she padded out of the cursed room and straight to the front door, ignoring Drayton's voice asking if that was her in the hallway. After a silence, Chop Top curiously poked his head out of an upstairs room and watched as she hit the dirt driveway, running.
"HEY! YER GUEST IS RUNNIN' AWAY!" he screamed jumping in place. Drayton turned so quickly that he dropped a plate on the ground, shattering it into pieces. He lumbered to the kitchen door with Bubba at his heels. He looked at the metal sliding door which was slightly ajar and to the front door that was wide open.
"GODDAMMIT!" he cursed, rushing to the door. He could see her pale legs moving swiftly into the trees.
"I GOT IT, I GOT IT!" Nubbins said, pushing past his older brother with his straight razor.
"No! Ya damn fool! Don't hurt her!" Drayton yelled running after him. Chop Top and Bubba hadn't heard Drayton either, and the sound of a chainsaw erupted into the night.
Sunshine's legs were near giving out. She covered her ears from the saw's deafening revs as she whipped her head around. The voices of the men seemed to be coming from all directions in the woods. She backed away, snapping twigs and cursing at herself until her back met the stratchy bark of a tree.
Drayton entered a clearing, wrung his hands and ran his fingers through his hair, worried sick... until a branch fell from above to his feet. He stared at the stick for a moment before slowly looking above him to see Sunshine, clinging to the tree and connecting their gaze.
"S-sunshine," he whispered, "you jus' come down now. You ain't gon' git hurt. 'Promise." He swore he could feel his heart break into a million pieces as she cried aloud. Bubba emerged from the trees, seeing Sunshine in the tree and moved to cut it down. She screamed causing Drayton to cover his ears.
"STOP IT, BOY!" he shouted, "TURN THAT SHIT OFF!" He pushed Bubba back, and the giant scrambled to turn the chainsaw off. Sunshine's lip trembled and her nails started to bleed from clinging to the bark.
"Sunshine, please.." he pleaded, "whatever you saw..I-I'm sure there's a good explanation fer it."
She huffed and shot her friend daggers, "I was chased with a chainsaw." Drayton shot his head around to Bubba who instinctively cowwered away behind him, lowering his weapon. Drayton raised his hands to reason with the girl in the tree but was cut off by the twins' shouting. Nubbins was the first to emerge, laughing loudly after seeing that his brother's visitor was in the tree, "You got nowhere ta go!"
"She's comin' down, safe 'n' sound!" Drayton growled, jamming a finger into Nubbins' chest after every sentence, "An' she's gon' be livin' with us from now on! An' we're makin' sure she don't leave!" Nubbins face twisted with confusion as Sunshine turned her face into the leaves, hugging the tree tighter. The three men turned to look at the girl in the tree and think of how to get her down.
The train of thought was then interrupted by the fourth brother hopping out of the brush with a grin on his face and a large rock in his hand, "I GOT 'ER!" Drayton startled and ran to Chop Top, tackling him, but not before he flung the small chunk of earth into the air. Sunshine turned her head to see what they were yelling about, which caused the rock to connect with her forehead. Drayton stared with his jaw dropped as he watched Sunshine fall backwards, 20ft down into the brush below.