Dark Secrets

2.

This is like a filler/describing chapter.  The good stuff come last two chapters.

     At the tree house, his sisters were waiting for him. Mella's deep blue eyes were full of tears while Brook stroked her silky black hair. In the fading daylight, J.J.  could see Brook's shoulder length brunette hair was in a tangled mess from her running her hands through it in torment while she waited for J.J. to return. Her bright green eyes showed a mixture of relief, at seeing Jay all right, and barely contained in anxiety at knowing they couldn't talk about what had happened until Mella was asleep.
"Did you call her?" J.J. whispered to Brook. "Huh, who? Brook murmured checking that Mella was asleep.  "Mom, that's who! Did you call her and tell her not to go home tonight!?" "Oh yeah," Brook yawned seeming to finally relax some. "Good, then let's get some sleep... I'll take the first watch." 
     And with that, J.J. climbed down the ladder to the lower balcony of the tree house, which was open, so he could keep an eye out for Tom, just in case. At about 4:00 in the morning, when J.J.  couldn't stay awake any longer, he woke Brook up so she could take over the watch and he could get some sleep.
   J.J. awoke the following morning to the whispers of his mother and older sister Brook talking about what to do next. Choosing to listen in, J.J. just lay still straining his ears as he pretended to still be asleep. They were deciding whether it was worth the risk to try leaving Tom and going to live with mom's family.
     Brook kept raising the same point J.J. would have,  that the first place Tom would look would be mom's family. It was not that Brook didn't want to get away from Tom, because she did, she was just more afraid of what would happen if they tried to escape and Tom found them then if they just risked staying with Tom a little longer.
     One thing couldn't be denied though, no matter what it was, they did have to do something. As their mom pointed out, if they didn't,  J.J. wouldn't make it to next Christmas with the way Tom was on him. To this Brook had no answer. She knew her mother was right, but she couldn't think of any plausible action they could take without Tom finding them. J.J. had heard enough, he quit pretending to sleep and sat up. He did it so abruptly that it startled Brook and his mother, who had thought he was asleep. He didn't even bother to pretend not to have heard what was said, he just cut in with his idea.
"Mom, why can't we just move somewhere new, like a different state or something?" At first his mother didn't say anything she just looked away, as though deep in thought about something. "Brook, go grab me some paper and a pen or pencil will you hun?"
     Brooke got up, went to the other side of the tree house, grabbed a pen and some paper and brought it back over to where they were all sitting at. With the look of someone weighing their options, their mother began listing off her thoughts and invited J.J. and Brook to do the same. Within minutes, the three of them had a list of four states, and five possible foreign countries they could escape to, where their mother had friends and family, which Tom was unaware of.  Looking down at their list:

States
Washington
Oaklahoma
Kentucky
Michigan

Countries
China
Ireland
France
England
Italy

The three of them decided to cross out their home state, Michigan, and one of the countries, China, where they would have the most trouble blending in .
     Through process of elimination, they dwindled down their list to two choices for States and two choices for countries. By this time, it was nearing midday so the trio woke Mella up while JJ went and got them something to eat. He showed  back up about an hour later with three freshly caught trout and a rabbit each hanging from a string over his shoulder. J.J. didn't even look towards the tree house because he knew that Mella hated it when he hunted.
     He just got out his army knife, the last present his father gave to him before he was shot, and with it, JJ gutted both the fish and then the rabbit. Then he tore off the rabbits hide, scaled the fish, and managed to get a fire going. Once the fire was hot enough, J.J. got each of the fish as well as the rabbit on one of the sharpened sticks stored around the tree house and cooked them. It was almost comical, with each catch kissing the next ones rear, but JJ was careful not to laugh due to Mella crying up in the tree house, occasionly glaring down at JJ as he slowly turned his latest victims. Aware every second of his little sister's distress, JJ roasted the three fish and hare as quickly as nature would permit.
     He was also careful to tell their mother ahead of time that he was going to take the food off the fire and start to prepare it, cut it and put salt and pepper on it, so that Mella wouldn't be watching. When J.J climbed up the tree house steps, past the lower balcony and into the house part of the tree house,  Mella was playing Uno with his mother and sister. He gave them a grateful smile and laid the food down on the table to indicate to their mother that it was ready to eat. At this, his mother got into their stash and brought out some peanuts, raisins, apples, and bananas. Things she had bought on the way to the tree house when Brook called her to warn her and tell her which spot they were at.
     After dinner, it wasn't long before Mella fell asleep. Once she was asleep, their mother decided it was time she told them the truth. She owed them that much, she just asked one thing, "If I tell you the truth promised to hear me out before you judge me too harshly."