New to the Family

Understand

 I couldn't stay in bed all day. I couldn't just lie down and wait for Jared to come back inside. I needed to look for something. I needed to find the key, a knife, the sedating medication or anything else I could use to get out of this house.

Jared had put one of his shirts on me after I had fallen asleep. I walked across the cold floor to the closet. I found a pair of my jeans and slid them on.

I searched through Jared's drawers hoping he would hide something in there. I ran my hands along the bottom of the drawer, but there was nothing. I looked through the nightstands, but it was just a mixture of junk. It was not anything I could make into a powerful weapon. There was just rubber bands, paper clips, pens, and scraps of paper. I hoped he would keep one of his pocket-knives in the drawer.

Maybe he left one in his jeans. I ran over back to the closet. I looked into each of the pockets of his jeans, but they were empty. I shook my head and ran my fingers through my hair. All I had was the knives in the kitchen.

A chill ran across my arms. I pulled one of Jared's sweaters off of the hanger and put it on. I tiptoed over to the door and pressed my ear up against it. I could not hear anyone moving around on the other side. I opened the door and peered out into the hallway. It was empty so I took a step out.

All I had to do was get one knife. I had to get one knife out of the drawer and hide it. I could slide it under the mattress or I could keep it in the nightstand. When Jared would fall asleep, I could plunge the knife into his chest and take the key off of him. I would run to the closest house or until I saw someone.

I bit down on my lip as I stepped onto the stairs. The old wood creaked with each step I took. The soft sound of music came from the record player in the living room. Lindsay must be in there with Jenny. I need to get a knife and then get back upstairs before she saw that I was up. I ran into the kitchen.

Lindsay was on her knees, scrubbing the tiles in the shower. The smell of bleach burned my nose. Lindsay's clothes were stained with white spots of bleach and red stains of blood. She looked up, and blew a piece of her hair out of her face. She smiled when she saw me.

"You're up," she said. "I thought you would have stayed in bed until Jared came in."

"I was hungry," I lied.

"I can make you something."

"No, it is okay. I didn't mean to bother you. I can make some toast."

"Are you sure?"

I nodded my head. Lindsay removed one of her hands from the yellow glove and tucked her stray hair behind her ear. She returned to scrubbing the blood off of the tiles while I placed a piece of bread into the toaster.

I inched my way over to the drawer with the knives. I glanced over my shoulder to see Lindsay was looking down as she was cleaning. I curled my fingers around the handle, and looked back over at Lindsay. She was staring at me with her brows knit together. I let go of the handle, and put my hand behind my back. The toast popped up.

"You should go eat in the living room," Lindsay told me. "The smell in here is pretty bad."

"Okay," I said quietly.

I took one of the dull knives and spread the butter on my toast. I glanced to the side to see Lindsay went back to scrubbing the tiles. I slipped the knife into the waistband of my jeans. Shivers ran up my spine when the cold buttery end of the knife pressed against my ribs. I pulled Jared's shirt down. Thankfully, it was big enough that it camouflaged the knife.

I bit into my toast as I walked down the hall and away from the kitchen. I grabbed the handle of the front door and jiggled it. I had very little hope that the door would be unlocked, but I had to try. I let out a deep breath and turned on my heels.