Keeping Traditions

Chapter Five

I woke to the blare of Zack's alarm, he reached over and shut it off with a yawn. I stretched beside him and buried my face into the pillows when he got out of bed. I felt his fingers brush my hair away and smiled up at him.

"Good morning beautiful."

"Morning," I yawned rolling over to watch him prepare for the day.

"You have to help Mom today, and take care around Megan, okay?"

I nodded obediently. Zack grinned and kissed my head setting down the clothes he'd chosen for me to wear. He was already at the table eating oatmeal and drinking coffee when I came down. All the men were nearly finished eating. Hannah and Megan weren't there. I heard the stairs creak behind me and smiled seeing Malcolm holding his mother's hand, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

"There's our lazy boy! Morning Malcolm," Dylan grinned at his youngest son who grinned and climbed into his chair.

I waved for Hannah to sit and got down three bowls. I set Malcolm's oatmeal in front of him, then Hannah along with her coffee. Finally, I sat with Zack for a moment before the men slid their bowls away.

"I want you to have a better attitude this evening, Hannah," Dylan snapped, his chair squealed across the floor as he pushed away from the table and stood.

Hannah nodded without looking up, her hand running over her growing belly.

"She's not to be untied," Jake snapped and walked to the back door. It slammed behind him, then Dylan.

Zack cupped my face in his hands and brought my attention to only him. He smiled and traced my bottom lip with his thumb.

"I love you, Violet. Everything we do is to keep us all safe, remember that."

I nodded, "I know. I'm safe with you. Thank you, Zack."

He kissed my head then left out the back door behind his brother and father. The door locked and silence stretched. The only sounds were Hannah and Malcolm's spoons tapping the bowls as they are their breakfast.

I started the dishes while they finished up their meal. I heard Hannah speak quietly with Malcolm before the back door slammed again and she appeared beside me with their bowls. I gave her a smile hoping to lift her spirits. She returned it with a weak lift of her lips handing me the dishes, that was when I noticed the gauze wrapped around her arm and the lines of blood seeping through slowly.

How had she gotten hurt? I wondered but didn't ask.

She dried the dishes I washed and before long we started on the day's chores. I agreed to work upstairs and give Hannah the easier task of the downstairs which was only dirty in the main hallway. I filled my bucket and carefully went upstairs to start cleaning.

I started in Zack's room. Or Zack's and my room, I suppose. He had been so kind to me since I met him. I found myself looking out through the bars on the window and waiting anxiously for his silhouette to be headed inside for the night more than once. I had no idea how long I had been here, but it really started feeling like home.

I gasped when I opened the door to Dylan and Hannah's room. Blood soaked ropes hung loose from the headboard, more blood stained the crumpled sheets on the unmade bed. It looked like a violent struggle, half the mattress was bare and drops of blood littered the floor, wall, and ceiling. Most of it wasn't fresh.

A soft sob down the hall tore my mind from the sight before me and I remembered Jake's order before he left earlier. I was standing with my hand on the doorknob before I realized I moved. My stomach twisted into a tight knot and I prayed for Megan to just be exhausted and bedridden from giving birth.

I opened the door slowly after knocking, peeking around the wood hoping not to find something disturbing.

Megan's wrists were tied to the headboard above her, white gauze wrapped around her forearms and blood on the sheets under her. She hadn't moved since she had the baby. I looked at the vacant crib in the corner and bit my bottom lip. Megan's eyes slowly opened, they were puffy, she had dark circles under her eyes and bruises around her mouth.

"Megan?" I asked softly and moved into the room.

She shifted on the bed with a soft sob. "Go away please."

I never heard her sound so... defeated.

"Megan, what happened?"

"I'm not allowed to speak of it. Jacob will be cross with me."

"Megan, what's going on?" I asked, genuinely curious why everyone except Zack were acting so strange suddenly.

She looked at me, tears spilling from her bloodshot eyes, "There are things about our 'family' Zack hasn't told you yet. A lot of things, actually. I'm not supposed to tell you, it's his job to tell you when he feels he's ready. Jake thinks he's too weak to properly settle you into the family, you know."

I stared at her in shock.

"Violet... You poor thing. There's so much you just don't know."

"So then tell me what's going on with you," I pleaded, her tone made me worry about all these things I didn't know. I needed to know what happened to the baby and why Jake reacted this way.

"It was a little girl. She was so beautiful and perfect, but she was a girl..." Megan's eyes glazed over as she spoke. "I never even held her. Jacob had her and I thought, just for a second, that he would change his mind. But he didn't. I've heard that sound so many times and it hurts the same every time."

I felt the knot in my stomach quadruple. "What sound?"

"We can't have daughters. It's against tradition."

"Megan, what happened to the baby?"

The pain in her eyes said it before the words left her lips, "She's dead. Jacob killed her before she was even an hour old."

She kept talking but I couldn't understand the words. All I could hear were the horrible screams she had made shortly after the baby cried for the first time.

I covered my mouth with my hands feeling bile rising in my throat and I ran down the hall to Zack's room. I barely made it to the toilet before I lost my morning oatmeal.

Zack wouldn't do that, would he? Zack wasn't a monster like that, was he? He had been so kind and gentle with me. He had to be different, didn't he?

I laid down on the bathroom floor hoping the cool tiles would soothe my distressed mind and body.