Chapter Twenty-Seven

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Hey guys, this chapter's a little different. I've been working to change it up a bit and make Leah seem a little more unstable, mainly because you definitely wouldn't be stable if you were living the way she was, so that explains her behaviour in this chapter :)

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" Stop, let go of me you fucking bastards!"

Leah's eyes snapped open, her body bouncing up from the bed the minute she heard a blood-curdling scream and aggressive, but worried dialogue enter her ears, awaking her from her sleep which was filled with nightmares anyway. She'd been having them a lot recently; quite dark ones as well. But last nights was visions of Jared plunging a fist into her heart after she lay in a hospital bed, no baby coming out of her no matter how hard she pushed.

Leah looked beside her, but Jared wasn't there. A slapping sound, and another yell erupted in her ears, which Leah flinched at, and she fell back onto the comforter. She immediately clutched it between her small fingers, begging for comfort. Her heart began to pound in her chest. Leah didn't question what was going on down there anymore like she use to, because she already knew what they were discussing at dinner yesterday. They needed food.

But knowing didn't make it feel any less better.

The time was 11:15am. She wanted to go downstairs. Leah felt irritated; she wanted to know why she hadn't been awoken before any of this commotion began to happen. But Jared had been mad last night. Was she really going to make things worse between them?

She knew the answer to that question when she began making her way out the door, her bare feet tiptoeing down the staircase. Her bony hand gripped the banister, and she felt the paint on it flake off onto her skin. She wasn't really thinking straight this morning.

Sobbing was all that was Leah could hear as she reached the bottom- she could almost taste the fear in the room on the tip of her tongue. I felt like this once too, she thought. Only her stomach twisted in a knot when she realised these people wouldn't be here to stay.

Leah turned the corner, and she witnessed Lindsay hastily scrubbing a pool of blood off the floor, but gaining no luck as the sponge was coated in the red liquid, making the stain worse. Leah's wide blue eyes then tracked all the way to where Jared and Gabriel were pulling a body diagonally, tearing his clothes off as they did so.

" Please, fucking help me!" A voice begged angrily from beside her, and she turned her head slowly to find a woman, tied to a chair, her wrists bleeding from pulling at the rope so much. Her bright pink hair was scattered all over her face, and her dark makeup was smearing down her face.

Leah froze, her eyes still and her hands in the air slightly. Leah attempted to move her face, but she couldn't.

Never been good with death.

Without blinking, she backed up a little, only to hit the wall, but she didn't react to it. She didn't care. It didn't hurt; she felt numbed. Lindsay's ear twitched at the noise that she could surprisingly hear over the screeches, and she stopped cleaning, whipping her head up to see a pale- faced Leah.

" Leah, what are you doing down here?" Lindsay asked.

Leah didn't say anything, and it was as if she was about to go into fit mode. Lindsay raised an eyebrow, but Leah couldn't react. Lindsay's frustrated face turned to concerned once she saw Leah's unblinking, daunting eyes and flat expression, and she stood up, heading towards her, but not too close.

" Leah, are you okay, honey?" Lindsay's body crouched, her hooded eyes staring at her with worry.

" Leah!" Jared's voice boomed from behind Lindsay, and she rotated to see his black eyes latched on to the two of them. Leah still hadn't moved a muscle, but her eyes were now on Lindsay.

Jared began storming towards them, his sweaty face leaking and his hands and clothes covered in a crimson river of warm blood. "What are you doing?"

Lindsay scooted out the way, and headed back to her bucket and sponge to let Jared rip into Leah. Jared stood directly in front of her , and she could immediately smell the metallic blood all over his body. It made her insides turn.

Jared placed his hands on her shoulders to shake her, and her eyes now met his, but not in shock from the shake. No. It was simply just a slight, slow roll of the eye to where he was positioned.

" Breakfast," was all Leah said.

Jared's eyebrows furrowed and he kept his hands on her shoulders. " What?"

" Breakfast," she repeated. " I want my breakfast. I'm hungry."

Jared's face twisted, a perplexed expression coating his face. He examined her; she was so out of it today. She even looked different.

" Leah, what's the matter with you?"

" Jared, get back over here! I can't pick him up myself." Gabe called from across the room, grunting, and Jared briefly turned to his father before facing Leah.

" Go back upstairs," he pointed to the staircase, and then went to rush towards his father.

" No," she said, and Jared's face filled with incredulity at her attitude, moving on his heels so that he was back on Leah. The woman in the chair was still trying to break free, pushing and screaming, so surely he hadn't heard her correctly.

He began taking slow dangerous steps towards her. " What did you just say?" Jared's voice was dripping with venom, but more with question, and Leah didn't even gulp.

" I want my breakfast," Leah repeated, her blank face and lifeless eyes just watching the floor.

Jared's nostrils expanded, his face scrunching into a ball of irritation and with one quick motion, he grasped her arm between his hands. " I don't care what you want, get upstairs now!" Jared shoved her arms back so that she nearly fell, and Leah didn't seem hurt or fazed by this.
She just pulled a sulking face at him, in which he was more confused by this unordinary behaviour.

Her twitching eyes were on him as her bottom lip was stuck out, and she kept her vision on him and she headed up the stairs as if it were slow-motion. She heard Jared say, " I'll deal with her later," but the other voice was overpowered by one last call out which made it clear Jared had slit the captured girls throat as gargling sounds was the only source of noise now.

As Leah went back to the room, it was as if all the torture that happened downstairs fell on death ears. Like a thing didn't bother her. Like it wasn't happening at all. Was she okay? Was she breaking further even though she was so brainwashed she didn't feel she'd broke at all. Leah didn't really know what was wrong, because she couldn't tell something was going on with her. Alls she knew, is that she didn't want to be near Jared, or any of the family at the moment for some reason. Yes, she wanted food, but she just wanted to be alone in the room for a day. That enclosed space engulfing her whole.

She threw herself against the bed with a huff. Jared always got so angry at her. Damn, he'd even threatened to kill her last night if she didn't give him what he wanted. Now she thought of it, maybe a child wouldn't be so bad. It would be good for times like this when she just wanted a break from what was downstairs; Jared and his family when they got so pissed off with her. It would be part of. Her own blood. She'd be the child's birth family.

A girl sounded nice. Leah had always wanted her Mom and Dad to have more children when she was younger, but they wouldn't, so she made an imaginary friend called Maddy who she pretended was her sister. Her parents promised her she'd get a female sibling if she stopped talking to herself, but the day never came, so Leah continued.

Her brain was swimming with so many thoughts that this one seemed the most satisfying. A child. She knew it hadn't been happening recently, but maybe that's because deep down she didn't want it to happen. She didn't feel she was old enough or ready for children. But now she thought of it, it'd be nice to see a new face around. Jared didn't have any siblings no more now that Theo was gone, so no girls would be coming in to entertain her. She'd have to find ways herself.

Leah new she should get ready before Jared shouted, but instead she climbed back into the comforter with a smile on her face. It may have been this crazed state she was in today, but she fell asleep with images of herself and a small child with two pigtails flashing through her mind.

Kidnapped By Cannibals- Leah MarshallWhere stories live. Discover now