Chapter 1: Tears
One week, just one week had passed since Regina brought me back from the Lilim, when we returned to the house Veronica was nowhere to be seen, I asked where she had gone and the others told me she had to go away on personal business out of town.
That was the last time anyone said anything to me, or made any contact with me, aside from eye contact, and usually the kind that puts a chill down your spine.
It's strange isn't it, maybe it's Regina and Veronica's blood, maybe I really came to love this place and its inhabitants, as cruel as they can be, but I miss them. I've never felt so lonely as I do now, I've never felt it this intensely either, it's like a crushing depression, like something integral is missing and physically hurts. I'm like Regina and the rest now, part succubus or something, I guess that means I need to have physical and emotional contact with others even more so than I did before to maintain my physical and mental health. God I would give anything for any one of them to just touch me like they used to, they could get a little rough, they could use actual, well not actual torture, but the kind they did when I first came here.
I look back at those days and I touch myself, I want so badly to go back there, so badly to feel their skin, to be touched and tickled and played with in a way like they know exactly how to do it to make it feel as good as possible.
Dinner was, as usual, another situation where I kept my head down and played no part in any conversation, I focused on my meal, which at least was the same the others were having. I didn't like the discomfort being this close to people who resented me, I tried to lose myself in the food while discussions went on passed by me. Just eat up and get out as soon as possible, like a ghost I was ignored when I came in and when I left, I guess I should be lucky there's no urine, saliva or broken glass or metal shards in my food.
I made my way up back to my room, Veronica's room technically, but it became our room. I kept my ear to the door, it took a while but I learned the time and pattern of when each member of the family bathes. I couldn't take this anymore, I had to take some kind of initiative; my enhanced hearing could make out not only voices but the sound of specific footsteps and the sound of the air as they passed through it.
Vanessa and Farah loved each other, but even during good times they need time apart, every third night they take baths separately and I could hear Vanessa's footsteps right on time. Veronica said, whenever she was away, just stay close to Vanessa, my 'second' mother, the only other one in the house who actually wanted me. I hoped, maybe, she still would, I was more comfortable with her than even Regina, she could be intimidating when she wanted.
I took off my clothes and wrapped myself in a towel and made my way to the bathroom, I composed myself before I made any move to enter, I can't screw this up, I can't afford to!
I knocked on the door and heard "come on in!"
I opened up to see Vanessa in the tub, a towel wrapped around her hair. A brief smile was quickly replaced with a nasty scowl, she quickly moved her head to the side to avoid eye contact.
"May I join you?"
"You know the rules, the bathroom is free to any family member at any time for any reason, it is a shared communal space."
"But that's not what I asked, may 'I' join 'you'?"
"You may enter tub, do not expect us to be intimate. Touching you is something I find rather unpleasant."
"Can we please just talk?"
"You may talk, I cannot guarantee I'll listen."
"I'll take that."
I removed my towel and sat next to her, close enough to be near her but not close enough for physical contact, I didn't want to lose a body part.
I waited for her to make the first move, I didn't want to offend her, I didn't want to give her ammo, I was just hoping that maybe she'd feel something like compassion, maybe it would remind her of the times we had a couple weeks ago.
"Why did you take my car keys?"
I guess I should be lucky she's not yelling.
"It was the only way I could think of, I didn't do it to hurt you, I just wanted to get away. I was afraid, I thought if I could just attract the attention of a cop-"
"You'd expose us? Slay the wretched demons who wronged you and degraded you? Is that what you imagined would happen?"
"I, I."
"Tell me, I want to know, what did you intend for us? What was it you hoped for?"
"Just to get help, just to get away. Nothing more?"
"Nothing more? That's not the behaviour of a human being, that's the behaviour of a frightened animal."
"I was, I was afraid, fear was all I knew. That's all I can say in my defence, I was a weak, pathetic mortal girl, I didn't know or think that any of you were going to make good on your word, I was certain you'd just get bored of me and let Farah have her way with me. I was terrified, I didn't want to die, I didn't want to lose my toes or any other part of my body."
"You still haven't answered my question, what do you think would've happened to 'my' family if you succeeded?"
"I don't know, I assumed you were resourceful enough to cover it up or flee before anything happened, the best I could have hoped was that you'd leave me and my family alone, but I knew it was more likely Farah would lead you all on a relentless hunt. In which case it was just stay of execution."
"That's what you think would've happened, but I want to know what you 'hoped' would've happened?"
"I, I, I just wanted to get away that's all."
She looked at me for a few seconds, but her eyes pierced me to the point in where the inside of my spinal cord froze, it was a very long few seconds.
"I'm getting prunie."
She stood up and was about to make her way out of the tub, I couldn't let this opportunity pass so in my desperation I grabbed hold of her legs like a little girl.
"Please don't go!"
This earned another sneer of contempt.
"Please, I'm sorry about what I did, can't you please give me another chance? Like Regina and Veronica have?"
"Veronica is barely more than a child herself, my little sister has a bad habit of picking bad bed partners, and Regina may be wise but she is full of love, and that blinds her to the worthlessness of outsiders. It's up to Farah, I and Devana to protect them from their own bad decisions."