*There is a gulf that separates Bad People and People who do bad things*
I came to the House in the Valley pretty much by luck. I had been on the run for twelve hours and I was hot, dirty, hungry and exhausted. My clothes were torn, I was cut up from thorns and brambles, and my feet ached from running on the uneven ground of the countryside. I was lucky to find the place in the dark. It was a massive ranch-style house that appeared to be well off the beaten path. I felt luck, but first a little background.
My name is Bartholomew 'Bart' Travers and I tend to make bad choices in friends. My current predicament was brought about by my best buddy Eddie Marx. I'd been bailing Eddie since elementary school. I took it a step further when Eddie got in a fight with a guy when we were fifteen. The guy tried to stab Eddie so we tussled and I ended stabbing this dude.
I spent six months in juve -- alone. When I got out, I hooked up with Eddie again but things were never the same. Eddie had gone from crazy to crazy-mean. One night Eddie told me to meet up with him at a nearby corner grocery. He's waiting around when we get there. He presses this gun into my hands and tells me we are going to rob the place. I freak, but Eddie begs me to back him up.
Stupid me, I agree. We go in and Eddie and I pretend to be looking for shit to eat. Suddenly Eddie runs up to the store owner and starts yelling at him for all his money. I move up so that I can cover the door as well as Eddie. Eddie gives me this crazy look then shoots the guy -- or, shoots at the guy. Eddie, that loser, misses. The store owner comes up with a shotgun and cuts Eddie in two.
Now I'm thinking that running for my life is the right thing to do. My mind does the quick math of me making it to the door and the speed at which the guy with the shotgun can aim at me. I step out and scream at the top of my lungs that I'm running away. I hold the gun up pointed at the ceiling. The bastard shoots at me anyway. There are Cheetos everywhere. Of its own accord, my arm comes down and I fire the pistol. The guy falls down behind the counter.
I start running and don't stop even when I reach the truck stop miles outside the city. There I see a Highway Patrol car and I take off behind the place going overland. In the city I pretty much stayed away from parks. To say I have no knowledge of the wilderness is putting it mildly. I was so lucky to find that house; I could have wandered the wilds until I die of thirst.
I came to the back of the house and found a door with glass panels that appeared to lead to a kitchen. I got ready to knock out a pane when my professional criminal training took over. I tried the doorknob and opened the door. It swung open quietly and I breathed a sigh of relief.
First thing I did was make it to the refrigerator and pig out. There were all kinds of healthy shit, like apples, peaches, and carrots. I was so hungry I choked down some hotdogs raw. I was putting some stuff on the island in the middle of the kitchen when I noticed movement. I shut the door and pulled my gun out. There was this girl/woman in a mid-thigh length white teddy with midnight black hair that hangs down to her waist. She stars at me with large dark eyes that gave her face a child-like appearance.
"Don't move or scream and I won't hurt you," I whisper. She nods. "Is there anyone else in the house?" Again she nods. "Take them to me." She stares at me and I suddenly feel like a total idiot. "Take me to them," I correct myself." She turns and slowly walks out of the kitchen. She stops and waits for me to follow. I start noticing there were a lot of flowers in the house.
She leads me down the hallway past several doors, some closed and some open to a variety of rooms. I notice one looks like a kind of game room, the kind that had both a PS2 and an X-box, not that I've actually owned either. Finally we come to the room at the end of the hallway. The door is slightly open so she pushes so that I can look in. I look over her shoulder and see a second woman who looks like the sister of the first lying on a huge bed is propped up on her elbows and is looking at me.
"He's come looking for food," the first girl says in a hauntingly sexy voice. The second girl nods and pulls aside the covers and swings out of bed. She is dressed identically to the first girl and it dawns on me that they were twins.
"What are you going to do to us?" the second girl asks me.
"I'm not going to do anything to you if I cooperate," I promise.
"Oh," she says in that identical haunting voice. She almost sounds disappointed. "Let's get you some food." She walks right to me, ignoring the gun and edges passed me to the corridor. "Let us feed you."
"Umm ... okay?" I say. I find myself following the second girl and dragging the first one along with me.
"What is your name?" the first one asks.
"Bart."
"What does that stand for?" the second one inquires.
"Bartholomew," I answer.
"I don't like Bart," the first one says. "I'm Penelope."
"We will call you Bartholomew," the second one states. "I'm Phoebe."
"Penelope, Phoebe, I don't want to hurt either one of you. Just give me what I want and I'll be gone in a few hours. All I need is food, a shower, and a little sleep."
"We will feed you. What would you like?" Penelope asks.
"How about a ham and cheese sandwich; maybe two?" The girls look at one another then smile to me.
"We can do that. Sit at the counter and we'll take care of you. You might want to keep your gun pointed at us. We are very dangerous," Phoebe jokes in that lilting tone.
Considering I'm six foot-two and two hundred pounds of muscle plus I have a gun, and they are perhaps five-seven and one-thirty, even combined I can take them.
"Okay, I'll make sure to keep an eye on you both," I humor them. They stare at me with this kind smile that I'm I normally get from nerdy girls when I stop some thug from shaking them down for their homework.
As they fix me my sandwiches and some soda to drink, they keep stealing glances at me. I keep the gun on the counter as I fidget.
"What's with all the flowers?" I ask idly.
"We buried our Father today. He died Wednesday of a heart attack. It was very sudden. We miss him terribly because he was the center of our life," Penelope explains.
I jump up and wave my hands in despair.
"God! I'm sorry. I didn't know. I'll take the sandwiches and go."
"No, please," Phoebe says. "If ... if you leave we will have to call the Sheriff and he will arrest you."
"Oh crap," I moan. "This is the last thing I need. I already have enough trouble."
"What are you in trouble for?" Penelope inquires. I hesitate to tell them. They look so alone and vulnerable; not to mention kind of sexy now that I was no longer starving. I have to leave.
"I killed a man, or I think I killed a man," I respond.
"How does someone think they killed someone?" Phoebe asks.
"I shot a man in the chest after he blew my buddy in half. We were robbing the guy's store, so even though I didn't mean to shoot him, I'm still going to jail forever if they catch me."
"That's so sad," the both declare softly.
I'm diving into the food and am starting in on the second sandwich when I notice Penelope (or is that Phoebe?) moving her hand toward my gun. I snatch it up and glare at her.
