Shattered Values

All characters are 18 or older.

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It was on a camping trip when the long battle of the siblings ended. A truce cemented by hatred of a common enemy began with a morning fishing trip. It was first light in Arbor Vitae, Wisconsin. Steven wondered nearly out loud why he was still living at home at 21 years of age, while he checked his supplies a second time. Jennifer was why. She was 18 now, but Steven still felt he needed to protect her from the very deviant Paul.

Steven had packed the bait in his tackle box the night before, along with a couple sandwiches and a jug of cold fruit drink. He left the lakeside cabin his parents had a time share in, on the way to the small pier with a couple of small rowboats latched to it. He figured the reason they had picked this cabin was it's proximity to the tavern. He heard a small noise behind him. He sighed.

"What is it brat?" Steven asked.

"Can I come with you?" Steven stopped and turned to see his sister holding her closed reel fishing pole. He thought about how she had begun to get his back to their stepfather recently.. He nodded. She was wearing a bikini top and shorts, and Steven couldn't help but steal glances at the 18 year old pair of perfect "B" cups, in a top too large. When she bent to pick up a paper bag, he could see her bare tits.

"You put your own worms on your hook, and you have to help row, okay?" Steven said with authority.

"Deal!" Jenny ran down the small dirt hill towards him, and walked along side, as they crossed the ten yards of lawn to the dock.

They got to the spot under some shade where their mother had told them they might catch some Bluegill. Steven cast his line, set his pole down, and helped his sister rig her pole. He thought about how she had been so quiet lately. He thought about the small whimpering sounds he heard in the middle of the night when he had gotten up to pee. He watched his bobber, then hers.

"So Jenny, why did you stop trying to get me in trouble with Paul??" Steven alternated his gaze on either side of the boat, watching both lines.

"I guess I realized I don't like Paul any more. He's mean and weird." She said almost inaudibly.

"Hell ya he's mean....what do you mean "weird"?" Steven broke his sentry to look at his little sister.

"He's weird. It's real bad late at night when he's been drinking gin." Jenny gazed blankly at the bottom of the aluminum row boat. Steven had heard about things like this, he thought maybe it was happening to his baby sis. He cut to the point. Jenny never lied to him.

"Is Paul touching you?" He forgot the fishing lines.

"Steven....." Her eyes began to tear up. Steven didn't push any harder. He waited for a few moments.

"He smells bad, his breath is awful. He isn't nice to me when he is like that. He does stuff. Makes me do stuff. You can't tell mom! She will think I'm trying to steal him away!" Her voice was almost loud now on the quiet lake. The graceful Bald Eagles seemed to stop fishing themselves at that moment. She reached out to him. Steven hugged her.

They never caught any fish that day. They did become best friends united for one cause, to protect each other.

From that day on, anytime Steven could possibly get in trouble, Jenny provided an alibi. Steven stood sentry late into the night until Paul would try to sneak into Jenny's room. Then Steven would suddenly have to pee. Sometimes, Steven would get a charlie horse in his calf and begin screaming in fake pain. On the weekends they would sleep in the same room, pretending to fall asleep while playing Grand Am Tour Racing or Monopoly.

It worked, nearly half the time. Not nearly enough. Steven confronted Paul, and lost.

June 7th 2019

Jennifer had just graduated, and was looking for a part time job to help her mother make ends meet. Steven chipped in and was making a decent wage at a burger spot. Paul had lost his factory job, and was in a downward spiral. Mom had asked that they stay and help out as opposed to moving out on their own.

Later, Steven was attacked by Paul, but this time Steven won the fight. Paul made it clear that when he saw Steven next, Steven would die. Jennifer drove her mother out to her aunt Ginny's house with a packed bag and a gun. Jennifer returned to find the plan was already underway.

With Jenny's virginity and Steven's life at risk, they packed a couple bags, needed tools, canned food, mason jars, and sundries, than headed to the deep woods of the Kettle Moraine state park. Most of what they packed belonged to Paul. In the middle of the night they left, not knowing the future, but knowing they would survive.

Steven had bought a 20 year old car with his wages from the greasy spoon joint he worked at. Jenny had used her time to fill notebooks with drawings and notes on edible and medicinal plants in Wisconsin. She also studied Native American traps, and hunting techniques. Jenny stowed two bows, two hunting knives, and 30 arrows in the back of the car that Steven had hidden in the barn at his girlfriends house.

Jenny was panicked by the time they got to Cleveland, 20 miles south of Paul's house. Paul had come home after they had started packing the car, and didn't realize his wife wasn't home, nor did he notice the old car parked in front of the house.

"If he wakes up and calls the cops, we're fucked!" Jenny sat in the passenger seat, knees at her chest, rocking on her jean clad butt.

"Keep yourself together Jen, He is drunk and passed out. We'll have camp set up in the middle of nowhere before he wakes up." Steven lit a cigarette.

"Did you remember the tents?" Jenny was now going to pick apart all of their planning. Steven sighed. His sister was still difficult, but in new ways.

"Yes Jenny, and the flints, and the knives, and the sleeping bags, and the...." Jenny cut him off.

"You don't have to be a dick dude. I was just making sure." She put her left hand on his right shoulder. "What about our paperwork?"

"Paperwork?" Steven looked away from the road and at his sister.

"You know, our social security cards, birth certificates, and what not." Jenny looked concerned.

"Oh documents, yeah got em in a steel box." Steven looked back at the road.

"Money?" Jenny's voice was high pitched on this word. Steven wanted to stop the car and push her out.

"Dammit Jennifer! I have everything we need besides the weapons, mason jars, and canned goods that you were supposed to pack. Did you bring everything you needed?" His words were machine gun fast, while his grip on the steering wheel became vise-like. His anger could only be directed this way...the only other option was to smack her, and he'd never be like his step-father. "Did you bring tampons? Bra's? Panties? Did you remember your birth control??" Steven glared at her.

Jennifer looked at the road ahead, she got the point. She was worried, and she was taking it out on him. She knew he wouldn't forget anything important. A few mores miles passed and they turned west. Jenny looked at her brother.

"I'm sorry, I'm just scared. I didn't mean to take it out on you." She said softly. Steven nodded.

"It's alright, I'm nervous too. I'm sorry too." The car grew silent as the AM radio station drifted away, and the siblings focused on what was in front of them. 40 more minutes passed in silence. Steven recognized a road he had not been on since he was 8.

The road led to their cousins house. When he was a child his parents would go to the barn parties there. They would drink and do other stuff till way after the sun came up. Steven remembered going out to the barn early in the morning and seeing his parents, his uncles and aunts and many of his cousins all naked in a pile on a huge blanket. They were all passed out. The part that piqued his interest was the stockpiles of booze and beer his cousin had.

"Jenny should we get some booze for us?" Jenny perked up.

"How would we get that?"

"Cousin David's farm! He's got tons of it, and he parties all the time...." For some reason it took till just that moment to realize what was actually going on at those parties. "AWWWW NASTY!!!" Steven yelled.

"What! What is it!?" Jenny was very confused by the outburst. She was looking all over the road looking for a deer corpse.

"Nothing Jen....just something I realized our parents did at those parties. Kinda explains a lot about Paul, and why Mom never says a word."

"Like what?" Jenny leaned into him now.

"Like sleeping with their brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews!" Steven said with a grimace.

They sat silently as Steven turned down his cousins long driveway. He turned off the headlights and dropped his speed, trying to be stealthy.

"Do you think we could be the children of one of our uncles...or grandpa?" Jenny asked genuinely.

"I don't want to think about it. Look! Look in the barn, see all those shiny things?" Steven asked. A flashlight pointed in the open barn.

"Yeah!" Jenny began to open her door. "Help me load as much as we can in! We are getting fucked up!" Jenny trod quietly into the barn grabbing a case of the second rate beer. Steven opened the trunk, there wasn't much room. He looked in the back seat. Not much room there either! But the floor was wide open. They could fit a lot on the floor. Maybe eight or ten cases. He closed the trunk and open the rear doors. They quickly moved 10 cases of Schultz's Deluxe onto the floor of the rusty sedan.

They had stopped for the third time. Steven was quite unsure of where they were. It was too dark, he was certain he had missed a turn. He walked around the intersection of the two county roads and then studied the map. He got back in the car. Jenn looked at her smart phone and shook her head. "No signal."

"It's at least 15 more miles to the entrance of the state park." Steven was getting really agitated.

"We have to find a remote spot before the sun comes up!" Jenny reminded him.

"Yes, I know the plan, I came up with it!" Steven stepped on the gas. It was already 5am. They needed to be deep into the park in less then an hour.

Twenty minutes later they saw the sign saying that they were entering the park. Steven knew parts of the park rather well as his class had spent time there a couple years ago. They had spent four weeks there, two of those, Steven and his friends used to explore. It was then that he found the thick piece of woods that had only one way in, and nary a trail for five miles in any direction. No road for almost twenty. It sat in a valley near a stream. The fact that it was in the dense valley would make their camp hard to see even from the air, and if they had a fire going, the smoke would dissipate in the swirling winds. The only way to the spot was from up steam, as down steam was a steep water fall.

Neither had considered how many trips it would take to get all of the stuff they had packed in the car, to their new home. It was daunting. It took seven trips. Two of those were just beer.

Jenny took to organizing the food and tools, as Steven ditched the car outside of the park. The walk back was long and hot. It was still early summer. He guessed the temps were already in the 90's and it was horridly humid. As he walked his mind cleared. It was then he realized that they would not survive a long cold Wisconsin winter in a tent, even with their best winter clothing. He was instantly thankful he had brought a couple of saws, and an ax. He was fairly certain he could build a log cabin with Jenny's help. It wouldn't be thick logs, but he could insulate with grasses and leaves between two layers of smaller logs and patch the uneven places with mud. If he did it, he'd have to do it soon, as the mud would have to bake dry. He was proud of his plan. He worked on the details as he walked.

It took nearly a day for him to return, and when he did Jenny ran at him arms wide, she had meant for it to be a hug, but she knocked the tired young man over. Her long brown hair covered both of their heads as she lay on top of him on the forest floor. She kissed him all over his face and head, settling on his lips at the end.

"I thought you were caught or, even dead!" Steven's eyes were wide open as she lip locked with him again, her mouth was open, and her tongue was trying to gain entry. It was immediately clear she was drunk. Steven returned the kiss, happy to be back. Happy to be with his sister, and away from their parents. Steven ate and rebuilt the fire Jenny had neglected in the later stages of her drunkenness. She passed out shortly after his return, and he doubted she'd remember the kiss when she awoke. He hoped that she wasn't too hung-over, they had a lot of work to do in the coming weeks, and that process started tomorrow.

Steven woke the next morning. His muscles ached from the hauling, and then the 30 mile walk. He knew that if he procrastinated, it would set a trend for his sister, and by October they would be royally fucked. He looked at his wristwatch. A quarter of 10am, the two hands said. Jenny had a digital watch, Steven told her that the battery may die at anytime, but she insisted on her favorite. Steven was hand wound everyday. He did this now as he sat up. His sister was in her sleeping bag fast asleep still. He crawled from his own bedding, and put on a fresh pair of jeans.

He went to the stream that was less than 50 yards away and filled a bucket of water. He returned to camp and set the bucket down. He added kindling, and then some dry branches to the smoldering fire, blowing on the coals to get it hot. With a tiny "whoosh" the fire ignited and was soon a good cooking fire. He found four sticks of about equal length and thickness and tee-peed them over the fire, tying the top end with green vines. He hung the metal bucket over the fire in hopes that it would boil soon, as he was thirsty, and he knew his sister would be. He chose a direction using the shadows for guidance and collected all of the wood he could returning each time with an armload. He made two large piles and figured it would be enough for the afternoon and over night.

He then took a hatchet and began cutting down young green trees. He grabbed Jenny's notebook and studied how to build a fish trap. He had built three, and set them in the stream before Jenny woke.

Steven had been right about two things.

"Oh! My head. When did you get here?" Jenny asked. Her eyes squinted away the light of the fire as the sun had already set.

"Early this morning. You were in quite the form!" Steven chuckled. His 18 year old sister seemed to own the pain and anguish of a 40 year old. Her moans and seething aged her.

"Is there any clean water?" She asked with a raspy voice. Steven handed her the bucket of now cool water. She grabbed a cup and dipped it, while picking the bugs off the surface, who were probably laying eggs in the clean reservoir.

"You slept the day away, and now we are a whole day behind on preparations. Hungry?" Steven was already cooking hotdogs. He had a bowl of berries he had collected and was snacking on them.

"Terribly. As you see, I organized everything. All food stuffs and smaller items are in the spare tent." She said proudly.

"Yes, I realized that as I went looking for things I needed. You did a good job, I was able to get to everything with out having to move much around." He handed her a hot dog and a handful of berries. She attacked the food, she hadn't eaten in the near 16 hours she had been sleeping. Steven by contrast had only caught about 3 hours of sleep. He was tired and she was just now full of life.

"We are going to have to get our sleeping schedules together. We have so much work to do." Steven said between bites. Jenny simply nodded in agreement. She hesitated, then spoke.

"Yes tomorrow morning, we should get started on building a permanent residence, these tents won't protect us in winter Steven."

"Just my thinking." He agreed.

"For tonight we will eat, drink and be merry!" Jenny quoted the decoration from their mothers kitchen.

"You want to drink more?" Steven was surprised at this.

"Yes, it will be more fun than drinking alone!" Jenny giggled.

"As long as there is no more of the kissing." Steven said quietly.

"What kissing?"Jenny looked shocked.

Steven explained what had happened the night before, and then connected it to their parents behavior at their cousins house. This brought a deep conversation about incest, and why it was seen as wrong, yet there were tons of it in history, and in the bible. The discussion took them into the night and way past drunkenness.

Steven thought back on their first day and night together many times. Hindsight being what it is, he assumed that their blossoming friendship, and now, complete dependance on each other is what helped it along.

It could have been the conservative household in which they grew up....which Steven now found hypocritical and repugnant....that their first night together became what it did. The sudden freedom mixed with alcohol, mixed with the attraction he had for his sister and the repressed feelings his sister carried for him. All of those things helped.

Steven might have put it on his raging hormones.

The kiss couldn't be broken as they tore off each others clothes. Steven's hands explored every square inch of his sisters tight body. Her hair smelled only of her, not shampoo, not mousse, his nose raked the smell in as fast as he could pull it to his lungs.

He toy-fully played with her small pink nipples on her b cup breasts, eventually feasting on them. He squeezed every round part of her as her arms locked around his muscled back. His inexperience left him with no other moves other than to slide himself inside of her. It took a few attempts to get it right, but when he did Jennifer moaned as Steven inhaled deeply through his clenched teeth. Her very tight warmth enclosed the rookie cock, drenching it in her honey. Jennifer began to feel pain, then slowly fulfillment. Steven felt it build quickly.

There was no sin in it. It was passion and love. They both lost their virginity in a matter of 27 seconds, when Steven filled her womb with his large amounts of repressed seed.

Jenny knew that he must love her, as they didn't break their embrace till the next morning. It was odd they didn't discuss it at all. It just..... was.

By the end of the second day they had harvested 10 long logs, all away from their campsite, and dragged them back to camp. Built a few more fish traps, and scouted a few deer trails. They dined well on fish and wild vegetables. After eating they began to plot a spot for the house and the garden. That night they didn't bother with the beer. They fell asleep in the now double sized sleeping bag, the two zipped together into one, in each others arms, exhausted.

The following morning, they began a new routine. They made love, ate, harvested and hauled logs while it was cool, and checked traps or actively fished when the heat set in. At just before dusk they would work in the garden, now in the clearing stages, until it was too dark, swim/bathe, then they would eat. Sometimes they'd have a few beers, most nights they didn't. They'd make love passionately, and fall asleep. They were in love.

June 12th 2019

Sargent Mark Tesslaff had been to this burger joint four times in three days, and each time it had turned up next to nothing. It was clear to him, and he suspected his superiors, that Steven and his sister Jennifer didn't want to be found. The fact Steven had planned nothing for summer with even his closest friends suggested he had planned io leave. When he interviewed Jennifer's closest friends he got the same result.

"Kristen, when you mentioned the trip up north to your parents cottage with the rest of your friends, how did Jennifer react?" The recently promoted detective sat in a 70's style living room across from two concerned parents and a 19 year old girl that couldn't be bothered.