Author's note: I know a few of you couldn't wait to read this chapter, so I hope it doesn't disappoint. Thank you for reading and remember to vote and comment to tell me what you think.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was overcome with so many thoughts at once that my body went numb. I imagined that my jaw was hanging wide open by the concern that was all over his face. The only thing I could feel was the bile quickly rising up the back of my throat.

I balled my fists up and I felt the cold meat into between my fingers. I had forgotten that it was in my hand. Who was it? Erica, Britany, Scott, or was it that other couple?

I dropped the meat to the ground and got up out of the chair. I couldn’t be anywhere near that piece of chopped up carcass lying on the floor. The fact that there was a plate full of it on the table disgusted me even more.

I am the one who cooked that. I have been eating that and it wasn’t just like I had ate it once. That was dinner every night for the last couple of months. My stomach started twist into a knot.

“Julie,” Jimmy said softly as he got up out of his chair.

I shook my head furiously and the tears started to fall out of my eyes. He looked so hurt, but I didn’t care. The family was a bunch of monsters, but they were the ones who were supposed to love me. He started to walk towards me and I kept backing up.

“No,” I choked out.

“Julie, please,” he started to plead.

“No!” I snapped.

Jimmy stopped walking, he must be shocked at me yelling at him. I was shocked when I backed up into the counter in the kitchen.

“Stay away from me,” I sobbed.

“Juliet, you know we love you,” Jimmy told me.

His voice became more stern and it sounded like he was about to lecture me. He had his hands out in front of him. He looked like he was trying to approach a wild animal and not scare it off.

“You’re all sick,” I continued to sob. “How could you do that?”

“Remember all of our other unique traditions and how you’ve gotten use to them now. This is going to be the same thing. I know it’s new and scary now, but you’re going to get used to it in no time. You’ve already settled it in so well and ate so much of it,” he explained.

I reached behind me; not wanting to take my eyes off of Jimmy. My hand groped across the counter until I felt the wooden block behind me. My fingers curled around one of the handles and I pulled one of the knives out. I held it in front of me. The blade shook as I realized that I couldn’t control my hands to stay steady.

“I want to go home,” I said slowly.

Jimmy’s eyes grew even bigger when he watched me pull out the knife. I have never threatened him before. I have tried to fight against him when he forced me to do something, but my attempts to get away were pathetic. But now I had a weapon and could pose as a serious threat.

“You are home,” he said, “and you know that. You are part of this family. You are one of us.”

“I’m not one of you,” I said as I started to cry harder. “I could never do that.”

“But you have, Julie. Think about how much you have been eating. It has never bothered you, so don’t let it start now.”

My stomach slid its way up into my throat. I always wondered what type of meat that was, but I rarely ever questioned it. I trust Jimmy, I didn’t think he could do this to me.

I started to gag and ran up the stairs as quickly as I could. I didn’t hear Jimmy running up behind me, but I didn’t take the chance. I ran into our room and straight into the bathroom. I slammed the door behind me and locked it. I covered my mouth until I got down in front of the toilet and began vomiting.

My stomach needed to be cleansed. I had to get every last bit of meat that was in my stomach out. I could hear Jimmy knocking on the door as I continued to be sick. When I was done I collapsed down onto the floor and curled up on my side.

“Juliet, open the door!” he kept yelling as he pounded his fist against it.

I was sobbing loudly as I couldn’t control the tears. I sat up and reached across the floor for the knife. I had a tight grip on it as I held the blade out in front of me.

“Go away!” I screamed out.

“Julie!” he yelled.

The banging on the door slowed down but became louder and more forceful. I realized that he was throwing his weight into the door from his shoulder. My lock was precious to me, but it was old and it would withstand long against Jimmy’s weight.

“Leave me alone!” I screamed out. “I don’t want to be near you!”

“Julie, please!” Jimmy yelled. “Open up this door and we can talk to each other.”

“No!”

Jimmy threw his weight into the door one more time. There was a loud cracking sound as the door flew open. I couldn’t stop myself from screaming. Jimmy’s face was red and he was panting heavily.

“Stay away from me,” I warned him.

“I just want to talk, Julie. I promise I’m not angry with you. I’m not going to hurt you,” he explained.

He took a few steps forward. I turned the knife so that it was no longer pointed towards him, and instead was facing him. The end of the blade was pointed down to my chest as I held onto it with both hands.

“Come and closer and I’ll kill myself,” I warned him.

Jimmy instantly stopped walking. I watched as his face quickly paled and he looked at me shocked. He began to shake his head violently.

“No,” he said, his voice came out almost like a whisper. “Julie, that’s the last thing I want you to do. I love you, you’re my girl, and I don’t want to lose you.”

He slowly lowered himself down onto the floor. He was kneeling in front of me and I didn’t move the blade anywhere. I was still crying heavily and I kept staring at him.

“I couldn’t live if you left me like that,” he told me.

His voice cracked as he spoke. I have never heard him before like that and he sounded so weak and vulnerable. I let go of the knife with one hand and wiped the tears away from my eyes. I was scared to see that his eyes were brimming with tears. I had never seen Jimmy cry before, and I’ve almost never seen him sad.

“Let me leave this house,” I told him.

“And go where? You mean you’d honestly rather be working in that strip club than living with me?” he asked me. His voice was wobbly and I watched as a tear rolled down his cheek. It caused me to cry even more. “Julie, I love you. Please, I know this is hard, but please don’t leave me.”

I stared at Jimmy as a couple more tears rolled down his cheeks. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hands. Jimmy wasn’t the monster I thought he was. A monster wouldn’t be sitting here in front of me crying. No guy has ever cried in front of me. He really was different from everybody else. He actually did love me and not want to see me hurt.

I pulled the knife away from my body and dropped it onto the floor. When Jimmy heard the clang on the floor he looked up at me. He shuffled across the floor over to me. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed the corner of my temple. He slid the knife across the floor away from me.

He kissed me cheek hard and I tried to push him away with my arms. I may have dropped the knife, but I haven’t forgiven him yet. He’s been feeding me human meat for months.

This meant I was a cannibal now. They were cannibals. I didn’t think they could get much worse than kidnappers, rapists and murders, but they managed to. They did the absolute worst thing possible.

“Don’t, Jimmy,” I said pushing him away. “I don’t want you to touch me.”

Jimmy gave me one quick hug before letting me go. I wrapped my arms around my knees and cried into them. I heard him as he got up off the floor and was moving around the bathroom. I didn’t look up at him until he pulled my arm off of me and started to roll up my sleeve.

He had a syringe in his and I panicked. I started pulling my arm away from him, but he already had pierced my skin. He injected me as I fought against him.

When he put the needle back into the case, I struggled to get back up onto my feet. I took a few steps forward before stumbling and landing on my knees. I didn’t have the strength to get back onto my feet so I started crawling away from him. Even crawling became difficult as my weight collapsed onto the floor. I hadn’t even left the bathroom yet.

Jimmy came over to me and rolled me over onto my back. He scooped me up off of the floor and curled me into his arms. My eyes felt heavy and I struggled with them to stay open. I haven’t passed out this quickly since the first night Jimmy drugged me.

I tried to scream out but it just came out as another one of my pathetic noises. Jimmy carried me over to the bed and carefully placed me down. He brushed my tangled hair off of my face and kissed me on the forehead.

“Don’t worry, honey,” he said soothingly. “You’re going to sleep well and you’ll feel better in the morning.”