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The next morning when Jimmy and I went down for breakfast, Charles pulled Jimmy aside. They were talking to each other in the living room and I was alone in the kitchen. Tommy soon came thudding down the stairs and I turned around so I didn’t have to face him.

As he walked by me, he let his fingertips drag across my back. I shuddered and prayed that Jimmy had suddenly came back into the kitchen, but I saw Tommy come up beside me.

“Good morning, Jules,” he told me with a smirk on his face.

“Morning,” I mumbled.

“Do you know what they’re talking about?” he asked me quietly. He leaned in forward towards me and it made me nervous.

“No I don’t,” I told him shaking my head.

“You,” he said. “They’re talking about you. We all knew Jimmy would have to tell you about us eventually, but we’re surprised how quickly he did it. Kind of makes sense though. You’re not like most girls. You’re not putting up much of a fight.”

I didn’t want to look at Tommy anymore. I turned around to walk to the table. I wanted to be with Jimmy, but if Tommy was right I would get punished for disrupting.

Tommy’s fingers gripped around my arm and pulled me back towards him. I prayed that Jimmy would come in soon so that he would let me go.

“Jimmy only hit you once,” he said wryly. “So why are you so scared? Girls want to stay here in the beginning because they’re too scared to leave or upset anyone. But not you. I see the way you follow Jimmy around like a lapdog. You’re loving it here. The cannibalism freaks out everyone, but you’re just eating it all up.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but I don’t know what I would say. Luckily, I was saved by the sound of Jimmy clearing his throat. Tommy quickly let go of my arm, but he didn’t back up.

“What’s going on here?” he asked.

“Calm down, Jim,” Tommy told him. “We were just talking.”

Jimmy crossed his arms over his chest and turned his head so that he was looking at Charles.

“This is what I’m talking about,” he told him.

Charles went over to his seat and sat down. Tommy started to back up away from me, and he grabbed a bowl out of the cupboard and sat down.

“My back has been bothering me lately,” Charles announced to all of us. Jimmy walked over to me and I handed him a bowl and we sat down at the table together. “I’m going to sit today out. You boys can do all of the work yourself for a day. I’m going to stay in with Juliet.”

I tried my hardest to not make my face pale. Being alone wasn’t as bad as being alone with Tommy, but Charles still made me nervous. He had been punishing people for a lot longer than either of them, so I felt like if I did something wrong I’d be in a lot of pain. He’s the one who taught Tommy and Jimmy what to do to me. He was the one who told Jimmy to rape me, but Jimmy was human enough he couldn’t do it.

They quickly finished breakfast and Jimmy and Tommy got up out of their seats. Charles stayed in his seat and pulled out a book and began to flip through the pages. I gathered up all of the bowls and dropped them into the sink.

Jimmy’s arms were quickly around me and he spun me around in his arms. He slid his hands up my back as he crushed his lips against mine. In the corner of my eye I could see Tommy scowling.

“Be a good girl,” he told me.

“I will,” I assured him.

He kissed me again before pulling away from me. Tommy rolled his eyes and took the key off of his neck. He unlocked the door and then they both left.

I gathered up the rest of the cutlery on the table and placed them in the sink. Charles was still sitting at the table and he had a book open in front of him. I started to fill the sink full of water.

“Juliet?” he called out.

“Yes?” I asked him, making sure that my voice was loud enough so he could hear me over the water.

“Can you get me a cup of tea?” he asked.

“Yeah, I will,” I said shutting off the water.

I had to open up a few cupboards to remember where the teapot was. I filled it full of water and then placed it on the stove.

He didn’t say anything as I scrubbed the dishes clean. A minute or so after I had put them all away, the pot started to whistle. I took it off of the stove and filled a cup full of water and placed a teabag inside it.

I brought it over to him and set it down on the table. He looked up from his book and curled his lips into a smile at me. He closed his book and pushed it away from himself.

“Would you like anything in it?” I asked him.

“No,” he said shaking his head and taking a sip. “Aren’t you having any?”

“Well I-.” I started to say, pointing over my shoulder to the kitchen.

“Get yourself a cup and sit down,” he ordered me. “I want to talk to you.”

I nodded my head and bit down on my lip. I went back into the kitchen and grabbed another cup and filled it with water. I walked over and sat down in Jimmy’s spot so that I was sitting beside him.

“Jimmy told me that he told you all about our traditions the other night,” he told me.

I nodded my head and looked down at the cup. I bobbed the teabag in and out of the light brown water. My stomach churned to think about how I shoved my mouth full of that meat last night. I couldn’t believe that it stayed down all night.

“Yes, he did,” I said.

“Now I know what our family does may seem odd,” he told me. “It may help you if you knew a little bit more about our family. Would you like that?”

I looked up at him and lifted my lips up into a faint smile. If he explained everything to me I would feel less crazy. Jimmy has lived this life his entire life and he’s not a monster, so if I started living like this I wouldn’t feel so evil.

“Yes,” I said. “That would be nice.”

“We’re not the ones who started these traditions,” he started to explain me. “My great-grandfather’s family was the one who did. We’ve always been farmers, but when times got tough people got desperate. They’d come onto our farms and steal our food, or sometimes they were vicious enough to break into the house and hurt and rob us. The only way to stay safe was by protecting our family.

“So we started to do the best protection we could get. We killed anyone who came onto the property. Ever since we began doing that we have been safe and no one could hurt us.”

“What about the meat?” I dared to ask.

“Times are tough,” he repeated, “especially for farmers. The family started to go through a famine and there was all of this meat rotting in the ground. It may seem like an extreme solution, but not a single stomach had ever gone hungry in this house since.”

“You still need to?” I asked.

It seemed like an outrageous solution, but maybe I could convince them to stop. Charles was shaking his head and all of the hopes were quickly gone.

“We don’t make much here,” he told me. “It’s just me and the boys who run this place. Sometimes a couple of people will come to help us, but that isn’t often. You have to agree though that not using any of that meat would be a waste, wouldn’t you?”

I couldn’t help but nod my head. To disagree with him must have some kind of punishment. I wanted to get up and argue, but there was no point to. I thought back to when I first got here and it only got me more hurt.

“Good,” he said, leaning back into the chair. “Do you have any questions?”

“The girls,” I forced off of my lips.

Charles arched an eyebrow and I felt myself struggle with my tongue. I’m not supposed to ask questions, and now he’s asking if I have any. Was this a trap? I wanted to take the chance.

“Why do you kill your daughters?” I asked.

“You’re my daughter,” he told me. “Have I killed you?”

“I am?” I asked, I couldn’t stop myself from sounding a little shocked.

“Of course you are,” he told me reassuringly. “Little girls were born into our lives, but they were never strong enough to survive. Do you have any idea how much it hurts to lose one of your children? It makes the whole family feel better if they never get attached. I know you women get attached because they’re growing inside you for quite some time, but this makes the grieving go by quicker. It’s a hard concept to understand if you’re emotional. My wife never liked it. You look a lot like her actually.”

“I do?”

The only time I had ever heard them mention her was that one night after dinner. Jimmy was so upset that I didn’t dare ask anything since.

“Yes, a bit,” he said. “She was a beautiful woman. A bit bigger than you, that’s why your clothes are too big for you.”

“These were hers?” I asked.

I subconsciously pulled at my shirt. It was another one where the sleeves ran past my fingertips. Jimmy had always given me my clothes, and I got use to how they never fit. I never questioned why they had these clothes.

“She wouldn’t be using them anymore, so you might as well,” he told me.

“What happened to her?” I asked.

“She died after giving birth to her third daughter. James was about nine years old and he hasn’t dealt with it the greatest. I couldn’t imagine how he would be if we let those three girls live for a couple years before they died?”

“He’d be a wreck,” I agreed.

“Exactly. Juliet, I love you more than I could have loved those girls. I knew as soon as I saw you in that strip club that you didn’t belong. You’re kind and caring, and you want to take care of people. But more importantly, you wanted to be protected. You belong here.”

“I know.”

Charles reached out and patted my hands. I hadn’t realized how tightly they were gripping the cup. I loosened them up and took a sip of my tea. Charles reached over to his side and slid his book back out in front of him.

“You may go back up to your chores now,” he told me.

“Thank you,” I said getting up from the table.

“For what?” he asked me.

He raised his eye brow as he peered up at me up from his book. I couldn’t help my lips from curling into a big smile.

“For getting me out of that strip club,” I told him. “You’re right. This is where I belong.”