Tradition Comes Third

Searching and Talking

Author's Note: sorry it took me a while to update. I have a week from hell coming up where all of my assignments are due. I hope you all enjoy!

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Blair was sleepy from the drugs Dad used to sedate her last night. I let her nap while I helped Mom look for the drugs. At least Blair wasn't crying anymore.

Mom tore her bathroom apart, and I searched through the bathroom down the hall. I opened up all the cupboards and pulled out everything inside. I opened up every box I saw, and I searched through them. I couldn't find any syringes anywhere.

"Any luck?"

I looked up to see Mom standing in the doorway. She sat down on the floor next to me. She reached into the cupboard and started looking with me.

"I don't even know what I'm looking for," I said.

"It's a black case," she said. "It has a zipper around it."

"I haven't seen it yet."

Mom reached over and put her hand on my knee. She tucked a piece of stray hair behind her ear with her other hand.

"Did Dad ever drug you?" I asked.

"Yeah," she said. "When your grandfather first took me, they would drug me every night. Your father wanted to do the same to Ava. He thought that it would calm her down, but we were running low."

"If Dad drugged Ava do you think she'd still be alive?"

"I can't say." Mom shrugged her shoulders. "She would have not been able to run away."

"Did you know Dad had left the door unlocked that night?"

"No. He told me that he couldn't sleep for a few nights and was awake. Looking back at it, that door must have been unlocked for nights."

"I wish we never tried to run."

"I want to say that your father is not the same man I fell in love with, but that would be a lie. He's the same. I knew this family was evil when I was brought here, and then they brainwashed me. I can't believe I defended them for so long. I'm sorry for bringing you into this."

"I don't blame you, Mom. This isn't your fault."

"I tried my best to talk him out of getting another girl, but it didn't work." Mom took her hand off of my knee and placed it on her bandaged wrist. "They'll have to kill me before they hurt anyone else."

There was a thud as someone hurried up the stairs. Leah came into the bathroom. She was breathing heavy, and holding her belly.

"They're coming inside," she said.

Mom and I picked everything up off of the floor and shoved it back into the cupboards. I grabbed one of the rolls of gauze and put it into my pocket.

"Don't come downstairs until I call you two down for dinner," Mom said before running out of the bathroom.

I took one last look at the bathroom to make sure we didn't leave anything behind. I turned off the light and hurried to my room. Blair was lying on my bed under a few blankets. She sat up when the door clicked shut behind me. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, and scrambled to the edge of the bed.

"It's okay," I said. "It's just me."

"How long was I asleep for?" she asked.

"A few hours. My Dad and Jared are inside now."