Trapped (A Ticci Toby Story)

Chapter 7- Follow The Leader

Her tears are what wakes me.
A taste of salt and a soft sob.
I feel her fingers are softly stroking my hair, and I see her leaning over me in the darkness.
I know that she's crying.
I don't know why.
I close my eyes,
and I want this pain to stop.
She wipes her tears off my cheek.
What's wrong?
Her grief reflects inside me.
The darkness it leaves is killing me.
I don't want it anymore.
"Toby." She whispers my name.
I don't want to open my eyes.
But I do and the pain grows.
I blink, and I blink, but I still can't see past the fog in my mind.
Something is missing.
I part my lips.
Cracked and dry.
My voice is broken when I speak.
"What's wrong?"
And she breaks down.
She doesn't have to tell me,
Because I already know.
I remember.
I remember the amber glow of the porch light, how the light cast across Tom's hardened features, Jane's soft worried eyes, and finding the kids sitting at Cheryl's dining room table.
She told us that she had a surprise for us. A dinner to celebrate how she made jane fall in love.
She took pride in something she wasn't apart of.
She was trying to take away the moments we shared alone in the cellar and twist them into cruel manipulation.
She boasted and bragged about what a kind hearted soul she was until Marco spoke up. 
"You're feeding us weal food? Like weally weal food? No more vegthables?" he said.
And it begins
"Marco." Jane hushed quietly.
We expected her to lash out at him, hurt him for speaking out against her, for telling her that they are dying, but she only laughs.
A loud and sadistic laugh that causes Marco to visibly flinch.
"Young children should always eat their vegetables." 
It was Alex's turn.
Her voice is dull and tangled with spite.
"Yeah, but shouldn't we eat something else other than vegetables? I'm getting tired of eating tasteless and soggy broccoli everyday." 
Sam nodded in agreement and my eyes locked with Jane's.
Her fear is contrasted with my humor.
I didn't stop Alex.
Her words needed to be heard and we all knew it.
My silence forced jane's eyes pulled from mine.
"Alex, thats enough."She reached across the table to reach Alex's hand, but Alex pulled away.
"No!" she snapped "She needs to know! She can't just keep starving us and pretending that it's okay! Look at us! We're dying because of her!" she slammed her hand onto the table. The loud sound caused the others to jump.
Cheryl's smile fell.
"That table was a gift."
"I don't care about your stupid table! You killed Jenny! She was my friend!"
Cheryl's expression hardened and the air around us suddenly felt crushing.
Cheryl slammed the pot of food onto the floor hard enough rattle the farm themed decor around the kitchen.
In that terrifying moment, Tom seemingly snaps to life.
His face scrunched up with rage.
Alex stood up quickly, knocking her chair back in the process.
Her face was pale and her eyes were wide with terror.
I reached over the table and fumbled around blindly for something--anything to protect her.
My hand gripped around a handle of a fork and I was on my feet, taking Tom's attention away from her.
I rose the fork to plunge it into him, but he caught my wrist in mid swing and tore the fork out of my hand.
The metal object clattered at our feet and chairs scooted against the wooden planks as the others jumped up and ran out of the way.
Tom snapped his head up in their direction and I shoved the weight of my body into him.
Despite my efforts, he only stumbled briefly.
Without eating or drinking anything for the last four days, I was drained.
I didn't have a chance against him.
His hand swung at me and I ducked and slipped from the space he could so easily trap me in.
My movements were only a shadow of what they once were.
A sloppy and ungraceful attempt to get away from him.
His hands shoved into me and I slammed into a wooden cabinet behind me.
Glass shook and rattled as the cabinet rocked from the impact.
I moved away from it as glass figurines shattered onto the floor.
Tom caught me again, but this time he had his hands clasped tightly around my throat.
He slammed my body against the table, towering over me with intentions set on my murder.
"No!" Marco cried out. "No! Let him go! Leave him alone!"
The kids were all huddled across the room, watching in horror behind Jane's protective arms.
I clawed at Tom's hands, trying to pry away his deadly hold on my throat.
His hold only tightened, completely cutting off any chance I had at gasping a lick of air that I needed so desperately.
Cheryl wasn't trying to stop him.
She wasn't stopping him and I was on the verge of suffocating.
So quietly under his powerful grasp.
My ears filled with a low hum as my vision faded.
A familiar sound, but so distant in my mind.
I wanted it to grow louder.
Louder and closer until I could no longer hear the cries of the ones I wanted to protect from this.
The sound didn't stay.
It faded away as soon Alex broke from Jane's hold and ran towards us.
A sudden crash and Tom shouts in pain,
And his hold is loosened just enough for me to steal a gasp.
Bits and paces of wood, from the chair Alex broke over his head, slid off of Tom's shoulders as he turned to grab her with a hand he released from me.
Alex slipped out of his reach only to be grabbed by Cheryl from behind.
"You couldn't just leave well enough alone, could you?" Cheryl scolded in a chilling voice. "Don't you know what happens to brats who break my things?"
"Let go of me!"
"Alex!" Jane's voice was shaken with trauma of seeing this scene unfold many times before. "Cheryl please! Don't do this! Please!"
I arched my back away from the table, trying to pry my legs from under Tom to kick him away, to hurt him.
My breathing came out in chocked gasps.
I reached out over the table.
My fingers speared out, searching over the smooth surface for something to grab onto.
A textured base and a smooth round glass ball on top.
A snowglove.
I grabbed the object quickly.
It slipped awkwardly in my manged hand, threatening to fall from my grasp as I swung it into Tom's head with everything I had.
It shattered with the impact, casting glass and glitter-water over the two of us.
Tom grabbed his face, releasing me from his hold.
I kicked his stomach to get him away from me.
My head spun and my eyes clouded.
I was on my feet grabbing a broken chair leg from the floor.
Acting on instinct, to protect, to kill, I shoved the piece of wood into Cheryl's side.
The old woman gasped and Alex was realised from her grasp.
Alex didn't run away, her wide blue eyes didn't leave me.
"Move!" I yell.
I didn't understand.
I saved her, released her, why wasn't she moving?
I didn't have a chance to find out before i was knocked unconscious.