Damned and Cursed (Book 6): Broken Home by Glenn Bullion Read Free Book Online

brought this on yourself."
    He struck her.   Only once, to the side of her jaw.   The last sounds she heard before she blacked out were of her daughters crying.

AFTERNOON

    The first sensation Janet was aware of as she gained consciousness was the softness beneath her, followed by the dull pain in her head.   She opened her eyes, but the world refused to slide into focus.   Everything was a blurry haze.   However, Janet didn't need vision to know she was lying on her living room carpet.   Many hours had been spent stretched out, playing with her girls, even eating on that carpet.   She laughed with her children while Ed relaxed in the corner chair, reading the paper or watching television.
    How she wished she could return to those simple times again.
    "Ah, you're awake."
    Byron's voice was to her left.   Muffled whining and crying was to the right.   The smell of urine touched her nose, pulling her completely from her sleepy daze.
    A sob nearly escaped as the details of her surroundings began to sharpen.
    Byron had moved the chairs from the kitchen to the living room.   Sarah, Elizabeth, and Mark sat side by side.   Their hands were bound behind them and to the backs of the chairs with duct tape.   Their feet were also restrained.   Rags had been taped around their mouths.   They whimpered and cried as their panicked stares met Janet's, begging for help.   Janet couldn't help them.   She couldn't even comfort them.
    "Oh my God," she muttered, her eyes welling up with tears.   "What have you done?"
    Byron sat in the corner chair, relaxing with his hands behind his head.
    "Stop with the dramatics.   I tied them up.   I didn't cut off their little fingers, at least not yet.   And do you hear that?"   He cupped a hand to his ear.   "Silence.   Except for a little crying and bitching.   And of course, killer over there pissing in his pants.   If everyone here would have just been silent the whole damn day, I'd be in a much better mood.   But no, you tried to bash my head in, Janet.   I was going to let the rat poison slide, just because the look on your face was so damn funny.   But now, I don't know—"
    "Please."   Janet pulled herself to her knees and clasped her hands together.   Moving suddenly made her ill.   A wave of nausea nearly made her vomit.   "I'm begging you.   I'm sorry.   I won't try anything else.   Please, just free the kids."
    Byron didn't hesitate, didn't flinch.
    "No.   It's been quiet the past few hours.   Please don't ruin it."
    "Few hours?"   Janet turned her head, too fast, to look at the clock on the wall.   She had to cover her mouth and swallow to keep the bile down.
    It was past four in the afternoon.   Something was very wrong.
    "Ed should be home."   Her breath hitched in her chest.   "What…what did you do to him?"
    "Nothing."   A sadistic smile crossed his face.   He gestured to the children.   "Tell her, guys.   Oh, sorry, I forgot, you can't talk.   Just nod real vigorously.   Take my word for it.   He hasn't been home."
    "You're…lying."
    "Actually, the only one here today that's been lying is you, Janet.   You keep saying you'll behave, and you don't.   That's a lie."
    "Please, just…let Mark go to the bathroom.   Don't make him sit there like that."
    "No.   Why don't you just lay back down and rest that head of yours?   It infuriated me, watching you sleep.   But I weighed that against the wonderful silence, and the silence won."
    Janet's brow furrowed.   "I wasn't asleep, you son of a bitch.   You hit me—"
    A flash of movement caught Janet's attention from the living room window.   She turned to look, and Byron followed her gaze.   Mary, Mark's mother, stood on her front porch.   She scanned the neighborhood, holding a hand to her forehead to shield her eyes from the sun.   Taking slow steps down the front walk, she looked up and down the street, and along the side of her house.
    "Ah, finally," Byron said.   "The day is