The Breadwinner Trilogy (Book 1): The Breadwinner by Stevie Kopas Read Free Book Online

own blood.  Without hesitation, Samson grabbed the sheets from the end of the bed and wrapped them around his son’s neck.  Robbie growled and fought his father, but Samson had him pinned down.  He pulled the sheet through the foot of the bed frame tightly, pulling Robbie back against it and tied the other end of the sheet around his wrists.  Robbie hissed and howled, his face empty of expression other than the sheer hunger Samson had seen on so many other dead faces.
    “Oh my god!  Oh my god!”  Leti screamed from the doorway.
    “Leti!  Sheets!  Now!”  Samson screamed.  He pushed Moira away from his daughter’s dying body and placed a boot down on her chest.
    “What the fuck are you doing?!”  Moira cried and yelled and punched him, throwing her small frame into his body.  Leti ran into the room and threw Samson the sheets, running back out, escaping the horror of the bedroom.
    “Get away now!”  Samson, tied his daughter as he had tied his son, but to the headboard.  Keira stopped choking and ceased all movement.  “I’m so sorry baby girl.”  He kissed her forehead and cried as his daughter’s eyes clouded over with a milky white film.  Keira wheezed and her head jerked up at him.  A ferocious growl escaped her mouth, she struggled against her ties to no avail.  Samson watched as Robbie did the same at the other end of the bed.  It was as if his life was unraveling in slow motion.  The monsters from children’s nightmares had come and taken Robbie and Keira from him.  He didn’t know how his feet moved by themselves as he backed out the door, watching in absolute horror and amazement the two newly awakened eaters as they spit and screamed like demons from the bed.  Moira lay in a crumpled heap on the hardwood floor, reminding him of a pile of dirty clothes.  He picked her up in his arms and cried.  She continued to lay motionless and silent.  Leti sobbed downstairs somewhere.
    “That night I lay in bed listening to the howls of the children from down the hall.  Moira hadn’t spoken for hours.”  Veronica was staring at him now as Samson spoke so solemnly.  She understood his pain.  “She had gotten out of bed around 2am but I didn’t think anything of it.  After some time had passed I forced myself to get up and find her, thought she might have needed me.  But when I walked into the kitchen I found Moira standing over Leti’s body with a bread knife in her hand.  The only thing she said to me was ‘I need you to help me feed the children.’”
    Veronica twisted a strand of hair between her fingers as she set her pole down against the dock.  She looked down at her feet.  “But you’re not going to feed me to your children.”
    Samson shook his head.  “No Veronica.  But I do need you to help me free my children.”  He frowned as he spoke.  “You asked how many and two is a high enough answer for me to ever give.  It isn’t something I could ever, or would ever be able to do alone.  You took care of your father and your brother when the time came.  Something I couldn’t do for Keira and Robbie.”  He reiterated that he couldn’t do it himself.  He swallowed hard, saying it aloud reminded him all the more that he could have been a better father, and should have been a better man. 
    Veronica let go of her hair and looked up at him.  “What about Moira?”
    He put his face in his hands and squeezed at his skin.  How did he allow his wife to go mad?  How did he allow his children to meet a fate worse than any he could have ever imagined?  He dropped his hands to the rail.  “Moira will handle Moira.  She always does.”
    VII
    The walk back to Franklin Woods was a quick one.  As night fell, Samson and Veronica knew they had to move fast and almost silently.  Paradise Bay’s surrounding area had been empty, but Franklin Woods was on the edges of town. 
    They quickened their pace when they heard movement in the trees on both sides of the