Page 2 of Siccitas

The spiderweb of decaying plaster makes me think of this goddamn family.

How far do those lines run? They disappear into corners we can’t see, and no one will ever really know.

No one excepthim.

Chapter One

Jocelyn

Isit in a now eerilyquiet home, doing my best to focus my thoughts.

Dalton left three hours ago, after he swore to me that Darby’s children would be safe with him. The same blood may flow through our veins, but that blood belongs to the worst monster of all, and I think he knows I’ll hunt him down just the same if he harms them.

They’re innocent in all of this, and I’d like to think that, at one point, I was too.

I tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear, and let a breath slowly escape me, then square my jaw.

Luke Greene stole my innocence long before I ever knew there was such a thing.

To me, that was just a fairy tale, a fable I would read about in books whenever he would allow me such a comfort. The time I spent teaching my brothers a basic education as best as I could, I would steal some of those moments to lose myself between pages of worlds that I knew I’d never find.

Worlds where children weren’t repeatedly bred by their father.

Worlds where women had choices.

Worlds where families were normal, and not what we were led to believe that they were.

And even now, as a grown woman, I find myself longing for those worlds I read about as a child, when I would lay my head down and sleep next to his sweating body.

A cloud slowly drifts by the moon, meticulously blotting out the light for a few seconds, engulfing me in darkness.

Being in the dark is something I should be used to... but the time I spent down in the oubliette with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company, and the time I spent in the old, abandoned home that I took refuge in on the outside of town, have done nothing to change how I feel about it.

To me, it’s not a welcome thing.

It’s where monsters throw the innocent to rot.

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