Kane propped his shoulder on the door frame and crossed his arms, refusing her entrance into his home. “She’s not a pet.”
“Really?” she laughed humorlessly. “Let’s see, you went hunting in the forest this morning and then returned with a creature that you’re keeping locked in your house. If she’s not a pet, then what is she?”
Kane growled something under his breath that sounded like a string of curse words. “Get off your high horse, Ty.”
“First, get out of my way,” she sniped at him. She ripped open the screen door and pushed her way through. She stomped over to me her eyes glued to my face. And then I saw it- fear, uncertainty, concern. Once she was out of her Kane’s gaze, she was a completely different person. But all that emotion was gone in a moment and she was face to face with her mask of hypercritical arrogance. She looked me over with a haughty eye and then ordered, “Alright, Kane, introduce me to my new sister-in-law.”
Putting the pieces together in my head, I realized this was Miller’s sister- this was the sister that needed saving.
“Tyler, this is Reagan,” Kane obliged us. “Reagan, this is my little sister, Tyler.”
“Well, little as in two years younger. But he loves to hold that over me. How old are you?” she asked directly.
“Um, uh, twenty,” I offered, still not knowing what to make of her occasionally compassionate eyes as she held my gaze.
“Yay!” she squealed. “We’re just a year apart then!”
“Yay,” I echoed sarcastically.
“Big brother, be a good host and get us something to drink,” she demanded and then waved him away with a flick of her fingers.
Her thick drawl was just as musical as her mother’s and now that I knew she was related to this Zombie-Apocalypse version of the Adam’s family I could make out all the similar family features: beautiful skin, pronounced bone structure, full lips, gray eyes.
Kane sighed again but started off to do her bidding. Before he got too far though he looked back and asked her pointedly, “Did you have anything to do with Miller’s stupid little stunt last night, Ty?”
She laughed like the very idea was ludicrous and shook her head, “Uh, did you see Miller this morning? Dad beat the shit out of him. I am not about to be part of his crazy antics. He’s just doing it for attention.”
Her jaw clenched tightly in a frozen smile after her last words and only because I was looking for it, I watched her shake her head out in a nervous tick.
“Right, attention,” Kane chuckled bitterly. “Seems like there’s better ways to get dad’s approval.”
“Well, you would know all about that, wouldn’t you golden boy?”
Kane shook his head but ignored her biting comment. He walked off into the kitchen and once we heard the cupboard door open I felt the hot warmth of metal in my palm. I looked down and saw that Tyler was pushing something into my hand.
I grasped it and pulled back so I could see what it was. A handcuff key. She gave me a handcuff key.
“I don’t need this,” I whispered frantically. I waved my free hands around.
“You will tonight,” she promised with so much fear and anxiety in her voice that my insides froze into organ-sized ice cubes. “He won’t risk losing you.”
“What does he want with me,” I pleaded in a frantic whisper.
But she just shook her head and changed the subject, “Midnight, behind the bleachers, tonight.”
I shook my head, wondering…. “How?” I mouthed.
“Your friends. We’re going with you,” she explained. “Do not let him find that key. He’ll kill them, I promise you he will.”
Understanding her message I nodded and slid the key into my bra. I would die before he got inside there, so by then it wouldn’t matter if he found the key or not.
I was just about to say “thank you” when her rude snarkiness was back, “It’s honestly amazing how one girl as plain as you got all three of those boys to follow her around.” She lifted up a strand of my hair that had escaped my pony tail and then dropped it back to my shoulder as if in disgust.
“Tyler,” Kane hissed from the doorway to the kitchen. He walked toward us with two unopened cans of warm Coke in his hands. He offered them to us and we both accepted. Easily. Manson family or not, there was no way I was turning down a can of Coke.
We stood there drinking for a while in awkward silence. Tyler’s eyes kept floating around the room as if she were waiting for someone to jump out at her and attack. Finally, they landed on her brother and an expression of pure, undiluted hatred flashed over her features before she was able to compose herself again.