Page 25 of Unhinged Kallie

“Let go. You need to get ready.”

“I will, but get out. I’m not changing with you in here,” I said. She sighed but backed away.

“You’re so weird sometimes.”

“I’m weird? I’m eleven now. I’m not changing in the same room as you. Now get out so I can get ready, Trouble.” I pointed at the door and glared at her.

“Fine.” She stepped out into the hall.

“Close my door,” I barked.

She came back in and stuck her tongue out at me before slamming my door shut. I slumped onto the bed and looked down at my stupid boner. It started a year ago. Every morning I woke up like this and had to wait for the thing to go away before I could get breakfast. I went online to see if it was normal or if something was wrong with me, and apparently, I was fine, but I hated it. I could’ve asked Cain, but it just seemed like a horrible conversation to have with anyone.

I learned there would be other stupid issues like getting hard in gym class or some other super inappropriate time. Wet dreams were a thing, and I didn’t even want to imagine that. My voice would change soon, and my body already ached from the growth spurt that wouldn’t stop until I turned eighteen or something. Just great. The last thing I needed was for Cain to think I was perving over his daughter. I shivered at the thought. Without a doubt, he would slit my throat after torturing me for days until I wished for death.

I wanted to stay in bed all day. I was so sick of being on this property like a prisoner. It might not have been so bad if Troy was cool, but he was cold and focused like Cain. Other than talking sports, we had nothing in common. The last time I got to leave the farm was with Aspen a month ago when she took Talon, Troy, Kallie, and me to the theatre. We watched the latest Spiderman movie and pigged out on candy and soda.

Glancing around my room for my jeans, I realized that it was clean. Not just clean but perfectly organized. See, this was why Cain creeped me out. He looked at me like he was going to eat me, and he’d been sneaking into my room and re-organizing without me ever knowing since Aunt Kirby died. I could imagine him standing at the foot of the bed, staring down at me as he debated my death.

“Hurry up!” Kallie yelled from what sounded like the bottom of the stairs.

“Go away!” I jumped up and swore under my breath. Stomping over to my closet, I flung the doors open, grabbing my clothes before walking into my bathroom and locking the door. I didn’t trust her not to come in and try to rush me again. Kallie was stubborn and persistent. There was no saying no to her.

“It’s five-thirty in the morning. What training could be so important?” I grumbled to myself.

Yawning, I pulled my hoodie on and finished brushing my teeth. I could almost feel Kallie’s urgency from downstairs. She was trouble, which was why I started calling her that, and I knew one day she would get me into a large pile of it.

I left my room and went down the stairs to find Kallie zipping around the kitchen as she made muffins. Blueberry was her favorite, so there were always fresh berries in the house. She already had the muffin tin out, filling the little papers with batter.

“So what is this all about? We do eight hours of school every day,” I said, leaning against the counter, waiting for my opportunity to steal some of the raw batter. This was normal for us. I tried to steal it, and she hit my hand.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged and filled the last cup before picking up the bowl and handing it to me. I looked at it like she was joking while she put the tray in the oven. “Dad said that it was time. He’d promised Mom he wouldn’t train me until I was ready, and last night I came down to the kitchen, and he said I was ready.”

She handed me the spoon. I stared at her and then at the bowl. Was this a test? Stealing the batter was never this easy.

“Uh-huh,” I said, scooping a spoonful and stuffing it in my mouth. So good. “Are you sure you weren’t sleepwalking again?”

She glared at me. “I wasn’t sleepwalking. I was standing right here, and I picked up this knife.” She grabbed a long knife off the counter and held it up to demonstrate. “And he spoke to me. He was sitting in the corner, and I didn’t even see him. It was so cool. I want to learn how to do that.”

The second scoop of batter stalled on its way to my mouth as a lump formed in my throat. “You were holding a knife, and that made him say you were ready?”

She nodded excitedly, and I suddenly wanted to be sick. I knew what Cain was. When I was little, I thought he was a superhero, and I guess in some ways he still was, but he was more like a vigilante, assassin, serial killer. I’d pieced it all together a couple of years ago when I accidentally saw him disposing of a body at three in the morning. I couldn’t sleep and was out for a walk when I saw him dump the guy in with the pigs.

I’d thought about running away, but I couldn’t leave Kallie, and she would never agree to leave. I was going to talk to Uncle Abel but brought it up with Aspen instead. She warned me never to speak like I would go to the police or run away again. She looked terrified for me and made sure no one was inside before telling me that I needed to keep quiet and protect the family or I would need to be silenced. My mouth had fallen open, and I couldn’t look into here sweet smiling face the same way again.

That was enough to scare me into keeping my mouth shut. If I ran, I had nowhere to go, and he hunted down terrible people and killed them. What chance did I have?

The question became, what kind of training was he doing with Kallie?

“Good morning,” Cain said, and I jumped, almost tossing the bowl across the room. His eyebrow raised as his cool stare found me. “Careful, you don’t want to ruin Kallie’s favorite mixing bowl, do you?”

I shook my head. “No, sir.”

Kallie squealed and ran to her dad, her arms wrapping around his waist. It was the only time he looked happy. His lips would curl up, and his eyes brightened.

“Good morning, Dad.”

Kallie beamed up at him while I wanted to sit in another room as far away as possible. My instincts told me that if he wanted to, he would grab the knife Kallie just had in her hand and stab me through the heart before sitting down to eat a muffin while my blood spread around his feet. I listened to my instincts and never gave him an excuse to look at me twice. He said jump, and I always asked how high.