Rules for Enduring the Sweenys

Rule #10: Always Stay Calm

“I was busy,” Owen answered, dropping notebook THIRTEEN onto the table, “reading this.”

“What’s that?” Frankie asked, folding his tattoo-covered arms.

“Becca! Anson! Damien!” Thomas called from the top of the stairs.

“What?” they shouted back.

“Dentist appointment. We’re gonna be late, hurry up!”

“Goddammit,” Anson grumbled. Rebecca’s face went sheet white. She hated going to the dentist, or the doctor. She was so afraid of being touched, that she wouldn’t even let anyone cut her hair.

“Don’t worry Becca,” Oliver said soothingly. “It’ll be alright.” Damien and Anson shared a knowing look as they each took one of Rebecca’s hands (it had taken two years, but they were finally allowed to touch her a little bit. She knew they wouldn’t hurt her).

“We’ll be right there with you Becca,” Damien reminded her as they slowly led her toward the stairs.

Zane, to everyone’s amazement (they didn’t get along very well), stood up and extracted something from his pocket; a shiny golden necklace, with the pendant the shape of a spider. “I was gonna give it to you for your birthday, but I guess you can have it now,” he grumbled slipping it over her head, careful not to touch her. Rebecca’s eyes lit up, and she grinned.

“Thanks Zane!” He would never understand her love of all things creepy crawly, but he loved her all the same.

“Kids!” Anna called.

“I love you guys!” Rebecca said with a thin smile, not quite reaching her eyes.

“Love you Becca,” her older brothers replied. They may not have been siblings by blood, but they were part of the Harken family. And that meant something to all of them.

Owen sometimes forgot how much he enjoyed being around them. They accepted each other no matter what, and they looked out for one another, despite some significant age differences. He got a kick out of the fact that they were constantly playing jokes and fighting. They were always fun to be around.

The three youngest siblings ran upstairs, grumbling and whining about how much they hated the dentist. When the basement door was slammed shut Zane, Jake, Bryce, Frankie, and Oliver all turned to Owen the Outsider.

“What’s that?”

“It’s her journal for the years 1997-1998, when she was kidnapped by Georgie.” He clenched his fists. Just thinking about it made him want to murder the bastard even more so than he already did.

“We’re not gonna read it,” Jake snapped. “Just tell us what the fuck is so goddamned important!”

“Jake,” Oliver said calmly, “get a hold of yourself, the kid’s obviously trying to help.”

Owen waited for Bella’s brothers to be quiet before he went into the horrors he’d discovered among the pages of THIRTEEN. When they were too much for her brothers to believe, he began reading from the journal itself.

“Stop!” Zane shouted, shaking with anger. “Just… stop reading!” Owen snapped his mouth shut mid-sentence and was met by silence.

“I don’t care what you guys do or say,” Owen began, his voice dripping with venom, “but I’m going to kill that sonofabitch… first, I’m gonna make him suffer.”

“Hell yeah,” Frankie agreed, thinking of his two-year-old daughter. He would never do anything like that to hurt her. Ava, and his eleven-month-old son, Nico, were his pride and joy. He felt his rage building up at the thought of a father doing those things to his daughter, and it ate away at him that he couldn’t have done anything to stop it from happening to Bella. He’d known Bella since she was five and he was twelve. The day she’d disappeared had been one of the worst days of his life. If only he’d just picked her up that day…