On the carpeted floor in my bedroom me and the twins sat in a triangular formation. I started the group meeting with a question
'We're your rooms the same as this room?'
'Yeah same grey walls and white sheets, everything is in the same order' Artie signed back.
"Do you think we will actually stay in these rooms? they smell nice and the bed looks so soft." Drew said with a dreamy tone of voice. I was slightly shocked Drew isn't usually talk, this is the most I have heard from him in months. Before I could get back to my senses Artie had already responded with.
'I doubt it. We'll probably moved to a closet like at home, the rooms are too nice you can tell they aren't meant to be lived in.'
I agreed they most likely would move us but they might wait until the social worker checked in.
'Dinner, we need to be on our best behavior don't assume anything. We don't know any of the rules yet. If they don't give us any instruction I will try first if I don't get in trouble then it is safe.' I warned.
They both nodded.
"Delia, will they be like mom and dad? Will they hurt you?" Artie wondered out loud.
I felt a sharp pain in my chest, sometimes I forget how young the boys are, even if they have been through a lot they are still the dependent little brothers I know and love.
'I don't know. Maybe they will be nice maybe things will be easier here.' Or maybe it will be harder. But I couldn't say the last part out loud. First of all because I didn't know for sure they had bad things planned for us. Secondly I didn't want to crush what little hope of a safe family and home they had left. And lastly because part of me hoped that they weren't like that too.
A knock sounded at my door. I quickly stood up and opened it. Gracen smiled, saw that the twins were already here and lead us towards the kitchen as we went downstairs he explained some of the layout of the house/castle. Artie practically jogging to keep himself besides Gracen as he listened. I tuned out slightly knowing that Artie would be able to answer any questions I had later, Artie had an amazing memory, loved language and social interaction and had a hobby of designing dream homes for us. It was his way of coping and helped us escape reality when he took us on a "tour".
A, "here we are." from Gracen jolted me from my memories. We walked into the dining room Hunter and Daniel were already sorted at the beautifully stained mahogany table. Daniel sat at the head of the table with Hunter to his right, after Gracen instructed us to sit on the left side he sat beside Hunter. I situated myself beside Daniel, Artie next to me and Drew next to him.
Soon the maid, who had greeted us at the door, brought in the food, spaghetti with garlic bread, the the full plates were placed in front of all of us. I could feel my eyes widen, this was a lot of food who could possibly eat all of this? I heard a chuckle from across the table.
"I take it you like spaghetti a lot?" Gracen said looking directly looking at me. Since I have never had it before only read and seen pictures about I didn't know for sure, so I just shrugged. I heard a snort from Daniel. He sounded annoyed I thought he was a granite block with no emotions, guess I was wrong. Daniel, Gracen and Hunter dig in. We waited for permission to start eating to.
"Why aren't you eating?" Hunter asked.
"Can we?" Artie asked sounding as surprised as I felt. Wasn't it normal to wait for permission, or was that another messed up thing our "parents" instilled in us. I had some perspective from books and such, but I was never sure how much of it was an accurate representation of real life.
"Of course. Why wouldn't you be able to?" This time it was Daniel asking.
"That's what mom and dad always had us do or we would get in trouble." Artie said.
"Oh yeah, how many times did you guys break that rule." Gracen asked, I think jokingly?
"Once." This time Drew responded. I could see Drew's knuckles whitening and knew exactly what memory he was thinking about.
One night they, Gina and Jake, had us sit at the dining room table the food was right in front of us and this was the first food we had been given in the past three days. Drew had been sick and his appetite had picked up now that it was mostly over, he was hungry and near the second hour of waiting he couldn't take it anymore and gobble down the gruel. What followed was probably the worst beating Drew ever received, I tried to block some of the hits, but it wasn't a good night and I was only able to block about half of them. The riding crop with bits of glass from beer bottles haphazardly attached to it, had left both of us torn up and taken weeks to heal enough to move without ripping them open again.
None of us had dared to tempt the rule again.
Luckily they interest seemed to fade and we were able to eat in peace. After dinner was done and Daniel had glared at my half empty plate long enough for me to almost start hyperventilating, Daniel informed us that we had to go over the rules we moved to the living room and sat around on the couches and chairs. The first sentence Daniel said had me wrinkling my eyebrows in confusion.
"We know you are lying to us."