A Nameless Face, Break.Even [reading cloud ebooks .txt] 📗

I realized two people
were not sitting around our group.

My eyes grew round and I darted down the hallways towards a small room in the back of our house.
Bursting through the doors, I didn't see anything at first until my eyes adjusted to the darkness. I scanned the rooms
and my gaze landing on a unmoving figure, and beside it another. But it was breathing. I stepped forward cautiously
and lifted the curtain that hung in front of a window nearby. What I saw scared the living heck out of me. On a small
twin bed, one of my brothers lay in an awkward position, his neck snapped back and skin pale. The other say staring
down at his dead sibling. "Oh..." I whispered, not knowing what to say.

Dustin looked up at me, his eyes grave and dark. "Gabe's dead. I saw the vampire. She left before I could
tell someone. But I remember..." He choked back a sob and continued on, "she said something. It was about Lizzie."
I ran forward and swaddled Dustin in my arms, trying hard to hold back tears for my brother, sucked dry. Gabe was
the liveliest of us all. He never thought about missing meals, he always tried to help people out before himself. I knew
he got that from our mother, just like me.

Camo had walked up behind me and was looking down at Gabe's body when I pulled away from Dustin,
a few tear's still running down my face. "Your face is cleaner now." Camo mumbled out, trying to lighten the spirits.
It didn't work, but I smiled lightly to make him feel better. I stood up, having to become the tough leader no one wanted,
but the one everyone needed. "We need to bury him and go out for food again today. I think we need to bring every
one along and scout for a new place to live as well." Dustin and Camo looked at me, astonished. If a vampire knew
we lived here, they were sure to come back and suck the rest of us dry. Both of them knew it, but they
didn't want to leave their only home.

I turned my back and called through the house, "Eat all you can from that shelf, but pack two things
for later." I knew Jessie was still crying, I could hear her sniffles. Lizzie was somber, not grieving for the one
she never knew. Camo and Dustin were trying to be model males, holding back all the tears and sobs. Every now
and then I saw Dustin wipe away a tear and Camo the same. Myself? I couldn't feel a thing. It was all empty. I felt nothing.
Imprint

Publication Date: 07-30-2012

All Rights Reserved