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Author's Chapter Notes:
Thanks to everyone for being patient.
CHAPTER 25

January started out miserably in the attic. Each morning at nine, we would be up and ready per the rules, waiting for grandmother’s arrival with breakfast. Holding out hope for fifteen to twenty minutes, our hopes would be dashed when the door never opened. Will and I did our best to stretch what food we had in the refrigerator for as long as we could, but I had been right when I said that the portions had to be small. We had to split the yogurt and pudding cups so that each one would feed two people, and were reduced to peanut butter and jelly on a couple of crackers once the bread and cold cuts ran out. When we started to count chips on the tenth day, we knew we were getting desperate.

The wind howled ferociously, rattling the huge windows and letting in a draft that caused the attic to be very cold. The lack of food made the temperature even worse since our bodies had no energy to ward off the chill. Despite this, we spent most of our time in the attic because otherwise, we were always thinking about eating the crumbs we had left.

Towards the end of the second week of our punishment, William and I went down to one meal a day which consisted of nothing more than a few chips or a couple of carrots. We tried to keep the twins at a steady three meals a day, even if they were meager. Once we knew we couldn’t stretch the food for any longer, Will and I were forced to stop eating altogether and reduced the twins’ meal time to once a day.

We all tried to limit our movements in the attic. For the most part, we only did lessons, and even that was hard as concentrating on anything was difficult. A lot of times, we just ended up napping underneath some warm blankets on the mattresses upstairs or just laid listening to the wind howl.

It was one of these days that we sat huddled together under the blankets that we heard a noise. It sounded like something scratching and Dawn was immediately on alert. “What was that?” She asked, frightened.

“It’s probably just a branch brushing against the window.” Will replied weakly.

“There are no trees near the windows. Besides it sounded like it was coming from inside.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing. You’re probably just hallucinating from hunger.”

She lay back down until the noise came again. “I definitely heard it this time.” She said, standing up. “I’m not hallucinating.” She was adamant.

Connor stood up at this point to defend his sister. “I heard it too. Let’s go find it.” They started off towards the noise while Will and I remained laying motionless on the mattresses.

“What are we going to do about food? I can only take bathroom tap water for so long and I don’t think the twins will last as long as we have without food.” I asked Will.

“Maybe we can ask Adam about it. He still comes for laundry day. He might be able to sneak us in some stuff for the refrigerator.” Will suggested. It wasn’t a bad idea except that laundry day was still two days away, and I doubted Adam would help us since he was grandmother’s lackey.

Our conversation was interrupted by a scream from Dawn, which immediately had both of us up and running. “What’s wrong?” Will asked when we reached the twins.

Dawn was standing on a trunk, while Connor was digging around in a wardrobe. “Monster!” Dawn screeched while pointing to where Connor was looking.

Connor giggled, “It’s not a monster, it’s a mouse.”

Upon hearing this, I immediately jumped onto the trunk with Dawn. William started rustling around with Connor in the wardrobe. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I saw it run in here while chicken was screaming.” Connor said between moving shoes around.

Dawn and I both screamed this time as we watched a furry white bullet shoot out of the wardrobe towards us, then past us across the attic. Connor took off after the creature with Will following not far behind.

“Where is it?” Will asked as he reached Connor.

“I think it’s behind this dresser.” Connor said, kneeling down to look under the heavy piece of furniture.

“Ok, I’ll scare it from this side and you grab it when it runs out the other side.” Will said as he readied himself to shake the dresser. “On three,” Connor nodded, “One, two, three!”

“There he goes!” Connor said as he scrambled to catch it. “Aha! I got him.” Connor had his hands cupped over the mouse. Adjusting his hold so he held it by the tail, he came over to Dawn and me to show us his catch.

Dawn and I wrinkled our noses at the rodent wriggling in front of us. “Get rid of it. It’s gross.” I said.

“No, I’m keeping him.” Connor said.

“For what? Dinner?” I said sarcastically. That remark earned me a glare from Will.

“Of course not! As a pet. I’m naming him Charlie.” Connor explained with a firm nod.

“Why Charlie?” Dawn asked.

Connor shrugged his shoulders. “Because I like the name and he looks like a Charlie.”

Dawn stared intently trying to figure out if the mouse did indeed look like a Charlie. After a few seconds, she just rolled her eyes and said, “If you say so.”

“Well, you can’t just let it run around. I don’t want that thing anywhere near me.” I complained.

“Come on, Connor. I think I remember seeing an old bird cage at the other end of the attic. Let’s go see if we can find it and we can make that Charlie’s new home.” Will led Connor off in the direction of the cage, while Dawn and I made our way back to the mattresses.

The boys returned about fifteen minutes later with Charlie in his new home. Connor placed the cage in the middle of the mattresses so we could all look at the mouse. He poked at the bars with his fingers in order to pet his new friend. “What do you think he was doing up here?”

“He’s probably a field mouse, came in the house looking to get out of the cold. Maybe he climbed up through a pipe or the wall. He was most likely hungry.” Will said.

“Aren’t we all?” I mumbled underneath my breath.

“Well, I need to feed him then.” Connor said, carrying the cage over to the table between the reading chairs.

“You’ve got nothing to give him, Connor. We have no food, remember?” Dawn snapped.

“We’ve got some crumbs at the bottom of the potato chip bag. It’s not enough for us, but that’s a lot for him.” Connor looked into the cage, beaming with happiness. “It’ll be a feast for you, won’t it, Charlie?” He left to go downstairs and get the bag of chips so his new pet would be well fed, which was more than we could say for us.

**********************************************************

Two days later I waited downstairs for Adam to come pick up the laundry, while Will kept the kids distracted upstairs. When the door opened, I immediately went over to Adam, imploring his help. “Adam, you seem like a reasonable man. Can’t you sneak us in something for the refrigerator? Anything, please. We’re desperate.”

He went into the bathroom ignoring my plea and started gathering the dirty clothes. “I work for Mrs. Rayne. I follow her orders and she has given me strict instruction to make sure you do not get any food. You’re lucky she let you keep what you already had in the refrigerator. She wanted me to take it away, but changed her mind at the last minute.”

“No doubt to torture us more with knowing when we were going to run out of food.” I said with disdain. “Well, do you know how long she’s going to keep this up? We can’t last much longer. We can barely move because we don’t have any energy, the twins are sick and keep getting the chills. You’ve got to do something. You know this isn’t right!”

“I’m sorry, miss. There’s nothing I can do to help you. I’m sure it won’t be much longer.” He looked at me with pity as he walked out the door with a basket full of dirty laundry, leaving me with no hope of relieving this hunger.

Twenty days into our punishment, the door finally opened to reveal grandmother and the breakfast cart. We could barely stand up straight, but our eyes widened at the site of the fruit, juice and toast that was presented to us.

Dru looked at all of us to examine the damage she had inflicted, smiling at our pale skin, sunken cheeks and black-rimmed eyes. “Well, looking at you, it seems as though your sins have been starved out of you.” We were all too weak to say anything to contradict her. “What’s this? No defiance out of the lot of you? Did I break a bit of your spirit as well?” She smiled triumphantly. “I hope you all remember that I’m in charge here. If I catch any of you breaking the rules again, your punishment will be even worse than this. Do you understand me?” No one moved. “I said do you understand me?” She yelled violently.

Her harsh scream caught our attention, the four of us all nodded in understanding. “Good. Now, your meals will resume as normal. I hope that you all learned your lesson.” She left us alone to dive in to the delicious flavors of strawberries, bananas, orange juice and buttered toast, which Connor happily shared with Charlie.





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