Keep it in the Family

Tara and Eliza followed along the path of the long, winding driveway. They parked the car outside the massive house.

Eliza clutched the invitation.

They go inside the house, but never come back out.

Their mother searched for them but never heard from them again.

That was twenty-one years ago.

**

Angela knew her parents were in debt. The always had financial trouble, for as long as she could remember. They were terrible with money. They booked expensive cruises, bought luxury cars, sent her brother, Brody to an expensive school.

Then he got into legal trouble when he hit someone with his car while driving drunk. Then all their money went to paying off that ordeal.

She couldn’t fathom why her parents would have her so late in life when they were in such dire financial debt.

Her parents tried their best to provide them with a good life after that, but their house was mortgaged twice, and their savings were converted into debts.

Her father had lost his job, and her mother didn’t make enough to cover all their expenses. Her mother even told her they wouldn’t be able to afford college for her without loans.

And that was why they were driving to the remotest of the remote locations, for a family reunion to meet a wealthy great uncle she never heard of.

He married her father’s grandmother’s sister. He apparently only had one daughter who died when she was a teenager. The great aunt died not too long after.

All she knew was that her parents had been wanting to ingratiate themselves with Uncle Thomas for years.

The house was impressive to say the least, and the grounds were idyllic. Like something straight out of a magazine. Yet enormous beyond all necessity and reason, especially just for one man to live there. When Angela voiced as such, her mother hissed at her, telling her she mustn’t say anything that might negatively affect their chances of getting into the man’s good graces.

Her father’s uncle and cousin were already there as pulled up to the house. The last they had seen Uncle Eric was at his daughter Stephanie’s funeral years ago. Brody told her she died of an over-dose.

The door opened, and a woman appeared pushing an elderly man in a wheelchair. “Welcome,” she said.

“Who are you? What’s wrong with Thomas?” one of the uncles asked.

“Thomas suffered a stroke a few years back. He can’t speak. Or move. I have been handling his affairs. I am his legally appointed caretaker.”

“Again, who are you?”

The woman ignored him. “Those of us who have visited Uncle Thomas, knows that he has a rule. All phones need to be left here. Or any communication devices, really.” She indicated to a box to the side of the door.

“I assure you. It’s perfectly safe. It’ll be locked up

“I’m not doing that,” Uncle Eric said, folding his arms.

“That’s the rule. Thomas was rather strict about this particular thing as I’m sure your daughter would have told you. You’ve never been inside this house personally, have you, Uncle Eric?”

Eric’s face turned red. “That rule was for the children. It wouldn’t have been the same for the adults.”

“You won’t be coming in unless you do this. Thomas always knew if we lied. I will too.”

Eric gazed over the large mansion and grounds and licked his lips. Angela could almost see greed take over. He took out his phone and placed it into the box.

“Your watch too,” the woman said. Eric hesitantly took off his watch and placed it into the box as well. Ian followed suit.

Her father placed his phone and watch in the box and motioned the rest of the family to do the same. She went after her mother and gently put in her beat-up, hand-me-down phone. She didn’t have a smart watch like the rest of them.

“Tara?” a voice called behind her. A woman her father’s age walked up the steps.

“Julie,” her father whispered.

“That’s Dad’s other cousin,” Brody whispered to her.

Her family wasn’t close to distant relatives. She shouldn’t have been surprised there were more members of the family that she never heard of.

The woman, the supposed Tara smiled. It was a sinister smile that held no warmth. “Mother. Glad you could make it. I’m sure you know the rules.”

“Tara, what happened to you? And your sister? I searched for you. The police searched for you. You never came home.”

Tara didn’t say anything. Julie tried to get Tara’s attention again. She just gestured at the box. After Julie dropped her phone in, Tara locked up the box. She pushed Uncle Thomas in his wheelchair back inside. Once everyone gathered inside, door swung shut, seemingly by itself.

Her father tried to open doors. “What’s going on?”

“Thomas had automatic doors installed. He actually had them installed after Amanda. I am so sorry about what happened to her.”

“Who’s Amanda?” Angela asked.

Tara scoffed. “She was their daughter. She died almost nineteen years ago.”

Angela watched her parents go pale. She thought it was just her and brother. No one in her family ever mentioned another child. There certainly weren’t any pictures.

“Why haven’t you ever spoken about her?” she pressed.

Her mother only shook her head.

“Stop it, Angela. You’re upsetting your mother. There are some things we never speak of,” her father said.

“Go look around. See if can find any documents,” Uncle Eric whispered to his son. Ian nodded and quietly snuck away.

“And Eric, I was so sorry to hear about your daughter,” Tara said.

“Enough. We didn’t come here to stand around. We’re here to discuss inheritance. I’m the oldest male. It makes sense the house goes to me,” Eric said pompously.

Tara cocked her head at Eric. “You’re not biologically related to Thomas. In fact, you’re all only related to him through marriage. I’m the only one biologically related. And of course Angela over there. That’s the big secret we’re keeping, right? That Thomas was a sick, sick man. And you all knew.”

“What?” Angela couldn’t believe that to be true. She looked over at her mother.

“Mom? You had an affair with Uncle Thomas”

Tara burst out laughing. “She’s not your mother. She’s your grandmother.”

Before anyone could say anything, they heard a yell, followed by a loud thump.

“Ian,” Eric whispered, before he took off in the direction of the noise. Angela’s father followed.

“What’s going on, Mom?” Angela grabbed her mother’s attention. “Am I Amanda’s daughter? Thomas’s daughter?”

“This is not the time,” her mother hissed.

“Oh, god, Ian!” Eric shouted from the upstairs floor.

Her dad came running down the stairs. “Ian’s dead.”

Her mother gasped. “What?”

“We need to leave,” her father said.

“Where’s Tara?” Julie asked. Tara and Thomas were both nowhere to be seen.

Her brother rattled the doorknob, but it wouldn’t budge. Then a figure scuttled over, faster than Angela could warn him, and plunged a knife into the back of his neck.

Her mother wailed. Angela staggered backwards. Fear and frustration and grief all churned uncomfortably inside her.

Her father froze. “This isn’t real. This isn’t…this can’t be real.”

“Leaving so soon?” Tara called out from the loft above the great room. “Thomas owns such an interesting collection of knives.”

“My son! You murdered my son!” Eric came roaring towards Tara, rage in his eyes. Tara lazily gutted Eric, the knife going in with a wet sound. He stared down at the knife in shock. Tara pulled out the knife pushed Eric over the banister and landed heavily in the great room.

“Tara, have you done?” Julie murmured, staring at the scene in horror.

“You killed our sons,” her father choked, barely scraping the words out. He stood rooted to the ground.

Tara rolled her eyes. “Yes. The sons. The precious sons. Not like the daughters you were so willing to throw away.”

“Tara, you need help. Please, come with me. Your sister too. She’s somewhere in this house,” Julie pleaded.

“You knew…didn’t you? When you sent me and Eliza here? You knew what Thomas wanted. And you sent us here unprepared,” Tara said as she made her way down the staircase.

Her father stumbled down the stairs, shielding her weeping mother—grandmother.

“Pathetic,” Tara muttered, shaking her head. “You see how you were never a priority, Angela? That’s how it works in this family.”

As Tara approached the first floor landing, she ignored Angela’s parents and strode over to Julie. “Right, Mother? That’s just how our family is, right?”

Julie wouldn’t look Tara in the eye. “Tara, we needed the money. When my parents needed money they sent me to Thomas. I…I didn’t want to. I knew it was terrible. But we would have been set. But you two never came back.”

Angela’s mind raced. “Are you saying your mother sold you to your…”

“Father? Yes. The same thing was done to Amanda, and Stephanie, Eric’s daughter. And the same thing they were going to do you.”

Her stomach flipped. She glanced over at her parents. “Is it true?”

“Go on. Tell her. Amanda came back to you didn’t she? She was so broken and thought her parents would help her. But all you saw was the money this would bring. So you made her have the baby because Thomas did love daughters.”

Bitter bile burned the back of her throat. She considered the implications. Thomas’s daughter died. The abuse she must have suffered... And the wife died soon after. What if she found out? And he killed her to keep it quiet. No one would have seen beyond the tragic circumstances…

Yet it seemed the rest of the family was aware enough to know to send their own daughters for the money that they would bring. They buried their heads in the sand and pretended they didn’t know what was happening.

“They were good parents,” she tried to argue, more to herself than Tara.

“Were they?”

“They still raised me.”

“They sold your mother. We were here. We watched as they left Amanda here. They didn’t even come back for her. When Thomas was done with her, she had to make her own way back. They were going to do the same to you. They knew how messed up it was. They were still going to do it.”

Angela looked over at her mother. “Angela. Please,” she pleaded.

“Why did you do it?”

“You don’t understand. Your brother…”

Angela now understood. Her parents were never on her side. They were always overly critical of her, while her brother got away with anything. But it made sense now.

“This is why you never spoke about Amanda. She wasn’t a child to you. She was just a cash cow.”

“You don’t know how we felt about Amy. We loved her.”

“Yet you forgot about her.”

“We didn’t forget. We’ll never forget. But there was a chance to get us out of debt. She was doing her part for her family.”

“Did you know what would happen to her?”

Her mother avoided her eyes.

“I…I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to kill them, but I’m not sure I’ll care if they die.”

Angela’s mother let out a cry of disbelief. “You ungrateful girl!”

“Believe it or not, I know how you feel,” the voice came, seemingly out of nowhere. The hooded figure that killed her brother drew toward her. “Hi. I’m Eliza. I’m a part of your messed up family.”

Angela’s father let out a scream full of anger and grief and charged toward Eliza. Tara stepped forward and her knife slashed across her father’s chest, blood gushing rapidly out of the dissected skin. Her mother threw herself to the ground, letting out a scream as she watched her husband die.

“Stop it! Please!” Julie cried.

“I know you stopped looking for us after you got your money. When did you realize Thomas wasn’t going to let us go?” Eliza asked Julie.

“Go on! Just do it. My parents sold me to perverted old man, and I ended up with twin daughters. I never wanted-”

Julie folded forward with a choking sound, clutching at the knife protruding out of her chest, crimson spreading between her fingers. Eliza pushed her mother back off the knife. She watched emotionlessly as Julie collapsed onto the floor.

Tara, Eliza and Angela turned to Angela’s mother.

“Angela! Please! I’m your mother. I gave you life. Think about this. You owe me that much at least.”

“And what do you owe Amanda?”

Her mother opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

“Do it quickly,” Angela said quietly. She knew she should feel something for the woman who raised her, but every shred of affection was replaced emptiness.

Tara plunged the knife into her mother’s chest. She watched the flash of fear, and then the light go out of her eyes.

Angela couldn’t help the sob that rippled out. She looked around at the carnage, her family all dead, and she wished she was dead with them.

Tara wheeled out Thomas. “I suppose it’s time you met your father.”

Angela truly examined him. She could see bits of herself in him. “Did he really have a stroke?”

“He kept us in this house all the time. But we had books to keep us occupied. So we had time to research. And with his age, enough decongestants mixed with his brandy…it’s what we had on hand,” Tara said.

“And he was still alive, technically. With a DNA test, we were able to prove to his lawyers we were his biological daughters. We got control of estate.”

“We needed to do this. These people were the absolute worst of the worst,” Eliza said.

“Is-is it my turn now?”

“No. You don’t deserve that. You did nothing wrong. It’s our turn.”

“What?”

“We just killed a bunch of people. We didn’t stop what happened to Amanda. We poisoned a man until he had a stroke. We knew it was evil. But…it was the only way. Rich people get what they want with no consequences otherwise.”

Angela looked around. This was a mess. Blood pooled under bodies. She wondered what she was going to do about all this? Where was she going to live? All her relatives were dead.

The women seemed to read her mind. “The police should be here eventually. I already told them everything I was going to do about thirty minutes ago when you all came. It just takes a while for police to get to this location. Thomas liked it like that.”

Tara glanced at the wheelchair-bound man. “I’ll take care him too.” She ran the knife deep along his withered throat. Angela couldn’t help but wince. She had seen more death this day than she ever had in her life.

What a strange day.

Police sirens blared in the distance.

“The will has everything going to next of kin, and you’re all that’s left. This is all yours now. I’m sure you’ll do better than him,” Eliza said, pointing Thomas, who’s eyes were still open. “Better than us too.”

“Fair warning though, the government is going to try and take out a chunk.”

Red and blue lights blinked outside. “Well this is it. Good luck.”

Tara took out a gun. Angela shut her eyes. She heard the bang before a body fell to the ground, followed by another one. She didn’t want to look. Instead she opened the door and walked out.