The Seventh One

“Well, it's very weird. So bear with me. Ok, can you do that Amy?”
I nodded solemnly and waited for his flood of beautiful words.

“I was born sometime in 1818. I had both parents. A little sister named Kate. She was a cutie believe me, to be anywhere near her was to love her. I had an older brother as well. Emmett. He was in his early twenties when I turned eighteen in the summer of 1836. Kate was darling and she was twelve. Everything was happy. I was happy. I was surrounded by a family. Actually back then everyone was. There were no drugs to smoke and kill you and overdose on unless you went to the pharmacy in town. We lived in a little white house in the middle of the desert. Me and my family had been there forever. My parents lived there together long before they had any kids. In fact it was originally my mothers grandparents house that was passed down. It was already ageless to me. I'd run around in the yard and enjoy life for what it was. Until one day. Kate had just turned 13. Everyone was bursting with grins around the house that morning when she woke. It was a happy day. But I was not. Not because I was jealous of Kate. In fact I loved her so, and loved her even more to see her happy. But something stirred darkly inside of me. Like I was fearing for her safety.
I shook it off and enjoyed the day with her though. Around four that afternoon she asked our mom if she could go visit her best friend Cara. She gathered her things and skipped down the street. Cara lived up on a hill. A mile walk from our house. A few hours had passed and the sun was setting. I hadn't seen dad around either. Mom said that Kate must have decided to spend the night at Cara's. And to set the table for my mother, father, brother and myself. I did so and mom prepared dinner. Dad didn't return for a while. It was ten and he wasn't back yet. So my mom gathered the neighbors, asking if they'd seen them. They looked around town and even at Cara's. Cara's mother said that Kate had never even been by. That news sat cold in my gut as I looked around in the shadows of night with a lantern for Kate and dad. The old red barn was up on the hill. Slight illumination in the windows. I pulled on my brothers shirt and pointed up at it. He nodded once and lifted his rifle and we made our way up towards it.
We shoved the door open slightly to not be mistaken to the angry slurs of our dad. He was drunk. Empty bottle after empty bottle lied on the floor around his feet. He screamed and cried. Having not noticed us. Pitching the bottles across the room and watching the glass shatter against the wood. He took another long drink from his bottle of whisky. 
“She's gone! All gone... *sob*... because of me!” he shouted. Slamming anther bottle at the wall. My brother and I saw it then. The crumpled, broken body of little Kate. Laying in the dirt of the floor with three knife marks in her stomach. Crimson staining the white of her pretty dress. Blood flowed from her head. She was gone. No doubt it my mind. She was dead and he knew it. He'd killed Kate on one of his rampages. He'd call her princess every morning shed get up. She was a queen to him. And he just killed her.
My brother looked at me sternly and told me to go back to town and gather the search party and get them up here.
I turned and ran as soon as orders were out of his mouth. I ran so fast I thought I'd pass out. Slamming into the wall of a shed at the bottom of the hill, I cried out for help. No one in sight. I cried out again and a few people from the search party entered the square. Breathlessly I told them where my dad and Kate were and that she was dead. The three men ran up to the barn while I tried to gather more people. My mind was racing. I finally got the people I needed and the six more I'd found around town headed up. They were just dragging a roped up dad out of the barn while he screamed profanities at everyone. I stood in the shadows and he didn't see me. I was glad. 
My mom went to bed with a numb, dead expression on her face when we told her the news. Already half her family  was gone. And I felt terrible about it. 
I was trying to sleep. Being very restless as the events played through my mind again and again when my bedroom door cracked open. I looked over and saw Emmett. His face pale as he moved toward me. He couldn't sleep either. He moved to sit at the end of my bed and I sat upright. Looking at him.

“Dad saw me.” he whispered. “Just as your group were coming up at the hill, he told me that he hated me and was going to kill me.” his voice trembled in fear. And Emmett isn't one to get scared.
“He was drunk” I reasoned. But he shrugged and looked down at his hands. “He meant it. I could see it in his eyes. You've got to help me Jess.”...

We talked the rest of the night until he had calmed down enough to sleep. He slept in my bed and I sat in the rocking chair in the corner. Guarding him. Watching him. I was so sure that he was just being full of it. But no, he wasn't.
I woke with a start in the morning, realizing that I'd fallen asleep at some point. I was alone. Emmett was gone. I was on the brink of panicking when I saw the note on the desk.
“I had to go to work. I'll be back and I'll see you later.
Thanks for watching out for me bro, I owe you one.”
I calmed down a bit and changed my clothes from the sweaty, dirty clothing I'd been wearing yesterday. I didn't work yet, but I wondered if I might someday. Emmett worked at our dad's business. The Sassafras wood mill in the woods. About a couple mile trek from our house.
Dad was a very important asset to that business. So he was still obligated to working. And for that, I feared for Emmett. Dad would be guarded by some armed towns people. But still, dad was very very clever about getting out of things. I started walking towards the mill. Figuring I could watch over Emmett as he worked. As I neared the yard. I heard shouts that were undoubtably our dads. A cry for help then everything fell silent. I began to freak out and made my way towards the back of the long log cabin that housed the tools. I could have died right there. Blood everywhere and workers were just arriving on the scene with expressions I'm sure mirrored my own. Dad was good... Too good. He made it look like a accident. Working around all that dangerous equipment, everyone knew eventually someone would get hurt. No one suspected innocent dad, who was pretending to just arrive on the scene with a look of fake hurt on his face. I knew what he was hiding.

The following two weeks, the three men I'd sent up first that night, either slowly disappeared or died from unknown causes. I knew the secret behind them all. I knew it could only be a matter of time before he killed me. I turned nineteen finally and my dad offered me a job. I couldn't decline, I needed some money. So I began work at Sassafras. Doing everything I could to stay out of my dads line of sight and to stay out of his way. I thought I was doing pretty good. Until a few of the employees started getting on his nerves. Sam, Lawrence. Those two guys were ancient but good with the work at the mill. Always joking though, and it was starting to piss my dad off. Over a year, I'd become twenty and gotten a pretty good relationship going with a worker there. Her name was Sarah. She worked the lighter jobs. And she was a good secret keeper. We were working on cleaning up the tool shed together. Organizing saws and whatnot when she got me to spill about my biggest secret. The true death of my brother. She was wide eyed and had nothing to say. She just whispered a sorry. And I'm guessing that my dad probably heard too. Because he walked in mere seconds after I'd finished my speech. And I then feared for my life. Everyone started to annoy him. And so, I was about to get off work. It was September 15th. The year had been really dry and the pine needles were drying up in the trees already. A few of my coworkers were noting on how flammable the forest looked. And my dad worked that to his advantage. I was just walking out of the building when I saw him standing by the door with a delay look on his face.
“Hi dad.” I muttered. Noticing that his guards were nowhere to be seen. 
“I circled the area in gasoline.” he announced proudly. I looked back at him.
“what?”
“I heard your talk with Sarah  son. And well, I can't have That kind of stories floating around. You understand.” 
He took a step towards me. Herding me backward into the building again.
“Dad.. It's no big deal rea...” he interrupted “It is actually Jess boy. And guess what? In going to die with you. It'll be fine.”
I was horrified. Watching him raise a single match into the air. Light it on the rough leather of his belt and looked at the orange flame thoughtfully for a second. Then tossed it over his shoulder onto the gasoline soaked dirt outside the door. The flames ripped to life. Soaring up and surrounding the entire building and any hope of escape. Screams of other employees sounded around me and the building heated up. My dad smirked at my expression of fear. My fear of death... I cried out for him to do something. But I already knew in my heart that it was too late. That I was going to die. I had to except that. But I didn't. I turned and ran from him. Looking for a escape somewhere. Desperately. I saw the burning dead bodies of Sam and Lawrence. I was running down a hall when I saw Sarah. She cried out for me and ran towards me. She was... Mere feet from me. Ash smeared on his face when the beams in the ceiling broke and crumbled down on her. A pool of her crimes flooded around my boots. I cried out and ran. Leaping for one open exit when something grabbed my legs and pinned me down. I cried out in pain of being this close to the hot floor. 
“Ah ah ah ah! It's not going to be that easy Jessie.” his voice whispered in my ears. 
“No!” I shouted, rolling over and shoving him off me and stumbling towards the door again. When he shoved me into the way. Drawing a pocket knife point up under my chin. 
“You'll either die this way or to the fire. Make your choice. Either way, you will never touch the cool grass outside or breath fresh air again. You will die in here.” he growled. Poking thr knife farther up until it cut my skin. I shoved him away, the smoke making it impossible to breath. I choked on it and couldn't catch my breath. 
I took my dads pocket knife and jabbed it into hid heart with all the pain I felt for Emmett and Kate's death. 
“Rot in hell.” I coughed. Then lunged for the fresh air. Collapsing in the grass. Forcing my body to crawl away. To move. I was too close to the fire. I closed my eyes. Trying to breathe. But breathes wouldn't come. I was completely at ease. I heaved the last of the air I held and slipped away into unconsciousness.”

Jessie's face was dark with thr pain of the story he had just shared with me. Now I understood one hundred percent why he'd never talk about them before. But from the evil glint in his eyes from speaking of his father. I could tell that there was more..