Tragedy (part 2)

*Jayda's POV*

Looking out the window, I saw a strange man creeping away from the house. I was going to ask daddy, but I could hear snoring coming from his and mama's room, so I let him sleep and just went to bed, putting the strange man out of my mind.

The next morning I woke up to the wonderful smell of birthday cakes! That meant it was time for Jimm, myself and Lorraine to age up! I woke up, ran into the kitchen to find one birthday cake on the side. It didn't look like the ones that mama usually baked for us, so I went to find everyone else.

Daddy had gone to work and Jimm and Lorraine had gone to school today, which was odd because it was a non-school day. I couldn't find mama anywhere either. I went into the living room and sat down on the sofa, flicking the channel button on the remote for something decent to watch on TV.

“Jay, you gotta eat something.”

“I’m not hungry”

"Jay, mama's popped out to the shops for something... i'm sure she'll be back soon."

"But it's my birthday. I want mama's birthday pancakes. I'll wait till she gets back."

"Jayda...."

Flynn stopped talking. He'd been visiting us, and kept trying to get me off the sofa and eating something. He had a sad look frozen on his face, like he was gonna cry. I couldn't understand why though, it's not like he was missing out on birthday pancakes. I gave up and scooted off the couch into the kitchen where I found daddy cooking up another birthday cake recipe.

"Mama usually makes the cakes. When's she getting back from the shops?"

Daddy just made a grunting noise and carried on with the cake mixture.

“Daddy? Didn’t you hear me? When’s mama getting back?”

He wouldn't look at me in the eye, but he set down the cake recipe and sighed, closing his eyes and rubbing his brow for a moment before turning back to the cake. I raised an eyebrow. Something was going on. First Flynn and now daddy. Jimm had been arguing with me earlier and had said that mama must of run away or something because I was horrible.

"Am I horrible daddy? Is that why mama's run away?"

"What!? Who told you that you're horrible?"

"Jimmy..."

"Oh, princess. It wasn't you, I promise. It wasn't you, it wasn't any of us. Mama loved us. All of us, all the same amount. She's just not here anymore... she's gone to the farm."

I paused. Farm? But he said...

"You said she was at the shops."

"I meant shops..."

"Daddy, why did you say farm? Mama didn't like the farm. Her boots got all muddy."

No reply.

"Daddy. DADDY. Why did you say farm?"

Still no reply. My bright green eyes welled up with tears threatening to overflow. I stood there, yelling at him.

"Why won't you tell me anything! You all say that I should be told the truth and you never tell me! I'm not a child anymore daddy. Where's mama gone?!"

That wasn’t true. I was still technically a child, but I’d grown up beyond that inside. Lorraine never did her chores, so I was made to do them and my twin brother, Jimm was often out with people he called friends. That just left me, daddy and mama in the house. That was until mama disappeared without any trace. Jimm kept saying that mama had been naughty with someone else who wasn’t daddy and that daddy had killed her. I didn’t believe that for one second.

“Daddy… mama’s not… “

My voice wavered on the last word of that sentence, not wanting to say it. But I needed to. I needed the truth.

“She’s not… dead is she daddy?”