Chapter 20: Overwhelmed...

After her conversation with the girls' father, Tanya came back home to mull over the huge amount of information he had given her. She couldn't believe just how drastically her life had changed in just a few short years. Who could have imagined all of this would happen? Vampires, eyes that glow, potions that turn vampires back into humans, visions of the future?  This was just too much. She had to have imagined it all.  She was going to wake up soon, right?

In the days after their conversation, Tanya took her frustrations out on blocks of various materials. She hammered and pounded them until they became beautiful statues. She was angry at everyone and everything. Had her human parents known anything about her past when they adopted her? If they did why wouldn't they have told her? And even if not, why didn't they tell her she was adopted? It would have explained so many things when she was growing up.

Tanya hid the truth from the kids by making sure her neck was covered and wearing sunglasses whenever they were around. She didn't understand it all yet and couldn't expect them to either. Dear Lord, how was she going to tell them? The girls would be okay eventually she thought, but the boys were a different story; they were human.

The more Tanya debated telling the kids, and possibly losing the boys, the worse she felt. A new evil thought crept into her mind. The boys would eventually die before her. She just couldn't bear it and depression began to seep in. She hadn't fed in days and it was starting to show. Tanya grew gaunt and ashen and carried a look of sorrow on her face.

Tanya even missed the triplets' birthday party. By then she had retreated to her room and rarely ventured out. Anderson ended up taking care of the girls and was glad Brent and Chase weren't around to see how bad things had become. He was becoming increasingly worried about his mom. He thought back to when he was a kid and Tanya and Christopher had split up. He thought it was bad then, but this time was so much worse.

Now that the girls were teens, the fighting became much worse, especially between Callie and Bri. They were constantly at each other's throats and often the house erupted into violent screaming matches. Occasionally it would even turn physical and Anderson or Ansley would have to get between them. Without Tanya around to take control, the house had become a zoo. Kay tried to be there for Anderson, but the girls gave her the creeps and she eventually stopped coming over.

Finally Anderson had had enough. He heard the girls fighting yet again and stormed into the room. They didn't even turn to look at him until he slammed the door so hard the room shook.  "ENOUGH!" he screamed.  "I don't know what the hell has gotten into you two, but it stops NOW!" Callie just had to pipe up with a smart ass comment about him not being her father. That was enough to send him over the edge.

Once she saw the look of pure rage on his face, Callie shrank back a bit, but it was too late. He had totally lost it and was in the middle of a blind fit of anger. Before he realized what he was doing he had trashed the room. When he finally heard Briannah's screams telling him to stop he realized he and Callie were rolling on the ground with their hands around each other's throats. He couldn't believe what he had almost done.

Anderson took off to get away from everything. He was mortified that he had put his hands on his sister like that. Briannah was worried about him after he took off so she called Kay to see if she'd go look for him. Kay eventually found him at the local park and was relieved he was okay. He told her about everything that had happened and she just listened. She could tell he just needed a shoulder to lean on and someone to vent to and it was the least she could do for him.

Eventually they ended up back at the house, where surprisingly everything was quiet. He had grown so used to the screaming matches that the silence was strange to him. But it was a welcomed change, he didn't feel like dealing with his sisters right now. He just wanted to relax and spend some time with Kay. Anderson didn't trust himself to interact with any of triplets for the time being. He asked Kay to stay the night and she agreed. For now, that's all he cared about.