Thicker Than Water

I'd like to thank the Trifectans for voting me into third place this week. I consider myself in fine company with Draug. Congrats to all others who placed and submitted an entry. 

This week was fun reading the stories as getting my nerd on. I am going to try to keep my writing on topic with Mother's Day up coming ... with the exception of this one. Not sure how I ended up here but I had fun with it.
______________________________

“Blood is thicker than water Mate.” 

Uncle Reg lived with us for twenty years and his British accent was actually getting worse  -  “thicker” sounded like “fickah”.

deviantart.com

I’d heard that saying many times. It made my skin crawl.  The first time was when he was cleaning bits of sawdust and blood from my tiny nine-year-old frame.  He was a cabinetmaker. He smelled of fresh cut wood, sweat and tobacco. He’d built a special place in his shop “just for us”. 

“Back home this is how they made a man of us lad”. He’d reassure me.

He was different before and after. Before, he was scary and intense. There was something in his eyes – a hunger or craving. His hands would shake as he fumbled on top of me. After, the look was gone. He was sheepish and couldn’t look at me in the eye. Sometimes he’d yell at me and tell me to stay away from him.  I learned to keep my distance.

This went on until I was eighteen when I told him if he touched me again I’d kill him.  He pleaded with me, claiming I was the only one.  Another boy would become like him. He said relatives were immune to the change. 

Fuck him. I was done.

Uncle Reg became twisted and deformed, claiming sudden arthritis. During this same time, pets in the neighborhood started to mysteriously go missing.  A year or two later there wasn’t a cat or a dog for blocks around us. The locals blamed it on coyotes.

Uncle Reg’s health suddenly returned. We’d kept our distance over time but I could see he was changing.  One evening I followed him to his shop and found him leaning over my eight-year-old nephew.  

“Blood is thicker than water Mate.”

I picked up a shovel and took his head clean off. I held my nephew, shielding him from the bloody mess. “It really is thick,” I remember thinking.

I drove a stake through his heart for insurance.
______________________________________

Trifecta Prompt: Blood (lineage) 
Word Count: 333