Love Lengths

Chapter Nine

Maggie

I have no idea what I was thinking, I couldn’t just leave him out there, it would make it so much harder to cope with if they’d seen me out there talking to him. I ran to greet them downstairs and finish making their dinner.

“Hi, did you have a good night?” I ask, meek and small. “Your food is just reheating now in the microwave; I made it a bit too early so I thought I’d reheat it and make sure it was nice and hot instead of it being slightly cooler, it may not have tasted as nice that way” I babbled as I wandered, as casually as I could, into the kitchen and set two seats at the table with a glass of red next to each setting. Jade grabbed the glass and swigged on the wine. Already drunk, she swayed as she pointed at me with a witch-like bony finger.

“Y…youuuu waste. Wasted your time” hiccup, “We had food out.” She yanked the food from the microwave and threw it onto the floor, pouring Johnny’s wine on top of it. “Johnny,” she whined, “look at what sh…she has done to my fl…fl…floor.”

A swift thump to the back of my head and I clattered to the floor in front of him; “Stupid bitch.” He spat at me, “clear that mess up! How dare you. We do everything for you and all we ask is for some respect.” A kick to the ribs, and then he grabs my hair and smushes it into the food on the floor, it burns the side of my cheek and I cry out. Damn it.

“You. Will. Be. Silent.” With each word he beat into me, kicking and slamming me into the island in the centre of the kitchen. Then I heard it, he removed his belt and snapped it in his hands to instill fear. All I could think of was what Kyle must be feeling, listening to all this upstairs; he’ll never speak to me again. If he gets a chance, I feel so weak and lifeless, another whipping like last time and I don’t think I’ll make it.

“Please,” I whimpered against the marble flooring, tears streamed down my cheeks as I tried so hard to be strong and stay silent, “Please stop.”

They laughed at me, Jade chimed in and bent down, sober as a judge and said quietly in my ear, “You’ll be with her now, your precious Nanna. I was never good enough for her, and you were always a disappointment to me. We’ve been waiting for this day for so long.” Her giggle was barely audible as he continued to kick me and I couldn’t catch my breath. I opened my heart to seeing ym beloved Nanna again and waiting for the Goddess to claim me.

Through slatted eyes, I saw blood splat onto the floor and heard Jade moan as she always did when he hurt me, only I didn’t feel the pain; it must have been a bad one. I closed my eyes and waited for death to come.