My Life After the Disaster

Chapter Thirty One

We arrive at the police station right as I wake from my nap. I really don’t want to have to do this, but I have no choice. I get out of the car and head into the police station with Annabelle coming along so that I don’t have to do it alone. I walk up to the window that the police officer was sitting behind and say, “I’m here to report a r**e, kidnapping and assault done by a man named Andy Cormier. My friend Annabelle told me he has been apprehended and detained for attempting to harm her and breaking into her neighbour’s home.”

The officer looks at me with a shocked expression and says, “My goodness miss, you look like you’ve been through hell. I will take you back to the exam room. We will have everything taken care of and you can have your statement taken.” They get up from their chair and come out around to bring me to another room, which Annabelle follows me to.

Once inside they have me strip down so they could do a r**e kit on me and take photos of all the damage that was caused to me. Once the kit was done and the pictures were taken I put my clothes back on and sit down at a table in a not so comfortable chair. Annabelle stands behind me, not bothering to sit down.

“Alright. Now that we got all that unpleasantness out of the way. Let’s hear your statement. And I’m going to need you to write all of it down and sign it,” she says, handing me a sheet of paper and a pen.

I take it and start writing out everything that happened to me, starting with being abducted and knocked out at my home in Halifax. I wrote about the ropes I found myself tied up with when I woke in his truck and how he gaged me when he didn’t want to hear me talking anymore. I told them about the cuts and how he cut off my clothes, the r**e, the beating and the strangulation. While saying it and writing it all out I had to relive it again, seeing flash images of what had happened to me. When I’m finally done I set the pen down and start sobbing again.

The officer takes the paper and looks it over, looking back at me, she says, “Thank you very much miss Wood. I know this was hard for you. So thank you very much. With this statement of yours we can put Andy away for a long time.”

“How long?” I ask her, wiping my tears away. I needed to know.

“At least ten years, maybe more. He did a lot of things, including attempted murder. By the look of your neck alone he could of strangled you to death,” she tells me, sounding sympathetic.

“Well, thank you for listening. If there’s nothing else, I would like to go,” I tell her as I get up from the table.

“No. You’ve given us all that we need from you. You can leave. I do hope you feel better soon. And I recommend talking with a trauma specialist,” she tells me, picking up the paper and getting up from the table.

“I will. And Thanks.” I don’t say another word I just walk out of the room and head straight out of there going back to Annabelle’s car.

We both get back into the car, not saying a word to each other as Annabelle takes me back to her place.

We go into the house and Molly comes running over to us, stopping when she sees how horrible I look. “What happened to you Rose? It looks like you ran into a wall.”

“Molly. What have I told you about being more sensitive. Rose has just been through a traumatic incident and commenting on how she looks does not help that,” Annabelle tells her in a low voice down at her level, thinking that I couldn’t hear her, but I could. She stands back up and brings me into the living room where Daniel had the fire going again. “You can sit in the chair by the fire and warm up.”

I nod my head not really saying anything. I sit down in the chair and stare at the fire, seemingly in shock about everything that had happened.

Annabelle walks out of the living room, leaving me to get some space.

I can’t take my eyes off the fire, part of me just wants to climb into it because I’m so cold and I want to burn away all the horrible things that, that man did to me.

I don’t know how long I was staring at the fire for but Annabelle comes back into the room, setting a plate and glass down beside me that draws my attention away from the fire. “I thought you might want something to eat and drink.” She tells me, pointing out the plate of cookies and glass of milk.

I look at her then down at the plate and say, “Thanks. I kind of am. I haven’t eaten anything since yesterday around lunch time. Do you think I could get a sandwich as well? I’ll snack on this for now, but my stomach needs real food.”

She nods her head saying, “Sure thing. I’ll get that for you right away.” She then turns around and walks out of the living room, heading back to the kitchen.

I grab a cookie off the plate and dip it into the milk, taking a bite out of it and savoury the flavour, this tastes so good. I’m starved but these cookies are really good. I dip the cookie in the milk again and take another bite, doing this over and over till the cookie is gone. I then grab another cookie and do it all over again. I keep doing this till all the cookies are gone. Then I pick up the glass and drink the milk which is filled with cookie crumbs and also tastes good.

“Daniel, I can walk. Please put me down,” I hear Annabelle telling him as they come into the living room.

Daniel puts her down just as they get into the living room.

She looks back at him, not amused at all, then calmly walks over to me and places my sandwich on the plate where the cookies had been. “Here you are. One sandwich, all ready to eat.”

I smile at her and say, “Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. Do you think you could stay with me. I don’t want to be alone anymore. I felt like I was in that building by myself for days. I didn’t think I would ever get free. I thought I was going to die in there.” Tears start forming in my eyes as I go. I feel as if I’m going to break down again.

She reaches out to me, touching my hand and says, “Of course I’ll stay with you. You can even spend the night with me tonight if you want to.”

“Where would I sleep?” Daniel asks, now standing behind her.

She looks back at him and says, “You can sleep in my parents old bed.”

I pick up half of the sandwich and start eating it. “I think I will. I really don’t want to be alone. And I feel safe with you,” I tell her, chewing my food.

Daniel pulls her into his arms and sits her in his lap on the couch, near the chair. “I don’t want to sleep without you, but I guess I can make an exception for tonight,” he tells her, into her ear.

We all sit quietly in the living room while I eat my sandwich and drink my milk. After a while the front door opens and Julian comes inside.

“Annabelle, Molly, I’m home,” Julian shouts out, closing the door behind himself.

Annabelle gets up off the couch and walks over to the living room doorway, saying, “We’re in the living room. But Molly is up in her room, reading or something.” She lowers her voice and says something that I can’t hear. She must be trying to spare my feelings again.

Julian runs into the living room, stopping in his tracks when he sees me. His hand comes up to his mouth and he looks at me with a shocked expression. “My gosh,” he slips out.

I look at him and cover my face with the blanket. I don’t want anyone to see me like this. I haven’t looked in mirror yet but I’m sure it’s horrible.

Annabelle walks over to Julian and turns him around, walking him out of the living room, saying, “Julian, you should’ve known better than to run in there like that after I told you what I told you. It wasn’t nice. Now please take your bag and go up to your room. Do some homework. Anything but making Rose feel worse about herself.”

“Sorry, I just wanted to see what you were talking about. I didn’t think it would look so bad,” he says, glancing over her shoulder back at me. I was still covering myself up but I could see out of a little hole I made through the blanket.

“Julian, if you’re truly sorry then go do what I asked. And leave Rose be. She just wants to be with me right now,” she tells him quietly.

Julian does as she says, without another word. He grabs his bag off the floor and makes his way up the stairs.

Daniel gets up off the couch to throw another log on the fire. He doesn’t look at me once, being respectful of my feelings.

“Do you think it’s going to leave a scar?” I ask her, uncovering my face.

“The cut on your leg might, but the places where you’re just bruised won’t leave any physical scars. Just emotional ones. But you have Alexia waiting for you back home. She’s always going to love you. And she’ll be there for you, to heal your emotional scars,” she tells me, walking over to touch my face. She gently and delicately touches my cheek where he hand hit me so hard that it bruised. “You’re still just as beautiful as you were when I left you.” She smiles, staring into my eyes.

“Gez, you’re going to make me jealous if you keep that up,” Daniel says, walking back over to the couch.

I smile back at her and say, “Thank you Annabelle, for thinking so. But I know that I’m hideous right now.” I place my hand over hers and stare into her eyes. “If I didn’t know any better, I would think you were flirting with me, but I do. And I love my Alexia. I wish I was with her right now.” I trail off, looking down at the floor. I take my hand off hers and get up from the chair. “I need to call my aunt. She must be worried sick about me.”

“It’s okay Rose. I’m sure Alexia has already talked with your aunt about all of it,” she tells me, putting her hand on my shoulder.

“I just want to talk to her and make sure,” I tell her, brushing her hand away. I wrap the blanket tightly around myself and walk out of the living room and head for the kitchen where I knew the phone was. But once I get there I see the phone has been unplugged from the wall. “Why is the phone pulled out of the wall?” I ask her from the kitchen.

She runs into the kitchen, looking over to see me sitting in a chair from the table. “Alexander managed to get my home phone so I had to pull the cord out to keep him from calling here. You can. Just use my cell phone. I’ll go grab it.” She leaves the kitchen and comes back with her cell phone, handing it to me.

“Thanks again Annabelle,” I say, taking the phone out of her hand. I go into her contacts and call Guinevere. I put the phone to my ear and say, “Hey auntie Guinevere. I’m doing okay now. I’ve had better days though.” I smile, feeling happy to hear my aunt's voice again.