Whispers in the Night

Prolog

Prolog 

I look away from mom standing by the sink. She is finishing up the dishes from dinner before her shift at the hospital, she works as a nurse. My father is late again but she never minds that, like always she puts a plate for him in the oven to keep warm. I’ve been hiding out with them for a few weeks trying to figure out how to completely escape my abusive husband. 

I still can’t believe how things turned out, how things have gone so wrong. My heart and head hurts every time I think of it. My father is ex-military retired but still has contacts. He wants to ship me off and let them set me up with a new identity and hide me. Only downside is that I will never be able to see or contact them again. He is willing to sacrifice that for me to have a safe life. Mom hasn’t said much about that but I can tell she's on board if it means I’m away from Blaine and safe. 

You see she is the one who found me that night. Blaine came home from work in a very bad mood. I tried staying  out of his way but he was looking for a fight. It seemed almost like a stress reliever for him to beat me.  I saw the signs, I learned very quickly to see the signs. Call it survival instinct if you will, so I made myself scarce after setting his dinner out on the table. I went to the garage to work on my bike. He never comes out here and It is calming for me. I remember the hours I’ve spent with my uncle in his garage when dad was off to war. He taught me everything I know about motors and the body. He didn't teach me just how to fix but to create. 

Tonight as I tinker around with the motor of a bike I rescued from the junk yard,I think of how things used to be, how sweet Blaine was in the beginning, always going out of his way to do little things for me. Whispering sweet things in my ear after making love as I fell asleep at night. Now I can’t stand his touch, when it used to be soft and tender now it’s hard and unyielding. Sweet notions turned into harsh viol words. We married quickly. I knew that but I thought I knew him inside and out boy was I wrong. Now here I am hiding from him the best I can and counting down the days of my escape less than a year later.  I still have a few friends from my old  life before Blaine willing to help me. 

I’m so caught up in my thoughts I didn’t hear him coming.  I feel a blinding pain to the back of my head and a flash of white light in front of my eyes. When I’m able to see again I’m on the floor and he is standing above me seething in anger. Fists are clenched face red and his green eyes flare with anger. Before I can say anything or get all the way up he starts stomping on me screaming how I will never leave him and if he can’t have me then no one can. Calling me a shore and asking who my boyfriend is that's going to meet me when he is away for a business trip. My head is swimming with so much confusion I can’t think straight. As he picks me up by my throat it hits me he found out about my plan. He slams me onto the work table and starts punching me in the face and coking me at the same time. As I start to black out thinking this is it for me he whispers in my ear, You're not going anywhere I will kill you first. Then everything was black. 

I woke up and my whole body hurt and I was in my old room. Apparently my friend realized he screwed up by leaving a message, not with any details but still and got worried when  I did call back. That's when he called my mom and asked to check in on me. She found me on the garage floor half dead. I still don’t know how I got home but all I told them was he knows. My parents nursed me back to the somewhat healthy that I’m at now and have never asked anything about it. I’m still healing physically and mentally. 

Now I have to decide what to do. I know I can't go back there and I have to hide but can I not ever see or talk to my parents ever again? We remain close despite Blaine's efforts to separate us. Blaine hasn’t called or come for me yet but we know it’s a matter of time.  As I’m about to get up from the table I hear a bang in the backyard. Mom and I look at each other knowing that my fathers home security system is going off.  I get to mom as the back door is kicked in. Blaine he’s here. 

Time to come home shortie he says, using my nickname the guys at work use to call me. I used to like it, but now it makes me want to vomit.  All I can do is shake my head at him. That makes him more angry even though I can tell he is trying to hide it. Mom stands in front of me and starts to push me backwards towards the front of the house. “ She’s not going anywhere with you”  she hisses. Mama bear is coming out. He laughs at her attempt of bravery. All the while we are slowly backing into the dinning room. Mom and I know there is a gun on the shelf between the living room and dining room. I just hope I can get to it in time. “ You have to go through me to get to her” mom yells at him. 

All he does is give that sinister smile I know all too well. He looks from her to me and back again, “ That can be arranged. Listen shortie I don’t want to hurt your brave mom here, all you have to do is come home and all will be forgiven. I know you didn’t run from me, you just needed to spend some family time. Now that time is up but if you don’t come now then I will hurt your mom and she might not be as lucky as you.”  My eyes shoot to his and I can see he is not bluffing he's being 100% serious.  I don’t want to go back but I’m not going to let him hurt my mom either. 

I am so scared I start shaking just thinking about what he might do. I look from him to mom and back again. I feel mom’s grip on me getting tighter. She knows what I’m thinking. So does Blaine, the smile on his face gets wider thinking he got me. I see where we ended up at, I see the gun on the shelf and determination washes through me. I feel brave and strong. I have to end this once and for all. 

“No,” I said to him. His smile falters and lends a bit closer “ What did you just say?”  “ I said no I’m not going back. That is not my home and I don’t want to be with you anymore. I have had enough, you don’t love me. If you did you wouldn’t have hurt me”. The smile is completely on his face by the time I am done. I push mom to the ground as I reach for the gun. As I bring it up to shoulder level standing in front of him his eyes go wide. I pull the trigger and the shot goes wide, I’m shaking so hard. He laughs at me as he pulls his own out and before I can do anything he shoots mom who is on the ground at my feet. I scream and drop down to her, she’s shot in the chest and gasping for air. I’m full out sobbing now. Blaine kicks me in the head, I fall to the ground still trying to hold onto mom. 

“See what you made me do! This is all your fault” he yells as he grabs a fist full of hair yanking me up. “No no it’s yours and you will pay for this. I’m still not going back with you!” I scream back. He shakes my head pain exploding from my hair being in his tight grip and throws me over the table. He comes at me like he is possessed. Swinging his fists hitting me and stomping on me while screaming it’s all my fault and this is what happens when he marries a w***e. 

All I can feel is pain, the most pain I have ever felt. I have to fight with myself to stay conscious and try to protect myself and fight back as much as I can. But I know I can do little against him. I’m on the verge of losing when all of a sudden he stops. I hear an ooofff and my dad yelling. I’m able to look up and see my dad and Blaine  fighting on the ground. My dad yells “get to ground”  Blaine has no idea what that means but I do. That means for me to get in the safe room in the corner of the room. I crawl to the hatch, everything in me is screaming don’t move my body is at its limit. I just hope Blaine doesn’t catch me. I open the hatch and fall in, it closes behind me. 

I fell six feet to the ground and blackout.  When I wake up I don’t know how much time has passed. I groan, feeling the pain explode in my head making it hard to open my eye. Only one can open the other is swollen shut. As I check myself by moving my fingers and toes my body protests. Everything hurts and it’s hard to breathe, I feel around my chest and find a few broken ribs. I hoist myself up to a sitting  position and look around. Expecting to see dad here but all I see is the monitors on one side of the room, the living area and kitchen. The safe room goes under the whole house with everything we would need to live for 3 months. I stand up and fight the wave of dizziness and nausea. I searched the rest of the rooms, there are 2 bedrooms, a den and 2 bathrooms. Panic sets in when I realize I’m alone. Where is dad, why didn’t he come down to get me?

I hobble to the monitors dad taught mom and I how to work everything down here. There are cameras throughout the house and around the property giving a live feed and you can play back as well. Fire them up and check the drawers of the station for the SAT phone and check the landline.  The landline is not working, what the hell. Battery is full on the SAT phone and I’m only using it for dire emergencies. It only calls one person and he is my dad's friend from the military. His name is Stan and still works for the government very hush hush. 

The monitors come to life and I cover my mouth with my hand to hold in a sob. I see both my parents laying on the floor bleeding, not moving. I close my eye and take as deep a breath as I can shaking my head. I knew mom was gone but now dad is too. I look at  the property cameras to see if the police are there or if Blaine is. Nothing, no one is here. I rewound the tape. Someone had to have called the police from all the noise, not like it would help much since Blaine is a police officer and very well liked. I called his commanding officer once and reported the abuse, he did not believe me and got a bad beating for it. I never tried telling anyone again. 

I stopped it after my dad came in, I saw them fighting and me escaping down the hatch. Dad and Blaine fight like I have never seen before. They looked like two feral cats going at each other. Then Blaine got the upper hand and was behind my dad, had him in a choke hold then his head twisted and dad went limp. My eyes as big as saucers I sobbed again. Blaine looked to where I was and saw I was gone. He shoved my dad’s body off him breathing heavily and searched the whole house back and side yard. When he couldn’t find me he left. Then nothing again, no one ever came, I don’t understand anything anymore. Did Blaine do this or did he somehow stop the police from coming? 

Feeling very overwhelmed I stumbled to the bathroom. I need to wash up, clear my head. I need to think about what to do next. I know I’m safe for now but don’t know how long that will last. I turn the shower on and take off my torn blood stained clothes. I step in and let the warm water wash over me, I take note of all the bruises and contusions on my body, some old  but most are new. I soak my tangled hair in a conditioner working the knots out.  I know my face is the worst feeling, the swelling and only able to see  through one eye. I finish drying off and put on sweatpants and a tank top. 

I stand at the sink, brush my teeth and look in the mirror. All I see is my short 5’7 frame look thin and beat to hell and back. My Brown hair is dull and my one eye sunken in, the other swollen and bruised. Bruises cover half my face, neck and chest. All I can do is shake my head at myself, knowing it’s my fault that I destroyed my own family by falling in love. Never again, never again will I make this mistake.