BEHIND CLOSED DOOR

Familiar voice

.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​“You stupid f*****g cunt! Did I tell you to move? Did I give you permission to walk away from me? Huh?” My dad roared in the tone I heard too often.

“You’re nothing without me, Victoria, NOTHING! You’re lucky I even have you around, you stupid b***h. Where are my kids?”

I hugged my sisters harder. “Cover your ears,” I said, placing my hands over my own. “Like I showed you.”

They scarcely smiled.

“Richard, please calm down,” my mom whimpered.

I knew he wouldn’t grant her any leniency; he never did. Fucker.

“f**k you! Where are my kids?”

“Honey……”

I heard his fist connect with something, and then a thud, which I

assumed was her body falling to the ground.

“Get the f**k up! I’m not done with you!”

She groaned in agony.

“Hey...” I whispered, half-smiling to my baby sisters. Liv was six and

Alexis was nine. Lauren was twelve, but she wasn’t home. She was still at her friend’s house, studying; I needed to leave soon to pick her up.

“I need you guys to sing for me... okay?”

They both looked at me, confused and scared. Always scared. I tried desperately to stay strong and ignore the rambling and thrashing coming from the living room.

My mom never yelled or cried, it didn’t matter how hard he hit her or how much he terrified her, she wouldn’t show her children her true feelings. What you visibly saw on the outside never reflected what was on the inside.

We were hiding in my bedroom. The girls were sleeping until they overheard the fighting and scattered into my room like they always did.

“Adrian, Daddy is hurting Mommy again,” Liv bellowed with tears falling down her adorable face.

“Daddy always hurts Mommy,” Alexis added with a certain edge to her voice that I hadn’t heard before.

“Shhh... you guys remember that song that you were singing in the car the other day?”

They nodded.

“I need you both to go into my closet and hide behind anything you can find. I want you to cover your ears and sing. Okay? I need you to sing just loud enough that you can’t hear anything. Can you do that for me?”

They nodded again.

“All right, ready, set, go!”

They both scooted off the bed and ran in to my closet. I took a deep

breath and grabbed the bat that I had hidden under my bed. I started to close the bi-fold doors to my closet.

“Adrian?” Alexis coaxed, making me crouch down to face her. “Please don’t leave us. Promise you will come back. Don’t make him mad, Adrian. Mommy will get upset and I don’t want to see Mommy sad anymore. Daddy won’t be nice to her if you make him mad.”

I smiled reassuringly at my sister. “I know, baby; I’m going to make everything better. Okay?”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I repeated.

Her arms wrapped around my neck so tightly I felt like she was saying

goodbye to me. I kissed the top of her head and watched as she hid in the back corner of the closet, placing her hands over her ears like Liv, and then they both began to sing. I pulled some sweaters and shirts off my hangers and put them all over their tiny frames. You couldn’t see them or hear them, which gave me peace of mind.

I grabbed the bat and locked the door behind me, making my way over to the living room. What I saw nearly brought me to my knees. My mom was on the ground with blood all over her face and holding her left arm that appeared to be at an awkward angle. He was hovering above her and our eyes locked when he heard my footing coming into the room.

“There you are, you little s**t!” He c****d his head to the side and grinned. “What’s the bat for?”

I raised it up and swung it at the glass award he was given for Cop of the Year.

What a f*****g joke.

It shattered across the linoleum floor.

“It’s for you, you son of a b***h!” I yelled.

His eyes widened. “You’re going to pay for that.”

“Get the f**k away from my mother.”

He looked down at her and then back up at me, deviously smiling. It all happened so fast.

I gasped, waking up in a cold sweat, immediately sitting up and grabbing my heart that felt as if it were beating out of my chest.

“Jesus...” I breathed out, trying to catch my breath.

I harshly pulled off my sheets, throwing them off my body, and then leaned forward on the edge of the bed. I pulled my hair out of my face and tried to calm my nerves and my breathing. I looked over at my clock and it read three AM. I shook my head, trying to erase the images that played over and over again in my mind. I wouldn’t go back to sleep, I knew that. I would toss and turn for the rest of the night just like I always had every time I had one of those dreams.

I decided to get up and start my day.

I remembered it as if it were yesterday, the day I turned sixteen. “Wake up, Aria. It’s your birthday, pretty girl.”

I followed the sound of my mom’s voice and my eyes fluttered open. I

smiled when I saw her beautiful face hovering above me, waving a key back and forth over my face.

I gasped, “No!”

She nodded and I jumped out of bed. I hugged her tightly, making all her air leave her body with an oomph sound. “I take it you’re happy?” my dad questioned, half-laughing behind her.

I vigorously nodded and moved right over to him, wrapping my arms and legs around his tall, built frame.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, Daddy!” I repeated.

“Hey, I helped, too,” my mom stated, hugging both of us into her petite frame.

I didn’t think that they were actually going to buy me a car, but I had a hunch that they would. I was always a great daughter, maintaining my 3.8 GPA, captain of my cheerleading squad, helping out with community service with my younger sisters.

“How could I not get my first born, my pride and joy, her own Audi?”

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