Spookychild’s writings

Katie could hear her name being spoken. And she could feel something cold in her eye. It hurt. She moaned and tried to turn away.

Myles heard her moan a second time. “Katie, it’s me Myles,” He said a little louder this time.

Katie heard his voice, and she opened her eyes.  She looked at him, a flash or fear across her face for a moment, but then she relaxed. It was just a lovely young man, the one who had picked her up off the road and brought her to this comfortable place with a nice bed. And then she looked around. She had fainted outside. Now she was back inside. She recognized it as the living room that they had passed through to go outside.

She felt Embarrassed. Not only was he giving her a free place to stay and free clothes, but now he had to carry her inside because she fainted. She found herself whispering. “I am sorry.” She liked him. She really did. But she wasn’t well enough in the head to experience a crush. She needed to figure out what she was going to do now that she had escaped. And what about the reason for fainting?

Myles smiled at her. “Don’t apologize Katie. You fainted. You don’t have control over things like that. I’m just glad you woke up. I brought you a water. If you think you can drink some, it might help.” He held up the water.

Katie  Focused on the water. she was a little thirsty. She had drunk all the water from last night after crying in the bathroom. She almost cried again. Her head was so messed up. Her body was so messed up. How is she ever gonna begin to fix it? She ought to go to a hospital, but she didn’t want to tell anybody anything about where she’d come from or who had done it. She didn’t want them to find her.

“ Do you need help to set up?” Myles asked.

She  Glanced at his face again. He looked concerned about her.  She stretched to try to set up herself. But for some reason she couldn’t get her elbows under her torso. And then the pain hit her in waves and things went dim.

“I can help you.” He said watching her struggle. “Don’t be afraid of asking.”

“Okay.” She gasped. She could feel a few tears slip out of her eyes. Her black eye stung.

Myles nodded and put the water down. He slipped his left arm under her back and lifted her into a sitting position. Then he took her left arm and started to reposition her, so her back was on the cushions, but she gave a little cry and put her right hand on his.

“Whats wrong?” he asked, releasing her upper arm. But in a flash he knew. She had some kind of injury under her clothes that he couldn’t see. He watched her face. She had closed her eyes and was frozen on the spot. He still was holding her up with his left arm. He was not sure how to move her now.

Katie knew she was being obvious. In fact she was pretty sure he had figured it out by now. After all, she wasn’t covering her eye. She was only trying to keep her hair over it. But the bruise was nasty. she shuddered and opened her eyes, and peeked at him. “I’m sorry.” She said again. She looked down at her lap.

Coming soon

Later Brooke and he would go for walks, or just sit at the park. It was that week, the first time they had kissed. They had spent the day together, volunteering first, and then she had taken him up on the other side of the valley and showed him another view of the city. She had a cute little camouflage hat and shirt.

James hadn’t been able to focus on the view. He was staring at her instead. His arm was wrapped around her in a side hug. Finally she turned to him, “ you aren’t paying attention.” She said accusingly.

James smiled at her, sending waves of stomach twists. “Yes, I am paying attention to the most important thing on the earth.” And he turned and put his other hand on her waist. “You, country girl.”

She pouted, but allowed him to draw her into a hug. But she added. “It’s just I brought you up here. I thought you’d like to see the view.”

He pulled back to look into her face. “The view is stunning.”

She blushed. “I meant that,” She pointed to the valley below, “not me.”

“Oh, but that is just a city, you are my heart.” he whispered.

She bit her lip. “Why do you care about me so much. I am not that pretty, and my hair is frizzy and I can’t get my stomach flat, and my nose is too big, and …..” he put a finger to her lips.

“Brooke, you will always be perfect to me, and I love you the way you are.” And when he moved his finger he leaned down pressed his lips into hers, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. They had stood there for what seemed like an hour. 

Brooke fell to sleep. She dreamed of her babies; she was home alone, taking care of them, holding them, and kissing them.

In her memory, she watched Calvin leave the house that night as she sat in her car, terrified of getting out and going into the house till he was gone. But he didn’t go right away. In fact he sat there a few minutes before driving away. She would never know what he had done.

But as he passed he grinned at her and waved. Then she had closed her eyes and begun to cry. She was ashamed of this moment in time. She could have gotten out of the car then, she could have saved her mother’s life. But she had chosen that moment to have a breakdown. She had cried for a long time. She didn’t know how long, but the sun had been setting when she had waited for Calvin to leave.

She had sat there for so long, her head resting against the steering wheel, her shoulders shaking with the tears. She had sobbed for her mother and herself. She was terrified of the man who said it was her turn next.

When she lifted her head it was almost dark. A few rays of twilight still shone in the sky. But that wasn’t what her eyes settled on. Instead, she could see a glow in the house, behind the curtains. It wasn’t a normal glow of her mother’s living room lights. No, this was an orange glow, filtering and dancing light.

She had stared, confused and petrified. It couldn’t be, she had to be seeing things. The stress and crying, it was confusing her. It was making her see things. Finally, she rubbed her eyes and looked again. It was brighter now. She caught a glimpse, so bright it hurt her eyes. The light was licking at the curtains.

But as she watched the curtain began to burn. First, one little corner near the bottom. But the flame spread quickly, eating away at the entire curtain in under a minute and she realized with a shock so hard it made her heart skip a beat and she stopped breathing. The house was on fire.

Zoe jumped out of the car then. She made her joints and muscles move. She made her hands find her phone; it was cheap and old, and the battery was almost dead, but she called 911 and got the address before it died. Then she ran as close to the house as she dared.

“mom?” She screamed. “Mom!” She couldn’t see again, her hands were outstretched. Her eyes were so full of tears.

Coming soon

To him it didn’t matter. If she needed the sleep she had all the time in the world. He would not rush her. The surrounding silence had encouraged him. Maybe the fourth man had been killed or left the area. Donte wasn’t scared of him. He was only concerned for Mia. If the man still had a gun it would only take one bullet to kill or maim him. And he had to be careful to not get hurt because he wanted to make sure he could take care of Mia.

Donte sat on the bed and lay next to Mia. She didn’t stir. He began to caress her head. Her hair was delicate, soft, and wavy. She moved then and made tiny sounds. The sounds reminded him of a kitten. She suddenly jerked and started to shake.

Mia had woken up alone. She had looked at the ceiling and listened. It seemed to the world was quiet and empty. She thought of Donte and had looked for him. He hadn’t been in the room, and she had cried. She wondered to herself if she had dreamed him or if maybe he had left her. She was unlovable and broken. She wouldn’t blame him if he had left her. She had tried to shift the blanket that rested over her body, but her joints had popped and caused her tremendous pain. She had stopped trying to move and had cried. She was better off dead. If Donte was gone or dead she would lie here and die of thirst. She felt herself slowly drift back to sleep.

She had dreamed of hell. It was very warm and everything hurt. She looked down at her body. She was tied up, naked, and every part of her was on fire. She looked up into the face of Kyle. He was grinning at her from a few feet away. “I finally get to set you on fire Mia.” He had shouted at her. “I finally get to burn you.”

Mia jerked awake. There was the sensation of something on her head, a slow caress. She opened her eyes. Donte lay in front of her, his chin a few inches from her eyes. She whimpered abruptly, feeling relief and fear.

Donte looked into her eyes, he saw the fear but he didn’t want her to feel fear. He loved her. He had just spent hours changing the interior of the house for her. He wanted to wrap her up and pass some of the tenderness and affection he was feeling for her into her body. Maybe then she would feel better and not be so afraid.

Coming soon

She wished to be a little child, and none of this had happened. She wanted to be five again in her mom’s arms with the words in her ears. “Raven. Raven bird.” Her mom would say. “Raven bird, everything will be OK. Everything will be fine. “And it was always fine. When her mom said something would be OK; it would be fine. But not this time. This time it would not be OK. Raven cried till no tears remained. She stayed in a ball, her eyes closed, eventually falling asleep.

In Raven’s dream, she was in her room in her bed. Her mom was leaning over her. “Do you feel all right, raven?” Her mom asked her. Her mother’s face was concerned, and she was feeling Raven’s forehead.

“No, I feel awful.” Raven groaned and shut her eyes.

Her mom nodded. “OK, I’ll call out for you. Stay in bed, dear, and try to get some sleep. OK? “

Her mom was gone. Raven smiled grimly to herself. It had worked, and she could stay home, never answering the world’s questions. They would never know about Adam and his baby. The baby, Adam, she would name the baby Adam.

Raven was at the bay now looking towards San Francisco, on a golden hill, parked at the top in a car. It was Adam’s car, but Adam was not there, and Raven was alone. She could see San Francisco in front of a cloudless sky. Skyscrapers stretched up and touched the intense blueness. Unexpectedly there was a bright flash. Raven shut her eyes and ducked under the dashboard.

Raven awoke with a start. It was dark again, but as she watched, the shadows around the cave lessened. It was dawn; another day had passed, another day and another night. Raven wondered how long it would take to die from the lack of water. She was so thirsty it was the only thing she could feel. Her mouth was dry, and her lips cracked.

“I can’t stay here,” Raven thought as time passed. There were no other emotions or thoughts save one, “I have to get out.”