Page 16 of Daddy's Little Survivor

He hated when she woke him up. Said she didn’t have a good enough reason to wake him up, even if she was bleeding out. That one hurt when he said that.

“Alright, good night. And I really mean it. If you need anything, you come get me,” he said.

“Night,” she whispered.

Opening the door, Monroe didn’t look around the room. She didn’t want to see anything around her and get sucked into staying longer. His house was already way nicer than Jared’s.

The bed looked so enticing and Monroe found herself laying down and falling asleep instantly.

CHAPTER EIGHT

MONROE

Gasping for a breath of air, Monroe sat up in bed and screwed her eyes shut. It was just a dream, she kept telling herself.

But it wasn’t. It had actually happened to her, and she woke up every night from the nightmare. It changed all the time, but they were all things that Jared had done to her.

She laid back down in bed and turned to her side, hugging the blanket to her chest. Even with the soft onesie engulfing her body and the comfort of the weighted blanket, Monroe found herself unable to fall back asleep.

When this normally happened, she would go get a drink of water or warm milk, but she wasn’t at her house. She didn’t want to walk downstairs and rummage through Michael’s refrigerator and get into trouble.

Would he get mad at her if she went through his fridge to find something to drink? He had told her before she went to bed that she could get him for anything, but she didn’t want to knock on his door and make him angry.

Jared had always gotten angry when he was woken up from his sleep. Those were some of the worst beatings she’d ever received. A shiver ran through her body as she remembered the last time she’d woken him up.

The beating had lasted for over twenty minutes. Jared just constantly kicked her ribs, legs, arms, and landed punches on her. She wasn’t able to walk for several days after that, too sore and in so much pain.

The first time she’d woken Jared up was when she’d needed to get food for dinner and needed money. Big mistake. She learned from then on not to wake him up. Though, it was hard when he was a light sleeper and walking past him to go clean would wake him up.

It was like he tried to be half asleep and be woken up by Monroe so he could beat her. Granted, he didn’t need a reason to beat her. He did it whenever he wanted and for however long.

That was another thing Monroe realized too late. She thought it was always her fault for him beating her, but one day she opened her eyes and saw it wasn't. She realized that now, but it didn't mean she still didn't have those thoughts.

Several times she found herself thinking it was her fault since being in Michael's house and it had been less than twenty-four hours. Her brain was wired for the past six years to think everything was her fault. She understood it was going to take a long time for her to heal, and she would be willing to try and correct how Jared made her think every day.

Monroe couldn’t work on that right now. She needed to have all her attention on making sure she was safe and away from Jared.

Turning over on the bed, she let out a frustrated sigh and sat up. There was no way she was going back to sleep now. She couldn’t shake the nightmare and she had been thinking too hard.

If only she had been able to go downstairs and grab a drink of water or warm milk, she probably would have been able to go back to sleep. But this wasn’t her house, and she didn’t want to do something and get punished for it.

Sighing, Monroe pushed herself off the bed and walked toward the door. She had no clue where her clothes were, but this was the perfect time to escape. The sun was just about to rise and she hadn’t heard any movement in the house yet.

Perfect opportunity.

She wouldn’t miss the clothes he washed because they were old, but she would miss the extra pair of clothes. She only had one other shirt and pants in the car and knew that wouldn’t last her long before they would need to be washed.

Tiptoeing out of her room, she didn’t bother closing the door before she made her way toward the front door. She stopped in front of the kitchen, contemplating if she wanted to see if there was any food or bottled water she could take with her.

She only had enough money to get some gas in her car, and she didn’t know when the next time she’d be able to eat would be. Monroe hadn’t eaten everything she’d wanted to last night. Her stomach had rumbled right before she’d gone to bed, but Michael just kept talking about taking care of her and it was weird.

She couldn’t remember a time in her life when someone fretted over her like that. Even her ‘Daddy’ back in high school wasn’t like this. Yes, he made sure she was okay but when she got hurt, he told her she was okay and to move on.

Monroe shook her head and continued to walk to the front door. She didn’t want to steal from Michael. He had already been nice enough to let her stay at his house and look after her, even if she thought it was really weird and he had an ulterior motive. She didn’t want to do anything wrong or against the law.

Though, she didn’t know if that would be against the law since he let her stay in his house and it didn’t seem like he was worried. Why wouldn’t he be worried? She was a random person in his house.

He didn’t know if she was running away because she murdered someone. He didn’t know if she was going to steal something from him or not. Michael had left everything out like he didn’t care about any of it or that he had a strange girl in his house.

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