Page 6 of Out to Find Freedom

“Mrs Minna, please don’t, they’ll—no!” I screamed. Lenny came up behind Mrs Minna. His hands wrapped around her head, and he snapped it quickly to the side.

I saw the shock in her eyes before nothing.

Dead.

Blank. Like Donny’s had been.

Because of me.

“You fucking cunt,” I screeched. I tried to reach for Lenny through the window. Of course it was fucking useless. Just like I was.

My body rocked to the side from a force to my waist. Something cracked on the inside. I could feel it, hear it, all before I hit the ground hard. I rolled to the side, wincing, whimpering, and crying to see Gloria standing over me.

“You fucking bitch. We leave to get some shit and you’re calling out to the neighbour. Her death, like your friend’s, is on you.”

I sat up and cried out, grabbing my side just below my breast. Gloria snorted. “Probably cracked a rib or two. Your fucking fault. All of it. Damn, everything is your fault.”

Through a panting breath, I wheezed, “Y-you killed her. Police will know.”

Shaking her head, she rolled her eyes. Kicking out at my foot, she told me, “Don’t be stupid. Lenny’s already taking her body to her house. I told him to snap her neck. Those stairs in her house aren’t good for an eighty-year-old. Really dangerous, actually. She’s likely to fall down them and break her neck…. Huh, guess it just happened.” She laughed.

Gloria was a lunatic. She wasn’t only crazy but vicious.

How did she become the way she was?

Dad had told me Mum’s parents had been nice people. The only option I could guess was drugs had screwed Gloria up.

But still, with not knowing how drugs worked, did they really cause a person to become a disgusting monster like Gloria?

“Why?”

“No one fucks with my life. Least of all Marilee’s little precious Emerson. You need to understand I don’t give a fuck you’re my sister’s daughter. I didn’t care about her. I don’t care about you. What I care about is Lenny, money, and making sure people do as I say. I get paid for what I do, but my boss even knows to do whatIsay. Especially when I bring money into the business game.” She smiled. “Thanks to you and your bank account.”

My chest clenched. “T-that’s my dad’s.”

That money was what I would have lived on until I turned twenty-five. It was his life insurance and his money from his account. It was meant to help me.

She’d stolen it.

Stolen another part of my dad.

She’d already taken his watch, something I accused her of, but she blamed me for misplacing it.

She may as well take me.

End me and my misery.

“Kill me,” I whispered.

Her head dropped back and she laughed up at the ceiling. Her arm wound around her waist as she kept laughing. Her humour waning, she shook her head and looked down at me with hostility. “Another thing you’ll learn. You die whenIsay.” She brought the bat up and swung it. I closed my eyes cringing, waiting. When nothing happened, I peeked out to see her smiling once more down at me. She scoffed. “Pathetic. She should have killed you in her womb.” She turned and walked away.

I didn’t move. Instead, I listened until I heard the basement door bang closed. I knew I wouldn’t be getting any food that night, and honestly, I didn’t think I could eat.

They killed again because of me.

Another life lost, and it was my fault.

When would this nightmare end?

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