Page 51 of Blood Claims
Whose only sin was loving me in return.
I cried out, before jumping in fright when I heard banging on the door behind me. But it wasn’t the shadows that wanted to consume me. It was my own dark past that had finally caught up to me. It was the most chilling voice I had ever heard. One I would never forget.
Never forgive.
Always regret.
“OPEN THE DOOR, YOU LITTLE SHIT!” I instantly backed away from the door, shaking my head at it, telling myself,
“This isn’t real… this isn’t real…” But then my reply to this only made me jerk back again.
“YOU CAN’T PROTECT HIM! THAT FUCKING DOG, I KNOW HE IS IN THERE! THAT FUCKER PISSED ON MYFLOOR!” My father’s voice thundered from behind the door as he pounded his fists on it.
“I WILL KILL HIM THIS TIME!”
I backed away further, until I turned, I heard the chill of my own childlike voice.
“There there, he can’t hurt you anymore. Now you can be free. I set you free, my friend… just like mamma did.” Tears blurred the sight I knew well, and I remembered it like it was yesterday. That little heartbroken girl now stroking the bloody soaked fur of her only friend. A kitchen knife in her hand falling as the first sob broke free. Great, wretched sounds that drowned out the furious sounds of my father.
One I hadn’t had the power to free myself from.
So, I saved the one thing that meant the most to me. Because I didn’t want him to suffer anymore. So, I took his life and always regretted it. I lived with the pain of that day more than all others. More than anything my alcoholic, deadbeat father could ever do to me. Because that day, I felt like he had turned me into the monster he had become.
Which was why I backed away from my most shameful memory and toward the other side of roof, keeping close to the edge. As if getting too close to the center would somehow suck me back into that Hell. The Hell I had broken free from. But that’s when I saw him.
Standing there, waiting for me.
“Why… why are you doing this to me!?” I bellowed at him, forgetting what he was capable of.
“For you to face the sins of your past,” he told me, making me snap back at him,
“And what of yours?! Haveyoufaced them?!” The question hit its mark and I couldn’t miss the way he flinched or the way his glowing eyes narrowed. Which was when he suddenlymoved, grabbing me to him and spinning me around so I had no choice but to face what he named my ‘sins’.
His hand collared my throat from behind, forcing my head up. A head that only came to the start of his chest, he was that much taller than me. His height made it easy for him to watch above me.
“This was the only dark secret I could find,”he told me almost softly. As if a part of him regretted it. But as I struggled against him, it meant nothing. And it didn’t last long because he soon banded his bulky arm across me, keeping my arms locked to my sides.
“Poor little Vanessa… how long have you tortured yourself over the memory of this hopeless child. This act you loath, yet one committed at the time in some sacrificial belief of heroism… did you not set him free, as you had hoped?”
I shook my head, or at least tried to, but his grip on my neck tightened, making me grit my teeth. The sound of threats continued to echo from the door on the opposite side of the room. One he forced me to face, along with the sight of this traumatic memory.
“Why… why are you doing this to me?”I asked again, sobbing, making him sigh behind me before admitting,
“So, you can see that the actions of a child should not be blamed for the sins of her parents,” he told me softly, making me gasp in shock. Because it sounded as if he was… was doing this to help me?
But why?
“Soon, the monster of all your nightmares will burst through the door.”
I tensed, and it was something he felt, as he cooed down at me,
“Ssshh now, for I can take you away from it all.I can easily slay the beast at the door.”
I swallowed hard, and again it was a lump of fear he felt. A fear that I pushed down my throat that passed his hand still collared there.
“All you have to do is agree… say yes to me, say yes and ask me to take you from this place. Ask it of me and it will all be over, My Little Rabbit.” I tried to shake my head again, but once more he held it still.
“Now now, calm that fluttering heart and trust me,” he told me, but then my eyes widened as the banging got even louder.
