Page 1 of Embracing My Nightmare
Prologue
Elise
Horrid screams piercedthrough the thick veil of sleep I was swimming in, pushing the monsters back into the recesses of my mind.I tried to fight my way through the darkness and back into the light, fearful that whatever was causing the screams was worse than the demons who chased me when I slept.
My father, Roger, had forced the pill down my throat with a strong grip on my neck as he poured the water into my mouth, making me choke as he yelled at me. His fingers dug into the tender skin as I swallowed the bitter pill, and I knew I would have bruises from his brutality tomorrow. I had become good at hiding the evidence of their abuse, but I feared these injuries may be the worst ones yet, and that was sayingquite a bit.
My mother, Sally, watched him, shaking her head at me in disgust while they waited for the pill to take effect. Roger held me to my small bed by the throat, his eyes wandering over me, making my stomach lurch as I noticed the lust in his gaze. It took little time before I was dragged into the dark world of sleep, teetering on the edge of awake and unconscious, fearful of what tonight would bring.
Lately, Roger had become more brutal with his punishments and his eyes had lingered too long on my developing figure. Yesterday, he had ‘accidentally’ walked in while I was showering, and I knew deep down that he was about to subject me to a worse punishment than ever before.
My sixteenth birthday was last week, and they had locked me in my room, reminding me I wasn’t special and didn’t deserve a party or even a present to open. I had grown accustomed to their cruelty, but their words still stung my heart like a poisonous arrow. I locked my feelings away and dreamed that one day, someone would love me for the person I was and not try to change me for their own needs and desires.
They reminded me daily that they had adopted me, screamed at me that I should be more grateful that they had taken me off the streets and into their loving home.Loving home, my ass.I lived every day of the last six years maneuvering through the landmines they set for me. Harsh words and hard fists had been my daily routine since I could remember. I never understood why they hated me so much or why they had adopted me if they didn’t want kids.
It was bad enough someone left me at a church when I was five years old. The pastor’s wife found me filthy, starved, and crying for someone who never came back. After no one claimed me, I went into the foster care system and after five years of rotating homes, Sally and Roger Hutchins adopted me. They kept the name the state assigned to me, and they never attempted to bond with me. I was always a burden to them, and I never knew why.
I could hear angry voices shouting from the other room, but as hard as I tried, I couldn’t shake the tomb of sleep that had encased me. I was lucid to what was happening but couldn’t move more than a twitch. They had drugged me before, but nothing to this effect. I knew whatever was happening in the other room, I was powerless to stop it or to protect myself.
I didn’t know if I would stop what sounded like my ‘parents’ being beaten, even if I was able to. They had treated their two dogs better than they had treated me, and some days, the only food I got was the meals the school served. I learned years ago to hide a small part of my lunch, just in case they decided I was too much of a burden and starved me for days.
“Please, don’t hurt him,” Sally pleaded with the unknown person whowas with them. “He’s all I’ve got in this world.”
“WHAT ABOUT HER?” the man’s voice bellowed, startling me, and for the first time, I truly feared for my life.
The timbre in his voice was dark and deadly, and I felt the goosebumps on my skin as the sound of flesh hitting flesh filtered into my small bedroom. My head swayed as I forced my eyes open, blinking as the harsh sounds filled my room. Someone had shoved my twin bed against the far wall, and as my blurry vision started to clear, I could hear Sally’s sobs.
“You promised you would care for her, to protect her, and love her. And what did you two do? You neglected her, you beat her, and you starved her.” The stranger's voice sounded hollow and deadly as he questioned her.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
“You were paid well to take care of her and you failed. How could you do that to her?” I felt my heavy legs begin to move, the pinpricks of feeling starting to ease down my limbs, causing me to twitch with pain. The bed squeaked and I forced my limbs to still, afraid whoever was causing all the commotion would come to see if I was awake.
“Please. We never wanted this. Never wanted her.” Her cries echoed into my bare room, and I felt the last little piece of my heart shatter. I was aware they never wanted me, but to hear someone had paid them to take care of me and that they didn’t care enough to even try, had tears falling down my cheeks, soaking the pillow under my head. “We were forced to take her, and she’s nothing but a little whore, strutting around the house, trying to catch his eye. She’s a dirty slut who deserves . . .”
Her scream pierced the last of the fog I was trapped in as Roger’s grunts soundedover the attacker's roar. Sally pleaded and begged for the man to stop, and finally, the thuds ceased, and the only sounds were heavy breathing and her broken sobs.
The rusty bed frame groaned slightly as I moved, trying to get the blood back into my limbs. My head was swimming and my vision was hazy from the drugs they had forced on me, but I needed to see whoever was causing my tormentors pain. I needed to know who was avenging me, the unwanted girl.
I tried to lower my arms but found they had been bound to the bed with soft silk. My heart thumped loudly in my chest as the drug fog threatened to take me under again. The low voice of the unknown man drifted through the room, but my brain was too hazy to understand the words he was uttering to my ‘mother’.
Fuck her and her bastard husband for what they had put me through. I hoped, whoever he was, that he made them suffer. I hoped it was painful and drawn out before they met their makers. The fresh pain of their abuse was clear on my emaciated body. I should have forgiveness for them, but having spent a life unloved and unwanted, I had hardened the last of my heart to survive.
“You want me to do what?” she screeched and my head snapped to the door at the fear coming from her.
“You heard me, you stupid bitch. Either you do it or I will, and I promise, I won’t be merciful. I promise to make you suffer for everything you did to her. Now choose,” he yelled, and I tried to draw myself into a tight ball on my bed.
I was covered with a light sheet and there was slack in my restraints but not enough for me to free myself. I was stuck between nightmares with no place to go, forced to be the silent witness to whatever danger Roger and Sally had brought to themselves. I silently prayed that sleep would take me back under to avoid whatever fate awaited me, but with each passing second, I became more alert.
The cocking of a gun stilled me in my bed and my body trembled. Was I going to be next after he was finished with them? Was tonight the night I would finally die in the hell I had existed in for so long?
“CHOOSE!” the man bellowed, and I turned my head into the pillow, hoping to silence the begging and pleading coming from Sally.
“I-I-I c-c-can’t,” she cried, and the gunshot echoed into the room, making me jump as my ears rang, muffling the screams coming from Roger.
