Page 45 of Embracing My Nightmare
I glanced at him and nodded before speaking. “Their job was to protect her. I ended them for their failure. I’ll do the same to Cameron too and anyone else who gets in my way.”
***
Elise
ICOULD HEAR THE GRUNTSand groans coming from the room at the end of the hall and my little feet carried me toward it. The music was loud, but the noises were louder as I tiptoed down the dirty rug. They had told me to stay in my room, but I wanted a glass of water. I snuck past the closed doors and I could smell those funny cigarettes they liked to smoke all the time.
The closer to the door I got, the more my stomach hurt. I almost ran back to my room, but the sounds kept pulling me closer. Peeking my head around the corner, I saw something that didn’t make any sense. The man was on top of the lady and his hands were around her neck. She was scratching his arms, but he kept grunting, pushing his body against hers.
I had seen the adults doing that before, but still, I didn’t understand what was happening. The lady wasn’t fighting as much as the man’s grunts got louder. He shifted and I could see her face was a funny shade of red and her lips were blue like a popsicle.
They were both naked. I turned to leave when I ran into another man who spent time here. He gripped my shirt and dragged me into the room, my heels digging in as he took me closer to the bed. I covered my eyes with my hands, but he grasped both of my wrists. Pain shot up both my arms as he marched me next to the man on top of the woman.
“I found your cockroach hiding at the door.”
The man on the bed kept pushing his hips against the woman, who wasn’t moving and had quit fighting. The man turned his head and looked at me. His hips started moving faster and I sunk back into the man behind me.
He moaned loudly, then pulled himself off the lady, turning his gaze to mine. He pulled a cigarette from the pack on the small table and sat on the bed as he smoked. Hot tears stung my cheeks as I looked at the woman on the bed who still hadn’t moved.
He stood from the bed and he didn’t have any clothes on. I turned my head and the man who held me in his grip stepped back as the man walked toward me. He gripped my chin and turned my face to look at him. I closed my eyes, wishing he would let me go back to my room.
“Keep being a nosy little cockroach and I’ll show you what it's all about.” Before he walked into the bathroom, he patted my head like they did to the dogs in the backyard. Calling over his shoulder, he told the man who was still gripping my wrists, “Take her back to her room.”
The man smiled down at me and I feared what was about to happen. As he pulled me down the hallway, I wanted to scream for him to stop, but the words wouldn’t come out. Once he’d pushed open the door, he shoved me into the tiny room and closed the door behind him.
He removed the belt from his pants and stood in front of me. I started crying harder, and spoke the only word that I could say while silently begging that he would come to save me.“Lynn.”
I startled out of the nightmare, the old terror gripping me tightly as I fought to clear my head. I had a massive headache and my mouth tasted like copper as I tried to get my dry lips to move. Reaching up to touch my head, I found one wrist tied to the metal bed and I swung my gaze around.
I didn’t recognize where I was, and I didn’t know how I got here. Fighting the panic, I thought back to this morning, trying to piece everything together. I remembered going to work, going to my parents and then pulling into the parking lot of the grocery store. After getting out of the car at the store . . . everything goes blank. The tears began to fall, and I looked down, relieved to find my clothes still intact.
I felt like I would hyperventilate as the memories became whole. The man from the beach was following me and Cameron had offered to help. The last thing I remember was him grabbing my hair hard and holding a rag over my mouth.
My body shook, and I turned my head, throwing up over the side of the bed onto the floor. The smell blended into the mold and urine that permeated the air and I inhaled deeply through my nose, fighting the urge to be sick again.
Why did Cameron take me? Where is Devlin? Does anyone know I’m missing?
My vision adjusted to the darkness, and I could make out a small dresser against the wall, the twin bed I was in, and the door. There was a small amount of moonlight shining in through the boarded window and as I stared at the room, my panic grew to unbelievable heights. I was in the room from my nightmares, tied to the same bed, smelling the same smells.
All these years, I thought it was something I had imagined, but being here, I knew my nightmare was just beginning. The sound of footsteps grew louder, and I kept my eyes trained on the door. A key turned and the door opened, a disheveled Cameron standing in the opening.
A bottle of whiskey was in one hand as he leaned against the doorway, a cigarette hanging from his lips.
“Look who’s awake,” he sneered and I pulled my body up into a sitting position.
“What do you want Cameron?” I tried but failed to keep the tremor out of my voice.
“What I want can’t be achieved, so you’ll have to do,” he answered and took a swig of the whiskey. Dropping the cigarette to the floor, he snubbed it out on the carpet with his shoe.
“I’ll have to do for what?” Tugging on the zip-tie that was securing me to the bed, I felt a small amount of give.
“He killed her. You know that, right?” His eyes appeared glassy as his thick words sounded into the room.
“Who killed who? I don’t know what you’re talking about. Let me go Cameron. We can forget all about this.”
“Devlin.” His name had me stilling on the bed as Cameron took a step toward me. “He killed your mother. You resemble her so much, and he took her away from me. I only thought it was fair I took you from him.”
I felt sick thinking about the man I loved killing my mother, but I couldn’t feel sad over someone who neglected me the way she did. For allowing the things she had allowed. Shrugging my shoulders, I tried to appear unaffected by his words. I would get the truth from Devlin later. I wouldn’t entertain the mind games Cameron was trying to play with me.
