It seemed that when the days went by easy, the nights were treacherous. I began to have trouble separating my dreams from reality as I struggled to break free from the barriers that held me hostage within my own damaged mind. The odds were against me; for me it was a losing battle, as each and every time I tried to escape I was left trapped inside, hopelessly clawing to get out.


WARNING: Some parts in this chapter are extremely graphic and potentially disturbing. Please read this at your own risk.

Part Seven.

I could hear him stumbling down the hall, and my heart pumped harder with every dull thump that resounded through the walls as he leaned his weight into them in feeble attempts to keep his balance.

“Come out here. Now,” he slurred as he came closer to my bedroom door with each heavy step he took.

I was cornered.

I huddled as far back into the shadows as I could manage as I sat on the top edge of my bed that touched where the two walls met and formed a corner of my room. My pillow was soaked with sweat and I gripped it tightly with both of my hands, praying that there was some way I’d be able to escape this.

But deep down I already knew.

My door swung open with great force as my dad entered my room. In one hand he held a soiled knife, and in the other he dragged my mother’s limp, mutilated body across the floor by her hair.

I tried to scream but I choked on my voice and ended up gagging instead.

“You’re next, boy..,” he mumbled as he dropped the body and advanced clumsily towards me with the knife still in-hand.

“R-randy..?! Erik.. oh, God.. God, help..,” I pleaded desperately as I thought about what he must have already done to my two brothers.

“G-God, dad please, no..!,” I sobbed as my dad finally reached out and grabbed my arm and dragged me towards him, nearly falling over onto my bed as he tried to stabilize himself. He smelled heavily of blood and old alcohol.

Then everything slowed.

I shut my eyes and cried out weakly as he drove the blade clean into the flesh of my chest right above my heart, and as I could feel my fluids draining swiftly from me and soaking the blankets beneath me, I looked up one last, agonizing time into the shadow of my father’s face.

A sick, sinister smile was the last sight I ever saw in those precious, last moments of life.

Then everything turned black..

I gasped as my eyes shot open and I bolted upright in bed, my breathing so quick and shallow that I could barely get a grip on myself.

“Dream.. it was just.. dream,” I panted as I shakily wiped the sweat from my brow and slowly came back to reality as I looked fearfully around my darkened bedroom.

The speed of my breathing heightened as I fell heavily back into my pillow, gripping my blankets tightly up near my face so hard that both of my hands started aching.

“Just a dream..,” I whispered to myself again as hot tears ran from the corners of my eyes and down the sides of my face, seeping into my pillow as I laid there and stared at the black ceiling. I made no effort to move at all for fear of something that I couldn’t identify, and the only sound in the room was my own shallow breath as adrenaline overpowered all of my senses and shook me relentlessly.

“Just a dream,” I repeated desperately to myself over and over again as I laid there in the bitter, screaming silence.

“It was all just a dream..”

—

“Ronnie..? Ronnie, wake up..”

I gingerly opened my eyes to the bright Saturday morning sunlight shining in through my bedroom window. It nearly blinded me.

“Ronnie?”

I turned my head to the side slowly to detect where the voice was coming from, and soon found myself staring up into the face of my older brother, Randy.

“What’s up, bro..?,” I said as I sat up slowly and rubbed my eyes.

When my vision finally focused on his face I realized that he looked worried.

“Something’s wrong with mom.”

Picking up his sense of anxiety, I quickly followed my brother out of my room and down the hall.

“She’s in the kitchen.. I dunno, something just doesn’t seem right,” he said quietly as he peered around the corner and signalled for me to do the same.

“She just looks.. happy,” I said as I observed the way she washed the dishes as though it was something she had looked forward to doing all week. “Isn’t that a good thing..?”

Randy was quiet for a moment.

“I’ve never seen her this happy,” he said with an extreme tone of uncertainty in his voice. “It just seems really unnatural for her.”

I shrugged.

“Maybe her and dad talked something out?,” I suggested hopefully.

“Are you joking?,” Randy scoffed. “If that’s the case, It’s about time. You have no idea how many times they’ve supposedly talked things out in the past. I think she knows the pattern by now.”

My heart sank. I knew he was right.

“Well.. where’s dad?,” I asked.

“He left early. I think he went down to the bar,” Randy replied. “There’s gotta’ be something wrong when he goes to the bar at sunrise. Nobody does that.”

I sighed. I would have suggested that maybe she was just happy because dad was gone, but she usually feared the moment he would return and would just sit around listlessly until then. Something was definitely different here.

“Whatever, maybe she’s just having a good day,” I finally concluded as I turned and leaned back against the wall, dismissing it from my mind. “I think I’m going to go wash up. You alright?”

Randy looked at me and nodded.

“Once Erik wakes up I’ll make breakfast for you guys, does that sound good?,” he asked just as I turned away. I turned and looked back at him.

“Sounds like a plan,” I replied, smiling.

Sometimes I felt like I would temporarily forget just how grateful I was to have my brothers. Even in the eye of a broken home, we still knew how to take care of each other.

I walked down the hall and into the bathroom, but my smile faded abruptly from my face when I turned on the light and noticed several drops of blood smeared on the countertop.

I checked the small garbage can that was located next to the toilet and noticed several bloody tissues that had been discarded there.

“Randy..?,” I called from the bathroom. “Can you come here for a minute?”

Randy appeared in the doorway moments later.

“Did you get a nosebleed last night..?,” I asked, slightly alarmed and hoping he could dismiss this mess somehow.

“No, not me..,” he replied, then hesitated for a moment.

“Shit, hold on a sec,” he said as he darted down the hall towards the kitchen.

I grabbed a facecloth from underneath the sink and ran it under hot water before wiping up the blood on the counter, and just as I was rinsing out the cloth afterward, Randy returned.

“It was mom. She said it happened in the middle of the night and she couldn’t see anything,” he explained. “You’d think turning on a light would have helped matters a bit..”

“Oh well,” I replied as I wrung out the cloth, relieved that it didn’t appear to be anything worse than a little nosebleed. “She was probably half-asleep, too.”

“Yeah,” Randy agreed, reaching out and taking the cloth from my hands. “I’ll put this in the laundry room for you.”

“Thanks, man,” I said as I observed the smile on his face before he walked away. Something about it gave me the strange feeling that Randy had a lot more on his mind than he let on.

—

It was Monday again.

I couldn’t believe a full week had already passed since Duke and I met Felicia in the cafeteria. Since then, Duke could rarely be seen without Felicia by his side, and in the end it resulted in all three of us becoming pretty good friends.

“So how long have you two known each other?,” Felicia asked as we all sat outside during lunch hour and enjoyed the sunshine.

“Since late last year, I guess. We had been in grade 9 A.P. Music Theory together for a while before we actually became friends, though. But then one day I saw Ronnie getting picked on by some other guys and I decided to step in,” Duke explained. “You know, freshman year.. what a nightmare.”

I laughed. I had to admit that my sophomore year had already been easier than the cannibalistic days of being a freshman.

“So what do you do in your spare time?,” Duke asked Felicia as she nibbled on a sandwich.

“Well,” she replied through a mouthful of food, “I work at the Black Bear Diner on Main Street..”

Duke’s face lit up at this news.

“Oh, we should come and visit you sometime!,” Duke exclaimed, making Felicia severely blush.

“Oh, I dunno.. I don’t work that often..,” she said quietly as she looked down at the grass.

“Well when you do, we’ll come see you, okay?,” Duke said reassuringly as he put a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and him shyly and smiled.

“Do you guys both want to go to a movie tonight?,” Felicia asked quickly, almost as if she was trying to change the subject.

“Sure,” Duke said before turning to me. “You up for that, Ron?”

I felt grateful that Duke seemed to want to include me in going to a movie even when Felicia was involved.

“Yeah, sounds fun,” I replied.

“Cool,” Duke said as the bell rang for class. “How about we meet here after school?”

Felicia and I both nodded.

Perhaps an evening out with friends is just what I need, I thought. It might be nice to feel like a normal teenager for a change.

**