Ten Years Earlier
“Mom, why are we leaving town?”I asked for the hundredth time. It didn’t make sense to me that we would pick up and leave in the middle of the night. That was what we were doing, per my mother. My beautiful mother laughed at me as I fidgeted in the backseat. I continued to pester her with questions, and she sighed, shaking her head.
“Char, it’s a surprise all right?” She turned to look at me and I could tell she needed sleep. I nodded. That exasperated tone told me I needed to learn to be patient. It was one of my downfalls. She smiled and bopped my nose like she always did when she wanted me to drop a topic we were discussing. I smiled back at her, taking her hand in mine.
“All right Momma,” I whispered as the music in the car washed over us. We drove around a sharp, ninety-degree angle corner and a car came barreling straight toward us. Plowing us over, the sound of crunching metal turned my world upside down. My happy moment, obliterated. My world shifted from an innocent ride to incessant screams and shattering glass shards flying all around me.
“Momma?” There was no response. I screamed her name until my throat was sore. Why wasn’t my mother answering me? What was happening? We kept flipping over and over. Motion sickness sat in, and I began to vomit as we landed upside down. I turned my head to the side to let the vomit flow down the window. All I could think about were piercing green eyes I saw in the other car.
I had never seen such eyes before. My mind wouldn’t let the image go. The sadistic satisfaction from them chilled me to my bones. His face cemented itself into my memory. The reward of a photographic memory, I guess. I didn’t know why I kept his gaze.That’s not true.I knew exactly why I did it. He grounded me as the car kept doing cartwheels. That was crazy right?
The laughter and screams died down.Had those come from me? From the other car? Was I dead?So many questions filtered through my toggled brain. It was unfortunate that I didn’t have the answers I needed.
“Hey … Help …” My screams went unanswered. My pleas laid against thin air. Two guys climbed out of the other car. My neck twisted in a weird angle, I couldn’t see my mother. “M …Momma?” Silence met me as I watched the guy from the backseat of the other car throw a girl to the ground.
Vomit ran down my chin as I watched him break her neck. I couldn’t scream anymore. My throat was too sore, and vomit kept coming out, leaving me helpless. I didn’t understand such violence. Why? My eyes focused on the man that was now on the ground next to the girl he killed. I memorized him too. I trembled as I tried to move but whimpered. Dread sunk in as my stomach began to burn—I’m going to die here.
I whimpered and begged my mother to answer me. The blackness in my vision kept lulling me toward sleep. I closed my eyes and I saw the man’s pure thrill of satisfaction as he snapped the girl’s neck. Although I fought to stay awake, to grab my mother’s cellphone to call the police, the blackness pulled me under.
“Clear!”
“Clear!”
I woke to the sound of people bustling about. Sirens blaring. Then silence rained down on the entire commotion.
“DOA,” someone I couldn’t see said. What did that mean? I tried to get back to Momma, but the blackness kept clawing at me.
“Momma?” I screamed as I woke up with a gasp. Disorientation buried itself deep down inside of me. Scared, I called for her again, this time louder. Still no answer. No, instead, a woman in a green uniform came over to me.
“Shh, it’s going to be all right. Everything is going to be all right.” I looked at the woman as hot tears ran down my face. Two more people entered the room. One was a stern looking woman. The other was a doctor. She had to be, her white coat said so. She was frowning at the other woman.
“Charlotte Camilio?” the stern looking woman asked, opening her notepad and clicking a pen in her left hand. I nodded but I couldn’t make eye contact with her. The doctor huffed and the nurse stroked my hair out of my face.
“I’m Officer Torrez.” She paused, probably to make sure I was paying attention. “I need you to tell me everything that you remember.” Her demand was forceful enough to make my stomach roll. The world began to tilt, and I couldn’t breathe. As the nurse put a cool cloth over my throat to calm me down, I shook. Fear made me tremble as the memory began to invade my consciousness. I began to cry.
“I told you, she is not ready to talk. Dammit, now, if you have more questions, you are going to have to wait to ask them,” the doctor snapped in my defense. I closed my eyes as the officer began to bicker with the doctor. Her voice grated my nerves. Making me sick. I know she didn’t mean to, but I was frantic for her to leave.
“I know nothing. All I remember is the car came toward us and then we began to flip.” I closed my eyes and shuddered. A loud huff sounded as the woman made her way out of the room. I had lied to her. I knew everything that happened, but I couldn’t tell anyone. No, those men were dangerous. My mind shut down and I fell back to sleep.
As my consciousness stirred back to life, I noticed a young man sitting to the right of the bed. “Ah, you are awake. Wonderful. I’m David Smith. You can call me Haydes. Everyone does. I’m your social worker.” He smiled at me, and I noted how warm and kind it was as it stretched across his face. I felt safe with him. I somehow just knew I could trust him. I didn’t feel that way about Officer Torrez. I knew it didn’t make sense. She was a police officer and trustworthy, right? I looked at Haydes, concerned.
“Why do I need a social worker?” My mind wasn’t grasping why he would be here.
“I’m here to find you a new family.” He looked down and straightened an invisible part of his clothing. His eyes, as he stared up at me, burned bright. I could now tell why his name was Haydes.
“I don’t need a new family. I already have one. Momma and I were going on a trip. She is in the room next door.” She had to be. There was no way Momma would ever leave me alone. Not like this. And since I was in the hospital, she had to be here with me. She had to be.
Haydes looked down and sighed. He came over and sat down on the bed. He grabbed one of my hands and made me focus on him. “Charlotte …”
I didn’t let him finish. “What’s going on? Where’s my mother?”
Ten Years Earlier
“Happy birthday, baby,”the drunk ass girl in the passenger seat said. Our car went barreling down the highway. She stroked my thigh as my youngest stepbrother, Ayres, had his tongue deep down a woman’s throat. The moans were loud, but I didn’t pay attention to the noise. No, I looked at the girl, the one whose name I couldn’t remember, “Get your dirty mouth on my cock, right now.”
She didn’t move fast enough so I pulled her head toward me as she took her seat belt off. I laughed at the fact that it was so easy to pick up free pussy. Her hands unzipped my jeans and my hard cock thanked her by springing out between the zipper teeth. She took me in her mouth and before I knew it, she had me down her throat—balls deep. Damn, if I were one to keep girls around, I would have kept her just to give me head when I needed it.
The sound of crunching metal and screams forced my eyes open.Fuck, when did I close my eyes?I looked and saw the car in front us flipping over. The young girl inside was screaming for help and looked right at me. Her gaze never faltered as they tumbled over another three times. The first inkling of guilt set in. I didn’t have time to process it.
