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Footsteps thunder down the hall. My eyes avert to my door. “Oh no!” I gasp I forgot to lock it. Terror in my eyes, I glance back at Damien. “Get up! Get out the window!”
But it’s too late.
Daddy barrels through my door spots Damien in my bed, and his eyes go wide, twisted in a deep rage that I’ve never seen before. With three long strides, he’s at the edge of my bed, gripping me by the throat, and rasping, “You little whore.”
I’m gasping for air. White dots flash in my eyes. I feel lightheaded. Then in one swift motion, Daddy throws me across my small room and my back hits my yellow plaster wall with a thud.
“Get out of her bed, you little fucker!” I hear Daddy shrieking. There’s a scuffle going on behind me. Lots of feet moving. Shouting. Things rustling. “You’ve ruined her!” Daddy’s head snaps toward me. “You’re nothing but a dirty whore. Just like you mother.”
“Don’t call her that!” Damien . “Don’t you ever call her that! You worthless drunk!” I can feel Damien’s eyes on me as I struggle to pick myself up off the floor. “Addy, don’t you listen to him!”
“Stay out of her head, you little fucker!” Daddy . There’s more noise. Maybe they’re wrestling.
I try to scream. “No, Daddy! No!” But the words come out low, barely above a whisper. With wobbling knees, I steady myself against the wall. I swallow, but my throat aches and it feels like there’s a permanent lump in the center of my esophagus. I just can’t get it down.
Hope flushes through my body. If we can make it to the window. Just a few steps and we can get out. The sound of footsteps plodding across the wooden floor pounds in my ears. Daddy’s gone. Damien is at my side. “Hurry Addy!”
“Damien,” I rasp, trying to speak.
“Not now,” he says urgently. “Just come on.” He guides me to the window and yanks it open with force. There’s a loud clattering sound echoing from down the hall.
Damien starts throwing our bags out the window. One by one, I hear them crunch as they hit the snow covered ground. The blistering cold wind, wafts in through the open window. I shiver and chills blast through me as the icy winter weather hits me in the chest. Damien extends a hand to me. “Here, I’ll help you out.” He puts his hand on my waist, preparing to lower me to the ground.
“What about you?” I breathe. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”
“Don’t worry about me.”
“No.” I remove his hands from my waist and shove him toward the window. “You go.” He fights me off, but I urge him forward. “I promise, I’ll be right behind you.”
But there’s not time for any of that.
Daddy’s back.
He’s got a shotgun. “I’ll bury you. Just like I buried you’re whore of a mother.”
Shock burns through me. I can’t comprehend what he’s telling me. “What?” Tears sting my eyes. “What?” Is he saying he killed Mommy?
He cocks the gun.
Aims it.
BANG!
Daddy, fires a bullet right at my chest. I can’t react, I just stand there waiting for death to welcome me. At least with death, there’s no pain.
The next sequence of events happen in slow motion. I close my eyes. Feel hands on my shoulders. Feel my body being shoved aside. I topple to the floor and hear a strained grunt. My head snaps to the side just in time to see Damien take a bullet to the chest.
“No!” I shriek. “No!”
There’s a glazed over look in Damien’s blue blue eyes. His face is whiter than the sheets on my bed. He’s trying to speak, but the buckshot from the gun expels all over his front, penetrating through his skin, lacerating his organs, and blood spurts from his mouth. He hits his knees, more blood spreading across his chest like a carton of milk knocked off the kitchen counter. He touches his chest cavity, a ghost-like smile on his lips.
All of the wind is knocked out of my lungs.
I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.
I want to die.
I move forward, my arms outstretched, pain and terror in my violet eyes, a dull throbbing ache in my heart. “No! Damien!”
