Egos

Chapter One

"What hurts most is when you trust someone blindly, and that person proves to you that you are truly blind."

-Dr. Anne Brown

It was the middle of the night and Ava's daughter had awoken with nightmares almost half an hour ago. The house that held her and the girl captive was not only cold, but large and lonesome. The two sat in the forbidding darkness of the master bedroom, each other's only company.

In an attempt to lure rest into her daughter's mind, Ava sang lightly to her daughter, rocking her back and forth to an ominous lullaby.

"Looking at Danielle is like looking at a mirror from the past," Ava thought quietly. The two shared brown hair, tanned skin, and eyes that changed with the sun. Eyes that were wide open.

"Close your eyes, Dani," the mother doted her daughter. "If you go to sleep now, it'll be less time until you can play in the morning," she finished with a playful whisper.

The little girl obliged, and the mother resumed her soft lullaby.

Ava sighed, holding her daughter delicately. She had hoped it wouldn't happen tonight, but just like every night, drunken footsteps and slamming doors waged a sudden war down the hallway.

Her husband was home.

Feeling safe behind the locked door of the master, Ava didn't react to Charles, or Charlie, as she so endearingly called him, beating on the wooden barrier. His ravaging lifestyle no longer phased her; this was a routine between the two. A dance of sorts.

Every night Charles would attempt to stumble his way to Ava through his clouded mind, aggression reeking on each boozed breath he wheezed. Every night Ava would sing to her daughter, smiling away anything that seemed amiss from her picture-perfect life.

She was a housewife with a loving husband and a perfect daughter. This was all a darkness of the night that she would soon find the light from. And, as any loyal wife would believe, Ava knew Charlie would lead the way.

With Danielle in her arms, Ava carefully walked into the bathroom, cradled her two-and-a-half-year-old, and once again sang her song.

Sometimes, Ava imagined that she was singing to herself, too, to quiet the monster raging outside her bedroom.

All was well until a loud commotion brought Dani from sleep and her mother from her dazed state of song. The girl began to scream, but to no avail.

Ava turned, seeing a monstrosity of a man storming towards her.

Charles had beat down the bedroom door, he now came full speed ahead, buck naked, demanding Ava turn over his daughter.

As much as she loved Charlie, Ava knew that Dani came first. No mother would turn her child over to such a terrible sight.

She doubled over the girl, shaking now, still attempting to sing her back to sleep. She rocked back and forth, back and forth. Charles shook her back and forth, back and forth. If she rocked, then maybe she wouldn't notice the difference in who caused it.

"Give me the girl, Ava!"

"You are my sunshine..." the mother crooned, still rocking.

Charles moved for Dani, attempting to wrench her from her mother's arms.

The girl's screams doubled in volume, reaching a pitch high enough to break glass. Ava pulled Dani away from Charles, bent and shaking in the corner of the bathroom.

"No, no, no!" the mother screamed.

"Give me the girl," her husband spoke, ever so quietly. Such a gentleness had crept into his voice.