Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Chapter 18

Forgetting the torture and trauma caused by Porter would always be a struggle for Rachael. Even ten years later as she lays in bed her with her husband while reading a bedtime story to her youngest of five, she can feel Joshua Porter watching over her every move. But she wasn't that Rachael anymore. She wasn't Rachael Everdeen anymore. Now, she was Rachael Pines. Though it wasn't her anymore, she had permanent bruises on her wrists and words scarred into her thighs. He would always be there. She knew that.

    "M.. mommy?" Her son spoke quietly in her lap.

    She snapped back into reality and looked down at him. He was tired and rubbed his eyes with his hands.

    "Yes, Winston?" She gently got up with him in her arms. She started carrying him back to his bedroom. Her husband lay sleeping in their bed.

    "What are the marks on your wrists?"

    She had only told the story to the oldest child, the daughter who learned it as a lesson to never drink alone or out of the house without letting Rachael know.

    "Well... a bad man once kidnapped and hurt me." She explained.

    "How did you escape him?" He questioned, "Ooo did you do ninja sneaking?"

    Rachael smiled and ruffled his hair as she laid him in his bed. "Yeah, kiddo, I snuck out and I escaped."

    "Wow! You're so cool, mommy!"

    She chuckled and kissed the 5 year old's forehead. "Goodnight, Winston."

    After she turned off his light and closed the door, she let out a sigh and turned away. At the end of the hallway, she could make out a tall man's figure. Her body and heart froze in utter fear. It wasn't her husband's figure nor his height.

    The figure was tall, lanky, and familiar. She wasn't close enough to see any facial features but she wasn't willing to find out. Her two boys shared a room while her three daughters shared a separate bedroom. She was guarding both bedrooms yet wanted to be secluded in a corner of safety. Words whispered through the air from the figure in the hallway.

    "I'm the bad guy here.. and everyone knows the bad guy never gets a happy ending."

    She held her breath as the figure spoke. A creak silenced the halls yet the figure didn't not falter to make her any less uneasy.

    "Mom?" One of the daughters spoke from behind her.

    She flinched and turned her eyes away from the man's figure. The daughter's expression was tired and confused.

    "Mom, what are you doing standing in the hall?" The daughter asked again.

    "I..." Rachael turned her head to look where the man's figure was no longer there. "I thought I saw something.."

    Rachael looked at her daughter who was sympathetic of her mom's PTSD. Her daughter walked up and hugged her to calm her down. They hug for a while before the daughter walks Rachael back to her bedroom before leaving to go back to bed.

    A sigh emerged from the bed. Her husband was awake now.

    "Did you see something again?" He spoke softly as Rachael relaxed into his big arms.

    Rachael nodded and rested her face close to his. He smiled at her and she smiled back, now relaxed from her panicked state in the hallway.

    "Everything will be ok, my dear." He reassured her before falling asleep.

    She believed him yet she always felt that she was seeing things that were actually there when they are proven to be her imagination. She almost wanted to accept that Porter was part of her now since she could never get him out of her head.

    In the morning, all five kids woke up and got ready for their day. The oldest helped the younger kids get dressed and fed. Rachael helped make breakfast and packed lunches for all of them.

    "Kippie, could you do role call for me?" Rachael asked while fixing the oldest daughter's hair.

    "On it." Kippiry said as she moved into the living room and yelled. "Role call!"

    The other four kids swarmed in and Rachael's husband sleepily walked into the kitchen to eat breakfast.

    "Both parents are here, I'm here, Winston's here, Maria's here, Gwenaddine's here, aaaaand where's Adam?" Kippiry looked around the crowd of kids in front of her.

    Adam, the second to youngest, came waddling into the living room with a drawing in his hand. Kippiry smiled and gave him his backpack with his lunch in it and the rest of her jelly toast before looking at Rachael.

    "All of the boogers are picked and ready to be eaten by school.."

    "Ewww" the group of kids giggled in mixed unison.

    Rachael, Kippiry, and Darryn (Rachael's husband) laughed. Once Kippiry got the kids in her car to drive them to school, she came back to hug her parents. They said goodbye before Kippiry drove off. Rachael noticed that Adam had left his drawing on the floor. Darryn went and picked it up to bring it to her. He admired it and smiled at the smudged drawing.

    As he set it down on top of the journal Rachael had found in prison, flashbacks flooded her brain. The exact picture that was in front of her is the same picture drawn by Rachael herself moments before she was arrested with Porter. The people, the clothes, the knife in hand, the innocent smiles. Everything was the exact same.

She felt herself hyperventilating as she weakly set her coffee cup on the counter. Darryn held her up as she stumbled away from the picture. He held her close, immediately calming Rachael.

"It's okay, Rachael." He calmed her with his words.

"I-I'm sorry.."

He pat her on the head while looking her straight in the eye. "There's no need for apologies.. you're safe with me. I promise you're safe out of sight, out of mind."