The C Word

Chapter One

As she sat on the floor playing with her toys, she heard her father enter their home. Fear instantly filled her small child body and she waited, to see if it was going to be a bad night or not. She remained still until she heard her father yelling at her mother. She immediately jumped up and starting cleaning the floor, making sure her entire room was neat and clutter free. She continued to hear her parents fighting as she turned the light off in her bedroom. She remained by the door until she hear her mom loudly sobbing. She knew trouble was coming her way so she ran and slid under the bed. She moved her body to the farthest corner and started to pray as she had been taught by her mother. She heard her father's steps coming towards her room as her body began to shake from terror. She closed her eyes shut and tightly clasped her hands together praying that tonight would be different. She hear her father calling for her as she held her breath but then, instantly started screaming when his large hands reached under the bed to grab her. . .

Livy Marie Green awoke from the nightmare in a pool of her own sweat. She picked up her cell phone from the night stand and saw that it was only 3:42am. She loudly sighed because she had to be up in four hours to drive back home for summer break. Livy Marie got out of bed and changed her soaked oversize T-shirt and shorts. She then headed towards the kitchen in her on-campus two bedroom apartment that she shared with her college friend, Bee Smith. Bee finished with finals early so she had already left for summer break a few days ago.

Livy Marie grabbed a water bottle out of the refrigerator and returned back to her bedroom. She turned the TV on and sat back down on the bed. She then noticed that she had several text messages from her ex boyfriend, Tyyler Washington. He definitely wasn't understanding that they were broken up but Livy Marie was already over their relationship. She couldn't waste another minute with a guy that had no plans for the future when graduation was only a year away. She wanted a guy with some type of long term goals and ambition. Tyyler had neither so she was forced to end their relationship after two years. She had to admit, Tyyler was a great friend and they had a lot of fun together but Livy Marie needed more security for her future.

As she placed her cell back on the charger, she thought about her nightmare that still had her shaken. The fear felt so real but she was confused on why she was having them. Her family was great and she was a daddy's girl at heart. Maybe she needed to stop watching horror movies because it was definitely ruining her peaceful sleeping pattern. Lately, she had been experiencing that same nightmare or similar ones more often and she couldn't shake the realness of them. For some reason in the dream, she was always a little girl in a domestic violence situation. Maybe God was trying to tell her that she needed to work for Child Protective Services or to become a Social Worker but that wasn't what she wanted at all.

With tiredness slowly clouding her mind, she turned the volume down on the TV and laid back down. She needed to get some sleep so that she could make the two hour drive back home to reunite with her family later that day. She hoped that she wouldn't experience another bad dream and closed her eyes; drifting slowly off to sleep.

****

At 7am on the dot, the alarm went off on her cell. It scared the crap out of her because she was in such a deep slumber. She turn over and immediately turned it off. She stretched and decided that she could spare another hour of sleep. One hour turned into a few more and Livy Marie didn't fully wake up until around 10:30am. She slowly got out of bed and finished packing up her belongings. She was so happy that she would be able to leave her school books behind because she definitely needed a break. Between being a full-time student and her internship, she barely saw her family at all. That's why she wanted to spend the summer with them. Plus, she needed to have some fun. After graduation next year, she hoped to get hired by the Architect Firm that she was interning for. Architectural Studies was her major at Red Oak State University and she would be considered a graduating senior in the fall. Livy Marie smiled at the thought that she had worked hard this past school term and would probably be graduating with honors.