"Does it feel good knowing I'd kill for you, Jamilyn?"
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Upon the passing of her grandfather, Jamilyn Caswell, moves back to Forks, Washington to aid her grandmother. What she didn't expect was to h...
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"Eventually, everything connects."
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~ 13 years ago ~
My parents were fighting again, and I could hear their yelling from my room. Day and night, they went at it like a cycle.
I'd wake up to yelling.
Fall asleep to yelling.
And when it was quiet, it would only last a couple of hours, but it was enough time for me to get some sleep. "Bee," I whisper through the crack of my bedroom door.
Bee, our pit bull, sat idly at the top of the steps as if guarding them. His ears flicker before he turns his small head my way, licking his snout. I waved him over and coaxed him into my room. And then, they started again. I close my door and lock it, cuddling Bee at my side.
"WHERE WERE YOU LAST NIGHT?"
"IM A GROWN WOMAN. WHERE I GO IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS," my mama shouts back.
Thundering footsteps race across the house and further into the kitchen, where their voices dimmed slightly.
"IT IS MY BUSINESS GRACE," a sharp pounding sound meant he hit something, "WHEN I CATCH YOU CHEATING MULTIPLE TIMES. WITH SUTTON NONETHELESS."
The house became eerily silent, and I took the risk of settling atop the stairs, eavesdropping.
Then mama let out a gasp. She sounded like she was choking. I froze still on the stairs at the cold venom-filled words escape my father's mouth. "If I catch you again, so help me god, I will do something we both regret. And it'll be your fault, Grace. YOUR FAULT! And I wonder why the major dropped me from my job. NOW I HAVE NO MONEY AND NO FUCKING DRUGS."
I sit up too fast, and it causes the floorboards to creak. I stare in horror as my father comes around the corner and looks up at me from the stairs. He was menacing and displayed the signs of mental illness all too well, amongst other things.
"Papa?" I whisper fearfully, clenching the stairwell.
"Come here, boy," he slurs, briefly looking to his right.
I gaze back at Bee before slowly making my way downstairs and standing before him. Since I was closer, I could mow heat the breathless huffs of mama gasping for air as she held her bruising neck. I jump, startled when papa grips my shoulder, leaning in close.
His eyes were yellow and red, stressed and drugged. His breath reeked of alcohol as he spoke. "Listen here, boy. If you know what's good for you, don't get married, don't have kids, and never let a woman destroy your life. It'll kill ya slowly and painfully."
My body shook at the monstrous gleam in his eyes, and all I could do was watch the madness happen. He grabs mama by her arm, and she cries out desperately, pushing him away. Papa corners her to the counter, holding her by her neck now. He peers over at me; my feet melted to the floor. "All women are fucking good for, son is pleasure."
