Tenderness

✫ Chapter 5 - Bodies ✫

16/7/1996

''You should have stayed away'' She said with a serious expression. Her dress was covered in blood. I noticed two bodies covered under white sheets on the ground next to the dug up holes. Her eyes were wide open, her breathing was going faster and faster. She didn't say a word. I looked at her, she hasn't blinked once. ''Autumn? What...is this...how..why...who..'' I couldn't say a proper sentence, I was in too much of a shock.  She ignored me and started walking a path towards the forest. I followed her not knowing what to expect. We went deep into the woods. I kept thinking, why am i following her, she must be insane, I have to escape and  call the police. But my legs kept moving. I couldn't stop them. I was still following her, she looked at me every few minutes with a murderous look in her eyes. 

We reached the end of the path. My whole body was shaking. ''This is all a dream, I'm having a nightmare, right? '' I said to myself. There were two girls dressed in white, hanging from a tree. I didn't understand what was going on. I shivered and slowly leaned towards Autumn. I asked in a gentle voice,  ''Why?''  She walked closer to the tree and bodies. Gazed at me and started telling the story.

❝ Sitting in a car as it hurtled through the freezing night, my heart pounded in my chest. Breaking the silence, the stranger beside me yelled, ''Be good! Be quiet!'' I was outside when someone grabbed me and pushed me into their car. After a terrifying 5 hour drive, we arrived at his house. Pulling me down a flight of steps, we ended up in a basement full of strange devices, including a cage. ''It's okay to cry'' he said coldly. ''This is going to be hard for you''. The details are a blur, but i remember him removing my clothes, locking a dog collar around my neck and dragging me upstairs. Up to his bedroom. I was chained to the floor. Then he raped me. In the four days that followed i was chained up, beaten, raped and tortured. I did whatever i had to do to survive, no matter how humiliating, painful or disgusting. I did it because i wanted to live and hoped people might be looking for me. Hope was all i had. On the fourth day, before he left for work, he said ''I'm beginning to like you too much,  tonight we're going for a drive.'' I fully expected him to kill me. After a few hours have passed, I could hear someone break through the door. I hid under the bed, frightened. I could see a few men in uniform burst into the bedroom. Relieved, I saw the initials FBI on their uniforms. Everything was alright. I got rescued. Happy ending? No. My parents blamed me for it. The man got sentenced in prison for 19 years but my father thought it was too much. It was all my fault. He beat me again and again for months. My mother would support his decisions. Saying, I deserved it. And my sisters? They would laugh in my face. On Sunday, dad hit me again,  this time in the kitchen, but then he started touching me in places i do not want to be touched. As he was slowly pulling my dress down, he whispered, ''You're used to it anyway''.  I couldn't hold it in anymore. I grabbed a knife next to me and stabbed him. Not once, not twice, but three times. I liked it. I couldn't stop. I ran up the stairs and stabbed mother in her sleep. I dragged the bodies to the basement. That's when Annabel, my younger sister, walked past. Her glass of water fell on the floor and shattered all over the hallway. I didn't know what to do. I took the same knife and sliced a vein in her neck. It was the end. I walked upstairs and did the same to my older sister Catherine. You might ask how did such a weak girl do all this, but you don't know what insanity feels like. ❞