Everyone has a dark side...some just know how to use it. Three different women with three different secrets, but secrets can only stay buried for so long...
It was cold, and it was dark. The mother was barely able to sign the papers her hands were shaking so much. Her palms were moist, but her mouth was dry. Her hands bore the signs of all the abuse, scratched and burnt and stitched.
The man with the white doctors coat told her it was going to be ok. That she was doing the right thing. The psychiatrist who she'd been seeing nodded. One of them had planted a comforting hand on her shaking shoulder.
"You're doing the right thing for Hope." She said in a calm soothing voice.
But she knew she was being selfish. She was doing this more for herself than for the child she had given birth too. She knew she couldn't take any more of it. She had to get rid of her. She'd tried once before, but had failed. She signed the papers- handing her child over for an undetermined amount of time.
'Revolutionary new experimental programme. Psychological breakthroughs in working with disturbed children. Totally confidential.'
She turned and looked at her car. Her daughter was sitting in the back staring at her with those pitch black eyes. From here she could appreciate her daughters beauty. Six years old, round, heart shaped face, huge dark brown eyes and long blonde hair. She was angelic looking- but she was far from angelic.
A shiver passed through her as her daughter leaned forward and pushed her face against the car window. Her chubby cheeks mashed into the glass and her features became distorted and grotesque. She gave her car keys over to the two large men flanking the doctor with the white coat. She was expecting a fight. She was expecting to see blood and tears and flashes of hungry, biting teeth.
But she didn't.
The men unlocked the car and the girl walked out and smiled, as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.
"Goodbye mother," she said as she walked silently towards the door with the man in the white coat.
"You're doing the right thing." Her psychiatrist assured her again.
The mother watched as her daughter disappeared into the large stone building.
She climbed into her car and sat. She was still shaking. She didn't know whether to laugh, or to cry. How can a mother abandon her child? How can a good Christian woman turn her back on her baby? Her own mother's words ran through her head, but her mother didn't know what daily nightmare she was living.
She was about to drive off when another car pulled into the dark parking lot. In the dim light she could just make out the tall figure of a man as he walked across the lot and towards the ivy covered house. He momentarily stepped into a beam of light and she could clearly see he was wearing a white hat on his head. He stepped inside and she looked at the house. It was old and there was something haunting about it. She didn't want to know what went on inside. The thought frightened her.
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She started the engine and began the long drive back home. Through the night and well into the next morning. She finally arrived home and slipped her keys into the front door. She froze. The fear shot through her veins. She always froze when she slipped her keys into the door because she never knew what lay beyond it. Except now she did... peace.
Silence.
She walked into her home and looked around. Holes in the walls, graffiti, carpets ripped up in fits of uncontrollable rage and locks on all the cupboards. She was tired, she was broken and she was an empty shell of a person. She needed sleep. She hadn't slept well in years.
She went straight to her bedroom and was just about to lock the door, lock herself in, and lock her out, when she realised... she didn't need to lock it anymore. This realization hit her hard. She was overcome as one intense emotion after the other slammed into her body with the full force of a Tsunami. They hit her so hard that her legs collapsed beneath her and she fell to the floor.
And then her tears came. Tears of pure unadulterated joy and relief. She cried and cried. She cried so hard and so loudly that her stomach and throat started to hurt. She closed her eyes and fell asleep right there and then on the floor of her bedroom with her door wide open.
