Me Too

43

Frozen in my bathroom, I wait for the hand to tap again. It was as if it were my imagination. Two thumps and then silence. The wind tormented me as I waited for the chain to break and Ryan to find me.

The thumping happened again. Once, twice.

My feet broke from their cement binds and I shuffled to the door. The wood was the only thing protecting me. I could've grabbed a knife or called the police, but what good would that have done? Ryan is more powerful than me.

I slid the chain and turned the lock on the handle, pulling the white wood open a crack. White. I close my eyes, opening the door to reveal me to my enemy. I looked down into the eyes of the monster.

"Good morning, Mrs. Abbets."

The old woman took the door from my hand, pushing it open further, waddling in past me. I furrow my eyebrows as she comes past me, looking around. She has a cane with her, probably because she can't see in the dark- she'd see perfectly fine if she came at an earthly hour. "Hush, child. Come sit."

"Yes, please come in?" I look from the lit hallway to my blueish scene living room. The light didn't aide me any, so I shut the door and flicked on all of the kitchen lights by the doorjam under the hanging cabinets. "What can I do for you this early in the morning?"

Susan smiled. She sat down on the love seat in a floral top and navy blue slacks. She's a slim woman, it appears, but she shows her age and experience in her waist and skin. Her hips are those of a mothers and her skin that of a lot of years of worry. "I'd just like to sit and talk for a few minutes, Chloe."

"Well, Sofia isn't here."

"I know." She tapped my white couch with her cane hook. "Sit."

I tip toe in my own apartment to the couch. My reflection in the patio French door glass made me jump out of the corner of my eye. "Are you alright, Susan?"

"I'm just fine," she settled in. "But you're not."

"Everyone keeps saying that- I am fine."

Susan scoffed. "You're a lesbian, you're obviously not."

"Please leave," I demand.

"Don't get your panties in a twist, child. My god." She leaned towards me. "You've been through some things, I can see it in your eyes. You've been hurt. You are a delicate woman and you are trying to go at things as if they aren't in your way. You're trying to erase the past."

"Yeah, I am," I admit breathlessly. "I am trying to erase some things. Like your presence from my house. Have a nice night."

"Chloe, you're a girl who has been violated." She looked me in the eye, very little space between us. "You've had your innocence taken from you, and you're trying to forget that happened to you."

I cross my arms over my chest and cross my legs, I make myself small. She is intimidating me with her assumptions. "You don't know anything about me, Susan."

She nods, pardoning me. "That's true, I don't usually care for the population who prefer breastmilk than semen, but I do know someone just like you."

"Oh, really?" I scoff. "Is it you? Do I remind you of you when you were younger?"

"Oh hell no, I'd rather burn alive than be you. Heavens no." She shook her head violently. "No, a young fellow I used to know. He was just like you, in every way. Young, a bit stupid, and lost within himself; heart broken, into girls, was an absolute pest-"

"Anyways," I interrupt, brushing my hair back.

She cleared her voice. It was stronger than the rest of her body. She kept it exercised enough by always having something to say. "Anyhow, he went through some of the things you have." Susan demonstrated with her hands, one at her chin, one below her knee. What is this derranged elder doing? An exorcism? "This young man started life up here, and stayed up here for a while. So you understand?"