The tip of the pen met the page for the second time that same evening. My letters were jumbled and some were flailing halfway down the page as I carved the words into the pristine paper in complete darkness. Not even the moon gave me the power to see my surroundings as the blinds acted as a shield for the window, blocking out all light. The blinds at home always allowed a shard of light to creep into the room but here, night time had never seen light, it was a nonexistent thing.
It was the intensity within their voices that woke me, how their words slipped under the closed door to reach me. It was as if that was the purpose of their voices-to come and find me. Maybe they didn’t know what they were saying, because once a sentence had fallen from their lips, there was no way of collecting it back again. The words were meanless to them, but they still cling to me, pulling me down. Maybe if they had known I was listening, they would have stopped? Maybe if I was who I am today I would of built up the courage to say something to them to make them stop? No I wouldn’t, because all courage has been drained out of me. The tip of the pen met the page for the second time that same evening, it wrote ‘I am scared about what is to come.’
It all began quietly, with their words as silent as the beat of an owl’s wings, I had to crouch by the door to hear anything. Then their tempers started to rise by the second and with it their voices. They were speaking about Julia’s cut across her hand at first and how she should get it checked out at a hospital, but then as Julia refused, the conversation spiraled into an argument, somehow about me. Kevin’s voice was the first I recorded in my diary. “You know it won’t be long before he is dead too-“ silence snatched the end of his sentence away, then the silence was defeated by the same voice. “It won’t be long before he is lying in the ground with his wife. If I find out that the glass smashing wasn’t an accident after all I will be the one to kill him. Otherwise the drink will be the one sending him to the grave. With the way he is going his children will be orphaned.”
His words stunned me, halting my breathing for a few seconds. Stop. Please. Those thoughts were designed to pull me away from the door, but I did the opposite: stayed and listened, my heart thumping furiously as they spoke about my family.
“Stop Kevin. Please.” The words were snatched from my mouth by Julia. Julia pleaded her husband in such a subtle way it was as if she was scared of him at times. I wished Julia had been braver and stopped him straight away, but I guess he was only saying what everyone would have been thinking when they laid eyes on us, when they read the newspaper’s twisted stories, when they saw me.
“And the girl is covered in bruises Julia,”
“Her name is Elsie.” Julia retorted sharply.
“Elsie is covered in bruises then, happy now?”
“She fell down the stairs Kevin, you know that.”
“Nobody is ever going to know that for sure.” Kevin snapped. “What if he pushed her because he was angry? Or he hit her? He was drunk!”
His face was in my mind. His eyes locked onto mine as he raised his hand to slap me. Dad.
“Kevin. Stop.” Julia’s voice was still as weak as before and wobbled, her sentence trailing off and disintegrating into the atmosphere. “They would never lay a finger on Elsie.”
Mum’s beautiful voice glided round my head, “Your father is a good man. He will look after you and Belle.”
“Also what hope is there for Belle?” Kevin continued, unaware of the little girl on the other side of the door, listening.
“Kevin-“
“No answer me. What hope is there for Belle, huh?”
“Please.” Julia begged, her voice collapsing with emotion. “Don’t do this to me, don’t say anything else.”
“How do you know that he hasn’t killed himself whilst we have been away?”
“The neighbours are checking on him. I asked them to, so just stop now.”
The final thing I heard were the sound of muffled apologies from Kevin, then I pulled the covers over my head. The only noise in the room was the deep breathing of Phoebe as she slept and my faint sobs. My fear never did elude me and getting back to sleep was the last thing on my mind. I knew that we would either arrive home tomorrow to find dad is okay or we find him dead and I begin life as an orphan.
Often I would lie awake and think about what I could do if I wasn’t me. If I was a normal little girl. This was one of those nights. All I wanted was the chance to be somebody special then my life would be worth living. I would give my life to be normal. I knew that some girls my age would dream about getting a pony, or a games consol, but all I ever wanted was my mum and dad back. On birthdays you are meant to gain presents but on mine I lost the only thing valuable to me: Mum.
YOU ARE READING
A Fractured Fairytale
Fiksi RemajaThe fragile words glided from his mouth like it was a natural thing to say, his sentence crumbling into the atmosphere. "Your condition is incurable." This is where it all started, she was told she was going to die and she kept it from us. She lied...
