Saving Grace | ✓

Chapter Eight

{ Chapter Eight }

She forces my car door open before I can lock it and drags me out. I scream and kick at her hands, fighting to get free. "Calm down, you little-" She can't finish because my foot finds her mouth. She lets out a yell and punches me to the ground. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, Hope drags me to her own car and throws me in the backseat.

Handcuffing me to the seat-belt, she grins grotesquely as she places duck-tape over my mouth. "There. Now you'll be quiet." Her teeth were covered in blood; I must have kicked out a tooth. 

As Hope drives to God knows where, I try and scream through the duck-tape, hoping that someone will hear me and rescue me from this witch. 

"Shut up!" She yells at me, hitting me in the thigh with a flogger. "You pregnant slut." She whips my bulging belly, and I cry out. "Got knocked up by some drunk boy and now you're gonna be a pregnant teen. How sweet!" She exclaims mockingly. 

We get caught up in traffic a few minutes later. I have finally stopped screaming; my throat is too raw to continue. Hope cusses under her breath and honks her horn loudly.

Tears stream down my cheeks and over the duck-tape. I look to my left and see Caleb and Michael on their way to dinner. Banging my head against the window, I whisper quietly to myself. "It's okay, they'll see you, they'll get you away from her. You'll be okay."

Michael finally glances over at the car as Hope honks the horn and sees me. His eyes grow wide and he says something, dialing a quick number on his cell phone. Caleb looks at me from the passenger's side with hopeful eyes, then glances at Hope. 

I hear sirens less than a minute later. Hope glances in the mirror and scoffs. "Stupid cops again. They're everywhere." 

Too soon though, she realizes they are coming for her. The policemen pull their cop cars all around Hope's car, blocking us in. "What the-" She says, as they drag her out of the car. She screams at me, calling me named like slut and whore, along with a few swear words. 

One police man opens the door closest to me and takes the handcuffs off of me, slowly removing the duck-tape from my mouth. Tears run into my mouth. "Are you alright, miss? Are you hurt?"

I shake my head and wrap my arms around his neck, crying as he lifts me out of the car. As soon as my feet hit the ground, I run over to Michael and Caleb and hug them, getting as far away from Hope as possible.

"You slut! You pregnant slut! I'll be back, don't you forget it! You're not free yet!" She yells before they force her into the back of a squad car.

"Grace," Caleb says, breathless. I hug only him now, with Michael rubbing my back. I bury my face in Caleb's shirt and block out Hope's screams.

"Can we take her home?" I hear Michael ask. The same cop that let me go answers something that I don't understand, but I climb into the back of the Brian's car anyway. Caleb slides in behind me as Michael drives us back home.

I lean against Caleb's chest, no seat-belt, and clench his shirt in my fist. My body is shaking with sobs and fear. He wraps his arms around me and holds me close until I fall asleep in his arms.

-

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I'm laying on my bed later that night. When I woke up earlier, Michael sent me straight to bed while he made soup for my dinner. I ate it all, but quickly threw it all back up five minutes after.

A knock on my door causes me to turn over, facing the opposite wall. The door opens and someone walks over to my bed. "Grace?" I hear Caleb say softly. The bed dips down when he sits on it beside me. 

"I don't want to talk." I mumble into my pillow.

"Who was that woman?"

"I said I don't want to talk." I snap louder, then sigh and relax in my blankets. "I'm sorry. I'm really shaken up." I don't wait for a response before continuing. "She's my mom. Her name is Hope. The man earlier was my father, David. They're abusive. I ran away from home, and now they know and are looking for me but they know where I am."

He rubs my back as I talk. My voice is barely above a whisper. "I'm sorry." He says, barely audible. "I shouldn't have asked."

"But my sister Alexis is still at their house and there's no telling what they've done to her and she might as well be dead, she probably would rather be dead than have to go through what they're putting her through if she's still alive and-" My rambling is cut off by a sob getting caught in my throat. 

Caleb lays down beside me and pulls me to him by my waist. "It'll be okay. I'm sure Alexis is fine."

"No, we have to go back." I say through my tears. "We can't just leave her there, she's my sister. I'm her only hope. I have to go get her."

"Okay." He whispers. "Tomorrow, okay? Go to sleep now. You need your rest."

And with those last words from him floating around in my head, I fall asleep.