Castles

Chapter 1

I was numb.

That's was the only way to describe it.

I was numb most of my childhood. And angry. I was so angry. There were only so many things you wanted when you were young. Things like happiness, love and safety. So when you didn't get them for whatever reason it was terrible. And you became something else entirely to hide what was happening.

You changed to survive the abuse, becoming a person you weren't supposed to be, crying on the inside. You wanted out. But there was no way out.

So you slipped away.

"Joselyn," Max said from behind me.

I held the tiny bottle in my hand wishing I had the guts to drink it. But I didn't so I put it back.

"She'll be back in five minutes." He went back upstairs and as soon as the door shut I sat the bottle down and turned.

I walked down the hallway, he was sitting in his recliner.

Five minutes, just five. It would change everything. And his death was in my hands. I pulled the knife out from my waistband and gripped the handle. It was time to do it.

I crept to the back of the recliner, staring down at his thinning hair and the grey that danced across most of it, I knew what I needed to do.

I attacked--repeatedly. The same way he had done for so many years. He had no idea what I had planned, there was no resistance. He held his throat, trying to stop the blood from escaping through his fingers and he dropped to the floor with a thud.

His eyes settled on me, as he clung to his last few minutes of life. I'm not sure what he was thinking. If he hated me for ending his existence or if he secretly welcomed the end because he was miserable and had been waiting to die.

And then it was over. He was dead at my feet. Forever frozen there on the floor. His image a permanent portrait hanging in my memory.

I dropped the knife and sat down on the sofa forcing myself to wait for her to get home.

And sure enough just like she promised her headlights illuminated the living room. She unlocked the front door and came in the house. Her keys made the familiar jingle as they dropped into the ceramic bowl on the stand by the front door.

She came into the living room and grinned. "You did it."

She studied his dead body lying on the floor.

Max came downstairs a few minutes later. "Should I call an ambulance?"

She shook her head. "No. We will take care of this ourselves."