The Best Dream

Nightmare #4

"YOU UNGRATEFUL WHORE!"

The sudden contact with the floor knocked the wind from my lungs.

I held my cheek delicately as if my touch would somehow ease the stinging sensation.

I was in shock.

It wasn't as if I'd never received a lick before, it was customary, but never had I received one of this magnitude.

Salty solution threatened to break down the flood gates but I desperately suppressed them.

"Is this what we're sending you to school for? For you to mess around with boys?! For you to..to...pimp yourself out?!"

He paced.

"We taught you about God! About the bible! Do you think you'll ever see heaven with behavior like that?! Let me answer that for you- NO! No you will not. Did we raise you to be a slut Ann?!" His voice cracked.

I couldn't pull my eyes away from him. It was as if someone had glued them there.

I was afraid of what he would do next.

Never in my life had I seen this side of him and never in my life do I ever again want to, it made me sick to my stomach.

"WELL DID WE?!"

I mustered what little voice I had.

"N-no daddy-"

"THEN WHY THE BLOODY HELL DID YOU DO IT THEN?!"

He had tears racing down his face.

"H-he said he l-loved me a-and we w-would g-g-get married a-an-and-"

He laughed.

"He said loved you? He loved you? Right now I'm finding it rather hard to imagine someone loving you, far less a boy with balls for a brain," he spat.

I winced feeling as though a knife was just driven into my heart.

"But you believed him? After everything I've taught you about teenage boys and their lies, you, like a fool, believed him? I thought I raised you to know better! To be better!"

My eyes widened as my father's face morphed into Dave's.

My breathing rate quickened as the kitchen glitched and fizzled and the school hallways and lockers came into view.

Dave/Dad(???): You said you loved me Ann! 

Everything glitched back and forth from my dad and our kitchen to Dave and the school.

I could hardly process what was happening.

"I-I did! No! I-I do! It was one time!"

Dave/Dad(???): IT WAS ONE TIME?!

I felt the fear slowly paralyzing me but I fought my hardest to inch backwards, away from him, despite it.

Dad(???): You were supposed to get an education!

Dave(???): You said you would marry me! 

Dad(???): You were supposed to bring home money! 

Dave(???): You said we would start a family together! 

Dave/Dad(???): You (were never) said (supposed) [you'd never] (to) leave me-!"

I heard voices but they were so slurred that I could hardly make them out.

The faces flickered back and forth until only Dave was left, his dark presence looming over me.

"I can't live without you baby!"