Bile crept up the back of my throat as they brought out the tools and I backed away slowly towards the front door. The floor beneath me cracked and I froze, the papers I held fell to the ground. My heart pounded in my chest so hard I thought that it might escape. I stood frozen and listened. Something that sounded like a tool fell to the floor and the room got suddenly quiet. I held my breath. I was afraid that one single solitary breath might alert them to my presence and then I’d be the one on the other end of those tools. I had to get out of here.
“Did you hear that, boss?” I heard one of the men say.
“Hear what?” The one in charge replied gruffly.
“That noise…”
He chuckled and shook his head. “Go check it out if you’re going to act like a scared little girl.”
Oh shit.
I thought to myself. That was my cue to leave. I snuck out the front door and crept along the side of the house. I was glad for once that I’d parked my car along the street instead of pulling up to the house. I sulked along the wood line and up the road to my car. Getting in, I closed the door slowly. It was then that I finally gulped a big breath. My needy lungs craved it in order to pump oxygen through my bloodstream. Pissed because I’d been denying them for too long.
I turned around and looked over my shoulder at the house just in time to see one of the men emerge from the front door. I ducked instantly, hoping they didn’t notice my car. I snuck up for another peek as he was walking towards my car. My heart leapt into my throat and I had no idea what to do. If I started it and pulled off, I’d surely look suspicious, so I held my breath and waited. I didn’t want to look again in case he was right by the car.
I must’ve sat there for a good hour before I moved again. I slowly peered up from my crouched position in the front seat of my car. My muscles ached from crouching for so long and from my still healing ribs.
As far as I could tell, there was no one around. I decided right then and there that I’d go to the one place I never thought I’d go again. I had no other choice.
The drive back into Moonshine Springs was probably the highlight of the last year. Running away from the emotional warfare of home, to this sleepy little town was the last thing I expected. I had no choice. It was this or stick around to see what became of the bloody scene I’d left behind.
Some of the blue and purple bruises on my body had started to fade, but the bruises on my heart and soul would forever be a reminder of a place I would never, ever let myself go again. The memories and crushing pain of the night I asked him for a divorce came back to me in vivid technicolor.
It was then that I realized I didn’t really know the monster that inhabited my husband at all. If he could inflict evil like this upon another human being, then I was simply waiting for death. I would never do that again. It was me or him and I knew I would always, always choose me.
He’d never be able to abuse me again. Not after what I’d seen. Now, I wondered what happened next. Had they seen me? Would someone be coming after me? When would someone find his cold body lying limp on the kitchen floor in a heap of blood by his head and call nine-one-one? Or would they ever find him? Another of my fears came front and center. What if they hadn’t actually killed him? I hadn’t actually been there to see him take that final breath before death swooped in and took over.
I would be strong, even though every single fiber of my body was on edge and testy. I wanted to crawl into myself and never come out. Bile crept up the back of my throat at what I’d seen, but I pushed it back down with a swallow. I was moving on. Picking up the pieces of what was left of my broken life.
Andrew had been good to me in college. Supportive, loving, romantic even. After a couple of years of marriage, he’d ended up in a bar fight over a comment about me and things hadn’t ended well. A switch had been flipped in his brain.
I remember that night clearly, like it was yesterday. The blood. The gash on the back of his head after it met the pavement. The devilish noise that erupted from his lips as the pain coursed through his body. He’d turned into someone I no longer knew. I’d seen a new side of my husband that wasn’t there previously. It was almost as if his brush with death unleashed the violent creature that had been slowly lurking in the shadows just waiting for the perfect moment to make its appearance in our lives.
So, I ran. Home, to this small town from years ago… the one I told myself I’d never return to, because I was better than small town West Virginia. I grew up here in Moonshine Springs. Long days had been spent swimming in the warm lake waters with sweet tea and lemonade drink floaters. Dipping our toes in the springs spread across one of my favorite stomping grounds in this whole town, Willow Springs Stables, owned by the Montgomery family. So many good memories had been formed here and I found a smile cross my lips just at the thought. Traipsing through the woods. Riding horses all day until our butts were sore and we couldn’t walk straight on account of the saddle. Coming
