REprisal - Kathy Coopmans Page 0,1
I inhale her intoxicating scent before I lay her down on the bed and curl up beside her, watching her tiny chest rise and fall as she slumbers peacefully. Fatigue hits me and I struggle to keep my eyes open.
I live in fear of my mother’s threats to take her away from me if I don’t listen and do exactly what she tells me to do. What does she think she is gaining by keeping me here? She and Trent will never get their hands on that money; Turner’s dead.
Covering my hand with my mouth to stifle my cries, I let myself give in to the exhaustion, but sleep doesn’t come. The minute I close my eyes, memories of waking up after I tried to take my own life hit me like the last breath of air I was hoping to take that day.
“Hello, Clove.”
My head turns toward the shadowy voice. Dazzling light stings as I flutter my heavy-lidded eyes open. Pain rips through my chest. My arms, I can’t move them. Becoming more alert, my gaze travels around the room. White, everything is white.
“Where am I?” My parched mouth cracks.
“Not dead,” my mysterious man declares.
“Trent.”
My heart rate escalates and machines beep loudly in the room.
“You didn’t succeed, babe.”
No! I shake my head back and forth, thinking this has to be the last bit of suffering the devil himself is inflicting on me before he casts me into his chamber of hell for eternity.
“Don’t look so shocked to see me, sweetheart. You’re alive. You failed. Not by much, but you did. And now, well as you can see, I will have you forever. Only, not the way I had hoped.”
His fingers lightly brush across my cheek.
“You see, I really was eager to run away with you. I love you, and you trying to kill yourself ruined it all. And now . . . well, let’s just say I won’t ever be able to fuck you again like I want to.”
What is he saying? The last thing I remember is stabbing myself with the only thing I could get my hands on, a stupid coat hanger. Tears slowly form in my eyes. My head is filled with confused chaos as my world continues to go dark and foggy. I drift in and out of consciousness, for how long, I don’t know.
Voices I recognize subconsciously rise above everything else. My mother, why is she here? Although she doesn’t sound sad, depressed, or worried, even, that her daughter is lying here after trying to kill herself. Or that her son-in-law is dead.
I lay still, feeling the warmth of fluid streaming its way through my veins. I fight it for as long as I can before it takes me back under. When I wake again, my eyes open to only the light from the open doorway filtering in. Lying here waiting for the haze in my head to disappear, I realize that somehow the hell I went through with Trent before is nothing compared to what he has in store for me now. I have no life at all. He has me trapped, restrained in this bed with my hands strapped down and he’s in cahoots with my fucking mother.
“You’re awake,” she drawls.
“Fuck off.”
I glare at her from across the room. Standing, she strides with confidence to the side of the bed, flicking on the light on the bedside table.
“Actually, I just did. That man Trent is one hell of a good fuck. You would know all about how good he is though, wouldn’t you?”
I ignore her not-so-subtle insinuation.
“Why are you doing this to me?”
She laughs brittlely.
“You always were such a self-centered little girl. Everything had to revolve around you. The minute the doctor told me I had a daughter, my body cringed.” Her shoulders scrunch, and she makes a face of disgust. “I would have left you and your father and brother right there at the hospital if your dumbass father would have left my side. God, the sight of that man made my skin crawl.”
I say nothing, staring at her in bewilderment as she spews hateful words about my family to me. If I wasn’t tied down to this bed like a criminal I would take all of her wicked words and shove them down her throat with a pitchfork full of horse shit.
I don’t want to hear any more of her bad-mouthing my family. She may think she scares me, but she doesn’t. I’m dead inside anyway. Turner is gone and