Beasthood

~Chapter 3- Escape~

This chapter is dedicated to a very loyal fan of mine who talks about me like I'm some amazing goddess that has been spreading mankind with my glorious literary message. Oh, go on then, I'll bask in the compliments for now. On a serious note, I appreciate it dude. Thank you. 

~Chapter 3 - Escape~

Three days after therapy session...

Friday May 6th, 2011, 9:12 a.m. - Barker residence

It was a lazy morning at number 63. Inside the red brick house that stood slap-bang in the middle of the suburban, tree-filled street, Jaz was sprawled on the lilac sofa in the cosy, wood-overloaded living room.

Still in her dressing gown, she smiled politely, removing her bare feet from the dark wood coffee table as her aunt strolled into the room. Jaz hadn't moved from that spot on the sofa since she'd come down the stairs at half-six that morning.

She wasn’t an early bird but ever since her horrifying, real-life nightmare, she’d found it almost impossible to sleep well. She had even resorted to sleeping pills though she hated anything like that; pills for sleeping, pills for depression (which she refused to take). Pills, pills, pills. She despised it. But when you haven’t had a good night’s sleep for so long you get desperate.

She’d taken them the night before and had been mighty pissed off that they hadn’t worked. She’d had less than three hours' sleep- probably less than two. She gave up counting months ago.

Shadows were heavily set under her eyes as she gazed up at her aunt. This was not her therapist Aunt Ruth, but her father’s sister Aunt Erica. She was a kind and bubbly woman with a feistiness Jaz admired. There was something wild and free about her that Jaz couldn’t explain. Her aunt was a well-dressed woman, nearly always in trouser suits and expensive shoes, but Jaz could still picture her camping high up in a mountain, eating freshly caught fish for breakfast. Even though she’d only known Erica for about a year, she was close to her.

Aunt Erica had appeared on their doorstep at the end of April last year, three months after Jaz's nightmare. Erica had introduced herself when Jaz had come back home from a day out with her best friends Ellie and Lisa. It had been the back end of the Easter holidays.

Jaz was surprised and puzzled that her dad had never mentioned he had a sister. She always thought he had just two brothers. She’d never seen pictures of her aunt either.

He'd said, “Erica has been living abroad for a long time. It upset me to mention her because I never got to see her.” But Jaz didn’t buy it.

She suspected (especially after observing her parents' reactions) that there was some unsaid tension between them. She didn’t know why and didn’t want to get in the middle of it, but whatever it was, it caused her dad to watch Aunt Erica as if he suspected her of something. Jaz swore her mum looked almost afraid whenever Erica was present, but her mum's expression was always swept away by a forced smile in Jaz’s direction whenever she realized she was being watched.

Jaz had long since accepted that this was the way things were and didn’t think it was her place to bring up whatever was in the past between them. They seemed to have reconciled now and that was all that mattered. Time heals all wounds, she thought. She hoped that belief would work for her too.

“This is an unexpected pleasure, Erica,” Jaz’s father began.

“Well, you know me, John, I like to surprise.”