Adopted by Jennxpenn

Alcohol

Soon my uncle changed. He started drinking alcohol all the time. He took us out of school, never let us out of the house, barely fed us, and abused us. Soon he started going out and leaving us at home. He would lock us in the basement with nothing to do in complete darkness. During these times Caleb and I became extremely close. We had no one but each other to talk to.
But when our uncle came home one day, we knew something was wrong. He brought another man home with him. We heard two deep voices coming from upstairs. We heard my name mentioned frequently and words we didn't know like rape. We didn't know what was going to happen but we knew it was bad.
Our uncle came down stairs and let us go upstairs. He introduced us to the stranger in the kitchen. His name was Dave. I will never forget that name. Our uncle told me to go upstairs and show Dave my room. Caleb and I glanced at each other because we knew this wasn't good. Caleb asked if he could come too but our uncle screamed at him and locked him in the basement. He pounded on the door as I screamed for him. At that point my uncle slapped me.
"Go show Dave your room you bitch!" He screamed as he pushed me towards the stairs. I walked up the stairs wiping tears from my eyes as Dave followed me. I opened the door to my room and he flung me onto the bed and covered my mouth with his lips. I couldn't scream or kick because he held my arms and legs down. He pulled my pants off and threw them on the floor. He then proceeded to unzip his pants. I felt numb. I felt something slide into me and tears went down my face.
"How does that feel you little slut?" My uncle yelled through the open door as he watched. He took a long sip of his beer as he watched Dave rape me. Finally after what felt like forever I felt it pull out and Dave zipped up his pants and walked out. Him and my uncle walked down the stairs laughing as I cried. I went into the bathroom and turned on a hot shower. I locked my room and bathroom doors. I sat in the shower and cried. When I was done I heard footsteps coming up the stairs but they were quiet. It was Caleb. I put on a new pair of clothes and opened the door to see Caleb's door open. I walked quietly across the hall into his room and shut the door behind me. He could tell I had been crying.
"Why are you crying? What did he do to you?" Caleb asked as he stood up from his bed.
"I think I know what rape means." I said as my eyes filled with tears. Caleb hugged me and I buried my face when into his chest.
"What did he do?" He asked as he hugged me harder.
"I don't want to talk about what he did." I said through tears. "I'm not letting him near you ever again." He comforted me. "Go to bed," he said, "I think he's gone now." Walked across the hill back to my room. It was almost midnight. I looked at my bed. I couldn't ever look at it the same. It will never be just a bed ever again. All its comfort was gone. Instead of sleeping I went to write down what had happened in a journal my mom had given to me when I learned how to read. I cherished that and the necklace she had given me the day before she died. I had worn it in the accident and haven't taken it off since.
At around 2 am I had finished writing. I closed the journal and squeezed my necklace tightly. It felt like whenever I did that my mom was giving me a hug. All I could think about as I sat in the moonlight was how much I missed my old life. I barely remembered my old life. I know I had a cousin but I didn't remember her name but I was at her house the last Christmas. I knew I had an older brother who went to the military but I had no idea if he was alive. Lost in my thoughts, I wandered over to Caleb's room. He was asleep. I climbed into his bed and slept next to him. He woke up as soon as I pulled the covers up.
"Are you ok?" He asked.
"I don't know. I can't sleep in my bed. I just can't." I said as I shut my eyes hard to keep from crying.
"We're gonna get out of here soon. I promise." He said as he grabbed my hand.
"I miss our old life. I don't even remember most of it." I told him.
"I do too. All I remember is we have a cousin but I don't remember her name. And we have an older brother. He probably remembers a lot." Caleb said.
"We need to find our old family." I said.
"I know. Go to sleep. It will be better in the morning." He said. He was lucky. All our uncle could do to him was beat him and verbally abuse him. I had that plus sexual abuse. That night when I went to sleep I had two dreams. In the first one my mom told me everything would be ok and she was looking out for us. In the second one, I was being raped again but by different men. That dream came every night. And I was raped 17 more times by 17 more men over two months. That was when everything changed. The beatings and screaming still occurred through everything. The alcohol was the enemy but we couldn't defeat it. We were stuck.