One Day

Chapter 1: Broken Boxes

It all happened so quickly. One minute Elise is sobbing in her small bedroom she shares with her kid brother, Ben staring at the fresh hole in the dry wall and the next she's in an interrogation room staring at clean bare white walls telling every one of her secrets to the police chief of Calmer County. It didn't take long for the story to spread either. "15 Year Old Tortured for 10 Years Finally Escapes." It terrified her thinking about how every newspaper in their small town will now read of the torture she grew to know as normalcy. All of her families' secrets, were no longer secrets, and that was all thanks to her. Her mother would spend the next 10 years of her life reminding Elise of how the words she spoke that night ruined their "perfect" life. Elise could spend a lifetime blaming everything on her mother, but she didn't. She blamed herself for letting it go on for so long. Maybe if she would have spoken up sooner, things wouldn't have gotten so bad.

"Ms. Clove, can you please on the record explain your earliest memory of your father."

"Step-father." she corrected. Afterwards, she sat in silence thinking about the question. "If I'm being honest," she started slowly," I have blocked out many memories, too hard to tell which exactly would be my first."

That would be a lie, but after 15 years of lying to even herself, she couldn't bring up the courage to admit what memory she first thought of.

October 31, 2002 (5 years old)

"Do not touch me." She heard her mother scream.

It was the first night in Elise's new home with her step-father, Jonah. Her mother was only but a few weeks pregnant with who they would later find out was a bouncing baby boy. If anyone asked how she felt about the move, she wouldn't be able to recall the feeling, considering it was never just moving away one more time. She wouldn't tell you she was scared, for their relationship was too new to know what it would become. She wouldn't say excited either, though she would act like it to see her mother's beautiful smile. Elise was content.

"Jonah I told you to stay the hell away from me!"

Her heart dropped as she heard her mother's plea from her new closet-like bedroom. It wasn't until she heard the ear splitting scream that she ran as fast she could to the bathroom door where the two fought their battle. She started banging on the door.

"Momma, I'm scared. Please let me in." She pleaded, but got no response, as if she weren't even there.

When banging on the door still did not stop the commotion in the bathroom, she ran out of the front door and down the little alley between her house and her new step grandmother's house. She banged on her door 3 times, no answer. She would later remember this feeling of not existing, but it would quickly stop being something she feared.

"Gammy please. My mom I think she's hurt. Jonah won't stop yelling," she continued to bang on the door.

After two minutes and still no answer she ran back home. A five year old completely alone in the world. As she got closer to the bathroom door she could hear her mother sobbing. Her screams were muffled and by the sound of Jonah's heavy breathing Elise knew she had to get into that bathroom. She plead one more time before running to the living room and quickly throwing the empty boxes out of her way. Once she reached the bottom of the pile her eye caught what she was looking for. Her heart ached at the memory of her late grandmother giving her the hand carved wooden box now filled with stuffed animals. At this moment she truly believed it was the largest item she owned. She used all of her strength to pull the box until it was perfectly sat in front of the bathroom door.

Elise's heart raced as she climbed on top of the box and reached on her tiptoes to touch the door knob. Suddenly there was a crash and suddenly the door swung open. She tipped forward and fell hard to the cold bathroom floor. The worse details about that night she would always remember is seeing the blood on the floor and Jonah on top of her mother forcing a small towel into her mouth.

Now being in the bathroom fear ran through her body. Jonah's cold dark eyes were now focused on the small blond child lying on the floor. "How many times have I told you to stop eavesdropping?"

Elise, too scared to talk started to tremble slightly. She would not let a tear slip in fear he would get mad at that next. "Your mom never cries. I trained her well." Focusing on the demeaning words of her mother's old boyfriend stopped the tears from falling.

"Are you stupid?" Her legs trembled more as the man rose to his feet. "I asked you a question."

Before he could take another step she ran back to her bedroom and hid under the covers. She spent the rest of that night listening. After a loud crash and what seemed like hours of yelling, the house fell silent. Elise had no clue what time it was, but once the coast was clear she exited her room to see the damage that had been done.

The bathroom was spotless and reeked of chemicals. She looked at the stack of towels on the shelf and wondered if they had even bothered to wash the one that she saw in her mother's mouth. She sighed in relief to see there wasn't a big mess. As she was leaving the bathroom to go back to bed something caught her eye. That's when she noticed the pile of wood in the kitchen. The once beautiful box, the last memory of her beloved grandmother, now a pile of smashed wood. She didn't let a tear slip out until she was safe under her covers.