Running Blind: Mercy's Story #Wattys2017

Prologue

   Silence. That is what I have been engulfed in for the past eleven years. Eleven years ago today I took a vow of silence, but every day I am haunted by the memories of that fateful day.    
   The day I lost my voice started out like any other day. Dad sleeping in a reeking pile on the couch Mom flitting about the kitchen quietly. I had just finished creeping down the stairs, so I would not wake my intoxicated father, when my momma took me out on the porch her eyes wild.
    "Mercy, we are going away soon." She said looking behind her.
    "Where to, Momma?" I asked, my five year old self praying we were going to Disney World.
    "I can't tell you. It's a surprise!" She said, mustering a smile.
    "Oh, I like surprises!" I said enthusiastically. Mom smiled and wrapped me in a hug. Muttering under her breath that she would never let him hurt me again.
   The past couple of weeks had been awful. My father had lost his job at a high paying company in D.C, so he gradually started coming home later. The later he came home the more intoxicated he would be when he got home.
   Then he started yelling at Momma for no reason. After that he graduated to hitting her. Eventually he turned on me. Screaming at me for the weirdest reasons. Stop, Mercy! You are breathing to loudly! Then he hit me.
   The moment he laid his hand on me, Mom went off on him. Yelling that if he ever hit me again we would leave. He ignored her. The next day he came home drunk, and I giggled to loudly as I played with my dolls on the kitchen floor. He hit me over and over with his belt. The pain was blinding.
   Mom came into the kitchen to see what was happening, as soon as she came in she started yelling at him to stop. He looked at her and asked,
   "What are you going to do about it, woman? Go back upstairs and finish folding my laundry!" She was absolutely livid. She picked up the phone to call the police, he took the phone out of her hand, cancelled the call, and smashed the phone on the linoleum floor.
    "James, I'm taking Mercy, and we are leaving." Mom told him, gesturing for me to get off the floor where I had sat wide eyed through all of it.
    "Linda, where are you going to go?" He snarled.
   "To the women's shelter in Redwater." Mom replied coldly, walking off to go pack.
    "Linda, you will rue the moment you ever left my house!" Father yelled at her. I began to follow Mom until Father grabbed my neck roughly.
     "I swear, Mercy Lyn, never speak of this day again! Hell! Never speak again! Or I will kill you!" He said, his voice low and menacing. His brown eyes dark. I stared wide eyed at him, not daring to say a word. Instead I nodded to show that I understood. He let out a low chuckle.
   "Good girl." He said and walked off, and since that moment I have never uttered another word.
   Later on that evening when we were getting settled into the women's shelter, the news my father had been killed in a car crash, that he had caused, came to us. Mom did not grieve. She only said he had it coming to him. Still I keep my vow  of silence.

An:
Hey guys! I wrote this book based off of mallycat504 's book Running Blind, she gave me permission to write this book, based off of the character Mercy which is based off of me. Yay! Hope you enjoyed it!
   GayleGirl19