Short Stories

Short 1 part 4

Cold feet.

I'm drowning in my own fears. My own made up disasters.

I can smell the storm brewing as I make my way towards his apartment.

Somehow I feel as though it's my fault.

I was stupid then.

How do I tell him? How could I? How is it right to?

It really isn't.

I hop out the cab in my own daze and realise that I've made it.

Please don't be home.

I keep saying that over and over in hopes it would be true but fate gives me a big "fuck you" as his front door opens up and his heavenly face appears.

That smile.

I swear it's an addiction.

That leather jacket he's wearing makes him look so badass, so dangerous.

I'm drugged because I'm not even aware when I told my brain to move my legs but I was inside his apartment, his hideout, his sanctuary.

I'm inside his sanctuary while another dwells inside me.

What am I to say?

"No hey uncle?" he says his smile never fading but it doesn't come from his eyes.

"Uncle?" I say warily.

"Yeah, Uncle Raphael," he says taking a beer from his fridge and taking a long swig from it. "So how's the hubby going?"

His eyes are sharp as they narrow looking at me dearing me to speak.

"Raphael..." I start off.

"No! I am Uncle Raphael to you!" he shouts, his voice penetrating the air around us. I cower and step back almost hugging myself.

I feel like a child.

He grabs a cigarette pack takes one and lights it. He's looking at me as he enhales each puff knowing how much I hate it.

"C-can you not do that here?" I say softly.

"Don't fucking tell me what to do." he replies harshly.

It's silent. It's almost threatning.

I decide to say something because now I'm upset and that goddamn cigarette is making me want to throw up.

"Raphael. I didn't want any of this but my dad insisted. I had no choice."

He looks at me before getting off his seat and swiftly comes to stand right infront of me.

Resting his hand on the left side of my face his eyes pierce through mine. There is nothing but anger in them. I've heard that Raphael was a dangerous man and he would stop at nothing just to say he finished you off.

"I leave for one month. I came back for you and the first thing that I hear is that you were married off to some kid who grew up on the right side of town?" that was when the first blow came.

A slap so hard it made my whole head shift the opposite way. The sad thing was I knew he could hit harder.

I'll admit at this point I probably should have left.

I didn't though.

"Is there anything else you want to tell me?" I don't answer. I couldn't.

I stay there whimpering, the area he slapped growing warmer and warmer, I could still feel the sting.

"Good. Nothing else to say. So here's what's going to happen. You're going to leave him and come live with me. Or I can kill him and kill you at the same time." he warns. There was no negotiating this. Either or, pick one.

"I can't Raphael." I whined.

He looked at me as if I was stupid. "Why? Do you love him?"

I shook my head. Tears started to leak out of my eyes slowly, one by one they trailed down my cheeks.

"Then what's the problem?"

I don't answer him I just look at him.

"What? It isn't like you're pregnant." At that I hug myself tighter and sob completely giving it away.

His eyes go wide and his right hand goes to wipe his mouth. It's silent, the tension so thick I could slice through it with a knife.

His eyes are full of malice and I could feel the violence of it rocking my body.

The first punch landed on my stomach knocking the wind out of me.

He beat me bloody, the red sticky liquid was everywhere. Staining the carpet the colour of my sorrows.

When he was done I couldn't see through one eye and my right arm couldn't move.

I heard as he took the bedsheet off the bed and twisted it around. I should've run but I couldn't.

He tied it around my neck and pulled as hard as he could.

This was how it felt to die, to feel the life slipping away from you.

"Anything to say Louisa Dearland?" it almost sounded like he was laughing. Mocking me.

He was a monster. The devil himself.

"Fuck." it sounded strained and garbled. "You."

"Yes, I did." that was the last thing he said before life finally left me. It was peaceful.

That night the local river served as my grave.

So here I sit on this red leather couch. Watching my monster.

He will know the real monster.