Me and Them

Chapter six - Both of You

***WARNING***MATURE CONTENT***

Talia's POV

“Your mother?” Lincoln asks, his eyebrows drawing in from confusion.

“I guess I should start from the beginning.” I stuttered, watching both men nod their heads, confusion still painted on their beautiful faces. “I had always grown up in a happy house, I remember my mother used to bake for me, never worrying about my weight and my father. My father adored me.” My voice caught at this, pain clasping my heart once more. “When I was seven and my mother was eight months pregnant with my baby sister Andrea, my father was in a car accident and on our way to the hospital to see him, my mother gave birth to my sister prematurely. They both almost died. When my mother woke up, the doctors told her that my father... that my father was dead. She asked to see the baby but when she saw her, she threw her at me and told me she didn’t want her because Andrea was a reminder of my father.” I drew in an intake of breath, not sure if I should keep going but when I saw Elliot and Lincoln nod at me, I opened my mouth to speak again.

“When she got out of the hospital, she took off and didn’t come back for two months. Two months! I was a seven year old and she left me and a new born baby to fend for ourselves.” My voice was stronger now as anger took over at the memory. “When she came back she didn’t want anything to do with us except to live in the house while I took care of everything. She partied and drank and did drugs, she wasn’t a mother anymore. I was a mother to Andrea for nine years before...” My voice broke off, not wanting to talk anymore.

“Before what, baby?” Lincoln cajoled, trying to get me talking again. His soothing voice instantly calmed me.

“I was driving her home from school and I saw my mother on the street kissing the life out of some man and I remember swerving on the road and a truck hit the right side. The one that Andrea was on. The impact killed her. She died in my arms. She was nine and I had killed her!” Tears were streaming down my face and not even Elliot and Lincoln comforting me would make them stop. “My mom saw us and she just walked away while I held Andrea in my arms, waiting for the police to come, waiting for anyone to come. She left me again. I hadn’t seen her since the accident and a week later I tried to take my own life.” I took my hand out of both men’s and traced the scars on my wrist, watching as Elliot and Lincoln gasp and stare at my arms in rigid shock. “She met me at the hospital when the police found her and she brought him with her to see me. The doctor told her that I should get help and my mom said it wasn’t a real problem and that I just wanted attention. She took me home with her new so-called-husband and then the beatings began. From both of them. My mom would get so drunk she would beat the shit out of me and pass out. I used to go to school with cracked ribs and bruises, coughing up blood and no one would say anything. She did this for months and then her husband, Rick, thought that he could too. So he starved me so I would look perfect to him, he wouldn’t let me eat for days, weeks sometimes just to make him happy. He liked having control over me.”

Both men beside me tensed but I looked forward at the glass of wine, not bearing to look at them.

“Talia, did he... Did he ever...?” Elliot was asking, and although he didn’t finish the sentence, I knew what his question was. No one ever really knows how to ask if someone raped you.

I wiped my eyes for what seemed like the hundredth time before shaking my head  continuing with my answer

“No he never did that,” At this, both boys breathed out a sigh of relief before I finished. “He said that he didn’t like big girls, what he did was worse. He used to tie me up and touch and beat me, break bones, cut me up, tell me that I was worthless, that I ruined my mother’s life and that I deserved all of this. I was nothing and that’s exactly what he wanted me to think. And my mom, she was happy about this, she was happy that karma had finally found me and that I was getting what I deserved. If he stopped, she would start. When I turned eighteen, they stopped touching me for a while and told me that I could finish senior year, which I did. When I finished the year, they took me home after graduation and threw me down the basement and I broke my legs. They left me down there for months, stewing in my own dirt, only coming in to bring me the necessary water or bread. When I tried to take my life a second time, they got there just in time and told me that if I tried it ever again that he would make me more miserable than I already was. They left me there for two years.” I breathed out, sobbing and trying to catch my breath as I desperately tried to catch my breath. I felt Lincoln’s hand on my back, rubbing in calm circles with Elliot’s on my knee, both trying to calm me down a fraction, but I was too far in the memories to be calm. I continued. “The police were suspicious and after an anonymous tip, they came to the house and found me downstairs, almost dead and took my mother and her husband into custody. I ran after that, not knowing where they were and went to College when I was twenty, living off Raman noodles and working part time as a waitress in a dingy restaurant to make ends meet. But when I finished, my mother and step father contacted me and told me they would come and find me so I holed up in that motel for months, thinking that they would never find me. But they did. I have to leave, they’ll find me here and take me back. Please, I can’t let it happen again. Not after everything. Please.” I cried harder, convulsing as they took me into their arms, their bodies radiating tension and hate.