In the year 1878 the gang was small only Dutch, Hosea, and a fifteen year old Arthur but the family grew a little bigger when they find 9 year old Annabelle hidden away in an old wardrobe after just witnessing the deaths of her family. Overcome with...
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The sounds of fist against flesh radiated against the girls eardrums fighting for dominance with the cries of her mother. She couldn't fathom which was worse the cries or the pounding.
"The MONEY. YOU OWE ME." Screamed a loud booming voice that shook her to her core. A voice that echoed through her memories and haunted her sleep. It was a dark and mean voice like she had never heard. So familiar but so foggy at the same time never knowing who's voice it was.
The wardrobe was tiny but so was she and when things went bad with her pa that's the first place her momma hid her. The smell of musky shirts that belonged to her father and the copper of blood filled her young nose. The wardrobe was a safe place it sheltered her from everything but the sounds. When her father would come in drunk all she would hear is the sound of his boots and the small whimper from her mother as he would strike her.
There was a small hole in the door of the wardrobe but when these things happened her momma was smart enough to shield the hole with her back so she never saw a thing. It was from this hole that her momma would whisper "You're safe now darling." And everything would be alright again. He'd be gone and they'd be free to sing songs, sew blankets, make rabbit stew, and read. How she loved when her momma would read to her. Stories of far away places, the places she'd dream about in the wardrobe. She loved twirling her momma's dark hair around her little fingers and looking up at her beautiful face. A face she longed to remember. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't remember that beautiful face. She just knew it was beautiful.
The night her momma died she was dreaming of far away places waiting for her Daddy's beating to be done with. Maybe they'd kill him and they'd be free to read stories forever she remembered thinking. Her and her momma would be free.
"You killed him. You have to stop. Look we lost the money he obviously drank it all away. We have to go." A gentler voice spoke as the sounds of the pounding dampened to soft thuds. The smell of blood and her mother's sobbing did not.
They were almost free.
"What are you hiding in there?" The voice echoed in a loud thunderous growl.
"I ain't letting you touch--" Her mother's voice halted as her oxygen was quickly cut off by a hand around her throat.
Suddenly the hole in the wardrobe was no longer blocked and as the girl peered through it all she could see was her momma's face turning purple as she fought from her knees against two arms squeezing her neck. Her momma's eyes became red as they filled with tears and she looked towards the hole.
"I love you forever darling." Her mother's voice cracked as she spoke her last words to the small hole.
Her eyes and the light in them died, the hands let go. Her momma's body fell motionless to the blood soaked floor. That's when she saw what was left of her pa. A bloody pile of human laying on the floor and it was his blood that now soaked her mother's dress and lifeless face.
