Who We Were & Who We Are Now

Part 7

Despite it being your day off you're going to go into town and to the station, just hoping to find out something on Junior. This would make three days he's been missing and to say you were worried would have been an understatement. You felt like a failure as a mother, which is what you were being to him now, and you felt like a failure as a woman in not handling your own business.

Forrest keeping secrets from you just pissing you off further. You'd heard Howard comment to him saying you were acting madder than a wet hen but Forrest pretended like he didn't know why. All this stress and going on over 2 days of no sleep was really dragging you down. You didn't know how much more you could take.

You'd started out the door, setting your purse on the kitchen table before going back to your room for your necklace you'd forgotten to put on. Seemed a bit trivial but feeling like you look put together made you feel less like you were falling apart. You pad your way back up the hall, head down, fingers messing with the clasp when you see a man you don't know standing in your kitchen. You freeze.

"Excuse you?" you say with high brows, head tilted to the side.

"You must be Cliff's pretty little daughter." he says, eyes narrowed at you.

"I ain't Cliff's daughter." you spit out.

"But you're in his house?"

"Ain't his house neither."

"Well we know that ain't true." he moves closer and you hold your ground.

"If you ain't his daughter then you must be his whore to be in his house
now." The words bring bile to your throat.

"Get the fuck out of my house." you growl at the man. He hums in amusement, standing in your personal space and trying to get a reaction out of you.

"'Fraid I can't do that gorgeous." he coos in his gravelly voice, hand pushing your hair off your shoulder and you hide your urge to gag. "We got business little lady," he hisses, grabbing you by your hair and throwing you into the cabinets.

You hit your forehead and turn back around only to be met with a hard slap to the face. You reach your arms out to fight back but he grabs you again, throwing you against a wall down the hallway. Your head throbs and your ears ring, you try to stand back up straight before he reaches you but he finished what you were trying to do himself. With his hand around your throat, his mouthful of rotting teeth inches from your face you sputter and cough, as he holds you to the wall with his body weight. Just like Cliff used to. It sends you into a panic as you kick and struggle, but you're already weakened from exhaustion.

"My boss has your brother. And we're gonna keep him unless you pay the $200 Cliff owes," he whispers, mouth near your ear. "Although he won't be much help for long, probably end up killing him. All he does is cry and call out for you... Tawny." your skin crawls and if your air wasn't being cut off partially you would've fought back more. "If you don't pay by the next full moon, he will be dead. You keep that in mind." he grabs your face. "Or you'll be paying in flesh instead of paper." he whispers, shaking your face hard, other hand sliding down your ribcage to grab your waist. "You find the gamblin' house out past Burnt Chimney and get Banner his money."
And another yank of your hair and throwing you down the hallway as you crash into your bedroom door. You stay in the floor for a moment, hand on the knob as you watch him leave the house. You hold your breath until you see the car drive down the lane and out of sight. You gasp for breath, on the verge of passing out as you fumble and open your door, the tears already coming, the sobs already racking your chest hard, you hit the floor on your hands and knees and you let out a scream that makes the birds in the trees outside your window fly away.

You crawl into the fetal position and sob. You cry and scream until you can't, body shaking and your vision blurry. You see the droplets of blood fall from your brow and onto the floor but you could not care less. You can't do anything at all, just lay there and suffer inside your own mind.
In the midst of the attack, it'd all triggered your memories with Cliff, happening much the same way. As you hit the same wooden boards you had all those years ago, with hands now older in your line of vision, you're also hit with the flashback of the worst night of them all. The night he'd gone to you after havin' his sick fill of your mama. Getting back at her for sticking up to what he was doing to you.
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You wake up in the passenger seat of what used to be your daddy's car. Now, with it being rammed into a tree, you figure it wouldn't be much use anymore. You fight to open your eyes, and you've never been in so much pain. You moan and try to shift, you can't move your left arm very well, and when you try it makes you shout out in pain. You manage to eventually open your eyes and lift your head at the same time without wanting to vomit from the dizziness. You turn your head to see your mama in the driver's seat next to you.