TWENTY SEVEN

The door to the entrance was too far to get to without Jacob getting her before she did. So she proceeded into the house, running the fastest she could in the cramped up space. A voice continued to scream in her head. “The knife! Get the knife!” 

It was a really small voice, more like an inside thought but it sure had a compelling urgency to it. Her assailant was in pursuit and if she wanted to live through the night, she had to make it to a weapon on time.

Without bothering to look over her shoulders, she propelled forward and swiftly tried to cross the threshold of the door leading to the kitchen. In the process, her left hip slammed with violent force into the door frame and a sharp pain shot through the left side of her body, almost to the point of numbness. She tried to bite back a scream of agony but the sound tore through her throat and parted her trembling lips in petrifying shrills. The pain was intense, a spasm that took over and left her unable to think let alone walk. 

Belle collided into the floor with a loud thud, her left elbow gave a mild crack as it tried to hold her fall and failed miserably. Surely she had to have sprained a rib or dislocated her hip. Tears prickled at her eyeballs, leaking down her face. Her vision blurred, the edges of her surroundings warping and distorting as fear and panic clouded her perception, turning even familiar objects into nightmarish apparitions.

Jacob stepped in through the kitchen door. He was a blur at this point, and Belle already knew they were just more torture coming for her. He was speaking through gritted teeth, his breathing harsh. “You’re dead! You hear me?! Dead!”

Belle screamed through her frustration. “Help me! Somebody help me!”

The first kick came, straight into her gut and rib cage instantly shutting her up. Then another and another. With each kicks layed in were grunts and curses from the inflictor. “You...” grunt. “Dare...” grunt. “Disobey...” grunt. “Me. You fucking slut! I am your god! You owe me your life for sticking with you when everybody else left! You owe me everything!”

Belle wasn’t prepared for such agony. Pain pulsated through her body. There was only pain, all encompassing pain radiating in crashing waves that threatened to drown her with every quivering breath she dragged in. The hits came till she couldn’t scream anymore but instead hoped the suffering would stop anytime soon. 

When it finally did stop, she was a wheezing mess. Jacob sauntered into the living room and she could hear the sound of him struggling to get his belt off his pants, providing himself another weapon of torture. Before he could return, she fought to gather the last of the strength she had and pushed herself off the floor. She wasn’t fast enough. Her steps were in leaps and struggles but she had spotted the knife on the island lodged into the chicken’s chest and reached out for it. 

Just as she wrapped her fingers around the handle, her hair was yanked back with force and she was slammed into the kitchen wall. A scream tore out her throat and when she coughed, she could taste metal on her tongue. If she survived today, she decided, she was going to dedicate her life to loving her daughter more intensely, building a stronger relationship with her. 

She was going to give her more hugs.

Tell her how much she adored her.

Tell her she’s sorry for being such a shitty mom. 

For being so inattentive. 

So absent. 

So un-apologetically distant and cold.

Jacob wasn’t done with his attacks. True to his words, he seemed to be bent on killing her. He grabbed her body from the floor, where she had collapsed chest first, and then by the hair, he pulled her into the living room. 

The small woman struggled still, grasping at his arms, trying to remove her hair from his tight hold. She was soaked in sweat and tears. There was blood dripping down her chin now down in a thick trail of deep red. “Please.” Belle’s voice had began to crack. It was nothing but a pathetic murmur now. 

“Since you asked so nicely...” Jacob crooned. In one violent push, Belle’s head was smashed against the oak center table in their living room. Once. Twice. Thrice.

A scream punctured the air.

Blood-curdling. 

The hold of Jacob’s against her hair loosened and with a loud thud, she came face first into the floor. In her line of vision was her puppy, barking at the giant man helplessly. Belle raised her trembling fingers to her head and felt for it, for it seemed like she was a headless human with the pain that roared and surged at her temples like she was being repeatedly hit by a hammer with the nail lodging deeper into her skull with each hit. Pain. So much agony. Occasionally there was something else something, warm maybe, but it never lasted long before the pain reared its head and everything goes black again. 

Her world was in a blur and her ears were a ringing siren and amid-st all that, she could hear her daughter’s screaming voice. “You killed her!”

She could hear muffled sounds, running or panicked dragging perhaps but nothing more than that. With each breath she struggled to wheeze in, she felt herself losing touch with reality. In. Out. Exhale. Her lids pressed shut and then she was plunged into total darkness and oblivion.