Untangled

Chapter 1

Texas, USA,
2003.

“Shut up now! You annoy me you little piece of trash. Such garbage! Your voice is so irritating! Makes me want to puke!How did I end up with someone like you?”

That was my stepdad.He was drunk again and was, as usual, beating the hell out of my mother. Not that I was surprised anyways. I mean, it was a normal occurrence at home everyday.I had gotten used to it by now. Not that I could run from it either. It was our fate and we had gradually learnt to accept and embrace it.

I winced as I saw him pulling at my mom’s hair and tightening his grip on her neck as she struggled to breathe.

“ H-h-h-unt-ter, please let g-go of me!”
My mom’s plea was almost a fading whisper. Her voice was almost gone.

She struggled to bring out her words more clearly.

I opened my door just a little to see what he would do to my mom.

Hunter Sandlers was my father’s best friend since their high school days. Yes, best friend! It was still a mystery to me.

Everything was going on well and really great for us until Dad died mysteriously in a car crash two years ago. It caused us so much anguish. But apparently, Hunter delighted in it for reasons unknown to me. Perhaps,he knew what he stood to gain from it.

Mom then married Hunter last year which I still find as a big surprise or shock as I would prefer to call it. Maybe it was the grief speaking. Or maybe she was just vulnerable at that point.

Perhaps because it was unexpected or because I was too young to understand.
All of a sudden, things turned bitter at home.

My stepfather would come home drunk every night and beat my mother up at the least provocation. He abused both of us at anytime he pleased. We had become his toys and he would use us for his entertainment.

He reeked of cigarettes and tobacco and the smell choked me every time I was in his presence.

Whenever I tried to shield my mother from his beatings, I’d end up sustaining multiple injuries.We simply had nowhere to go.

Hunter had everything transferred to his name and I mean everything; Dad’s estates, his cars, his money and companies.

Mom had no close family members, just a few distant relatives who lived miles away and could not be of absolutely any help to us.

He locked us up in the house every time.

The only times I could have some freedom and breath some fresh air was when I had to go to school.

I was the quiet, shy kid in school and I had no friends. My life was just bad and pathetic, too much for a nine-year-old to handle.

“Don’t tell me what to do! I own you. You’re mine." His eyes glowed as he enjoyed his torturous grip on my mother’s hair and neck.

He let go of her eventually but pinned her back to the hard wall. She was shivering under his firm grasp and whimpered from his touch.

“You’ve b-been d-d-rinking again, haven’t y-you?”My mother stammered, fear evident in her voice.

Within the blinking of an eye, he planted a very resounding slap on my mother’s cheek and soon that area of her face had reddened and started swelling up.

My eyes widened in fear and I immediately shut the door loudly without even thinking of the possibility that he might have heard me. The squeaking of the door ratted me out. I gulped knowing that I was in trouble.

“Open the door, you little scoundrel!”
He said and banged on my door. I had to open up before he inflicted more pain on my mother.

I finally opened the door. He held my wrist firmly and dragged me out of my room to face my mother.

My mother’s eye widened in fear and she gulped nervously as she realized what he was about to do.He held a loaded gun at my head.

“I could just pull the trigger and place a bullet right through your little brains so that you’d learn not to be nosy in the next life.”He let out a long, humorless chuckle.

“Please don’t kill him. I’ll do anything you ask of me".My mom begged through her tears that drenched her face.

“This is so interesting. Well, well, well….then, let’s get rid of him. I've been dying to do that for a very long time now."

He was going to get rid of me?

My mother arched her brows at him in terror and frustration.My heart skipped a beat.

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