[COMPLETED]
"If you let me leave now, I won't tell anyone what you did sir..." I grumbled, and he smirked a little, as if it was a hilarious joke. "Like I said, you aren't leaving Caroline..."
Caroline was once a perfectly happy child, she had a hom...
June 24th, 1975 His lust returned. I was sitting peacefully in my basement room, reading a novel on my bed. All was silent until I heard the stomping. I watched in horror as Jack came down the stairs, holding a belt. He licked his lips. He was hungry, and not for food. I quickly stood, and held out my hands. "Jack, put down the belt..." I quietly pleaded, but he only stepped closer, hand ready to pull down my dress sleeve. "You're better than this Jack..." I said, backing further away. Jack simply laughed at my remark and smiled.
"Oh, am I Caroline? This coming from the girl that I kidnapped, abused over and over, and held as my prisoner for just over three months now...?" He chuckled. This man was full of absolute bullshit, and yet I couldn't say anything back. He was indeed telling the truth. Jack smiled at me. "Just as I thought..." he grinned, and came closer towards me. I then thought about why I didn't leave, why I stayed when I had the chance to escape a long time ago. "W-wait..." I muttered. He stopped. "There's a reason why I stayed, Jack..." I said, looking into his eyes. "And that is?" He asked, gripping the belt tighter.
I took a breath and stared right into and through him. "I had the ability to leave long ago, I still do, I could've been out of here a long time ago Jack... but the thing is, is that I stayed, and I stayed, because for once I had someone who showed any bit of sympathy towards me... you for once started being kinder to me because you saw that we weren't that different deep down..." I breathed. "Even though I don't do the awful things you do, we're still alike in many ways, and I know at some point you saw that..." I said sternly, and slowly, Jack dropped the belt in defeat. His eyes became clouded and wet.
Staggering over to me, he fell to his knees, and began to cry. I didn't think he even had the ability to. I gently put my arms around him, and just like that, a grown man wept in a child's arms. I wished then that I had the power to change him, and his awful ways. Even then, I still refused to love him. I felt mostly pity, sympathy, and a bit of care towards him, but that was all. After he stopped crying, he stood. "Caroline, please, stay here with me..." he asked through a raspy voice. I slowly stood as well, and looked at him. Lately I was given many decisions, many choices.
Slowly, I nodded. "I'll stay with you Jack... IF, you stop trying to have sex with me..." I exclaimed, and he nodded. This sad broken man, as disturbed as he was, he relied on me. After all, what could suddenly happen that would make me change my mind? I touched my ebony hair, and smiled softly.
"I promise..."
June 25th, 1975 It was a warm day, summer had begun recently, and with summer came good weather. I was sitting outside in the yard while Jack was out shopping for groceries. Suddenly, I noticed the two policemen Austin and James. They approached me. "Hello again Violet," Austin started. "Hello officers, may I, help you?" I asked. I put my hand in my pocket. "We still haven't found the young girl, Caroline, and so we're doing another sweep on the neighborhood, mandatory check I guess" Austin said simply.
James looked sad, and I began to wonder why. Every time he was on duty, he looked so depressed, as if every time he got his hopes up, they were crushed into a million pieces all over again. "What could he be hoping to fi"- I started to think, before I saw it, his name tag... On the police officer name tag that wasn't obscured, was his name.
James S. Andrews
The kind man who deep down I knew I had known from somewhere, had been my father all along. I knew that something about him, filled me with a sense of happiness, a sense of fulfillment, as if I finally found what I was looking for. My face turned pale. "Are, you alright Violet...?" He asked, looking into my eyes. I slowly nodded "y-yeah, I'm, fine..." I stammered. The last time I saw my dad was when I was six, he had bloodshot eyes and smelled of whiskey. "What happened to him, it's like he's a completely different man..." I thought.
It turned out that after Dustin and I had left, our father realized just how neglectful and abusive he was to us. Desperate not to lose the last two things he treasured in his life, he changed up his act by swearing off alcohol and became sober, and then getting a well paying job as a cop, so he could get money, and find me and Dustin. He searched the eight long years we had been gone, and was finally losing hope, until the missing child report came into the police department. He immediately took the job with his partner Austin, and searched day and night to find me and my brother. Little did he know, I was right in front of him all along.
All my memories of my father came to me as I looked into his hopeful chocolate brown eyes, memories of both love, and abuse. "Violet, have you ever seen this girl...?" He asked, desperate. I remembered the promise I had made to Jack the night before, and fear filled me. "I-I'm sorry officers, I haven't heard of this girl, I do hope you find her if she turns up alive..." I said, trying not to cry, as I had now found my father, and was lying right to him. My father looked at me, once again filled with sorrow, he smiled a little, and gave me a soft hug. "Thank you, Violet, for your ti"- he started, but then stopped as he saw the scarf wrapped around my neck.
My father looked to it with tears in his eyes. I felt like I could barely breathe. He slowly took it in his hands. He knew how I'd worn it every day, how I loved it, how it was made by his wife's gentle hands. Hugging it close, dad nearly whispered, "It really is, oh Caroline, I'm gonna find you..." he whispered and then slowly stood up to look at me. For a moment, he closely studied my features, my pale skin, jet black hair, wide grey eyes, thin nose and jaw. Once again, the gears in his mind moved together to begin the realization.
Still remembering my promise to Jack, I desperately lied again. "I-I found that at the park last week...!" I said quickly, and my father's hopeful look was crushed. "A-are you sure...? It's, n-not yours...?" He asked, tearing up again. I looked into my father's heartbroken eyes, I felt my gaze soften. I'd been living with Jack for months, I wasn't happy, I hadn't been truly happy in years. Here in front of me was my father, who had changed himself, just so he could have his life back. He had failed before, acknowledged his mistake, and was willing to fix it.
Slowly, I took a deep breath, and reached into my pocket, and slowly pulled out the photo of my mother, I held it out to him. "Officer, tell me, does the photo of this woman mean anything to you...? Because it means the world to me..." I rasped, tears flooding my eyes.
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My father stared at the photo of his beautiful dead wife for a moment, before staring up at me. Click... My father let out his tears as he took me into his arms, and I too cried. "Daddy..." I whispered. For a moment, all was right. I had finally found my family again, found the nest I had long fallen from. Held in my dad's warm embrace, I let all my tears shed. I was finally where I belonged, I no longer had to hide.
