Cry of menace

Chapter 7

I lay there in the bathroom , William left without saying anything and for the first time I'm glad that he is not in the house. I can't move , he didn't bothered to untie me. I want to try and run away but I'm exhausted . I just want to sleep and so I do.

I wake up when William is in the process of untying me . I pretend to be asleep, he isn't gentle but it still gives me hope that he might not hurt me again. That he only did it because he was angry.

I scream when he kicks my stomach , I feel stupid and naive for having hope , for even thinking about it.

" Go and make dinner " he says and I get up ignoring the pain in my stomach. When I go downstairs , I see that Susan's room is open so I peep inside but she isn't there , the bedside table is empty , the bed is properly made , her suitcase that used to take the space on the table is now gone. She ran away. She wasn't my favourite person but I still feel sad with the absence of her. Now it's only me and William and the fear starts creeping up my spine.

I quickly start making dinner , when I'm done I start setting up the table when I see William already siting there. I serve him and then serve myself but when I sit on the chair he tells me to get up .

" Who said you can have dinner ?" He asks me

I don't utter a word , I stand there with my head down, tears threatening to fall down my cheeks.

" You're going to sleep in the basement . Go and clean everything up and you're not allowed to eat anything without asking me " he says

I nod and do as he asked . I think of running away , the door is in front of me but where can I possibly go , I don't have anyone. If it gets bad I'll run away.

I go in the basement and the stale smell hits me immediately. The basement is the dirtiest and filthiest part of out house. We wanted to clean this for a while but it always went on and on until no one bothered to go down here. I see rats and shiver. There's so much dust , so much dirt , it makes me feel filthy.

I go to the kitchen bring a cloth and broom and start cleaning. It takes me a while and when I'm done it's almost 4 am .There are no blankets so I so sleep on the cold floor. I never imagined my life would turn like this. In just a day my life changed drastically. No one ever treated me like William did.

I still think it's a nightmare , it's so hard to believe that someone who loved me so much would treat me like this. My mom and dad never treated me like this. My mother died due to cancer when I was 13 and then dad took care of me. The way he treated my mom taught me so much. I always wanted a husband who would be like my dad. Dad was never happy with William. He always thought that something was off about him. It took me a long time to convince him otherwise but he still never believed in him.

When he passed away three years ago , it took me so long to recover but William helped me through it. He was always there for me . He believed in me no matter what and yet now he choose to believe his mother. I don't blame him for believing her but what he did to me is unforgivable.

I remove him from my thoughts and think about Posie as I close my eyes and drift to sleep.

...

When I wake up it's 5:14 am. My head throbs in pain so I get up to go take some painkillers. My whole body hurts when I get up. I almost forget what happened but the basement reminds me. I quickly go downstairs and take the painkillers.

I am so hungry that my stomach starts making noises so I quietly go in the kitchen , open the fridge and chug the whole bottle of orange juice. I stuff some food in my mouth as well and start chewing quickly. I fear that William might find me , god knows what he is going to do next. I think about taking some food to hide in the basement .