Prologue (3)

With her wrist properly supported by a splint and a prescription for pain killers in hand, Evelyn and her father Mitchel exited the doctor's office and went back to Mitchel's car.

Mitchel looked down at his daughter's wrist and a tinge of remorse was welling up inside him now that he was more sobber.

He was wondering where he had gone wrong to end up such a monster. At that moment he promised himself that he was going to do better and stop drinking.

He then drove to the pharmacy and picked up the prescription for Evelyn's broken wrist and made his way home.

When they arrived home, he told Evelyn to take one of the pain killers, elevate her wrist, and get some rest.

She did just that, and after a little over an hour when the pain killers began to take effect, as she slowly nodded off to sleep.

The next six months went by and was the happiest time for both Evelyn and Mason since their mother died.

Their father was no longer drinking, and while he never went back to the loving man he had been, he at least stopped beating them.

Unfortunately, those happy days were short lived as one day Mitchel came home incredibly drunk.

He had just been passed up for receiving tenure and had gone to his old crutch the bottle to wash away his woes.

However, along with his drinking came back his rage, and he immediately took it out on Evelyn. Coming up with the slightest excuse to beat her.

He said things like, "This is because you made me miss a week when you got sick with the flu. I should have just left you to die."

WHACK!

He slammed the wooden rod against her thighs again and again, and when she curled up into a ball to protect herself, he simply switched his target to her back.

He continued to hit her until his arm got tired, and he screamed at her to go to her room and think about what she had done.

Evelyn crawled back to her room sobbing along, she thought this nightmare was over, but it had once again reared its ugly head.

When Mason got home and saw the sorry state his sister was in, he went immediately to confront their father.

Unfortunately, he fared no better, receiving his own round of beating.

After that day things never got better again. Their father quickly reverted to his old drunken ways, and when he was not passed out, he was angry, and his kids were his punching bags.

Five more years went by like this and both Mason and Evelyn found new ways to not be home.

She had begun waking up early and heading to the library on the weekdays, where she would play online games or read fantasy novels to escape her horrible life.

Then when school came, she would stay for as long as she could joining whatever clubs lasted the longest.

At some point she even tried applying to far off boarding schools to get away, having studied her hardest to get scholarships.

Alas, her father would never sign any of the forms she needed to transfer to these schools, and she had to resign herself to another three years of torture before she became an adult.

She had recently turned fifteen and was counting down the days to when she turned eighteen, and could escape the hellhole she lived in.

Unfortunately, the worst abuse that her father would subject her to came just a few days later, when she was getting dressed up to go to dinner with her friend and their family.

They were taking her to a nice restaurant for her birthday, and it was the first time that she was going to be able to have an experience like this.

Yet even her nicest clothes were not really fit for such a high-end restaurant, but she had some of her mother's clothing long packed away.

So, she picked out a nice blue blouse and a long skirt that fit her.

Looking in the mirror she remembered her mother wearing this and was surprised by how much she looked like her.

Leaving her room smiling at the happy memories of her mother, Evelyn almost made it out of the house.

However, for the happy memories that Evelyn was remembering, when Mitchel saw her as he drank at the kitchen table. It only served as a reminder to the love of his life that he had lost.

Getting up he slammed the door as Evelyn was trying to leave, and proceed to give her the hardest beating he ever had.

Then when he was done, he said, "Go take that off and do not ever wear her clothes again."

Once Mitchel had gone back to his drinking, she immediately went into the bathroom and turned on the shower as hot as she could take it.

She sat in the tub crying for hours as the water washed over her, lamenting her situation.

When she could cry no longer, she quietly exited the bathroom, went back to her room, and curled up on her bed.

She clutched the purple hippo stuffed animal that was the last gift her mother had given her, and tried to find whatever solace she could.

Evelyn did not get a wink of sleep that night and when she went to school, she had had enough, and told her school what her father had done to her.

Of course, she did have bruises all over her body other than her face and forearms, so the school called social services and scheduled for someone to check out Evelyn's home.

Unfortunately, this was not all they did. As they also called Evelyn's father Mitchel and confronted him with the accusation.

Mitchel naturally denied it, and said she was making the whole thing up. That she had gotten hurt falling off the roof of the house while climbing where she should not have.

When the school day ended, and Evelyn had finished her club activities, she feared going home and hoped that her father was already so drunk he had passed out.

Unfortunately, when she got home, her prayers went unanswered, as Mitchel was sitting there waiting for her.

When she opened the door, he immediately got up, went over to her, and delivered a swift kick to her right shin.

Evelyn collapsed onto the ground from the force and pain, and her father grabbed her by the hair again and dragged her to his room.

He then proceeded to put Evelyn through another round of torment using the same wooden rod her always beat her and her brother with.

Once he was finished beating her, Evelyn collapsed to the floor in a world of pain, blood running down her legs.

But her father was not quite done yet.

He went over to his nightstand and brought over a wooden box. Opened it up and allowed Evelyn to see what was inside.

Inside the box she saw a revolver, and after a few moments, Mitchel said, "I got a call from your school today and they said you accused me of abusing you and Mason, and that a social worker will be coming by tomorrow. When they get here, you are going to say you made it all up, that you wanted attention. Or I am going to kill the social worker, you, Mason, and then myself."

When he was certain he had gotten the message across, he returned the gun to his nightstand and went back to his drinking.

Evelyn then dragged herself to her room and started crying again, the amount of physical and emotional abuse overwhelming her.

She thought about killing herself, but she decided not to. As it would leave her brother all alone, the only one to absorb Mitchel's wrath.

For as much as she hated her father, she loved her brother.

The next day when the social worker arrived, Evelyn did as her father told her, and the social worker left, saying that she had too much on her hands to deal with anymore made-up stories of abuse.

After the social worker was gone, her father gave Evelyn another beating for good measure, telling her to never speak against him again.

Soon the weeks went by, and Evelyn had fallen into a sullen state, living her life like a zombie.

She had come to accept her fate and could only wait it out until she became an adult.

Yet one night when she was coming home after midnight after a movie club event, she saw a bright flash and heard a loud bang coming from inside her house.

Rushing inside, she saw her brother Mason holding the revolver her dad had used to threaten her with in his hands, and her father cowering against a wall.

Mitchel was bleeding from his right side where the bullet had grazed him, and Mason was pointing the gun at him, though his hands were shacking violently.

When they both saw her enter, the first thing they did was call out to her.

"Evie, this bastard was bragging to me about what he did to you. Is it true?"

"Evelyn call the police your brother has gone crazy." Mitchel said with fear in his eyes.

Seeing this scene, Evelyn nodded her head yes towards her brother, who then turned towards their father.

Mitchel could see the murderous intent in his son's eyes, but before he could pull the trigger, Evelyn walked up to him and put her hand on his.

Mason looked down at Evelyn conflicted, before releasing the gun from his grasp.

Nodding his head and smiling, Mitchel said, "Good girl Evie. Now hand me the gun and call an ambulance."

However, as Mitchel pulled himself away from the wall and approached Evelyn. Another loud bang resounded through the house one after the another, as she unloaded the remaining four bullets into her father's torso.