Nightmare

The too-familiar sound of yelling flooded her ears. The unmistakable

smell of alcohol and cigarettes floated towards her as he got closer.

Her shirt damp with sweat pressed against the small of her back-

against the deep maroon colored lines spelling out ‘worthless’ in

sloppy yet vehement writing. She trembled, shielding her face with her

shaking hands which were covered in small circular welts from his

cigarettes.

Suddenly the face of her older brother flashed in front of her. He was

so vivid she thought as the she could reach out and touch him. How she

yearned for him to hold her in his arms once again. There was blood

dripping down the side of his face. His eyes were glassy and distant.

He was protecting her. Taking the blows that had her name on them. She

pealed her eyes away from his tormented face to see a small girl

cowering in the corner shaking violently and choking out something in

between and scream and a sob. Her shirt had been torn off and hanging

of her shoulder. It took her a moment to realize that the girl in the

corner was herself.

Then, as quickly as she had left, she was back in the kitchen. She

looked down to see her feet tightly bound with rope, and her left arm

handcuffed to the refrigerator door. They pinched her wrist as she

struggled. Around her, smoke and flames were engulfing everything. She

felt like she was suffocating. As if someone had reached in and taken

all the life out of the world. She closed her eyes as she swayed,

unable to keep her balance.

The sharp feeling of the cold rusty blade to her neck brought her to a

new location. This time, it was the hallway between the kitchen and

her room. The back of her head pressed firmly against the dirty

peeling wall behind her. He had one arm twisting her wrists until she

thought they would be yanked out and his other arm holding the knife

to her neck. His face was so close to her’s that she could make out

every detail of his rotting yellow teeth and fowl breath. She closed

her eyes letting her thoughts drown out his angry growling. For a

split second, her mind slipped to a place where she could be happy.

Free. Safe. But those thoughts were shattered and she was brought back

as the tip of the blade nicked her neck. She whimpered in pain.

Suddenly she bolted upright. There she was, back in her own bed. She

stifled a scream and dug her fingernails into her arm to distract

herself from the images that were still running through her head. Even

now, so many years later, her dreams weren’t a safe place to hide from

the terrors of her past.