What did I tell you,Ethan?
I knew that tone in his voice. It was the tone he used when he didn’t really want or need an answer to his question. Not answering would earn me a fist to the face just the same as answering would.
It didn’t really matter if I wanted to try answering him or not, because I couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything but lie there under his body, his legs on either side of my hips holding me down with his greater weight as his big hands tightened around my neck. I didn’t wait for him to let up the incessant pressure on my windpipe because I knew this time he wasn’t going to.
I could see it in his eyes.
I’d pushed him too far.
I wanted to welcome death as darkness began to prick the edges of my eyes. But that need to take another breath, to see another day kicked in as it always had – the same as it had the first time Eric had knocked me to the floor and begun pummeling me with his booted feet, the same as it had that last night I’d seen him…the night he’d asked me why I hadn’t answered my phone when he’d called earlier that day.
I hadn’t answered him that time either.
But unlike that night, this time I wouldn’t be waking up on the cool tile of my kitchen floor.
Ethan, please, I don’t know what to do…I’m so scared!
Lucy.
With everything I had left in me, I clawed at the hands around my throat and when they wouldn’t budge, I went after his face.
“Ethan, stop!”
I wanted to say ‘Fuck you’ to him, but the words wouldn’t come even as a sliver of air finally seeped into my tortured lungs.
“Ethan, wake up!”
Lucy?
“Lucy, run,” I gasped, but even those few words cost me too much.
“Damn it, Ethan, open your eyes!”
The rough order broke through my muddled mind and even though I’d sworn I’d never take another order from the bastard again, my eyes automatically opened and I jerked upright. The weight from my hips was gone as were the hands around my throat. I used that to my advantage and began striking out with my fists. Even if I just left one bruise on the fucker, it would mean something.
He’d see it and for however long it graced his skin, he’d say to himself, ‘Ethan did that to me.’
I wanted to shout out loud when my fist connected with flesh, but the thought was short-lived as my wrists were instantly wrapped up in a brutal hold that I had no chance of escaping from.
“Don’t hurt him!” I heard Lucy scream. Why hadn’t she run like I told her?
“Ethan, open your eyes now!”
I wanted to scream at him that they were, but it finally registered that they weren’t, though I’d thought they were. I opened them for real this time and was immediately rewarded with a flash of light so strong that bile rose in my throat and I was helpless to stop it. I couldn’t even lean over so I wouldn’t puke on Eric because it all happened too fast.
So much for being strong for once in your life.
I wanted to cry at the self-inflicted jab, but I was still too dizzy todo anything but hang there, puke in my lap and God only knew where else, light seeping through my painfully dry eyes and the sensation of manacles on my wrists.
“Ethan,” I heard Lucy whisper. I wanted to tell her to run again, but I didn’t even have enough energy to open my mouth, let alone try to form words.
“Lucy, get him some water.”
Awareness returned as the heavy timbre of a voice I didn’t recognize seeped into my brain.
“Ethan, just take deep breaths.”
I did as the voice told me and then I focused on the hands that were still holding my wrists. They were warm and calloused, but they weren’t…hurting me.
