Category: In Public, I Call Her Sister (Page 2 of 5)

In Public, I Call Her Sister

In Public, I Call Her Sister – chapter 40

August 24, 2011 / naelany / 0 Comments

The next time I open my eyes, I’m puzzled. I’m in a bed, in a room not my own. I hear voices.

Vaguely familiar voices, arguing.

Abruptly, they cease and Doctor Cullen is at my side. “Miss Hale?”

I try to nod, to speak, but find I can do neither.

A humming comes from the other side of the room, but I cannot move to locate its source. Doctor Cullen smiles gently, his eyes still holding pity – I despise it.

I do not deserve to be pitied.

I just want to die.

Why won’t they just let me die?

In Public, I Call Her Sister – chapter 39

August 23, 2011 / naelany / 0 Comments

The darkness threatens to take me and I welcome it. Even with Royce’s threat to my Vera, I can no longer fight. I’m hurting too badly, losing too much blood.

I’m broken – inside and out.

Let me die… please, let me die…

The darkness shifts, my eyes surely deceiving me when Doctor Cullen’s face hovers over mine, his brow creased with worry, pity, and something I cannot define.

His eyes are pitch black, making me wonder – even in my feeble state.

I’m sure I imagine his whispered, “Such a waste…”

He lifts me in his arms.

I moan.

In Public, I Call Her Sister – chapter 38

August 22, 2011 / naelany / 0 Comments

Finally, it’s over.

The beatings have stopped.

They’re standing over me, gloating, congratulating each other on a lesson well taught. There isn’t an orifice they haven’t violated. Not a patch of skin unbruised.

I feel the blood seeping from the various wounds they inflicted. I pray that this is truly the end, unable to imagine being able to survive all the damage they’ve done unto me.

With final insults thrown my way, a few spit on me before they all just… walk away.

Leaving me for dead.

But not without the promise from Royce ringing in my head.

“She’s next.”

In Public, I Call Her Sister – chapter 37

August 21, 2011 / naelany / 0 Comments

“I’ll show you, you trollop… Show you what a real man can do… Kissing her when you never even…”

It goes on and on to the point where I can’t hear it anymore.

Tears, and pain, and my own pleading voice are all I register as Royce takes from me what I willingly gave to Vera.

Every sob seems to spur him on, but when I whimper, “Vera…” he loses it completely.

That is when my nightmare truly begins.

That is when he starts beating me.

That is when his friends join in with cheers of, “We’ll teach you, doll-face.”

In Public, I Call Her Sister – chapter 36

August 20, 2011 / naelany / 0 Comments

His friends follow. They seem amused, making jokes, jeering him on, and taking bets as they continue to drink.

I try to scream. To beg Royce, “Please, just stop! Royce, please!”

It’s to no avail. The anger in him consumes him completely and I’m not left wondering as to the cause when he begins to rail at me.

“Did you think I wouldn’t find out, you whore?”

Spittle sprays into my face as he yells at me, telling me how he happened to walk by Vera’s house that morning and saw us in an embrace.

How he spied on us.

In Public, I Call Her Sister – chapter 35

August 19, 2011 / naelany / 0 Comments

Panic bubbles up inside as Royce clumsily tries to unbutton my coat in order to grope me. His lips are hard on mine and it takes everything I have in me to push him away from me.

“Royce! I’ll see you tomorrow. Sober.” I manage with a barely level voice.

As I attempt to pull my coat closed again, I see it. His eyes are suddenly burning with contempt, and a determination that frightens me.

I try to struggle as he grabs my arm, nearly twisting it out of my socket as he all but drags me into an alley.

In Public, I Call Her Sister – chapter 34

August 18, 2011 / naelany / 0 Comments

“Rose! There’s my Rose.”

The shock of hearing Royce call my name is the only reason I can think of that compels me to walk toward the group.

“Royce?” I ask in disbelief. Never, in all the time I’ve known him, have I seen him drunk. At parties he’s always refused to partake in alcohol, but now…

I’m flabbergasted at the display I see before me. Five grown men acting like ill-behaved children, making crude jokes and improper gestures as Royce asks one of them whether he was right.

“Isn’t she the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?” he slurs.

In Public, I Call Her Sister – chapter 33

August 17, 2011 / naelany / 0 Comments

Her whispered response still rings in my ears as I walk home briskly, wanting to lock myself in my room and savor the knowledge of her continued love for me.

Raucous laughter from further down the street floats to my ears. I frown as I take in the shadowy forms of a small group of men, light glinting off of something.

Glass. Bottles, I realize as I near them.

Drunken louts.

They laugh, making remarks that should never be made in public.

I tug at the collar of my coat, flipping it up as if it could ward them off.

In Public, I Call Her Sister – chapter 32

August 16, 2011 / naelany / 0 Comments

“It’s only a few blocks,” I remind her gently. “The streets are lit. I’ll be fine.”

“But it isn’t proper!” she insists, though her eyes tell me her real worry. That something will happen to me.

Lloyd offers to walk me home, putting on his coat. I decline stubbornly, especially when he wraps his arm protectively around his wife in an attempt to comfort her.

It isn’t until I promise to stop by the following morning before heading into town with Mother that she relents.

I hug her tightly as I whisper into her ear, “I love you, Vera. Always.”

In Public, I Call Her Sister – chapter 31

August 15, 2011 / naelany / 0 Comments

Lloyd insists I have dinner with them. What possesses me to agree, I do not know, but before I know it, it’s dark outside.

After helping Vera put Henry to bed, I sigh, reluctant to leave yet unable to stay. Today has been the best and worst I’ve had in a while – though the best outweighs the rest by far. I feel closer to Vera than I have in almost a year and I fear losing that re-discovered connection.

Vera does too. I can tell by how she frets as I pull on my coat.

“You shouldn’t walk alone…”