‘Okay,’ she said, finally. ‘We’ll go inside, Jon. Whatever you say.’
He squinted his eyes at her and cocked his head to the side like a confused dog. ‘Is that so?’
‘Yes,’ she said and nodded. ‘Kids, on your feet.’
‘But, Mom,’ Leah said, sobbing.
‘Don’t argue, Leah,’ Danni said, raising her voice. ‘Move. Now.’
Reluctantly, Leah stood back up. She moved next to her brother and let him bear his weight on her. Danni realised that his crutches were still upstairs in the bedroom above. She cursed herself for not tossing them out first before she had jumped. But, given the situation, forward planning hadn’t been high on her list. Her body, wracked with pain, would testify to that.
‘Good,’ Jon said. ‘I’m glad you’re all seeing sense.’
Danni smiled as best she could and limped over to him. ‘We’ll try it your way, hun,’ she said and dropped an arm around his shoulders, letting him take her weight as Leah had done for Alex. He complied, standing strong for her.
‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Everything will be better this way, you’ll see. We can be happy here.’
‘Okay, Jon’ Danni said. She let herself be led towards the door. ‘We’ll give it a try. I promise.’
‘You won’t regret it,’ Jon said, his smile a crooked one. He pushed open the front door and turned to his family, gesturing for them to go inside. ‘After you,’ he said.
Danni smiled and nodded. She took a step onto her good leg and prepared for the pain she knew she would feel.
Then she acted.
She quickly swung her other foot up as hard as she physically could, aiming a vicious kick right into Jon’s groin. Her ankle throbbed with fresh pain at the force of impact, but she knew it was worth it. Jon’s eyes shot open, eyeballs nearly popping from his skull, and he let out a pained shriek. He dropped to his knees, shuddering, hands pressed between his legs. Danni reached down and grabbed one of the clay plant pots beside the door—one with a withered, dead plant within.
She swung it.
There was a dull thud, and while the pot did not break, the force of the strike vibrated up the length of Danni’s arms. Jon’s head snapped to the side and he fell, letting out a sharp groan.
Danni dropped the potted plant and dug through Jon’s pockets as he flailed on the floor. He was trying to speak, but what came out was slurred and incomprehensible. She saw his eyes roll in his head, struggling to focus and adjust.
And she prayed she hadn’t caused any real damage to him.
Danni quickly found what she was looking for and stood back up, keys to the SUV in hand. Her body still hurt, but she pushed past that.
‘To the car,’ she yelled, grabbing at her children and pushing them away from their father.
‘But what about Dad?’
‘I know, Alex,’ she said, ‘but we need to go. I’ll come back for him, but right now it isn’t safe.’
Thankfully, neither child put up any resistance. They were clearly frightened and confused, but could sense that something wasn’t right. Both Leah and Danni, who was now badly limping, helped Alex as they ran as quickly as they could to the vehicle. Danni’s head was still spinning from the fall, and her stomach lurched. She fought the feeling of nausea and unlocked the car with a click of the fob.
Leah and Alex piled into the back and Danni hopped into the driver’s side, slamming the door behind her. She started the engine.
‘Seat belts,’ she ordered, knowing that she was really going to floor it. She put the car in gear, about to set off, when a loud smack on the rear windscreen startled them all. Both Leah and Alex screamed, and in her rearview mirror, Danni saw that Jon was standing behind the car, blood spilling from a cut on his forehead.
His eyes were wide, and his nose flared. He screamed, incoherently. Danni had never seen her husband look that way before.
It was almost psychopathic.
Danni flicked the switch to her side, automatically locking all the doors, and revved the engine. She pushed the pedal to the floor and set off, kicking up dirt behind them and showering Jon as she did. The car raced down the driveway to the main road ahead, and Danni could see Jon’s silhouette running after them.
She swung the vehicle in a wide turn out onto the road, not braking, and praying she wouldn’t turn out into any traffic. Thankfully, the road was clear.
Her ankle flared in pain again as she worked the clutch, and she whipped the wheel around, trying to right the vehicle onto the road. The children screamed as Danni pulled the other way now, trying to straighten up, but she overcompensated, and the car veered. Danni tried to correct it again, but pulled back too hard, and the car began swinging wildly from one side of the road to the other as she struggled to control it.
Danni finally thought she had it, when the wheel slipped from the tarmac into grass and hit something. A branch, a log? She wasn’t sure, but the car bounced violently, causing another shriek from the children. The SUV turned quickly on itself, swinging ninety degrees and going much too fast.
The momentum tilted the car, making it top heavy, and it began to roll onto its side. Danni felt her world spin.
Amongst the shrieks of terror from the children, she heard the strain of metal and the smashing of glass. The noises were deafening, and all Danni could think about was Leah and Alex. She was terrified she may have killed them.
The car was still rolling when Danni’s head bounced off the window beside her, and she blacked out completely.
20
DANNI WAS in her room back home.
She didn’t like calling it that; home. Because it felt like a prison.
She was young, sixteen, just finished school. She’d received her exam results, and they had been okay, better than expected, but not ground-breaking.
It was a milestone in her life. And she should have been happy about that. But, in Danni’s life, there wasn’t much to be happy about.
Living with her father made her miserable and terrified in equal measure. And things were getting worse.
For as long as Danni could remember, her father had always been mean and cranky, and sometimes downright cruel. Amongst this misery were periodic, nightmarish spikes, such as chasing her out into the garden and beating her, locking her in the spare room, more beatings, even trapping her alone in the mill, but it seemed like everything was building towards something.
Something gut-wrenchingly vile.
‘Danni,’ her father bellowed from below.
She was on her bed, reading a magazine, and debated ignoring him completely. But she knew that would only lead to bad things.
Please leave me alone, please leave me alone, please leave me alone.
‘Danni,’ he yelled, again. ‘You get down here right now.’
His voice had that tone again. Something beyond anger. There was a hatred there, a loathing that she could detect when things were at their worst.
How could someone hate their own daughter like that? His own flesh and blood?
What had she done to deserve this?
‘I’m reading, Dad,’ she called back down. A mistake, she knew. Answering back only drove him further into a rage, especially when he was like this. But she couldn’t help it, she was tired of feeling so alone and afraid.
So helpless.
‘Don’t you dare ignore me, girl,’ he shouted back. She heard his heavy footsteps stomp through from the hall to the bottom of the stairs. ‘So help me, if I have to come up there, you’re gonna regret it. Do you understand me?’
She thought of her mother.
Danni could only remember her a little, her maternal face recognisable only from a photograph Danni had managed to keep from her father, who seemed intent on destroying them all. In this picture, her mother looked happy, so did Dad, and they had their arms around each other in a loving embrace. They were standing outside of a terraced house—their first home together.
But this picture seemed to clash with the emotions
that stirred in Danni when she thought of her mother. Rather, memories of her were more impressions of sadness and misery.
‘I’m coming,’ Danni shouted back down. She took a breath and slowly climbed off the bed before walking out to the landing. She looked down at her father as he stood at the foot of the stairs.
Even from this elevated vantage point, he was an imposing figure; a big man with a big frame. And even though age had started to take its toll, he still seemed like a giant to Danni.
Maybe that was all in her head.
His jaw was clenched, and his nicotine-stained fingers wiggled with a pent-up energy. Eventually, they curled into fists.
‘Come down,’ he ordered.
She didn’t want to. She wanted to turn and run, maybe climb from her window and take her chances with the drop. Then she could keep running, on and on and on. Her father was big, but he wasn’t quick. She could run into infinity, and he would never catch her.
It was a comforting thought.
‘Now!’ he screamed, the volume causing Danni to jump.
Slowly, she made her way down towards him, each step tentative as the wooden stairs creaked under her weight. A nasty smile crept over his lips.
‘What do you want?’ she asked, stopping halfway down her descent.
His smile widened, and he ran his tongue over his bottom lip. ‘Come down and see,’ he said.
A feeling of deep dread bloomed in her stomach. This was going to be bad. Worse than anything that had come before.
She just knew it.
Enough was enough. She would suffer no more.
‘No,’ she told him.
His smile vanished, replaced in an instant by a hateful scowl. ‘What did you say to me?’
‘I said no. I want this to stop.’
‘You little bitch,’ he said. Flecks of spittle popped from his mouth.
‘Dad, look at yourself. Think about what you’re doing,’ Danni pleaded. ‘Why do you hate me so much? Why do you do these things? I’m your daughter, you’re supposed to love me. You’re not supposed to…’ but she couldn’t finish. Instead, she broke down crying and looked at him with wet, pleading eyes.
Something in him changed.
His scowl fell away and his face softened, as if the remnants of a once-good man were again taking hold.
Then he shook his head.
His lip curled.
And his fists clenched again.
‘You horrible little cunt.’
Whatever flash of clarity had come over him had clearly been buried once again. He stomped a heavy foot onto the first step.
‘Dad, please.’
‘Little bitch.’
His words were laced with venom, and he spat them through gritted teeth.
He took another step, and another. And for every step he took, Danni backed up one as well.
Her father then quickened, springing up two steps in a single bound. Instinctively, Danni spun and ran up the stairs herself.
Knowing the chase was on.
She bounded to the top as fast as she could, desperate to get away from him, and turned into the hallway before sprinting back to her room. The whole time, she could hear her father’s booming footfalls as he chased her and felt his presence looming. She nipped through the door and slammed it shut, pressing her back up against it.
‘Dad, please,’ she pleaded. The door had no lock, and she knew she couldn’t hold him off. She heard him thunder down the hall towards her before he started banging and pushing against the door.
‘Open the fucking door, now,’ he yelled, striking his big fists against the thick wood that separated them. The force of his blows caused the door to shake.
‘Please calm down.’
The brass handle twisted and turned, and then she felt another thump against the wood. It happened again, and she knew he was lunging into it from the other side, causing her to jolt half a step forward. She quickly regained her footing and threw herself backward, pushing the door shut. She pressed herself into it as hard as she could.
He hit the door again, hard, with even more force, and Danni was flung forward. This time, however, she doubled over and lost her balance. She twisted, and fell to her rear, but acted quickly and thrust herself back again, slamming her back into the door, trying to force it shut. She pushed with her legs, with everything she had, to keep it closed.
To keep him outside.
Maybe, if she could hold him off long enough, the rage would clear and he would leave her alone.
But the door smashed into her again, harder and harder, nudging her forward. The edge of the door painfully found her spine and dug in as her father forced it open. Danni cried helplessly as she slid forward.
Old Arthur made his entry.
Danni jumped to her feet and ran towards the window, determined to pull it open and throw herself out. Then, whatever would be would be. If she killed herself during the fall, well, right now she didn’t really care.
But it was not to be. She felt his strong grip on the back of her neck and his meaty fingers closed round it, actually big enough that the tips pressed on her windpipe. It felt like if he squeezed, only a little, her head would actually pop.
He didn’t squeeze, though.
Instead, he threw her sideways.
Danni’s feet left the floor for a few moments, and she crashed into the frame of the bed. Pain flared in her hipbone as it struck the wooden frame.
She cried out.
He was on her again in an instant, before she had a chance to get to her feet again. Before she could escape. He grabbed her hair and pulled her to her feet, spinning her to face him.
‘Please,’ she said, but the smirk on his face told her all she needed to know.
There would be no mercy for her.
His other hand again found its way around her neck. Danni was lifted painfully from the floor and thrown onto the bed.
‘Going to teach you a lesson,’ he said and pulled at his belt. It came free, and he dropped it to the floor before unbuttoning his trousers.
‘No, not this. Please, not this.’
She pleaded to him.
To God.
Neither listened.
God didn’t seem to give a fuck.
There would be no divine intervention.
Danni wept.
She hated him more than ever that night.
And that night was a long one.
A vile one.
A sickening one.
It was the worst moment of her life.
Mom, why did you leave me and let this happen?
The next morning, she packed as much as she could and fled from the house during the early hours of the morning.
She vowed never to go back.
21
‘WAKE UP.’
Danni heard the voice; frantic and feminine. It seemed to swim into her consciousness from some faraway place.
She felt something sting the skin of her cheek, over and over again.
‘Please wake up. We need to go. We need to help him.’
Nothing made sense. Part of Danni was still running away from home, and the actions of her father were still fresh in her mind.
She could still feel him on her. Smell him on her.
Another part of her, however, was being pulled away from the memory, as if rising up to the surface of a river, leaving the dream in the crushing black depths below.
‘Wake up!’
The voice was louder now, screaming, and the force that slapped her cheek hit again, harder.
Hard enough to draw her back into consciousness.
Her eyes opened, and she instinctively drew in a sharp breath.
The first thing she noticed was the smell, a pungent tang of petrol.
Her head felt full, but weightless.
She opened her eyes and saw that everything was upside down.
The windscreen before her had shattered, leaving only jagged glass around the edges.
Another blow bro
ught her to total awareness.
Leah was beside her, lying on what used to be the ceiling of the SUV, desperately trying to wake her. Danni looked over her body, trying to detect any injuries. Everything hurt, but she could pinpoint no extreme sources of discomfort. That meant that either she had been lucky in the crash, or she was running on adrenaline and something serious was just waiting to reveal itself.
She turned her head to her side, thankful that her neck moved with no trouble, and made eye contact with her daughter.
Leah looked terrified, and she had numerous scrapes on her face. Danni looked farther back, to the rear of the car.
Looking for her son.
‘Alex?’ she asked. Her voice was little more than a croak.
‘He took him, Mom,’ Leah said.
‘What?’
‘Dad,’ she said. ‘After we crashed. You wouldn’t wake up, so I tried to get Alex out of the car on my own. Dad came racing down the road towards us. I ran, but he grabbed Alex and yanked him free. He said that if we wanted to see him again, we had to go back to the house. I screamed for Dad to stop, but he wouldn’t listen.’
Leah was in hysterics, throwing the story out in breathless sentences.
Danni felt a renewed sense of panic and urgency swell up inside her, blowing away the last of the disoriented cobwebs. She moved a hand to her seatbelt, feeling it dig into her shoulder as the weight of her body pushed down onto it. She used her other hand to brace herself against the roof of the car, released the belt, and fell to the roof below. Leah moved aside and crawled backwards through the broken passenger-side window. Danni angled her body and squeezed herself through the same gap. She felt sharp glass press against her, cutting her as she crawled, but tried to ignore the stinging pain.
Her body was aching, and her ankle still throbbed intensely.
Once outside, she used the car to pull herself to her feet. Standing upright wasn’t easy, but it was possible.
Danni could hear the trickle of liquid, and she started to limp forward away from the vehicle as Leah trotted ahead. ‘Was Alex okay?’ Danni asked.
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