“I know, I know.” I brushed the hair away from her face gently with my hand. “Hey, I came up here to tell you something. You have to listen. It's for your own good. Don't go outside at all for any reason unless you're told to. I can't tell you any more than that and that's for your own good too. Dad's a very bad man. I'll get you out of here soon, don't worry. Johnny and I are trying to work on a plan together to get far away from here and never have to come back.” I lifted her face carefully with my hand so that our eyes met and then I said, “I love you, okay?”
“Okay Emily. I love you too. I won't go outside and I won't ask why not. I promise.”
I left her room and walked back downstairs as quietly as possible, trying to hear if Dad or Johnny were back in the house yet. I didn't want to get caught by Dad leaving Caroline's bedroom right now.
Before Eric had been killed I hadn’t thought that things could get any worse than they already were around here. I had been so very wrong. If our father was crazy and controlling before that night, he was a lunatic now. There wasn't anything that I could think of that he wouldn't do. In my mind, we were all in danger for our lives.
My mother and father were in their bedroom. Fighting. They weren't just screaming and hollering either. Stuff was being broken and someone (most likely my mother) was being hit. Johnny was sitting at the table by himself.
“Johnny, what are we going to do? We can't let this continue,” I whispered and then looked around to make sure no one was watching us.
“What are we supposed to do? You heard Dad. We were part of this. Even if we somehow freed those two out there, they would rat us out and we'd all rot in prison or be put to death.”
I wanted to run and scream and hide. This whole thing was crazy. How did we end up like this? I didn't want to be part of the kidnapping, torture, and probably murder of that cute little girl and her mommy.
Life was not fair. Didn't God exist? Why would he let something like this happen? What was the big test he must be trying to put me through? Was this a test to see if I would do the right thing and free them? I made up my mind. I would go and set them free in the middle of the night. No matter what the cost was to me and my family. I never should have taken part in the whole thing in the first place. Now I had to at least make things right.
Supper was awkward. Almost everything was always awkward in the Fleischer household. Mom looked worse than I had ever seen here before. Her whole face was swollen and bloodied. Dad seemed to be worried and keeping a close eye on each of us, as if trying to read our thoughts for anything that might be in the least bit suspicious.
Finally dinner was over, dishes were done, and all of us kids were in our rooms. I was determined to stay awake until I was sure Mom and Dad were in their bed for the night. I thought that I should be able to hear the footsteps as they went into their room. In the meantime, I had to come up with a plan. I should have told Johnny what I wanted to do and then maybe he could have helped me. But he had seemed scared about being caught by the law and what the punishment would be.
I was trying to think of who had the worse situation, me or the young woman in our barn. I really was trying to keep the little girl named Michelle out of my head. Was her mother's situation really worse than my own though? I had lived for years expecting one form of hurt or another every single day. She seemed to have lived a happy life until I walked into it.
So which was better, to live everyday worrying and wondering what would happen next or to go through life carefree until one day the unexpected happened? How long would she really have to suffer for? I was guessing a maximum of a couple of days. What would happen to me though if I interfered and got caught? The answer to that was probably many more years of unspeakable torment.
But then I thought of her sweet little daughter. That must have been torture of the most horrible kind, to have to watch whatever my father decided to do with her daughter and not be able to do anything to stop him. For myself I think that would be far worse than anything that he could possibly to do hurt me. And she was so young. Even if he never touched Michelle at all she probably had to witness whatever my father did to her mother. And that would be damaging enough.
My stomach turned. I knew in my heart that I had to do something. I just wasn't sure what yet. First I would have to go out and check out what the situation actually was that I had to deal with. If there even was anyone left alive to be dealt with. There was always the possibility that the woman and her little girl were already dead.
I hoped for Emily’s sake that the strangers in the barn were already dead. Then she wouldn’t have to worry about what she should or shouldn’t do anymore. It would be out of her hands. There wasn’t anything that she could really do for them anyway, nothing that she would be able to get away with anyhow. I wished that she would change her mind about going out to the barn at all. I had a bad feeling about what she might find, or that she would get caught.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
I heard footsteps on the floor above me. Then I heard my father's heavier footsteps and my parents' bedroom door bang shut. Now was the time for me to act. I snuck quietly back up the basement stairs. I opened the door to the kitchen and peeked out. The lights were off and no one was in sight. My heart was racing.
I entered the kitchen and purposely didn't shut the cellar door all the way behind me. Then I tiptoed over to the door that led outside. I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the glass. I barely recognized myself and was almost afraid of the strange girl that looked back at me.
I opened the door as quickly and quietly as I could and again didn't shut it completely behind myself. I held the screen door as it shut so that it wouldn't slam. I was sure the loud beating of my heart would give me away, but also knew that was a silly thought.
I had made it outside. I crept as invisibly as I could across the damp grass. The barn seemed so far away under the present circumstances. Everything seemed so quiet. Even the crickets and other night creatures seemed to have disappeared or were holding their breaths in order to see and hear what happened next.
When I was still a little ways away from the barn I saw something that I didn't remember being there before. I sped up the last few feet until I was actually at the barn door and confirmed what I had thought. There was a chain holding the door with a padlock hanging from it. Now what? I tugged at the doors to see if they would open enough for me to fit through. They opened about two inches and made a loud dragging sound as they did so. My heart skipped a beat or two and I looked back towards the house just to make sure that no one else was headed this way.
I heard a low moaning sound coming from inside the barn. It had to be the mother. That meant that they were probably both still alive. Hopefully the little girl was sleeping. I decided to double check the other door to the barn just in case my father had left that one unlocked. I walked around the side of the barn, all the way to the other end only to find another chain and padlock. Of course, I should have known that he wouldn’t leave one of the doors unlocked.
If I were going to attempt a rescue I'd need to find something to cut the chain or the lock. I was sure we had a tool that would do that sort of a thing. It would have to wait until tomorrow though. I was certain that if I spent even another minute out here I would get caught for sure. I headed quickly back to the house, feeling more nervous about sneaking back in than I had about sneaking out in the first place. If that was even possible. I opened the screen door and then pushed the inner door open. Dad was standing there, apparently waiting for me to return.
Shit. Emily had made the right decision to give up for the night and go back to the house but he had caught her anyways. What would happen to Emily now? I was so afraid for her. This was not good, not good at all. She might end up needing me sooner than I thought if things got any worse than they had been lately. What in the world was he going to do with her?
I didn’t believe in praying, because I didn’t believe that there was a God. If there was a God, he wouldn’t have
let the things that Emily’s father did happen. I knew Emily believed in Him, despite the fact that her life was a living Hell, and I couldn’t understand why. I knew she was more hopeful about the world and its possibilities than I was. I saw things as they were and as they needed to be changed. Tonight Emily may need something a little stronger than hope to carry her through, she may need me.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Now the question running quickly through my mind was: should I just admit what I had been doing or should I make up a lie? I decided to lie. “Oh Dad, you scared me!”
“What in the hell did you think you were doing out there?”
“I was just trying to quiet that lady. I could hear her screaming all the way in my room. I didn't want someone else to hear.” Would he believe me?
I barely saw his hand move before it slapped hard against my cheek. “You make a horrible liar. How stupid do you think I am? Do you want to go see how I know that you're lying to me? Do you?!”
No, I really did not want to go out into the barn and face those people. Especially not with my father when I would be able to do absolutely nothing to help them, not even to reassure them with words. Would he let me escape back to my room without going out to the barn to become a witness to whatever he had done? I really didn't think so at this point.
I tried to get out of the situation by admitting my lie but I left out the part about planning to set them free, “No, that's okay. I'm sorry. You're right, I lied to you Dad. I didn't hear the woman scream. I just wanted to go out to check on them. I just could not get to sleep knowing that they were out there.”
“And just what were you planning to do so that your pretty little head would be able to get to sleep tonight? I know how you are. You think too much and are too bull headed and it's going to end up getting you into a world of trouble. So what did you think you were going to gain by going out to see them?”
“I don't know. I didn't think about it, I guess.”
“Were you going to try to let them go?”
“No, Dad! Of course I wasn’t going to do that.”
I felt cornered. I was stuck between my father and the screen door. It would be easy enough to push the screen door open to get away, but I would never dare do that, not with a father like mine.
“Even if you did manage to free them, where would they go? Running down the road in the middle of nowhere? That woman would go right to the police you know. Then you, your brother, and I would all be put to death in the electric chair. Do you know how that would feel?”
I was looking at my feet. I began to shuffle them together as I replied to my father, “No, Sir.”
He placed his rough pointer finger under my chin to lift my face towards him. Then he kept pointing the same finger right at my nose as he said, “Worse than anything you have ever experienced. Then you would go to Hell after that.” Finally the pointing stopped so he could raise both of his arms in the air to show how frustrated he was with me. “I'm only looking out for what's best for you kids. That's all I ever do. You kids don't see that though.”
I looked back at my feet. Wow, my father was really talkative tonight. I didn't care for it. I just wanted to go back to my room and hide. Looking out for what was best for us kids? What a bunch of bologna! I wondered if he actually believed that load of garbage himself. Probably, being the special kind of crazy that he was. I wondered if I would set him off if I just simply asked him if I could go back to bed. My stomach was bubbly again, stupid nerves.
I looked back up at my father's hands. “If it's okay with you I think I will just go to bed now.”
He put that same rough pointer finger to his chin as if he were really thinking hard about this. “Hmm.” The finger came off his chin and his hand flew up. I flinched, thinking that he was going to smack me again. Instead he yelled, “Now you care whether or not it's alright with me? Where was this concern about what I wanted when you was sneaking around outside so late at night?”
“I'm sorry Dad. I should have just stayed put in my room. I won't do it again, I promise.”
“No, I can see that you're curious. So you can march your little ass right out with me to the barn, see what's what, and then you can come back in and go to bed. Come on, let's get out there.”
I really didn't want to go out there with my father. But I could tell that he was not going to leave me alone to go to bed until I did. I was afraid of what I would find in the barn and also of what might happen to me or those people while we were out there.
Oh man, oh man, oh man! I wish Emily would just make a run for it. She could probably make it to somewhere that he wouldn’t be able to find her before he could catch up to her. But I knew she wouldn’t do that. She was too concerned about leaving her brother and sister. I had a really, really bad feeling about her going out to the barn with her father. I hadn’t wanted her to go out there at all, but she wouldn’t listen to me and now look at the position she had gotten herself into. I hoped, at the very least, that if things began to get bad she would let me take care of them for her this time.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
He nudged me forward out the door. The crisp night air filling my lungs and sky full of bright stars mixed with the sounds of the country night would have been breathtaking under almost any other circumstances. However, the barn and what waited inside were far too near for any sort of comfort.
I had no idea what to expect when the barn doors opened. There was a very real possibility that I would crap my own pants, that much I knew just by the way that my stomach felt all twisty and turny. I had heard the woman moaning maybe only about half an hour ago or so, so I knew that she was still alive in there. However, I hadn't heard anything at all from the little girl Michelle, that poor baby. Now I kind of hoped in the back of my mind that she was already dead only so that I wouldn't have to be a witness to any of her suffering.
The chain clattered as my father undid the lock and removed both things from the door. I was behind him on the right, trying my best to hide behind the cover of the barn door as he began to pull it open. It made such a racket as it creaked and then stuttered against the uneven ground. Our entrance shouldn't have come as a big surprise to anyone with all the noise that was made.
The smell gagged me as soon as I entered the barn. It was so bad that I swore I could taste each and every disgusting odor in my mouth. There was a mingling of human feces, vomit, sweat, urine, that nasty smell of sex, and death. I puked, adding to the nasty stink and the taste in my mouth.
The woman was moaning again, or so it sounded. Actually, her arms and legs were tied and there was something shoved in her mouth with a tie holding whatever was in her mouth in place. Her green eyes were wide in a useless attempt to show me whatever she was trying to say with her mouth.
Then I saw her beautiful little girl. Her once beautiful little girl, that is. Her body had been chopped into several smaller pieces which were lying on the work bench. I gagged some more.
My father spoke, “Now, you didn't get too attached to that little girl I hope, Caroline. I was starting to, but I got a bit carried away. All for the best, I suppose. Now I just have that one to figure out what to do with.” He motioned towards Michelle’s mother with his right hand without even glancing at her.
Then he looked at the older of the two people we had kidnapped and continued speaking, “Isn't that right? I can't just let you go, can I? You wouldn't want to screw up my little girl's whole future, would you? Besides, you have nothing left to live for now that your little girl is gone, poor thing.” Michelle's mother struggled against her own restraints. I knew how she must have felt.
Dad spoke to me again, “Remember what I always say, Caroline? Don't get too what? Come on, you ought to know this.”
He was, without a sliver of a doubt, crazy in his head. “Oh Dad, no, please!”
A wicked sound that was supposed to be a laugh escaped from his mouth. “Okay, okay. I'll finish the phrase for you. Don't get too attached because it might be s
upper!” He laughed again, obviously pleased at his own twisted version of what was funny.
The little girl who was once named Michelle's mother wrestled around with her restraints some more while trying without any luck to speak. Tears streamed from her eyes. I couldn't help myself. I had to say something to this poor woman. “I'm so sorry Miss. Please forgive me.”
My father mimicked me in a high-pitched voice, “I'm so sorry Miss. Please won't you forgive me? Aaah, hogwash! You don't need her forgiveness! You're so fuckin’ weak! Just like your pathetic, drunk mother!”
“This is wrong! You're wrong! You're out of control Dad.”
He grabbed me and threw me to the dirt floor of the barn. I landed right next to the crying mother of the now dead little girl. My father quickly climbed on top of me before I had a chance to react, straddling my waist.
Detached: Book 1 of the Fleischer Series Page 10