Cheryl

By Heathen

(violent, no sex)

Since it was mentioned that October is Domestic violence Awareness month, and since this subject is important to me, I wrote this short tome. It holds some basic facts from true cases that I know about (I got to see the aftereffects), but combined to become a story that could (and probably does) happen. It does contain graphic violence and may not be for the faint of heart.

Cheryl (viol, nosex)

Cheryl sat in her bedroom trying to make sense of it all. She hugged her pillow close to her 13 year old body substituting the inaminate object for the warmth of someone real. She needed the love desperately but it was not forthcoming. In the dark of her bedroom, she was crouched in the corner of her closet. She could not get away and this was the one place she could hide.

Through the wall that separated her room from the living room she could hear the sound of a body being thrown around. She heard a lamp go crashing to the floor and then the body following. That body was her mother. She could imagine the brutality that was going on in the other room. And she knew what would happen if she tried to stop it. She knew firsthand the pain inflicted by her father’s wrath. She had screamed at him to stop hurting mommy. He had backhanded her with enough force to send her into the stove, knocking her cold. She woke up to find her mother holding her. As bad as she felt, her mother looked worse. Her eyes were both swollen and her lips were twice the size they usually were.

Cheryl looked at her mother and asked “Why can’t we just go away from here?”

He mother answered “I have taken you and left. He always finds us. The last time was when we went to Uncle Gary’s. He made some threats to kill us both if we didn’t come back, and I believe he would have done it. From now on you need to stay in your room when he gets this way. I have to keep him from using you too.”

“But Mommy, why does he do this to you?”

“I guess it is my fault most of the time. Your father was raised in a strict household. Your Grandpa was the head of the house and he allowed nobody to have any control but him. Now your daddy expects the same thing in his home. I know this, but I sometimes don’t have dinner ready when he comes home. And I will sometimes say things that sets him off.”

Cheryl did not think these things were bad enough to get what her mom got. None of her friends’ parents seemed to be like this. She never had any friends over because she never knew when her Daddy would be in a bad mood. She wished for the life she saw on the sitcoms on the television. The parents on there loved their kids. They never hit their kids or each other. And they were happy.

The time before tonight had been the worst for Cheryl. She had let something slip at school and a counseler had started checking into her home. When her Daddy found out he was furious and had taken off his belt and beat her until she had bruises all over her butt and legs. The pain was awful and it seemed that he would never stop.

Tonight was different though. Her daddy had come home and found that her Mom had a couple of suitcases packed. She had told Cheryl to pack one of her own. It was hidden under her bed. He went into a rage. After the first punch, she had ran into her room. She heard her daddy go into the bedroom and throw things out of the closet. Then he stomped downstairs and demanded to know where the gun he had hidden was. Her mom told him that she didn’t know about any gun. That was when he really started in on her.

Her mother didn’t know where the gun was. But Cheryl did. She crept out of the closet and pulled the piece of cold gray metal out from under her mattress. She heard silence from downstairs now. Then the footsteps that came closer to her door. She heard the knob rattle then the door shatter as her daddy kicked it in. She closed her eyes…..

====================================================

The police arrived a very short time later to a scene that sickened them. The body of a woman was on the living room floor. Her broken face and body looked barely human. Upstairs they found a little girl sitting in her closet holding a 9 mm pistol. There were tears streaming down her face. In front of her was a male body. And the little girl was saying over and over, “Daddy please don’t hurt us anymore. Please, no more”

~~~FIN~~~

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