Chapter 1: Moving day
Mercedes
"Get all your crap in the truck and move."
Mercedes could hear the grating sound of Roger Till's voice as he stomped through the house giving orders.
"Roger we're moving as fast as we can." Hand frozen in mid air with a ball of clothes, Mercedes stopped moving, stopped breathing, stopped everything.
"What did you say?" Cold and dry were the words that came out of his mouth, with the tell-tell slur that was just Roger.
"Nothing, I didn't say anything. I'm sorry baby." Her mother Susan Till knew not to make any sudden movements in moments like this. The last thing she wanted was for Mercedes to see what she knew Roger was thinking about doing.
"We need to go, someone may call them again" Mercedes replied making sure to keep her head down and her voice low. Interacting with her step-father was like trying to calm down a rabid animal. It seemed as though he didn't hear a word she said as he took one step forward, and then another, and another, until he was standing directly in front of her mother, staring down at her with those disgusting murky green eyes. He stood there for about half a minute before he leaned down and whisper in her ear a cold reply of.
"I will deal with you later." Neither of them moved until he was out of the room. Roger took up the space in any room he went into. He would either make you feel like the most special person in the world or the scum of the earth. The scum of the earth bit was usually saved for either Mercedes and her mother. The hate that oozed from him coated you and made you feel like you were drowning in those green eyes of his and had no way of coming up for air. Roger just did that and he liked it like that. He liked that he got a response without uttering one syllable.
When he was completely out of the room they finally started to move. Susan Till knew what that one line meant, it was pretty simple living with Roger. "Mercedes, hurry up, don't take anything you don't need. One duffle bag." Mercedes rolled her eyes, because both her and her mother knew that everything she had could fit in the raggedy large duffle bag.
"Where are we going this time?" Mercedes asked her mother.
"I don't know, your father didn't tell me, just know that he's taking us somewhere safe." Mercedes heard the two truths and lie that her mother had just told. It was true that she didn't know where they were going, Roger ran this family, if that's what you wanted to call it. He liked "his girls" walking on eggshells around him, trying to guess his every move, living in fear. The two lies, Roger Till was not Mercedes father and anywhere that he was no one was safe.
"Let's go!" All three of them jumped in the black van and drove to wherever Roger was taking them this time.
The drive from California to Ohio felt like years rather than hours. By the time they got there it was dark and Roger was still behind the wheel drunk. Any type of alcohol was like a shot of energy for Roger there were times where he wouldn't sleep for days, those days were referred to as the dark days by Mercedes. She'd try to make herself as invisible as possible and stay out of the house as long as she could.
As they pulled up to the house that she knew they would be renting, because they never made any permanent commitments. She was kinda in awe, it was actually a nice looking house. It was painted a light blue with a white door and white trimmings. The numbers 551 were printed on the building in beautiful script. She couldn't see much else in the dark, one of the perks of moving around so much she noted was seeing so much the world had to offer. Mercedes always tried to make one connection in whatever city they lived in, that way when she turned 18 and got herself out of the hell she was living in she would have someone to help her get started. Lima, Ohio seemed like a nice place, just based off of that one fact she knew they wouldn't be here long. This family didn't do nice or homey. They liked distant and neighbors that minded their own business.
Following Roger and her mom up the white washed concrete path to the door, the observations of the house stopped because she knew what was going to start when those doors closed behind them. She hadn't forgotten Roger's threat, and neither had her mother. She'd known already that Roger hadn't forgotten either, but she had hoped. When the door was opened and then closed, she'd known the hope was useless When Roger grabbed her mother and dragged her up the stairs and locked the bedroom door that he had claimed for the two of them.
"Welcome home." Mercedes whispered in the darkness.