Monster
By Le Belle Dame Sans Merci
Isabella tossed and turned in her bed, the noise of her bed springs a quiet testament to her movement. The darkness that filled her room would have intensified the sounds, but they were drowned out by the yelling and crying that filtered into the small space of her room through the walls. Like every night her parents fought, she buried herself beneath her cover and let the tears of her frustration fall.
"Why," she whispered to no one, her only companions in the room being the shadows that stood in the dark. "Why do they have to fight? Why can't they just be like other parents? Why can't they just love each other?"
She let her words flow freely, giving them the life in the darkness that they could never have in the light. She would never say this to her parents, too afraid of what Daddy would do.
Daddy, the man that use to tuck her in every night with a kiss, the man that use to wake her up early on Saturdays so they could watch cartoons together, the man that would pick her up when she'd fallen and would whisper, "I got you, baby girl."
That man was gone, though. In his place was the Monster, a ferocious beast that looked like her Daddy, but could never be him. The Monster drank all the time, never going anywhere in the house without a glass of some amber liquid. The Monster yelled and ranted and raved, his loud voice seeming to fill every corner of their townhouse. The Monster also beat her mother.
Her mother had tried to hide it, the evidence of the Monster's deeds. Every time a new offensive blemish would appear on her mother's skin, Izzy would ask her what had happened, but she'd just brush her off, throwing out some unconvincing comment about falling or running into a wall. It didn't take Izzy long to realize that the wall was the Monster's fists. She may only be nine years old, but she wasn't stupid. She wasn't blind, either.
To see the dark spots on her mother's pale skin brought tears to her eyes. Sometimes, after a rough round with the Monster, her mother could hardly move, any attempt of rising from her bed drawing a cry of pain from her lips. Seeing her mother like that made her hate the Monster more than anything else in the world, but is also made her hate her mother. Her mommy, always so strong and beautiful, was broken and weak beneath the cruel hands of the Monster.
Izzy couldn't understand why her mother never left him instead of subjecting herself and Izzy to the Monster's torment. She'd seen women on TV just like her mother, all claiming to stay because of they loved their Monster and they knew that their Monster loved them, but surely that couldn't be her mother's reason, her excuse for keeping them here in this pitiful pretense of a home. To think that the Monster was capable of love was absolutely ridiculous. And her mother? How could her mother love a monster? He didn't deserve her mother's love.
Her face covered by the gentle weight of her pillow, Izzy murmured, "He doesn't deserve anything."
She wished she could just leave, leave and never come back, but that couldn't happen. She was too young to run away and make it on her own. Even if she found someone to take care of her, where could she go that the Monster couldn't find her and drag her back to its Hell? The Monster was a police officer, the chief of the Forks Police; it probably had countless ways of finding her and she knew that it wouldn't stop looking for her until it had her again.
She had thought that when Jessica, her sister, had left, she'd come back for her. She couldn't have been more wrong. After years of living in terror of the Monster, Jess had packed her bags and left without a backwards glance. They hadn't heard from her since January, when she'd called to assure them that she was still alive. The Monster had been nice enough, but when Jess had refused to tell them where she was, it grew angry. The Monster had yelled into the phone, its face growing red as it spewed its venom, but its hateful words fell upon deaf ears; so had Izzy's.
She'd begged Jess to come back for her, to help her, but Jess had only sighed and whispered tearfully, "I can't." Her words had killed any hope Izzy had had of escaping.
The pain and disappointment those words drew Izzy out of her thoughts and back into her room. It was quiet. She uncovered her head and strained her ears against the silence, trying to hear anything, but there was nothing to hear. Not a cry, not a whimper, not even the heart-felt apologies of the Monster as it helped her mother up from the floor and into their cold lonely bed.
The silence was unnerving. Sitting up and throwing her legs over the side of her bed, she moved to get closer to her parents' room in order to find out what was going on. Treading softly, she made her way to her bedroom door, but stopped short when she heard a knocking from the other side.
"Izzy? Baby girl, are you awake in there," the Monster called through the door.
"Daddy?"
"Open the door, sweetheart."
The words weren't bellowed at the Monster's preferred tone, but, instead, were spoken at slightly above a whisper; reminding her of her Daddy's teasing tone when he coaxed her downstairs for pancakes and mindless cartoons. Moving cautiously, Izzy opened the door and let the Monster in.
It stood there smiling, a ghost of her Daddy's bright smile. Its eyes took in her room from wall to wall before it made its way to her bed and sat down.
"Come here, sweetheart," the Monster commanded softly. As Izzy approached the Monster, she tried to ignore how ridiculous the situation was. The Monster never called her 'baby girl' and 'sweetheart', the endearments having died along with her Daddy the day the Monster took over. She was scared. This was made evident by the tell-tale pounding of her heart in her small chest as the Monster lifted her up and placed her on its lap, cradling her like her Daddy use to do. She hoped it couldn't hear it, terrified of what the panicked sound would make it do.
"Do you love your Daddy, sweetheart?"
Such an unusual question to come from the lips of the Monster, but dutifully she answered, "Yes."
It smiled the specter smile again and kissed the top of her head.
"Of course you do, baby girl. Always my good girl. You'd never leave me, would you, Izzy?"
Confused, she looked up into the Monster's eyes. The pale blue had been eaten away by the dark black of its pupils and the whites were bloodshot.
"Never, Daddy," she lied. Another rare smile spread across the Monster's face.
"Good girl. Why couldn't your mother be more like you? Thinking she was going to leave me," the smile turned cruel, "She's not going anywhere now."
Izzy shuddered at the Monster's expression.
"Daddy, what's going on? What happened to Mommy," she asked as she squirmed in its arms. Her voice rose in terror as she demanded, "What did you do to my Mommy?"
It laughed a laugh as dark and terrible as the night.
"Stupid whore thought she could leave me, but I made sure she can't go anywhere."
Her small hand rose from her lap and smacked its face. In an instant, the smile became a snarl and the cradle of the Monster's arms, a cage.
"Little slut," it yelled as it tightened its arms around her, "You gonna leave me, huh, Izzy? Just like your mother. That whore thought she could leave me, take my family away from me. Said she couldn't stay here anymore. Did she tell you that? I fixed her, though. She's not going anywhere, not any more. Should have done the same thing to your sister. You're not gonna leave me, baby girl. I won't let you."
The Monster spit each word out, making each one a filthy expletive, and it tightened its arms more. Izzy squirmed, trying to get free, but the Monster crushed her small body to its wide chest.
"Daddy, please. Daddy, let me go," she begged. Tears filled her eyes, overflowing onto her cheeks.
One of the Monster's hands released her, but quickly attached itself to her neck, choking her. Fear, raw and terrifying, consumed her as she tried to pull the hand that was squeezing the life from her body away, but she wasn't strong enough. Her lungs desperately begged for air, but she couldn't get enough to go down her constricted throat.
"I won't let you leave me, Izzy. I just won't let you."
Those were the last words she heard before she fell into the comforting arms of unconsciousness, finally free from the Monster.