This wasn't the first time this happened. A vision of blood everywhere. A body cold on the ground in front of her feet with no memory of how or why the life that was in it became extinguished. The first time it happened was when she was no more than eight years old.
Her aunt had been asleep in her bed, as they were all supposed to be at this time of night, and she...she had been downstairs in the basement again. Her aunt had insisted that it had been an accident, that the little girl didn't mean to knock over the end table and break the vase. But as soon as her alcoholic husband had threatened to raise a hand against her too...the young girl was left defenseless.
The only source of light for the child was a sliver that peered from the bottom of the basement door. Were it not for that sliver, the child would have most certainly (at least within the confines of her own judgment) had nothing at all to hope for. Complete darkness would surely have been the worst thing to happen to the young girl.
She missed her mommy. She hadn't seen her mommy since she was five, but she still needed her now.
The child trembled when she heard the sounds of heavy footfalls towards the basement door. Was 'Auntie' or 'Sir' going to let her out now? She tried to be good, she didn't even make a peep.
But no one left the door open. Nor did they turn on the light.
Instead, her senses were invaded by the smell of whiskey and the sound of incoherent mumblings from 'Sir'. His fingers gripped the child's fragile wrist, and his other hand started to tug at the edges of her nightgown.
Lucy was beyond terrified at this point. All she wanted to do was disappear, to pretend that none of it was happening, and while her uncle continued to invade her personal space, she continued to wish for her own disappearance.
"I want to go away! Make me go away! Please let me disappear!"
The child's wish was granted.
She
started
to
slip...
"Miss, could you tell me what happened?"
The sound of the police officer brought the teen out of the confines of her past, and into the present. He looked concerned for the well being of the shaken young lady in front of him, not knowing what much else he could do besides wrapping a blanket around the poor witness.
"You don't have to answer right away. Are you ok?"
The young woman let out a ghost of a strangled cry before nodding, clutching the now cold body of the man she loved. She wanted him back. More than anything, she wanted him back.
"I'm fine."
They both knew it was a lie. She was broken inside and out. But she would be damned if she was going to spill her guts out to the pig, who looked like he was about to faint at the sight of the blood she was currently covered in.
"Can you tell me what you can remember?"
That was a tricky question.
"I...I don't know. We were just eating, then those robbers-"
"Hold on just a minute!"
Janelle rushed over to the side of her niece, before giving the officer an unpleasant stare. "You don't have to say anything to them! She'll give you her statement at the station with our lawyer present. Can't you tell the poor thing is all shook up? Really now, you ought to be ashamed of yourself,sir."
"Ma'am, I don't think it is a good idea to postpone her statement, a violent crime happened here tonight, and the sooner we get this witness statement, the sooner we can catch the criminal who murdered all these peo-"
"-Don't you try and argue with me, it is our Constitutional right."
The officer didn't bother to correct the guardian. It was a traumatic night for everyone, himself included. "Fine, both of you and your lawyer can come to the station tomorrow morning and we can file an official report there. However, I urge you two to file as soon as possible. Every detail is crucial in a case like this."
The blood soaked teen was escorted to the car by her guardian, and it wasn't until she sat down in the back seat that she realized she was emotionally and physically exhausted.
The old woman looked at her charge through the rear-view mirror. "Do you want me to schedule an appointment?"
Lucy didn't have it in her to respond her words, or even fight the suggestion, and answered in a limp nod.
For the rest of the night and for the next two weeks, the teen was on autopilot. She barely touched her breakfast, and barely responded to her aunt's nagging or the pain from her eyes and throat, that had become raw with tears and screams.
Janelle had tried to tread carefully around the young woman, like a soldier trying to navigate safely though a mine field. She tried to shove that nasty feeling in the pit of her stomach, but knew deep down that there was no denying what had happened to her niece.
She had another episode.
The old woman's mind wandered back to her crystal clear memory of the first one several years back. Poor Lucy was practically a baby then.
Janelle had awoken to an empty bed, one morning. It wasn't such an uncommon occurrence, but what was so odd about that particular morning was the fact that his side of the bed was just as undone as hers. He had gotten up in the middle of the night and never came back to bed. She scanned his end table and noted a large empty bottle of hard liquor.
In some alarm, she all but ran down the stairs without her robe, and followed the trial of spilled liquor and bumped furniture to the basement, where she couldn't believe what she had seen.
Her husband was now a shambled corpse at the bottom of the stairwell, the body was littered in bruises, and his neck had been almost snapped entirely in half. And her niece, Lucille, was standing over the corpse, with barely any scratch on her.
The child's disposition had completely changed from the sweet, shy, yet clumsy child, that she knew to that of an eerily calm, yet hardened adult. It was like looking at an entirely different person altogether.
Janelle tried to break the tension in the room and rising bile by clearing her throat. "Lucy...sweetie?"
The child stared into her caregiver's eyes and furrowed her brow in a stern manner. "Lucy's not awake."
As soon as the woman tried to garner the courage to ask who she was speaking to, the child's disposition changed again, back to the girl that she was familiar she knew. The child started to shake and huddle against the corner of the basement wall. Tears formed in the corner of her eyes,. "What happened, Auntie? Why isn't he breathing?"
Janelle knew then, that it wasn't the time to press further for now. She hugged the little girl against her chest and rocked the shaken girl to sleep. It wasn't the child's fault. That was all she had to keep telling herself.
Her husband was in a better place now, one where he would be free from the Devil's nectar. All she had to tell the neighbors that he stumbled down the stairs.
