CH.11 Jacks past
18 years ago
Jack's mother was a beautiful woman. She kept her hair short and it matched her pixie like face. She had thin delicate features and was as pale as the snow. She fell in love with john at the young age of 22. The couple wasted little time and before they knew it they were married. It was like a fairy tale. Everyone in town knew the Frost's. A short year of their beautiful mirage went by and soon Rachel was carrying a baby in her belly. They both already loved their baby Frost. His father sang to them and would lean down to Rachel's belly to talk to his son. He'd always mention to him how beautiful his mother was and to always love her. Although it didn't seem possible for things to get any more perfect in the young couples lives, things were even more beautiful once their baby jack was born. They loved him and cared for him. Jack was growing fast. 7 years had passed and the family's love had only grown. However, things could only be perfect for so long. It was a rainy night, Rachel paced back and forth in her living room stopping periodically to glance out the window then continuing her pacing. Jack laid on the living room floor playing with his toy trucks unaware of his mother's worries. Rachel bit down on her finger nails and for a final time looked out the window. She spotted a pair of headlights drawing closer and closer. A huge sigh of relief escaped her and with a low chuckle she walked towards the front door to greet her husband. When she opened the door her smile dropped to a confused expression. A tall figure in a trench coat and a hat stood on her porch. The man that stood in front of her was not her husband. She recognized the man. He worked with her husband. "Hi... I-uhh..." the man stumbled with his words "my name is Merle" "I know who you are" She rudely interrupted the man. But her manners were the least of her concerns. "Right" the man proceeded. "Where is my husband" she demanded as she stood on her tip toes to look over the man's shoulders hoping her husband would walk up from behind him. Merle couldn't find the words to explain to Rachel about her husband, so instead he looked down to the floor slowly removing his fedora from his head. Rachel stared at the man in disbelief. Hoping he was joking. Hoping this was a cruel prank. The two just stood there for what felt like hours. Rachel's world was spinning. Her mind was racing but at the same time everything moved in slow motion. Her hands move toward her lips as a small tear ran down her pale cheek. She fell to her knees and almost fell forward but was caught by Merle. The last words she heard were of a small child calling out. "Mommy, mommy" jack came towards his mom. "Mommy? What's wrong" she couldn't move she couldn't talk. Her eyes were still wide open but she couldn't see anything.
Jack had never had to wear this much black. He looked up to his mom "look mom were matching" they were both wearing black. Rachel knelt down on one knee and moved some hair off of jack's 7 year old face. She smiled with sadness in her eyes "Yes honey, we sure are".
Merle stood next to Rachel as they said their final goodbyes to the coffin that was slowly being lowered into the ground. Tear after tear ran down her cheek. Merle placed a reassuring arm around her only to ignite her tears and letting out a storm of sobs.
Day in and day out Merle would show up at the Frosts to make sure they were okay. Jack would occasionally ask when his father was coming home, Rachel would tell him that his father was already home "He is the one waiting for us to come home" Rachel explained to the young boy. This would confuse Jack a little but he never questioned further. Slowly but surely Merle was becoming really close to the little broken family. A year had passed and Rachel started to smile gain. A real smile. They had now gone on a few dates, and soon enough he had asked her to marry him. Rachel couldn't remember the last time she was happy after the accident. Sure no one could ever replace john but he was gone. And being alone and sad wasn't going to bring him back. Rachel re-married. Jack didn't mind Merle, he was on ok guy in his eyes and he saw that he made his mom smile again.
Two years passed and trouble hit again. Jack was now 10 years old. "They what?" Rachel exclaimed. "Their budget decreased and they had to let some people go" Merle explained starting to lose his patience. " no. they can't, they can't do this to us" Rachel protested staring at Merle as if wanting him to do something about it " well don't look at me like that I can't do anything about it" " SO what ? You're just going to sit there?"
"no" he said calmly " I'm going to have to find another job, were going to have to cut off some of our luxuries, you might have to get a job and THAT SPOILED BRAT IS GOING TO HAVE TO ASK FOR LESS TOYS!" He began to yell towards the end.
Jacks sat in his room. He could hear loud voices going back and forth from behind his door. It went on for what seemed like forever then the voices stopped and he heard some struggling then a loud thud, but what scared him the most was the silence that followed. He cracked open his door just to catch a glimpse of Merle grabbing his coat and leaving out the door. Jack slowly walked to the living room. The curtains were slightly tilted and there was a lamp that was knocked down. Then he saw his mom. She sat on the couch with her face in her hands quietly sobbing. Jack sat next to her and patted her back. "What's wrong mom?" He asked she refused to look up. She stood up from the couch making sure her face stayed out of jacks view "nothing dear, you should go back to your room. I need to fix dinner". Merle came back late that night. Jack laid in his bed and he was just beginning to drift into a deep sleep when he heard the front door open and close. He listened as a pair of fumbling footsteps slowly made their way up the stairs and into the hall. He heard his mom, then Merle, then his mom again. He listened as the conversation gradually increased in volume. Over the past few weeks everything was becoming too familiar, the fumbling the yelling the beer bottles the loud thuds. And every morning his mom had new bruises. When jack would ask her how shed gotten them shed shrug and say she fell, tripped, bumped, or crashed into something.
Jack was now 13. The arguments continued to get worse, jack started to hate that man. He was now old enough to understand what had been going on. He knew exactly how his mom ended up bruised and hurt every morning. One night Merle came home extra dunk. Jack sat in his room doing his homework as usual. He started hearing the voices again. Back and for then, louder and louder. "Not this time" jack said to himself. He walked closer towards the yelling and walked in on Merle with a bottle in his hand and the other clenching on to his moms short hair. Jack had never felt so much anger in his 13 years of life. The man nonchalantly took a big gulp from the bottle in his hand and said "go back to your room boy, this is none of your business" Jack looked down at his mom "jack, listen to him. Its ok baby just go" jack tightened his fist around the pencil he forgot to leave in his room. Without double thinking he charged at the man faster than the drunk man could react and sunk the sharp end of his pencil into Merle's leg. Merle let out a loud scream and let go of Rachel's hair backhanding the boy in the face, sending jack stumbling to the floor. "Why you little…"he leaned down to grab a fist full of the boy's hair lifting him up just enough to smash his head to the hard floor. Jack held on to Merle's hand that gripped his hair trying to pull away from the tight grip. Merle let go of jack only to begin to kick the boy. "MERLE STOP! PLEASE STOP, HES JUST A BOY" jacks mom screamed "YOU'RE GOING TO KILL HIM, STOP!" she tugged at the man. But he continued. She ran toward where jack was being kicked and placed herself in front of him earning her a hard kick from Merle on the side of the head and she was knocked unconscious. Everything was silent. Merle had stopped kicking. Rachel had stopped screaming. All you could hear now was jacks heavy uneven breathing. Merle looked at jack "this is all your fault, if you had just stayed in your room like a good little boy, THIS wouldn't have happened to her" he said pointing at his mom. Jack painfully brought himself to his elbows with a low grunt escaping hi throat. Me made his way to his mom with a slow painful crawl and held her unmoving hand. He saw how dead looking she was and he began to sob "c'mon she'll be alright' Merle began. "Just think of this as a learning experience" jacks sobs turned into loud cries "you stop that boy" but jack didn't stop, he couldn't. "Stop it before I…" Merle stopped as he looked around the wrecked room, he walked over picking up an old sock from the floor and pulling out a handkerchief from a drawer "this ought to do it" he said with a smirk on his face. Jack didn't notice what was going on he just cried and held on to his mom's limp hand. It wasn't until he felt a sock being stuffed into his mouth followed by a handkerchief being tied around the back of his head that he realized what Merle was doing. Jack's eyes widened and quickly reached with his hands to pull off the handkerchief, but this only made the drunk man mad and before he knew it Merle had him pinned to the floor and finished the knot with a tight tug. Jack couldn't move his arms due to Merles knees that were on top of them. Merle picked up jack from the floor holding on to the boys arms behind his back and walked him to his room. Jack could barely walk, pain shot through his ribs and he let out a small cry. But the man continued to walk pushing him from behind. He threw jack on his bed and pulled out another rag from his pocket. He proceeded by slamming jacks wrists onto the frame and tied his wrists tightly. "Night night." The man said. He turned off the lights and closed the door. Leaving jack alone tied up and badly injured in the dark.
Jack had to miss school for a week. Merle didn't want anyone growing suspicious of the boy's injuries. It was Sunday night, week had already passed by and jack was going back to school on Monday. He still had bruises on his arms and stomach but he couldn't miss too much school. He laid in his bead staring out the window at the moon, as he began to think about his father the moon began to shine brighter and brighter. It was the clouds. They had been blocking the moonlight and had finally began to disappear revealing the full beautiful bright moon. He couldn't help but think more about his father. For some reason he felt closer to him at that very moment. His thoughts were soon interrupted by a creaking sound. His door was slowly opening. "Merle' he thought "ill just pretend I'm asleep" the door didn't stop then came the footsteps. As they drew closer to jack he began to sweat under his covers. His eyes were closed but he could feel him right in front of him. Then all of a sudden the blankets were taken off of him. His eyes snapped open and before he could scream a hand covered his mouth. The hand felt soft, and warm. "Shhhhhhhh" the voice said softly. Jack could now see, it wasn't Merle, it was his mother. "Were getting out of here" she said. Jack was confused but simply followed behind his mom as she pulled some luggage behind her. "Had she been planning this for a while? "Jack wondered, but he really didn't care. All he cared was that they were finally going to leave that man that had tormented them for far too long. He put on his shoes grabbed a few of his persona belongings and headed towards the door. Everything went smoothly. Not a sound was made. They finally made it to the car that was pre-packed. it already had some more luggage in it and more of their belongings. They stuffed the final luggage in the back and drove off, not looking back. He didn't know where they were headed. He didn't know how long his mom had been planning this. What he did know was the distance that was being put between them and Merle.
~And that's how the little broken family landed in the small town of Burgess.~