Chapter Four: Flashback

Flashback

"Why are you still here? Aren't you supposed to be seeing some other guy today?" Jack asked Evy.

"Jack! I'm not seeing anyone else! I don't know where you got that idea, but it's never been true! I would never do that!" Jack scoffed and rolled his eyes, not believing her. "But the more important question is: why are you still here? Shouldn't you be at the bar by now, checking out some woman so you can go home with her?"

"Listen, Evy, just because I go to the bar, doesn't mean that I'm going home with other women." Evy scoffed and roller her eyes, just like he had done, and then left.

She went into town to think. She knew she couldn't go to school, since she had already called in on personal leave, so she went to see Jonathan instead. They talked, but Jonathan wasn't really any help. She ended up going home a couple hours later, and finding Jack was already out to go bar hopping. She just sat and watched TV until he came home. She was constantly checking the clock to see how late he would be tonight. Last night it was 2:06am. She heard his car squeal to a stop and she looked at the clock. It read: 2:28am. She turned the TV off and waited for him at the door. As soon as he came in, she noticed that he wasn't drunk. She could tell that he had had a few drinks because of his smell, but not enough to have a hangover the next day. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"What do you mean, I live here!" he slightly slurred his words.

"I mean, why are you here and not still at the bar getting drunk for no reason?"

"Because I felt like seeing you while I was still sober. What? I can't see my future wife while I'm sober?"

"'Future wife!'"

"Yes. I've come home sober so you would know that I'm serious about this question: will you marry me?" He pulled out a ring box and opened it. It was a pretty nice ring, being they didn't have all that much money. Teachers didn't get much then and construction workers got a fair amount. Evy hesitated. She knew that she didn't want to go that far, especially since their relationship wasn't all that well right now. "Well?" he asked impatiently, while taking her hand and starting to put the ring on her.

"Jack," she said, pulling away, "I think we should wait a little while before we take this big of a step."

"What!" Jack said, getting angry.

"I just don't think this is the right time, that's all." Evy started to slowly back away, seeing the anger in his eyes.

"You will marry me, Evy. I will make sure of that. Even if I have to knock you unconscious for it, we will get married!" He saw that she was backing away, but for each step she took back, he took a bigger one towards her, until he was right in her face.

"Why do you want to get married? According to you, I'm cheating on you."

"But just this morning, you said that you weren't. Did you lie to me, Evy?"

"No I didn't lie. I'm not cheating."

"Well, there ya go. You're not cheating, and I'm not cheating, so why not get married." He was still right in her face, still angry but starting to calm a little.

"Because it's just not right. It's not the right time."

"Why isn't it?" He was starting to get angrier again.

"Well," she cleared her throat, obviously nervous of what he was going to do to her. She spoke slowly, "our relationship isn't that strong right now."

"Strong? You're worried about the strength about our relationship? I'm asking you to marry me, and your worried about that!" She had now backed up into a wall, with him even closer to her face. She started breathing a little faster, getting very nervous and a little scared of him. She still spoke slowly.

"Of course I am. Marriage is a very big step and I think we should wait for the right time."

"What else could be more right?" She just stood in silence. "Answer me!" He was starting to yell.

"Please, calm down, Jack. We just need to wait and see."

"Calm down! Calm down! You are blowing me off and you expect me to be calm?"

"I'm not blowing you off. I'm just holding it off."

"Until when! Huh! If you're saying 'no' now, then you'll always say 'no'! So you might as well just go ahead and say 'yes'!" She jumped when he said the last word for it was so loud.

"No. I can't." He wasn't pleased with this. He slapped her hard across the face. She didn't cry, but she shouted out when his big hand came into contact with her gentle face.

"I think I heard you wrong. What was that answer?"

"No." she said quietly. This time he didn't slap her. He punched her, making her fall to the floor, tears now in her eyes. Yet she refused to show that she was becoming weak. She held back the tears and stood back up, looking him straight in the eyes.

"Now, let's try this again. Will you marry me Evelyn?" She paused, not knowing what to do. She wanted to say no, but she didn't want to risk getting hit again. The hesitation didn't please Jack and he backed her against the wall, holding her throat, not hard enough to choke her, but enough to show the threat. "Answer me, Evy!" Each second that she didn't answer, he put a little more pressure on her throat.

"No!" He had had enough. He took his other arm and hit her hard in the stomach, while letting go of her throat. She doubled over in pain but he pulled her back up to his face by her hair. She shouted out in pain again. And now he could see the tears.

"Oh Evy, don't cry. There's no need for that. All you have to do is say the word 'yes'. And this will all end."

"Never. Not if you're going to be like this." He frowned and now he really was choking her. She was at least a foot above the ground, struggling to get away and breathe. But he never gave in. At least not until she kicked him in the groin. Now it was his turn to double over in pain. As soon as she hit the ground, she took off running for the door. However, she wasn't quick enough. He came up behind her, grabbed her, and threw her across the room. She knocked into the bookcase, knocking almost all the books off. She now lay on the floor, trying to get up and get away, but again, she wasn't quick enough. He walked over to her and started kicking her in the ribs and stomach over and over. He only stopped because the phone rang. She continued to lie on the floor, trying to catch her breath, while also crying.

"Hello?" he said, as if nothing was going on. Evy didn't have the strength to say anything otherwise she would have yelled for help. "Jonathan, how are you? I'm sorry but Evy can't come to the phone right now. She's working on grading papers from school." When Evy heard that it was Jonathan, she got the strength to shout.

"Jonathan, help me!" Jack came over to her quickly and covered her mouth. She struggled but she wasn't getting anywhere.

"Oh, it was just the TV. I was waiting for Evy to get done grading papers and decided to see what was on." She finally bit him and he let go, almost shouting out in pain.

"Help!" she shouted again. Jack finally had to knock her unconscious.

"Sorry, I can't seem to find that damn remote. Ah, there it is!" he said, acting as if it was just the noise of the TV. "Now, what did you want?...Well, as I said, she can't come to the phone. I'll have her call you though, but she has a lot of papers to grade so it may be tomorrow. Is that ok?...Ok. Bye." He hung up the phone a drug Evy to the basement by her feet. She woke up on the way there because of the repetitive smack on her head from being drug down the stairs. When she realized what was going on, she managed to get a foot loose from his grip and kick him in the face. She got up and ran up the stairs as he realized he now had a bloody nose. That just pissed him off even more. He ran after her but by the time he got upstairs, he couldn't find where she went. Then she heard her talking.

"Jonathan! You have to help me! Jack's—." She didn't get to finish her sentence because Jack had come up behind her and covered her mouth and hung up the phone.

"That, my dear, was a big mistake!" He tied her to a chair in the kitchen as well and gagged her. Then he called Jonathan. "Hello, Jonathan? I'm sorry about that phone call from Evy. She had fallen asleep in the study and was in a trance like thing and called you. I guess you could call it a type of sleepwalking. Or sleep talking for that matter. I'm terribly sorry about that. I'm gonna get her to bed so that doesn't happen again. Good night." And with that he hung up. He turned back to Evy, who was looking at him in fear. "Now, as for you missy. I'm forced to punish you for that little incident." She already had a red cheek, a bruised cheek bone, bruised ribs, and marks on her throat. But that just wasn't enough. Jack left the room for a minute, only to return with a needle with something in it. She didn't know what it was and had the feeling that she didn't want to know. He didn't untie her until after he injected whatever it was into her, which was quite painful because he wasn't very gentle. She could feel that the inside of her elbow would also be bruised the next day, if he let her live that long. As soon as he injected it into her, she could feel her whole body going limp. She couldn't move. She could still breathe however. She wanted to tell her arms and legs to throw a fit and get out of his arms, and she wanted to scream loud in his ear, but she couldn't. She could only look at him and hope that he didn't do anything else to her.

Jack knew something that Evelyn didn't. The injection would only last a couple minutes for he didn't give her that much. He injected enough to allow himself time to tie her up. He took her to the bedroom and tied her to the bedpost at the foot of the bed and sat her on the floor. She could only imagine what would come next. She dreaded it, hoping that she was wrong.

She felt funny all of a sudden…she could move! However, she was already tied up. And Jack was standing above her, just staring at her with his angry eyes. She was in a lot of pain, and Jack knew it. That's what made him think that she wouldn't try to get away again. However, he was wrong. He had failed to tie up both of her hands. And when he leaned down to her, she kicked him hard in the groin as well and punched him in the face with her free hand. He laid on the floor paralyzed with pain. She quickly undid the cloth around her other wrist which was now red, and ran as fast as her tiny legs would, and as fast as she could without causing much pain. On her way out the door, she grabbed the keys to her car. She got in it and drove away.

She ended up going to Jonathan's because it was the only safe place she could think of to go. When she arrived, she pounded on the door as hard as she could until he opened it. She nearly hit him on the forehead, but managed to stop just before she did. "Evy! What on earth happened to you!" He brought her in and fixed her up while she explained everything.

End Flashback