Found Missing

by Lily Jill

We hear it outside again. Tentative steps. Contemplative. Calculating. It's the sound that tells me it's him. It's the sound that tells me he's found me. Except he doesn't find me dead like I wanted him to a year ago when I left him. It doesn't matter now. I'm no longer missing. I'm found. And now, I'm as good as dead. DRABBLE.

13. Chapter 13

Thanks to Frannie, Dani, Ariel, and Gemma for everthing.

Maybe I know what I'm doing. Maybe I know spending time outside is my brain subconsciously telling me I'm doing it on purpose. Seeking Alice out.

Maybe the time I sit on my porch is a cry for help, and I'm screaming for Alice to rescue me.

She's the only one who comes around the house. Rose won't try to anymore; when she found out what happened to me the last time she was here, she vowed never to step foot in the house again.

It broke my heart, and I think that hurt more than the broken ribs he had given me when he pushed me down the stairs. But I understood why Rose said what she said.

She had given up her life for me and couldn't watch me give up my own to him. She didn't understand the control he had over me, probably because she had been forced to take over all the control when our parents had died when we were kids.

I used to be the kind of woman Rose is. Independent. Strong. Determined.

But when he came along and swept me off my feet, he had swept everything else away, too. I felt like I had been waiting for him my whole life, and I clung to him even when I saw my former life gradually begin to slip away.

The isolation. The job he told me I no longer needed. The butterflies in my chest I used to feel when he entered the door and how it transformed to fear.

I have nothing of my own. Nothing. Everything is in his name; cars, cell phones, credit cards. He has me trapped here in this beautiful house, and breathing fresh air is the closest I'll ever get to the life I used to know.

I'm alone, day in and day out until he comes home from work. The hours I'm here unattended and the fact I've never tried to escape shows just how powerful he is.

But I watch Alice as she walks down the street, not a care in the world as she waves to neighbors along the way, and I'm jealous.

Not necessarily of her, but her life. That was supposed to be me - walking down the street with a smile and a wave as if it's the most natural thing to do.

And when she greets me, I smile and wave back and wonder how I can find a way to get her to help me.

… Without him knowing.

...it's starting! See you tomorrow!