Lillian Blackwood

Four years earlier, the escape   Lately, I’ve been looking at myself in the mirror and I wonder who is that young woman looking back at me. What happened to her? There’s a glazed look in her eyes and tiredness and yet she is alert all at the same time. She appears to be sad and depressed when he isn’t here. With a sigh, I plaster on a smile. Dean loves you; it’s going to a good day. “Yeah, keep telling yourself that”, the woman in the mirror smirks at me, “It may be a different day, but it’ll end the same as every other day, and it’s your fault” she points her finger at me, blaming me. I look away from the mirror. I can’t stand the bitch telling me how stupid I am; I know it’s my fault. I don’t need her to point it out. I should have cooked something different. Maybe that would have made a difference. Last night was a bad one. I’m surprised I can even walk straight with what he did to me last night. I feel so damn

Present Day   “I will hunt you down”, he breathes in my ear. “I will hunt you, like the fucking pig that you are.” He snarls, “I will kill you and your family if you ever leave me.” “I-I promise, I won’t leave. I don’t want to leave Dean. Please!” I beg him. I wholeheartedly believe he will kill my family and me. “Not good enough. Come,” Dean orders. He tugs my arm hard and drags me to the car, tossing me into the passenger side, slamming the door behind him. When he climbs into the driver's side, he smiles at me sinisterly and starts the car. We drive down a very dark long dirt road with no streetlights. Dean stops, puts the car in park, and turns to me with an icy stare and evil smirk. He turns the headlights off; for a moment; we’re in complete darkness. Just as quickly as he turned them off, he turns the lights back on to high beam. We’re in the bush, the kind of plac

This sunset is what I love about my apartment. This evening's sunset is stunning; the reds, pinks and purples and the golden sunset on the ocean. Dax is lying comfortably on my lounge, watching some TV show on the Comedy Channel, completely missing the setting sun happening directly behind him. He’s in the perfect spot to watch it, but instead, his eyes are thoroughly glued to the TV screen.  I would roll my eyes, but I can’t help but smile; even though I’ve been on my own for more than a year, I’m never truly alone, not with Benny and not with Dax always around. When I first moved in, I was so scared. Thankfully I have Benny, my godsend, in more ways than one. No man would attack me in my apartment without Benny getting a bite in first. Benny trots happily towards me, his long tail doing a slow swish, swish behind him. He sits down and waits for my command to greet me. God, he’s a good boy. I give him a scratch around his ears. Dax is still staring mind

I smile at the faceless man with beautiful hazel eyes, and he gazes at me with such sweet sincerity, “Thank you.” I tell him.“For what?” he asks. “I don’t know”, I smile, but his eyes suddenly darken, and his face morphs into somebody I’m highly familiar with, Dean.“That’s right Bitch”, Dean mocks as I start to whimper and sob. “I want to hear you scream for me,” He murmurs low in my ear. “I won’t stop until you SCREAM!” He shouts; I blink as his saliva hits my face. He keeps moving, thrusting in and out, in and out. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of screaming, but the pain is beyond what I can bear. I start to tremble; tears roll nonstop down my face. He’s staring into my eyes; I can see how much he’s enjoying my pain and tears. He is so stupidly gratified I start to gag.

  I pull into Mum’s driveway; it’s a long wide road lined with pink flowering dogwood trees. It’s beautiful this time of year. Abbey and Quinn did an excellent job on the landscaping. The driveway opens up into a circle; in the middle of the ring is a small garden and bench seating under the shade of a large oak tree. And here she is, Mum’s dream home. It’s enormous, but Abby and I both wanted her to have what she had always imagined. Mum has always been big on dreams. She never settled for tiny. They had to be grand, outlandish even; otherwise, what good was it to have an imagination if you didn’t use it. We would talk about our dreams on the nights she was able to tuck us into bed. When we were children, I wanted to have the biggest ice cream in the world. My sister wasn’t much better; she wanted an everlasting chocolate bar. Of course, our dreams changed and developed into something more tangible as we grew. That’s the best part of dreams. How