The Family Across the Street by Nicole Trope

28

Katherine

Defeat makes her want to cry. She has no idea how on earth they’re going to get out of this. There is a ringing in her ears. Her body has never been hurt like this before. She cannot comprehend pain without a purpose. She remembers the feeling of pushing her babies into the world, the overwhelming sensation of agony that ran through her, but she could harness it and use it for the energy she needed. Something has changed in her. Something has superseded the fear she has been fighting all day long. It’s a wonder to her as she gazes out of the window that it is still light, that night has not arrived and the wind that was supposed to bring the cool change has not blown through the open window, chilling them all.

They have been in this room forever but she’s not going to be here forever more. She is not going to let him hurt her and the children. Not anymore.

Last week she had taken the twins to the shopping centre for groceries and they had walked past the pet shop and stopped to look at the puppies cavorting in the window, little white balls of yapping fluff. ‘Oh, please, Mum, please,’ Sophie begged, as she did every time they saw a dog, ‘I will love it forever.’

‘When you’re old enough to really take care of one – I promise.’ She is planning a puppy as a Christmas surprise. She has already been in touch with a breeder. How can it be possible that they will not be here for Christmas? An impossible thought this morning; a very real possibility now unless she does something.

He wants this to end as well. She has to make sure the children survive and so she has to fight through the pain she is feeling, the physical agony from her wrist, her cheek, her ear where he hit her, and the anguish in her heart of someone who is supposed to love her, to love them, hurting them. She and she alone has to end this now.

Help isn’t coming.