Surviving Love (Surviving #2) (6 page)

Caught by a Monster

Chase Dermont Junior III

6 y
ears old

Boston Massachusetts

My tummy hurt, my head hurt, and I was so cold. I curled up on the hard concrete floor of the basement hugging my knees to me so the pain would stop. It didn’t, the growling only became louder. Grandpa Chase was angry at me again so he’d locked me down here. I think it had been three days because it had gotten dark two times. The moon had come into the sky and the stars had shone so brightly through the small dirty window. My momma had stopped coming in my dreams, she didn’t call out either. She had completely left me. The only things that came now were the monsters. So I stopped sleeping, I tried not to close my eyes for too long because they would haunt me like nasty ghosts, only worse because they were real.

I clutched my knees to my tummy as another horrible pain hit me. I moaned and breathed faster, sometimes that helped. I felt sick but nothing came out anymore when I retched. It was just empty painful gagging. My throat was sore from it. At first the smell of my toileting on the floor made me gag but I had gotten used to that.

I heard the door rattle and then open. I curled into a ball when heavy footfalls came down the steps. The biggest monster of them all came down the stairs.

“You about ready to make friends again, boy?” Grandpa asked.

I didn’t answer him; I curled into a tighter ball. I hated my Grandpa, he lied and said he would be my friend, but he wasn’t my friend because he made me do horrible things.

“I figure maybe you’d be hungry enough to join us at the table.”

I lifted my head to see him bite into a big green juicy apple.

“Am I wrong?” he asked. Throwing the apple across the floor to me, it rolled through my toileting and vomit but I still picked it up and wiped it on my underpants. I had been sent down here and stripped of everything but my underwear.

I moaned again when my tummy hurt more and considered eating the dirty apple.

“Those are hunger pains, son. Come have dinner and they will go away.” He sounded kind, but I knew nothing he did was kind. “You know what you have to do and you can come upstairs and enjoy Grandma’s barbecue chicken wings and potato salad. She’s done a black bottom pie for dessert.”

My stomach growled angrily at me.

I shifted, and started to stand.

He stepped towards me. “First though, I think we need to make
friends
don’t you?” he asked. I whimpered when I heard his belt buckle. My stomach cramped again; he would starve me longer if I didn’t make friends with him. This was the longest he’d kept me down here in the dark and cold.

“We make friends, boy, and you can have some clothes and that hot dinner upstairs.”

Tears rolled down my face but I nodded because it hurt too bad.

***

The smell of hot food assaulted me, and my stomach prayed this wasn’t a joke. I had done what was needed, I hated what I had to do for food, I hated what I had to do for clothes and water. Sometimes if I were quiet enough I would sneak into the dog pen and take the leftover dog kibble and drink their water. I daren’t try it in the house, because Grandma Violet caught me once and thrashed my hide with a wooden spatula.

“Look who’s joining us for dinner,” Grandpa announced, his hand firm on my shoulder. I didn’t look up at the others, but I could feel their gazes on me. I didn’t want them to see me. No one spoke as Grandpa lifted me into my seat. I felt all of them watching me, staring at the dirty, wretched boy at the table.

Ryan was seated in his usual spot beside me. I chanced a quick glance at him and smothered a gasp when I saw his busted face, not just his lip or eye but his whole face was blue and purple. His lips were cut and his jaw looked like he had golf balls hidden underneath. His eye was swollen shut and looked angry. I looked over at Grandma Violet, but instead of the angry stare I usually got, she had watery eyes. She looked at me for a few seconds before looking at Grandpa. The other boys were silent; no one spoke like normal. Usually they argued over football, but today everyone was quiet.

I picked up my fork and started eating. I tried real hard to stop my hand from shaking as I stabbed my fork  into my potato salad. I tried not to gobble my food because I did that last time and vomited it back up and Grandpa made me clean it up without a cloth and that made me sicker.

“Tate, eat your damn food and stop playing with it,” Grandpa snapped.

“Yes sir.” Tate quickly picked up his fork.

Ryan never spoke; he made slow movements towards his food, I could see he hurt worse than I did. His fork fell to the floor in a loud clatter. He cursed but no one ratted on him.

“Pick it up, boy,” Grandpa said calmly. Ryan didn’t move, but Grandma Violet moved her chair and started to stand.

“I said the boy, not you.”

“But—”

“Did I stutter,” he shouted.

Grandma’s face paled and she shook her head. She slowly sat back down.

Ryan grunted as he started to move. He moaned and stopped, he seemed out of breath as he sat clutching at his sides. I held my breath, jumped off my chair and grabbed his fork from the floor. Handing it to him, I heard everyone around the table take in loud breaths.

“Why did you do that?” Grandpa asked, sounding angry.

“I...I...” I stuttered, I panicked about how to respond. I didn’t want to go back to the basement. “He’s our special friend. We help special friends right?” I said quickly. The strangest thing happened.
Grandpa smiled.

“Good boy,” he said and patted my shoulder. Ryan moaned at the side of me. “You can help Ryan here, but no secret chats. We’ll have no more of that, you hear?” he said and pointed to both of us. I nodded. Grandpa had caught Ryan and I hiding, Ryan wanted us to run away again but somehow Grandpa always caught us or found us and he would hurt Ryan, real bad. I always had to go to the boatshed, I hated the boatshed. Bad things happened there.

C
hapter 3

Louis
e

York, England

2 Weeks Later

Nothing much had changed with regard to Eve. Mum and Dominic pretty much held vigil by her bedside. Last week Dominic had refused to go into work, but after much coaxing by my parents, he has left her side and gone to work. She was still in a medically induced coma, her vitals were looking positive according to Darren. He kept me up to date on her progress, foregoing the medical crap and actually explaining it so I understood. Ellie and I haven’t been allowed in to see her. Due to risk of infection to high risk patients, there was a strict limit to visitors. Only parents and significant others were permitted inside the hospital room. When mum told me I couldn't visit, I wanted to break down and cry, I missed Eve so much it hurt. I just wanted to hold her hand to ground me. To see for myself she was still here. My heart literally aches with not seeing her.

Ellie has been acting up a little in school and a few times I’ve been requested to speak to her teacher. It doesn’t help that her teacher is a raving bitch who hates me. I’ve been staying at Mum’s house, trying to keep as much of a routine as possible. We were allowed back into our house a few days after
the incident
; the police said due to Elliott dying at the scene it was pretty much a closed case with Eve. The problem remaining was the investigation into Elliot’s collision with a tree. Because the police were in pursuit they needed to evaluate the risks and whether they tailed too closely.

Dominic looked like crap, he hadn’t shaven since Eve was taken to the hospital, so he had a week’s worth of growth and was beginning to look like a grizzly bear.  All he does is go to work, then head straight to the hospital. He must return home because he clearly showers and changes his clothes, but he looks worn out. He’s lost weight and his eyes are ringed with dark circles. Mum spoke to me the other night about how worried she is about him; he refuses to go for a proper meal and simply grabs snacks from the vending machines. It was awful to see him go through this. If there were any two people made for each other, it’s those two, and I keep praying to God they get their happy ending because I can’t stomach the idea of losing her. The funeral of someone I loathed was going to be bad enough to sit through, but we would have to do it to support Jill.

Johan stayed here with Ellie and I last week whilst Mum and Dad were at the hospital. His nightmares haven’t subsided, he still wakes each night crying and calling out for his
momma.
I've tried talking to him about it but he simply shuts down and refuses to speak to me. The only night he didn’t have a nightmare was on the weekend when we both fell asleep on the sofa watching a film. I woke in the early hours of the morning with my head in his lap, a blanket thrown over me, and he was snoring softly with his head thrown back. He’s gone back to our house now and has been staying there this week. I wanted to be with him, I keep telling myself it was to make sure that he’s okay, that he isn’t alone through his nightmares, but the truth is I miss his company. I like how comfortable it feels to be near him. His nightmares vary in extremity and violence. I believe they’re linked to what happened to Eve, but until he opens up I can only presume what’s going on in his head. He shouts for his mum, or
momma,
each and every night but I know his mother is still alive, Eve said so once.

So that brings me to today; I’m holding on by a thread, I admit it. I'm weakening day by day and the dam holding up my emotions is beginning to crack. My sanity is being tested to the extreme. I’m blocked expressively from holding back, being there for everyone else while I suffer. I’ve fought my feelings of fear and confusion daily over what’s happening to Eve but I’ve held it back when all I wanted was to sit in a corner and cry, howl like a mad woman. I hadn’t cried since Eve had been admitted to hospital, or whilst we waited on news of her surgeries. I either had Jill to see to, Johan following me everywhere, and at night Ellie slept in my bed, so I had no time to let it out.

And now—now I felt blocked. I had a numbness about me that was starting to scare the crap out of me. And one other thing, today is my twelve week scan. I phoned Darren yesterday and reminded him it was our first scan today. Eve had said she wanted to be there, and it hurt so much that she couldn’t be with me today because it reminded me
where
she was.

Darren grumbled and moaned that he was busy and wasn’t sure he would make it, but I pleaded with him and eventually he relented. I would have gone alone, I would have stuck two fingers up to the lot of them and said a big F.U. But today I felt
pathetic 
and needy. I wanted the support of someone, and if that had to be a whiney little toad named Darren so be it.

While I waited, I let out a shaky sigh hoping a fortnight’s worth of emotion wasn’t going to burst free right now. Darren had let me down, yet again. What hurt most was that before I fell pregnant Darren was amazingly attentive. Sometimes a little too much. But when I told him we were having a baby, it was as if a stranger popped into his place. 

“Louise Beaumont,” called the sonographer.

“That’s me,” I choked out and cleared my throat. I stood and grabbed my coat and bag. I stared down the long hospital corridor towards the ward I knew Darren worked on. I was no more than twenty feet away, yet he couldn’t even make the time to see our child. The door behind us burst open, startling me. I turned to see a flustered Johan charging into the waiting area.

“Johan?”

“Darren left a message at home. He isn’t coming. So I came.” He bent at the waist and placed his hands on his knees, panting for breath. “God I’m a mess, remind me to start back at the gym. I had to park in the middle of nowhere, and then I couldn’t find the right place. This hospital is like a fricking maze.” He straightened.

When I simply stood gawping at him, his cheeks reddened.

“I don’t have to come in, I can wait here...I just didn’t want...I thought maybe you shouldn’t be alone.”

Tears stung my eyes but I refused to let them fall. I simply held out my shaking hand to him. He smiled and let out a relieved breath, taking my hand as we walked into the dimly lit room.

“Hop up onto the bed, Miss Beaumont, and lift your top and tuck your trousers down just above your pelvic bone for me.” She turned to Johan. “You can sit beside her in that chair.” She moved over to the sonograph machine and started pressing buttons.

I laid down, and did as she told me, holding my breath as I waited to find out if my baby was okay.

“The jelly may be a little cold,” she warned before placing the weird probe on my stomach. She pressed buttons and stared at the screen, all the time moving the probe around my stomach. I flinched when she pressed low on my full bladder.

“Sorry, I know it’s a little uncomfortable. We’re almost there.” A few more minutes, what felt like hours, passed as I stared at the ceiling. I couldn’t look at the woman, I was excited yet terrified to see my baby. I felt Johan’s hand cover mine and squeeze gently.

“You’re about sixteen weeks pregnant, so from this dating scan your baby is due around the thirteenth of March.”

“Sixteen weeks?”

“Yes.”

“But I thought...I was only about twelve weeks.”

“You’re a little further on than that.” She tapped a few more buttons, then held the probe in place and I heard the screen squeak as she moved it towards me. “Do you want to see?”

I closed my eyes tightly and bit down on the inside of my mouth.

“Oh my God!” I heard Johan gasp and my heart stopped. “You’re having an alien.” He chuckled and so did the nurse.

“They do look strange at first, but that’s your baby.”

My eyes sprang open and I turned my head towards the screen to see the most perfect sight I have ever seen. Flickering about on screen was my baby. My perfect little person. A tear rolled down my face as I looked at my baby for the first time. She turned a knob on the machine and a loud
whump, whump, whump
noise echoed around the room.

“Is it...are they...healthy...is everything okay?” I choked.

“Yes. A lovely strong heart beat, I have the necessary measurements and everything is clearly normal, and growing nicely.”

I reached my hand out and touched the screen as my baby bobbed about. “Hey little one, it’s Mummy,” I whispered.

“It’s amazing,” Johan said reverently. I turned to see him staring at the screen, then his warm hand gently touched my stomach, just below the probe. Just as he did the baby on the screen moved.

“Clearly baby likes Daddy.” The nurse smiled. She removed the probe and returned her attention to the screen. I turned to Johan to apologise for her assumption but he was transfixed, staring at my stomach. His fingers stroked over my skin, causing goose bumps.

“My little buddy is in there.” He looked up at me and gazed straight into my eyes. “He’s perfect, Lou.” He stood slowly and leaned over the bed placing and gentle kiss on my forehead. Another tear rolled down my cheek as I lost the battle to control my emotions. In that moment I couldn't have asked for more.

***

We walked back through the hospital to the car park as Johan held the scan photo, glued to the image before him. “Technology is amazing,” he said reverently. “I mean, this is a real live person, growing inside you, and we’ve seen it. How fucking cool is that?” He laughed, still staring at the photo. I smiled and chuckled.

“It was pretty amazing. I’m sorry she assumed you were the dad.”

“No worries about that, it’s kind of an honour she would think you’d be with me,” he said quietly.

I frowned and stopped walking. “What do you mean?”

He carried on walking then looked up when he realised I’d stopped. He turned to face me and shrugged his shoulders. “You’re stunning, Lou, any guy would be a fool not to want to be your man.” He turned back around and started walking as if what he’d said was no big deal. I jogged forward to catch up to him.

“You...you think I’m pretty?”

“Nope,” he said, making a popping sound. “I said
stunning
, there’s a difference. You have the kind of beauty that’s unearthly. You’re breathtaking when you smile, like literally knock-the-bejesus-out-of-me-gorgeous. Not just pretty. See, there is a difference.”

Was he taking the piss? He said all that as if he hadn’t just knocked the stuffing out of me.

“Are you drunk?” I asked.

“Nope.”

“Why would you say something like that?”

“Because it’s true.”

“You can’t say that. You call me grumpy and—”

“You
are
grumpy,” he replied, grinning at me.

“No,
you
piss me off and make me grumpy, like now.” I tried to appear annoyed but my smile spoilt the entire effect.

“But you’re still grumpy, but a gorgeous grump. ” He laughed. I wanted to smack him up side of the head.

“Johan—”

“Lou!” We both turned at the sound of my name being called. Running across the car park was Darren. My blood boiled.

“Where were you?” I screamed as he rounded a parked car.

“What? I phoned and left a message, something came up.” He held his hands out in a hopelessly pleading manner.

“Nothing should be more important than today, we...no
I
got to see our baby.
YOUR
. FUCKING. BABY!” I screamed.

“Sshh, Christ Lou, we don’t need everyone knowing about
it.
” He looked around conspiratorially.

“
What?
What do you mean?” I paused to take in what he was saying. “You haven’t told anyone I’m pregnant, have you?”

“They don’t need to know. It’s...you’re in the early stages yet, anything can—”

“You’re a bastard, Darren, and I hate you right now.” I turned around and stopped dead in my tracks when I realised Johan had witnessed my utter humiliation. I hung my head in shame, hating he always saw this side of me.

“Lou, wait. I didn’t mean...listen, I’m sorry I wasn’t there.” He pulled at my elbow. “Wait, did he go in with you? What’s his name again, Joel? So you weren’t alone. And maybe this works out better.” Darren said, pulling me round to look at him.

“How is this better?” I asked staring at him. Really looking at him—his blond hair that I used to love running my fingers through was combed back, held in place by some styling product. His muddy coloured eyes pleaded with me to understand.

“Well, I’m crap at this stuff. So maybe it was better I wasn’t there,” he finished.

I could sense by the way he wouldn’t meet my eyes he was lying and something else was going on in that big thick head of his.

I turned to walk away but he grabbed my hand. “Lou—”

“Grow up, Darren. I’m having this baby, fucking deal with it.” I pulled my arm out of his grasp and yanked the photo out of Johan’s hands. “Here. This, although you aren’t bloody interested, is your baby.” I turned and started walking away. But Johan made me pause when he quickly stepped towards Darren.