Seaford

Author's Note: " I wrote this piece for my language arts class, please keep in mind that I don't write a lot of creative pieces. Anyways this story was inspired by the book Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks, I hope you like it."

I’d lived in Fort Myer, Canada all my life. It was a huge city complete with skyscrapers and ginormous shopping centers and pretty much anything you could possibly think of.  I loved Fort Myer, it was my home, but all that changed when my parents got divorced. My dad was abusive towards my mom, he would beat her and hit her and make death threats of what he would do to my mother, my sister, and I if we left. I remember hearing my mother cry herself to sleep at night because she just wanted to get away from him. Each day she would sneak into his wallet and steal a little money, not too much though or he would notice.  I never thought that she would ever get the courage to leave him, but she did, and she took my sister and I with her. So we packed up only the necessities and got in our Chevy and left. 

I didn't mind leaving my Dad behind, he was never a father to me anyways. Sometimes when my mom fought back or  the argued with him he would beat me too. I would wake up with bruises all over my back and would ache all day from the pain he caused me. Of course I never told my mother any of this because I didn't want her to feel or think it was her fault. It hurt sometimes though, not just the physical pain he caused me but also the mental pain. I was constantly surrounded by families, families who had a mother and a father that loved each other, families who were not faced with the issues that my family was faced with. My father disgusts me, I never want anything to do with him ever again.

~*~

"Mommy, why isn't Daddy coming with us," my five-year-old sister Katie asked innocently.

"Sweetie I'll explain when your older," my mother said sternly.

My sister didn't know about the beatings, we kept it from her because we didn't want her to be scared. Sometimes  she would walk into our parents room to say goodnight and see our mother weeping on her bed, but no matter what my mother and I had to be strong for her. We had to convince her that nothing was wrong and that we were all going to be okay.

~*~

The car ride went on for days, we didn't know where we were headed we just knew that it needed to be as far away from Fort Myer as possible. We had to leave all of that in our past and move on and start a new life for ourselves. 

“Are we there yet?” I asked my Mother impatiently.
“Not yet dear.” 
I sulked back down into the leather seat of our 2009 Chevy Suburban. 

~*~

Days continued to pass, the drive seemed like it would never come to an end. 

"Are we there yet Mommy," Katie asked hoping desperately to hear a yes.

"Yes sweetie, we're here."

 Seaford was a pleasant little town on the south coast of Virginia. Street lights shined down on the musty gray sidewalks and fern trees lined the pavement. As our car pulled up to our new home I noticed that a freshly planted coat of fresh green grass lay between the white picket fence that surrounded the yard and the my new driveway. I strolled up the driveway, two boxes in my hands, and placed the key lightly in the lock, twisted it ever so slightly, gave the burgandee door a little push, flipped the light switch on, and walked inside. 

 It was a little dirty, okay a lot dirty, but still anything beat having to go back to Fort Myer and live with my Dad. I walked up the stairs and heard a creak just as I stepped on the fourth step from the bottom, I made mental note to myself to remember that. When I reached the top of the stairs I saw two bedrooms, about the same size. I placed my boxes in the room on the right, closest to the bathroom, and began unpacking my things. I hung up what little clothes I brought with me and I placed my book and and toothbrush atop the nightstand. I could tell that this place was going to be good for us.

~*~

A few days after moving in my mother got a job at Ivan's, a local resturant in the town square. It wasn't anything glamorous or anything but it paid the bills and my mother seemed to like it. She had a couple of friends over one night for some wine and to talk. Everything seemed to be going well in Seaford, Katie was making some friends in her class in school and I met a nice girl at the boardwalk the other day. 

 Everything was fine until one day Katie didn't come home one day after school. I decided to call the school to see if maybe she had stayed after to get some extra help, "Hello? Yes I am Katie Brown's sister and I was just calling to see if Katie stayed after school for something."

The woman on the phone replied back, " Oh no, Katie Brown got picked up by her father at about 1:45 this afternoon, he said it was urgent."

As soon as she said the word father my throat swelled and I was at a loss for words. The phone fell from my hand and hit the wooden floor with a bang. I stood there motionless and speechless for awhile: I thought he was out of my life for good, I thought I could leave him in the past, but I was wrong because he was back and he had Katie. 

I quickly grabbed the phone off the floor and urgently punched in my mother's phone number. "Hello," I said urgently. There was no  answer so I asked, "Mom are you there," 

"Yes sweetie, I told you not to call at work. What do you need."

Now I was choking back tears," It's Dad, he's back and he has Katie."

"I'll be there in a moment, stay there, lock the doors of the house," my mother said sternly.

I did as I was told. I locked all the doors and windows one by one and then raced up the stairs to my room to hide. About twenty minutes later I heard a knock on the door. I assumed it was my mother so I cracked the door open to make sure it was her. It wasn't.

I opened the door and stood face to face with the person that I feared most: my father. He was wearing a ripped shirt and a torn pair of light blue jeans. His eyes were piercing blue and filled with rage and anger. I tried to slam the door shut but he was too fast and too strong for me and pushed his way inside the house. Instinctively I ran up to my room and locked the door, I then pushed my nightstand in front of the door for extra security. 

"Come down here right now Rebecca or I'll kill Katie," I heard his enraged voice yell from downstairs. I could here Katies voice from downstairs pleading," Becca help!"

I moved the nightstand away from the door and slowly unlocked the door. I twisted the doorknob and walked out into the hallway not sure where my Dad was. I remained atop the staircase and yelled, "Okay, I'm here."

I saw him slowly walk to the bottom of the staircase, holding Katie by her elbow. He unleashed Katie from his grasp and she ran up a few steps. I met her halfway up the stairs and embraced her tightly in my arms. Suddenly, remembering the situation I removed her from my grasp and we tried running up the stairs to my room. 

"Oh no you don't," my dad said angrily grabbing me by the ankle and pulling me down the stairs closer to him. 

"Run Katie, run up the stairs and lock the door," I pleaded.

Through her tears she whimpered, "But what about you Becca, I can't just leave you."

"GO KATIE, NOW!" I screamed. Obediently she sprinted urgently into my room and locked the door quickly.

I turned around and faced my father, he was still tightly holding on to me by the ankle which restricted my movement. "Why are you doing this," I screamed angrily in his face! I saw my mother creep in the door and run into the kitchen filled with fear. Luckily my father didn't notice my mother because he was too busy screaming at me. He creeped up the stairs and pulled a gun out of his pocket and pointed it straight at my heart, still holding me by the ankles. My mother ran back in from the kitchen with a knife in her hand and stabbed my father in the back. He let out a horrifying yelp of pain and then started coughing out blood. His grip on my ankle began to loosen and I ran down to hug my mother. She quickly embraced me and whispered in my ear," It's okay honey, it's over."

We dialed 911 and they came and picked up his cold dead body. We told Katie it was okay to come down and she ran down the stairs and hugged my mother and I tightly. 

I couldn't believe it was over, finally over. All of those months that I spent being paranoid and afraid that he would return are all over. I never needed to be afraid of anyone or anything ever again. I no longer had to live my life in fear; for once in my life everything was okay.

~*~

Bibliography:

Sparks, Nicholas. Safe haven. New York: Grand Central Pub., 2010. Print.