Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 87968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
I got back just in time to set the table for dinner and Nick still wasn’t there. Nancy Spaulding pretended not to notice he wasn’t in line with me and the other fosters, but Gary was more than happy to acknowledge his absence.
“I see your protector isn’t here tonight, sweetie,” he muttered to me as he rose from the table after he and Nancy finished eating.
“Yes, he is!” I said quickly. “He just didn’t come to dinner.”
“Bullshit—I haven’t seen him all day.” Gary Spaulding leered at me, his left eye drooping. “You know what I think? I think he ran away and forgot to take you with him. And you know what that means, Kira sweetie—it means I’m gonna be tucking you in tonight. Won’t that be nice?”
His words made my stomach clench like a slick fist. Surely he was wrong. Nick couldn’t have run away without me—he wouldn’t do that—would he?
We had often talked of leaving the Spauldings house of horrors but we had always planned to do it together. Nick had promised we would be together forever—that he would never leave me because we were blood-sibs. He wouldn’t lie to me, would he? He wouldn’t just leave me here in this awful place knowing what would happen to me without him to protect me…
After supper, I looked everywhere I could think—I even dared to walk out the back of the barn and call for him. That was, until Honey and Sugar came rushing towards me, barking savagely and I had to retreat to the safety of the house. But though I shouted his name until I was hoarse, Nick was nowhere to be found.
Sooner than I would have liked, it was time to shower in the basement. By this time I had been taking freezing cold showers for almost three years so it wasn’t the chilly water pouring over my naked skin that made me shiver. It was the hungry, lustful way Gary Spaulding’s eyes followed me, gleaming in anticipation of finally getting what he wanted—me.
“All right now, Kira—let’s get you upstairs,” he said, the minute I stepped out of the shower, wrapping the thin, ragged towel tightly around me.
“No!” I stepped away from him. “Leave me alone—don’t touch me!”
“Oh, I’m gonna do more than just touch you, sweetie. I’m gonna pay you back for this.” He leered at me and pointed to his drooping left eye. “Now get upstairs, you little slut!”
I looked at Nancy who was supervising the other foster kids brushing their teeth.
“Are you really going to let this happen?” I demanded. “Your husband is trying to rape me! Aren’t you going to stop him?”
Nancy had been ignoring me for weeks, but now she finally gave me her undivided attention. Looking at me coldly, she said,
“You’re only getting exactly what you deserve, you little whore.”
Then she turned around and started shouting at the other two fosters that they needed to brush harder. I caught their eyes in the rusty mirror hanging over the sink. Both of them gave me frightened and pitying looks but no one was willing to help me. No one was going to stand up for me like Nick had.
Well, fine, I decided. If Nick wasn’t there, I would have to manage myself. I had prepared for this eventuality. I had slipped downstairs and hidden one of the long, sharp knives from the kitchen on top of the shower stall. Now I reached up and grabbed it, holding the wooden handle tight in my fist as I glared at Gary Spaulding.
“Come on,” I told him. “Come on and just try it—I’ll fucking cut out your other eye for you this time!”
“Why, you little bitch!” he exclaimed. “You—”
But just then the dogs started howling and barking so loudly his other words were completely drowned out.
“What in the world?” Nancy exclaimed, her eyes going wide.
“Sounds like they found a bear or something.” Gary was nearly shouting to be heard over the racket the dogs were making. “Let me get my shotgun and check it out.” He pointed a finger at me, ignoring the knife I still held. “You stay right there, sweet thing. I’m still gonna tuck you in tonight.”
He unlocked the gun case that stood in the corner of the basement—he had the only key to it—and took out a big double barreled shot gun. After making sure it was loaded, he stepped out the basement door.
“What the hell? Nick, is that you?” I heard him say and then, “What the fuck!”
Then Gary screamed—a high, strangely girlish sound—and the shotgun roared—both barrels at once. This was followed by a lot of whining and howling from the dogs and then the most unearthly shrieks of pain I’ve ever heard in my life—before or since. It actually sounded like someone was being skinned alive—it was that bad.