Chapter One ::: The Escape
~Kami~
It was five days after the birth of my baby daughter and I was escaping a madman. The madman was my husband and he was completely insane. He had kidnapped me when I was eighteen years old and had forced me to become his bride. I had never loved him. I felt nothing but contempt for him and his evil ways. I had lost track of the number of time he had forced himself upon me.
I hid my baby in the closet of the bedroom where I had been imprisoned for longer than three years. If he knew I had birthed the baby and that it had been a girl and alive and well, who knew what the consequences would be. Bryce had wanted a son. It had been all he had talked about. His son. His successor. He would get neither of those.
I had birthed a tiny baby daughter three weeks early, and she was coming with me. I wouldn't leave her at the mercy of a madman. She was MINE, my baby. Not his. I never thought of her as his.
I had named her Kasey Michelle. She was tiny and beautiful. Her eyes were blue, but I knew that in time they would become green just as my eyes were. Her hair was the color of the golden sun. Again, she got that from me. Thankfully, she looked nothing like the man who had impregnated me, the horrible beast. Kasey was mine... my little girl, and I would do anything to protect her. Even if it meant my own life. I was esaping tonight. Bryce would have to die.
I nursed Kasey and wrapped her up to keep her warm. Gently I lay her down in the little bed I had made for her hidden in the closet. "Please be quiet, baby," I whispered to her. "Don't give us away." Her tiny blue eyes had gone closed. She was fast asleep. Thankfully thus far, Bryce was completely unaware of her existence. I kept padding on my belly under my nightgown. The animal thought I was still pregnant.
I had been regaining my strength after the birth. Tonight I would kill Bryce. Tonight I would take Kasey from this place and we would be free. "Kasey, I love you," I whispered, kissing her tiny cheek.
I left the closet, returning to my bed. Over three years locked in this room had been excruciating for me. I missed my family. My friends. I had been an innocent virgin when Bryce had taken me. A virgin I was no longer. I felt like a wounded bird. The things that man had made me do sickened me. Men such as he deserve to be casterated. I would do it myself... but there was not time. Tonight he would die.
I lay in my bed, my weapon under the covers. The room was bare, except for the mere essentials. Blankets, pillows, and little more. I would be leaving with very little to my name. No matter. At least I would be free. At least I would have a LIFE. Here I was little but a caged animal. Here I was treated like an abused pet. I needed to breathe fresh air once again and walk in the sun. I needed my existence back. I needed to LIVE. In order for me to live, Bryce Brennan had to die. I had to kill the man who had taken away my very life. I had to stop him before he took Kasey's, too. She was my baby, my angel.
Bryce walked into the room, carrying the tray of food he brought once per day. Never fail, he always came in daily at sundown as I could see the darkness falling outside through my lone, barred window. He always provided nourishment for his son, the baby he thought I still carried. He had longed for a boy. It's all he talked about. I had always known I was carrying a girl. A mother just knows. There was a glass of chilled milk on the tray, along with a sandwich and a handful of crisp baby carrots. My stomach demanded food, but there would not be time to eat. I had to make my move now.
"How is my son today?" Bryce asked as he approached the bed. As my stomach swelled, I had begged him not to rape me. I told him I feared it would hurt the baby, and eventually he had stopped his sexual assaults. Sadly it hadn't deterred him from doing "other things." Forced oral sex. "Skull-fucking," he had called it. He had ripped out my long blond hair while forcing his foul, hard organ into my mouth. Afterwards I would throw up, and he would laugh. His laugh was evil, so sinister, like the laughter of the devil.
My breath quickened, my heart pumping wildly as Bryce stepped toward the bed. I clutched my weapon even tighter. I had never killed a man before. I had never even harmed a fly. How could I do this? Then I thought of Kasey, so small and innocent, unprotected in the closet. What would this animal do to her? Would he kill my helpless baby as he had tried to destroy me?
Bryce set the tray of food down on the small nightstand close to the bed, his putrid breath reminding me of something long-dead as he stood over me. I remembered his sloppy kisses, his rough mouth moving over my unwilling body. Would I ever forget how he had hurt me? Would I ever forget the invasion of my flesh being ripped apart by his? Or the beatings? The scars on the inside, the ones on my soul, would they ever heal?
Bryce reached for the covers I held up to my chin, trying to pull them off of me. He loved to stare at my naked body, touching my belly as he talked to his "son." A scream rose in my throat. He couldn't touch me. He couldn't------------
"I HATE YOU! I hope you rot in HELL!" I screamed like a banshee, my hand whipping out from under the covers. With a viscious thrust, I had aimed a fork toward his face, right at his eye. There was a sickening popping noise as the blades of the fork slid into his pupil. I had impaled his eye.
He let out the scream of an injured animal, reaching for his eye. The fork was still embedded there and blood rushed down his face and down his arm. I managed to work my way out from under him, jumping from the bed. My movements were shaky, my knees weak. I had just recently birthed a child. I was still healing. Only the need to survive quickened my pace.
Bryce was screaming in agony, yelling out as the pain blinded him. I ran to the closet, to Kasey. I lifted her in my arms, her swaddled body tight against my chest. Bryce was stumbling, but trying to follow. "NOOOOO!" I yelled and the infant in my arms began to cry fitfully, frightened by the loud noise that had awakened her.
"Give me my baby! Give me my SON!" Bryce demanded, his heavy strides bringing him closer to where I stood about to bolt through the door.
"No, you'll never touch her! She's MY BABY! Mine!" I screamed, holding Kasey tightly, not about to let her go. Not to him, not to that animal.
"I have a son, Kami... A SON! And I will KILL you if that what it takes!" Bryce growled, reaching out, trying to grab my baby girl. He looked ridiculous and horrid, a fork sticking out of his eye.
With a swift movement, I reached out, grasping the lip of the glass of milk off the nightstand. Using it like a weapon, I hurled it at Bryce's face, hitting him square on the forehead. The impact shattered the glass like glittering diamonds, milk and shards flying everywhere. It dislodged the fork, and Bryce fell to the floor, blood oozing from his head.
I ran, holding the squalling infant. I didn't think about anything but my escape. Getting away. Freedom. No more rape, no more beatings. Never again would Bryce hurt me. "Let him be dead," I prayed.
