"You little brat!" He hissed, and
grabbed me by the shirt and hurled me
I had been sleeping when something woke me up. It was darkvery
dark—and I
heard someone yelling. I was still in the basement; I
could tell just by the
smell of it. It was cold. I heard someone
coming down the stairs like he had
so many times before, and again
I tried to make myself as small as possible
and stop my shivering.
Then the door sprung open. There stood the man that
constantly
plagued my nightmares.
up the stairs. My hand hit
something hard, and I could feel the blood start
coming out of my
hand and dripping on my pants. He dragged me into the
bathroom
where I saw the tub filled with water.
I notice two things as he
dunked me under:
One,
the water was ice cold. "You had enough?" He asked. I was
too weak to answer, so I just looked
Two, the water was turning red.
Before
I knew it, he had me under water. I couldn't breathe; black
spots
started to cover my vision as I struggled to get my head
back over the
surface. Just as the dizziness started to take over,
he pulled me back out.
at him and tried to calm my
gasping breaths. "I see I'll have to
discipline you some
more." Before I could say anything, I was back under
water
again. Desperately trying to take breaths in, I began to notice that
the
water didn't even feel cold anymore. "Now have you learned
your lesson?"
I looked in to the man's eyes that were deprived
of all emotion except hate, and he spoke again. "I think you have,
but I'm having so much fun right now!" My head was in the
water
again, and I was drowning…
"No!"
Riley Poole shot up from his sofa so fast that
he almost ended on the
floor of his living room. He was shaking so
hard that he couldn't think
straight. He attempted to stand up,
but his legs buckled underneath him and he
sat down. He put
his
heard between his knees and tried to breath. He had to get his
breathing in
control, he was starting to panic and his brain was
screaming, "Inhaler!"
. He tried to get his thoughts straight,
but he found that he couldn't move.
He reached his hand out,
hoping to find something to help. His hand touched
something small
and metallic, which he realized was his phone. He immediately
dialed
Ben's number, breathing unsteadily as his vision started to
darken.
"Hello?" Riley heard a sleepy voice croak from
the other end. Ben had
been sleeping with his wife in his arms
when he heard his cell phone ringing,
and noticed that it was 3:
25 in the morning.
"Ben…I…need…your…help…" Ben
heard his best friend struggling to
breathe after every word, and
instantly grew concerned.
"Riley, are you alright?" He
said loudly, accidentally waking Abigail up.
"Riley, I need you
to take a breath now…"
"I can't…" Riley said, and
then Ben heard the phone drop on the
floor. Riley's labored
breathing was all Ben could hear of his friend now.
"Ben,
you…" Abigail asked, but never finished her questions she
watched
her husband run around the room looking for clothes.
"It was Riley," Ben said while getting dressed, "He sounds
like he
needs my help."
He started down the stairs, but
was stopped by Abigail. "What do you mean
'needs your help'?"
As Ben began to describe what had happened, Abigail lost all
color that she
had in her face.