Keeping Secrets

Destiny opens the door to her house. She’s hit with a strong reeking smell of alcohol and drugs. She sighs. Now her father is doing drugs. What else can he possibly do to mess up his life? She limps into the front room, her cast in a large boot so she can put some pressure on it. She’s supposed to be using crutches, but she fought desperately against the nurse on that one.

Before she left, she asked the hospital to hold onto her bracelet, and that they should give it to whoever comes in asking about her. They had looked at her odd, but she had shrugged and told them to just do it. Who knows if they will, but she hopes they will.

Destiny can hear the TV. It must be on full volume, because the sports man is basically yelling. Before she can make her escape to her room, her father appears, a beer in his hand. His eyes are bloodshot, but not from crying. His shirt is ripped and he wears boxers. Destiny averts her eyes, not wanting to see his disgusting figure.

Her father moves closer to her, the smell circling completely around Destiny. “They finally let you out of the hospital, huh? How’d you get home?”

“I took a cab.” she responds quietly.

“Where’d you get the money?” he snaps.

She looks down at her feet, her fingers playing with the edge of her light pink tank top. “The hospital gave me some money to use.”

He frowns at her. “Do they think we’re poor?”

“Of course not.” she says, lifting her face to gaze at him.

His eyes are filled with anger. He grips her hair in his hand, pulling her face close to his. “You are a disgrace, you hear? You think you’re mother left.” He chuckles, his breath blowing into her face. She holds her breath. “She never left. She’s buried in the cellar.”

Destiny gasps, yanking herself from him. A small amount of pain shoots through her from the pull of her hair, but she ignores it as she stares at him in surprise. His lips curl into a smirk. She limps down the hallway quickly, pulling herself up the stairs and into her room. She slams the door shut and locks it, pressing her back against the door. Her father’s heavily padded footsteps echo as he stomps up the stairs.

“Now, Destiny, don’t do anything silly now.”

Destiny wobbles across her room to pick up her phone with jelly fingers. She pushes nine-one-one, pressing the phone to her ear and heading to her closet. She flings open the door and shuts it quietly behind her, locking it as well. She no longer hears her father’s footsteps.

“Nine-One-One, what is your emergency?”

Destiny allows herself a sigh of relief. “My father just admitted to killing my mother and burying her in the cellar.” She takes a deep breath, feeling tears slick her cheeks.

As she’s about to give out her address, the closet door is busted open to reveal her dad and a pistol. Destiny’s eyes widen and the phone falls from her hand, breaking in half on the floor from the fall. He narrows his eyes at her.

“Destiny, I tried to be everything you needed, but then you just got out of hand.” he says softly.

Destiny shakes her head, her hands clutching the bottom of her shirt. “No, daddy, please.”

“This is what you’ve wanted, isn’t it? All those times you’ve tried, weren’t you wanting to die? Or were you simply wanting attention, dear?”

His voice is sickly sweet, and it makes Destiny flinch. She can’t think. Her mind is numb and blank. She’s terrified, but even more than that, she’s almost relieved. Maybe this time, she’ll finally die.

But suddenly, she doesn’t want to die. She wants to live, because she knows Cody is coming for her. She knows she’s going to be saved. Cody cares about her, she knows it. Or at least, that’s what she keeps telling herself.

“Daddy…” Destiny says, trailing off.

Her dad just smirks at her, lifting the pistol to point at her chest. “If I shoot you in the head, you’ll die too easy. I want you to know what it feels like to die.” he chuckles and pulls the trigger.

Destiny feels nothing at first, then a dull pain begins in her chest. The pain builds and spreads and she falls against the wall, slipping to the floor and onto her side. She can’t hear her father anymore. She isn’t even sure he’s still there. He’s probably gone, far, far away to be sure he won’t be caught.

First killing his wife, then his only daughter, who knew a man could be so sick?

Destiny closes her eyes, her hand pressing against the wound. It stings and she can feel the blood pouring out, but she’s determined to live. She’s determined to meet Cody.

She pulls herself up painfully, crawling across the floor until she’s out of her closet. Then she heads towards her bedroom door, into the hallway and to her dad’s room. He has a phone in here. She knows it’ll be hung up. She needs to call nine-one-one. Halfway across his bedroom floor, she stops, curling into a ball and starts to sob.

For the first time, she doesn’t want to die.