Forest Secrets

I laid there in the dark watching; waiting for time to pass. I was stuck lying in this closet with my younger sister for what seemed like an eternity. The noise of our drunken father echoed throughout the house; the sound of shattering glass shaking me to the core.

He was angry, he made it very clear that he was upset about something, he was out late from being at the bar and had come home taking his anger out on everything. He had made it quite clear as he went storming throughout the house shouting obscenities with every word he spoke. I put my hands over my sister’s ears so she couldn’t hear all the angry things he was shouting. Even though she was very much used to it, I tried my best to save as much of her childhood as I could. I had lost my childhood somewhere deep into the past, I knew I couldn’t get it back no matter how much I wanted it; those were the types of things you had to live with being me. My mother had passed when I was only five years old; I was told it was a drunken car crash due to stupid choices my father had made. I had always blamed him for her death, but he could never agree on it.

I was growing more scared, and I could sense that he was making his way to my bedroom. I shuffled Macie and I to the back of the closet; throwing clothes on the both of us in hopes to hide us in case he opened the door.

I comforted my 6 year old little sister the best that I could, she was so young and so afraid of my father hurting her.

“Shh, it’s going to be okay sweetie; close your eyes and go to sleep. He will be gone soon; I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

After about an hour of hearing my father shout and break everything, the house had gone extremely silent. I should have stayed but I slowly made my way out of the closet I had been hiding in and looked around the room, and didn’t see him. Macie had fallen asleep while she was in my lap, so I picked her up and brought her to her princess decorated room.

She opened her eyes slightly and looked at me.

“Is Daddy gone?” She muttered, her eyes barely able to stay open the slightest.

“I don’t know, I haven’t heard anything from him. I hope he is, but don’t worry he won’t hurt you.” I assured her watching her fall asleep.

“Goodnight Jewelly Poo!” She whispered across the room to me.

“Goodnight Macie Boo!” I whispered back at her laughing quietly.

Those were always our childhood nicknames for each other, my mother used to always call her that and she ended up calling me ‘Jewelly Poo’ just for laughs to lighten the mood.

I wished my mother was still here, but she was off somewhere else. Somewhere happier and painless, I hoped that I would see her someday again. Only in my dreams will I see her face again.
I slowly made my way down stairs to investigate if my father was still anywhere around the house, everything was silent I had hoped he was still sleeping but I wanted to make sure. I walked toward the couch and saw that he was indeed sleeping silently and not moving, I stood there for a moment trying to figure out if he was breathing or not. He didn’t seem to be, but I didn’t know for sure. He was probably just passed out in a drunken state like usual.

After a moment of standing there staring at him, he moved slightly and started to get up. I moved quickly to make my way back upstairs but he saw me and got up and made his way fast towards me.

“JEWEL HAZEL HAMILTON YOU GET YOUR DAMN ASS BACK HERE.” I turned around and stared at him as he was about to reach out fast to grab me.

All of a sudden I had these thoughts appear into my mind like he was actually speaking them, but his lips were not actually moving.

‘Once I get my hands on her, I’m going to fucking beat the shit out of her like I should have done to her mother. Glad the bitch is dead.’

I didn’t realize he wasn’t actually saying those words I heard in my mind, they were so loud and so real that I shouted at him for what he had said.

“Don’t you dare talk about mom like that, she did nothing to you. Mom’s dead, she’s dead, she’s gone dad.” He looked at me confused, like I had just informed him that I had two heads or something.

His face softened for a moment, and then he reached out towards me to give me a smack on the face but as he did the chandelier that I was staring at every so often suddenly came crashing down and landed on him with a hard thud, my father fell to the ground unconscious.

***

“It just fell on him, I don’t know what happened.” I informed the police officer that arrived at our house after the ambulance had shown up to take my father away to the hospital.

“What was your father doing before the chandelier had fallen on him?” He asked me, his assistant writing my previous answer in the notebook he held.

“He was drunk, and very angry. He was lying on the couch asleep and I heard him say in his mind that once he got his hands on me that he was going to hurt me. I was so scared.”

“Are you saying you…read his mind?” His assistance asked with a slight smirk on his face.

“I guess so, I’m not sure what that was that happened but I know it happened.” I answered. “Please don’t think I’m crazy, I know that it happened!”

He shrugged his shoulders but wrote down everything that I had told him anyway.

“Would you like a ride to the hospital?” I nodded and went and got my sister awake to find out the fate of my father.

***

My father was dead.

This information was passed onto me later that evening, while waiting in the hospital to hear the news. My sister, brother and I where all anxiously waiting; we were asked if we wanted to see him and say goodbye; but not wanting to see him in that state we had passed on that.

What we were told is he had suffered a fatal heart attack prior to the chandelier crashing on him, and regardless he would have died anyway.

I should have felt sad about it or something but I didn’t feel anything at all.

No one had said a word once the news was delivered, but everything was just a blur and happened so fast that there was no time to feel anything. The nurse led us away into a private room to get a hold of some other family.

My brother got sent away to my live with my grandmother 5 hours away, and my sister got sent to an old friend of my mothers.

And I was on a waiting list for a foster family for now until we could get a hold of family for me to go and live with. I cried watching my family being split apart in front of me.

I was alone; for now.