by Lowe, T. I.
Realization punched me in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to dismiss this whole thing as a joke. However, every time Julia spoke, the reality of her seriousness slapped me in the face. My sister was dead serious. This was not a game to her, and I had to figure out quickly how to change her mind. I felt like we were up against a bomb set to explode in mere seconds. This was bad…very bad.
“You can’t kill him, Julia. He’s not worth going to jail for.”
“No one’s going to jail,” she said to reassure me. “Look.” She directed my attention to her nightstand drawer. She pulled it open, and there sat several syringes of what I guessed were heroin. “Easy overdose.”
“I said NO!” I began pacing around. “You have to have a backup plan. You have one, right?” I stopped pacing to stare my sister down. I watched her peel her tunic off to reveal ugly bruises up and down her arms.
I sucked in a large gasp of air as I studied the nasty designs that matched her cheek. “Why did you let him do this to you?” I was nearly in a rage at this point and was about to lose it totally. Too many images of that last summer night flooded my mind, causing me to double in pain. He abused her beyond what he abused me, and I did nothing to help her.
“Oh, Mr. Man likes it rough. Don’t you?” she turned her attention back to Evan and so did I.
My anger completely boiled over when I realized he was staring at the marks on Julia and was actually getting aroused by it. I exploded at this point. I grabbed a chunky boot that was beside the nightstand and turned my attention to his sick manhood. I reared back and whacked it as hard as I could as though I was trying to smash a nasty bug with the thick heel. I tried to rein my anger in but I couldn’t help it. That one whack unleashed all those years of pent-up hurt in an uncontrollable rage. At that moment, I totally lost it, calling him every awful name that I could think of as I rapidly delivered blow after unrelenting blow. I felt like a mad woman had taken over my body and I do believe I saw red.
Evan was screaming under the duct tape and wailing around in his limited range of motion. He began to violently gag. Julia, realizing he was choking, pushed me out of the way and ripped the tape off in the nick of time as vomit spewed out all over the place. She then grabbed the boot out of my hand and threw it clear across the room, out of my twitchy reach.
(I warned you)
“Savannah! You have to get a hold of yourself. You could rupture something, and how am I going to be able to explain that?” she asked as she continued to hold me back. I was trying to get free so I could release more of those beastly frustrations on Evan.
“Please…don’t…kill…me,” he stuttered repeatedly between sobs. I laughed bitterly at him actually begging us to show him mercy.
We both looked back towards the mess he just made. “Look at that gross mess,” Julia said.
“I’m not cleaning it up. Let the sick fool lay in it, for all I care,” I said. I crossed my arms and tried to calm my breathing.
The stench was overwhelmingly sour. As Evan continued to moan in sobs, he began to dry heave. “That’s a good sign.” I said. “Means we don’t have to worry about anything else coming out.” I grinned and started pacing around the bedroom to try to focus on the bigger problem. “We have to figure out how to get out of this mess.”
“We can call the police and make Evan turn himself in for raping me,” Julia resolved as she chewed off fingernail after fingernail.
“But I would have to go to jail,” Evan moaned, as if we would really care. I made a quick lunge at him, causing him to flinch. Julia quickly pulled me back from attacking him again. I was having a hard time controlling myself. I think I may have been capable of murder that day, even though I was pleading with Julia to change her mind. This pathetic excuse of a man actually wanted us to take pity on him. Can you believe that?
“You can take Option One, where I empty the rest of the heroin into your arm, and you can head on to hell where you belong. Or you can choose Option Two and confess to the cops,” Julia said coolly. She waved her dainty hand in front of her wrinkled nose. “The smell in here is starting to get to me. Come on, Savannah. Let’s give Evan a little while to weigh out his options.” She pulled me out the room, shutting the door behind us.
More gagging and dry heaving could be heard through the door. “Please wipe this mess off me first,” he cried as we walked away, ignoring his request.
I escaped to the bathroom to wash my face and try to pull myself back together. I felt like I was living out some sick nightmare that wouldn’t end. Never in my wildest would I have guessed this was what Julia had in store for me during this trip.
I snuck to my room and started gathering up my stuff. I needed to make a quick disappearing act. It was what I was good at. “This is Julia’s mess. Not mine,” I said to myself. I grabbed the bag and as I put my hand on the doorknob, pure shame overwhelmed me. I dropped the bag and sat with my back against the door, finding myself at a crossroads. This whole nightmare wasn’t just about me. I was ashamed for all those times I ran away from the grasp of Evan’s arms and left Julia to fend for herself. I was disappointed in myself for even thinking about doing it to her again. After reliving those painful memories, I resolved that it was time to stand up and help my sister out of this once and for all. To not leave her alone with him ever again. I slowly pulled myself off the floor, discarded the regrets there, and opened the door.
I was surprised to find Julia standing outside the door. “What?” I asked.
“Just waiting to talk you out of leaving,” she said. She looked nearly defeated, as though she knew I would be abandoning her as I did so many times that dark year.
The guilt of it all was too much. I shook my head. “I’m not going anywhere,” I said. “Let’s figure this mess out, okay?” I wrapped my arm around her bony waist and headed back towards her bedroom. Opening the door, the sour stench slapped with me in the face. I immediately began my own gagging.
Julia rushed over to her sliding glass door and cracked it open. She retrieved some air freshener and gave the room a good dousing. I don’t know if it was the drugs or fear that turned his vomit so rotten. Maybe it was just the pure evil escaping him in the putrid form. I can tell you this—it’s one of the sickest smells I ever smelled, and I will never forget it.
“It’s decision time,” Julia walked up to the bed. “What’s it going to be?” She pulled the syringes out of the nightstand drawer. She seemed as ready for this to come to an end as I was.
“I’ll confess.” Evan appeared to have a green tinge to his face, causing him to look more like the devil he really was.
“You pull any funny business on the phone, and I promise to empty each one of these into your arm. I promise it won’t ruin my day to do this,” Julia said as she waved the needles in front of him. “You tell them your full name, where you are, and that you raped me,” she said bluntly. “You add any more than that and I promise the cops won’t make it here in time to save you. Now, before we make that call, you need to thank Savannah for saving your life.”
“That crazy witch broke my—”
Julia struck him in the referenced part with her sharp fist before he could finish his sentence. More screams and dry heaving followed. He was sweating profusely and shivering at the same time. I have to admit, he wasn’t looking so good. I was beginning to wonder if he would survive the night or not.
“I would much rather kill you than anything else, so I think you owe my little sister a big heartfelt thank you,” Julia said once more.
Once Evan was able to focus, he looked in my direction and cried out a simple thank you. Once he did, Julia grabbed the phone.
“Let’s get this over with, I’m getting tired.” Julia sighed loudly as she dialed 911 and held it to Evan’s ear.
“Hello…My name is Evan Grey and I need to confess to a crime,” he said into the phone. He wavered and Julia slammed a needle into his arm. He started confessing, so she didn’t empty it. She left it sticking in his arm for
the duration of the confession. I didn’t doubt that she meant business. He said exactly what Julia had instructed him to say and dared not to add one single word to it. Once she hung up the phone, he began to cry like a baby. We gathered his clothes and placed them by the door, which seemed to confuse him.
“Aren’t you going to let me get dressed?” He sniffled pathetically.
“Absolutely not,” Julia answered as she focused back on the needle in his arm. “Now, let’s let you relax a bit.”
“No,” Evan began squirming. “I need to be able to think straight when the cops get here.”
“We aren’t going to make it that easy on you.” Julia said as she drained the needle into his arm. “Stay in here, Savannah. I’ll be right back.” Julia rushed out of the room. I uncomfortably obeyed and stood there watching as a weird, foggy look came over Evan. The drugs seemed to take an immediate effect. The sour stench, his vile body naked before me, and the drug marks on his skin made me sick to my stomach. I was so ready to be out of this nightmare. This thing before me…he stole so much. All I could do was shake my head at the unfair fact. He had no right, but was allowed to anyway.
My sister should have known better than to leave me alone with him, because the next thing I knew I had punched him again. This time the blow produced a trickle of blood from his nose. He hardly responded to my attack and it caused me to pause. He was just a sick pathetic excuse for a human being and I realized he didn’t deserve this much of my effort. Beating on him only reduced me to his wicked level and I wanted to be nothing like him. So I stowed myself near the door and waited.
Julia returned a few minutes later with no makeup on, exposing the nasty bruise on her cheek, and her face flushed. Her hair was disheveled, and she looked so frail in that moment. I was scared my sister had maybe just had a nervous breakdown or something. “Are you okay?” I asked.
“No,” she whimpered. “I’m a rape victim.” Then in a perfectly normal voice she explained, “I let a little soap get in my eyes for affect.” I was floored by her transformation. “We’ve got to get him to the living room and then you have to hide. I don’t want to involve you in the police report and stuff. I’ll have to go with them to give my statement and then get a rape kit done on me.” I started to get scared by her words. “Don’t worry,” she reassured me. “I’ll be fine. You won’t be alone for too long.” She pulled me in for a long, unexpected embrace. When Julia let go I followed her gaze as she glanced over at Evan and took in the thin line of blood oozing from his nose. She cut her eyes back to me. “Savannah!”
“Sorry!” I shrugged. “I couldn’t help it!”
We unlocked the handcuffs and hid them in the top of her closet. Then we pulled Evan to his feet and had to practically drag him to the door. He slumped up against the wall just as the knocking began. Julia turned to me in that moment.
“Go hide in my big closet,” she whispered. I hesitated briefly. I didn’t want to be separated from her. “It’s going to be okay. Please go,” she quietly begged. I finally did as she said as the knocking began again, with a gruff voice announcing they were the police.
Once inside the room, I listened from the door as the police entered the apartment. A deep voice began to question Julia.
“Ma’am, are you Julia Thorton?”
“Yes,” she whimpered between sobs.
“Is this Evan Grey?” the policeman asked.
Again, she whimpered. “Yes.”
“Do you know what’s wrong with him?”
“He’s been shooting up with these,” she answered as she obviously showed him the syringes.
“Are you on anything?” he continued questioning.
“Nothing,” Julia said.
“Are you hurt?”
“I don’t know…” She sounded confused. I swear to you the girl was nailing this rape victim character she was portraying. I had to keep reminding myself that she was only acting and that she was really okay. Well, as okay as she could be considering she had actually been a victim. I guess she had plenty of character study of this all those years ago.
“My partner and I are going to attempt to get some clothes on him, and then I’m going to have to ask you to come with us. Do you understand?” he asked.
“Yes.”
I heard some bumping and shuffling and so I assumed they were trying to dress Evan. Within ten minutes, they had read Evan his rights and exited with my sister in tow. I sat in the room for at least ten more minutes before heading back to the deserted living area. I quickly gathered my wits and got to work in cleaning up Julia’s room. I slid the glass door completely open in hopes of ridding the air of rancid odor. I then worked on scrubbing up any smeared vomit and put her bed linens in the wash. Luckily, she had her luxurious bedspread folded towards the end of the bed, so only the sheets and pillows were the victims of the vile mess. While the wash cycle did its job, I set out on gathering all of the syringes to throw away. I decided the handcuffs needed to be tossed too, so I fished them back out of the closet and they joined the syringes.
After I started the linens for a second wash cycle, I found some disinfectant cleaner and meticulously wiped down every surface in her room. I sprayed more air freshener and lit a few candles. No matter how hard I cleaned, I just didn’t seem to be able to rid the space of the odor. I began to think that the stench was probably trapped in my sinuses and pores.
I did all I could do, so I left her room to air out. As I pulled her door shut, the realization hit me that the sick devil had probably been all over the apartment before I had I arrived, so I set out to wiping the entire place down.
Once the linens were dried and I had her bed remade, I decided it was my turn to scrub the sin of the night off my body. I threw my soiled outfit in the washer with a substantial amount of full bleach for a heavily soiled cycle, but then thought better of saving the outfit and tossed it in the trash as well. I just didn’t think I could ever get the sin of that night out of the material.
Once I felt clean enough, I found my way to the kitchen for a bottle of water and a couple of Tylenols. I sat at the marble counter on a stool and anxiously waited for my sister to return.
As the sun was beginning to rise, Julia finally arrived back home. She took a stool beside me and put her head down on the cool counter.
“How’d it go?” I whispered.
“It went,” she murmured. “I have to go wash,” she said as she slowly peeled herself off the stool and headed sluggishly to her room.
“I cleaned it all up and washed your bedding twice,” I said to her. I felt like it was the least I could do for all she had endured that night and probably countless other nights as well. Thinking of what she went through for us made my insides cringe in repulsion.
“You did?” My sister seemed surprised. “Thank you,” she said over her shoulder before she stiffly continued towards her room.
Once she washed, we both climbed into my bed without another word and slept well into the evening. I slept without a glimpse of a dream, and it was heavenly. It was like I had died for a spell, which was fine by me.
After we awoke, Julia finally felt up to telling me what had happened after they left. We laid wrapped in the covers as she quietly explained that she had to give her statement, and then they took her to the hospital for a rape test.
“Julia, I just wish you would have let me help you come up with a better idea than letting him touch you, again,” I said in disgust.
She rolled to her side to get a better look at me and dabbed tears away from her blue eyes. “It was the only way. I wanted this to be the end of it,” she firmly said. “Now it’s over with, and you and I need to work on moving forward.”
We grew quiet for a while and then I remembered my sister’s wicked performance for the cops. “You need to get into the acting biz.”
“What?” Her perfectly plucked eyebrows were raised skeptically.
“Julia, you should have received an Oscar for that performance last night.”
“Well, I’ll keep that in mind when I have to retire from my modeling career.” She chuckled weakly. Neither one of us seemed to want to abandon the comforts of the guest bed, so we stayed hunkered down for quite some time.
We eventually headed to the kitchen for something to drink. Just as I began unscrewing the cap off my water, my stomach let out a violent growl.
“Whoa…that sounded pretty mean.” Julia smirked.
“Well, you haven’t fed me since I’ve been here. You know, you are such a terrible hostess. Trying to make me an accessory to kidnapping and murder on top of starvation. Tsk-tsk.” I smiled as I shook my head.
“Alright, Miss Smarty, give me thirty minutes to fix this.” Julia laughed, as she got busy on her phone. Within her time limit, a young guy with a long mop of black hair showed up at her door, carrying a fancy warmer bag.
“Hey Julia. Here’s your supper,” the young guy spoke as he eyed me.
“Thanks, Caleb. This is my little sis, Savannah.” She reached for her wallet.
“Nice to meet you,” he said towards me, then turned his attention back to Julia. “Dave said no charge. Just come see him sometime this week.”
“Tell him I’ll visit him by the weekend. This is for your trouble,” she said as she handed him a fifty.
“Thank you, Julia,” he said as he headed to the door. He spotted the bag of garbage I had placed by it. “You want me to take care of that for you?”
“Would you?” she asked. “I would really appreciate it,” she cooed as she fluttered her prissy eyelashes at the young guy. He nodded his head and grabbed the bag before closing the door behind him.
As she placed the food before us on the bar, all I could do was chuckle at her. “You have to take up acting. You’re such a natural,” I said. All the girl had to do was change her mannerism and tone, and she seemed to be able to beckon forth whatever desired effect she wanted—and she could do it effortlessly.
The plates contained petite steaks and a medley of steamed vegetables. My mouth instantly watered with the aroma. I devoured every morsel while I watched my sister take only one small bite of steak and two small bites of veggies. She then placed the rest in the fridge and retrieved one of the fancy bottles of champagne.
