Breaking Everly

by Jessop, K. L

“Can we stay in the cabin again tonight?” Everly says, a little sway in her stance. The fair is drawing to a close, the dark rain clouds that loom in the sky seem to make the early evening feel as though it’s later than it actually is, and the park has emptied out.

  “Are you a little tipsy, Miss Braithwaite?” I ask her in a murmur, pressing my lips against her neck as I run my fingertips up and down her thighs as her weight rests against the front of my body. We’ve been dancing all afternoon and now I want to take her home and hold her all night.

  “Nope. I’m high on love,” she giggles.

  “Smooth. And why do you want to stay in the cabin?”

  Her arms lock around my neck. “Perfect night to end a perfect day.”

  “Well, that’s sold it for me. Yes, we can, although we need to head back home for supplies. We are out of milk and coffee and food.”

  She groans. “Can’t you go do that? Bailey and me can wait for you. I need to rest my little feet. I’ve danced too much.” She pouts her lip and I grin. She’s adorable.

  “I can do that if you want? I’ll walk you both down there before I head off.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I need to check on Mum anyway.”

  Mum disappeared from the party earlier than I thought she would, claiming she felt unwell, but it hasn’t escaped me that this was all after a phone call that seemed to have her flustered.

  Once we reach the cabin, I kiss her goodbye and head back up through the town towards home. Just leaving Everly has me missing her already. What the fuck am I going to be like when she goes back to Milford Haven for a while to pack up her things? I’m going to be that lovesick puppy that pines after her and will have to call her every hour. Deciding to stop at Mum’s place first, I cross over the road and make my way to the outskirts of town. She lives in a two-bed house about five minutes away from my place. I halt my step when I hear raised voices coming from up ahead, and when I hear them shout again, I know it’s Mum and my chest tightens. My feet move faster before I realise and I’m at her door in seconds. It’s open and the hallway is dark.

  “I’ve told you. I don’t know!” She sounds angry but not upset. I’m two strides away from ripping the head off the fucker who’s in her house when I stop dead in the doorway, realising it’s Sam standing in her kitchen.

  “What the hell is going on?”

  “Adam!” They both turn, and the second his eyes land on mine, every ounce of hatred I feel for him and his son rages through my body in seconds. My body roars in fire and lunges towards him, my fists grabbing hold of his shirt and pulling him up against me. Seething to see him back in our lives, back in Mum’s when she’s been doing so well, I growl in his face. “What the fuck do you want?”

  “Adam, stop! Sam isn’t here to cause trouble.”

  I hear my Mum’s words, but my opinion of this situation is different, regardless of what I do or don’t know. Everyone in his family causes trouble and brings harm to others. He holds his hands up in surrender. “She’s right, Adam. I’m not here for trouble.”

  “Then why are you here?” I growl. Pissed off that my happy day has turned to shit so quickly.

  “Your mum told me what happened to Everly.”

  I drop him like he’s just sent poison through me.

  How dare he speak her name.

  I look at Mum, angry and betrayed that she’s turned to the father of the devil to divulge something that wasn’t her place to speak after everything the pair of them have done to her and this family. How could she do this after everything?

  “Why would you do that? When?”

  Tears are now in her eyes, and what hurts more is that I can clearly see she is anxious about me standing before her when she’d looked fine with Sam being in her house. Then, like someone has just kicked me in the stomach and ripped the air from my lungs, the penny drops, and I step back. “Oh God, this isn’t the first time he’s been here is it?”

  “Adam, listen to me,” she pleads. “What Sam does or doesn’t know isn’t important right now.”

  “How long?” I roar, making her flinch.

  “A few weeks.”

  “A few weeks? Have you forgotten what his son did to this family?”

  “Adam, please listen to me.”

  “Adam, this is not what you think,” Sam says, stepping in front of my mother.

  I’ve been an idiot. I’ve taken my eye off the ball and surrounded myself in Everly meaning that I’ve not seen what’s been going on in front of me.

  “Your mum and me, we’ve been talking that’s all.”

  “So you can ease your way back into her life? Back into mine?”

  I can’t breathe.

  The rawness of this situation is too heavy on my chest. His son—his flesh and blood—hurt my girl and my mother wants to play happy families again.

  “No. It’s not like that,” Mum says, stepping in front of Sam.

  I don’t take my eyes off him, noticing the yellow bruising around his eye that I hadn’t seen in my rage. “So you’re here for what, Sam? To try and prove that your precious son is innocent?”

  “Of course not,” he yells. “I’ve learnt very quickly that my son is a fucking animal. I know he’s done shit in the past but what he did to Everly makes me sick to the stomach. Your mother only told me because she thought I had the right to know.” His dark eyes hold mine, and if there is any regret inside of him, I can’t see it right now because all I can see when I look at him are features far too similar to those of the monster that deserves a very long, agonising death.

  I step forward. “Then I’ll ask you again, Sam. Why. Are. You. Here?”

  “I’m here because you need to know that—”

  “Wait. Where is Everly?” Mum interrupts. “Why isn’t she with you?”

  “She’s down at the cabin. Why?” Her little gasp of horror and the way she looks at Sam unnerves me, causing an unpleasant shiver to run down my spine and turn my blood cold.

  “Will someone tell me what the fuck is going on?”

  30

  Everly

  I giggle to myself when I hear the rainfall heavy on the roof of the cabin, knowing that Adam will be back soon and he can’t drive because he’s had a drink. “Looks like Daddy will be getting wet, Bailey.” His cute face tips to one side as if he is wondering what the hell I’m talking about.

  Kicking off my shoes, I fall onto the bed, laying on my stomach and closing my eyes to let the flow of alcohol that’s lined my veins relax my body while I wait for my man to come back to me.

  Today has been amazing, and I don’t think I’ve laughed or danced so much in my life. It’s been so good to have everyone around me and I’ve loved getting to know Mac more. He is the sweetest, sassiest man and I adore the love he has for Adam. The bond that those two have is like what every father-son bond should be. It’s beautiful. It still amazes me how good I feel, and I often question why I am. When your world is suddenly turned upside down in the most horrific way, it’s hard to adjust to the days when your heart and mind are suddenly wide open to a world where you can think clearly and feel lighter. Being surrounded in darkness for so long, I’d thought that was my life. Only now, I’ve never been happier.

  I feel like a completely different person to the one who showed up in Keswick over a month ago—that broken girl with fear inside, the deep ache she forever had in her heart and the overwhelming anxiety she felt from losing her father—like I’ve been transformed into the woman she’d always wanted to become. And there’s only one person that has helped me to find her.

  From the moment I latched onto his chocolate eyes when I was fourteen, I’d known he was my soulmate—the one my heart was meant to find.

  He has been my rehabilitation of life—my saviour when I thought there was nothing left—and I’m now questioning whether or not I should have stayed all along so he could have helped me when I needed him the most. But I hadn’t been ready to be helped at that time: the pain Jamie had inflicted wo
uld have most likely torn us apart in other ways.

  They say time is a great healer, maybe this was the case for our hearts.

  My thoughts are disturbed by the wafting of Bailey’s tail as it wags like crazy, and I can only assume that he can sense Adam, outside. “Is daddy coming?” I mumble, pushing myself up.

  Every ounce of warmth I have inside of me drains when I see a shadow in the doorway.

  It’s not Adam.

  I turn slowly. Air leaves my lungs and my blood runs ice cold when I see him there, bigger and broader than I remember. His wet hair is longer, a scar now lines his cheek but it’s those eyes that tell me of the power of evil that stands in front of me. Those eyes that have haunted me for years and the same ones that have taken me right back to the woman he made me become.

  Broken.

  Vulnerable.

  Alone.

  It’s like New Years Eve all over again, except we are at the lake… so no one will hear me if I scream. My heart is thundering against my chest as I try to think of every possible way I might be able to get out of here.

  “Hello, Everly. All alone I see.” His hoarse voice and sick grin makes my stomach roll. The vodka bottle in his hand informs me that whatever way this night ends, it won’t be pleasant.

  I stay silent, trying to keep calm, praying that Adam will be here soon, but the tremble tells him everything he needs to know: I’m terrified.

  I’ve already given him his first weapon because he thrives on seeing me this way.

  “I’ve been trying to get you on your own all day.”

  Bile rises in my throat. I need to get out of here.

  He steps inside the cabin with a stagger, snarling at Bailey. He looks back at me, raking his eyes down my body. “What, no sweet welcome for me? It’s been so long.”

  As he takes everything in around us, I try and control my breathing, scanning my eyes for things I can use to protect myself. I need to get off the bed, but I’m too scared to move. Jamie’s unpredictability means anything can happen at any time. One right move for him could be the wrong one for me.

  “Nice little set up you’ve got going here. Little brother always forbid me from coming here back in the day.”

  He picks up a photo of Adam and me, swigging the vodka neat from the bottle and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “He was the little brother I never knew I wanted until Dad married Abigail. The young lad that followed me around everywhere and the one that I knew looked up to me. The times we shared were great. The laughs we had, the stupid shit we did. It was like we shared the same blood.”

  I need to get out.

  When he turns his head away from me, I slip off the bed, pressing myself against the wall, slowly taking one small step at a time towards the door, desperate to run out of it and willing my unstable legs not to give up on me. My clammy hands are balled behind my back to try and control the tremor of being in his presence, my blood an unsteady mixture of hot and cold.

  But then Jamie’s positive reminiscing takes a turn when he turns to look at me, venom in his voice, eyes ablaze, knuckles white with the grip on the vodka bottle when he growls. “He was a good guy until you came along. Then you took him away from me, didn’t you?” He takes another mouthful of vodka before he roars, making me flinch. “Didn’t you?”

  “Y-Yes.” Whatever I say will be wrong but not answering him will be worse.

  “You changed everything!”

  Bailey once again tries to gain Jamie’s attention. “Get the fuck away!” The loud yelp hits my ears as he’s booted out of Jamie’s way.

  I run to him with tears in my eyes as he lays defenceless, looking up at me with big sad eyes as his leg rests like it’s twisted.

  “Ssh, it’s ok.” I stroke him down to try and calm him and then moving closer to his ears, I whisper. “We need Adam,” hoping that if he can, he will somehow find the strength for both of us to alarm someone.

  Seeing Bailey hurt unleashes a rage in me from somewhere in the depths of my very soul. No more. No more is he going to take control of my life. This ends now. Grabbing Adams pocketknife I see on the floor, I stand, pointing it at him. “What do you want, Jamie?”

  He lets out a putrid laugh when his eyes land on my weapon of choice. “Oh, sweet little Everly. You think that is going to finish me off?” His words are an attempt to make me feel small as he watches it shake uncontrollably in my hand.

  I won’t let them. “Answer my question. Why are you here?”

  “I heard from Dad that you were back with that sad excuse of a step-brother of mine that I thought, you know what, I'll pay sweet little Everly a visit.” He steps towards me and I shift back. “After all, it's been a while since I've had a good lay.”

  “You make me sick.”

  “And you fucking lie!” He growls. “Why say those things, Everly? We had good times, why make up false truth?”

  “You raped me!” I roar, the adrenaline inside of me full force.

  His eyes are locked on me for a moment and he admits. “I did.” His admission knocks me back, and for a split second, I stupidly question whether that evil personality of his is sorry for what he’s done. That is until those eyes turn to fire and a repulsive grin spreads across his face. “And I’m back for more.”

  My bid to escape out of the door is shut down when he grabs me from behind, pressing me against his body. I stab him in the bicep with the pocketknife and he grunts, throwing me against the stove. The piercing pain in my ribs takes my breath as his hand makes contact with my lip. The metallic taste of blood coats my tongue, I’m dazed and nauseous but I have to get out. When he comes at me again, I dart out of the way making him crash into the table. Grabbing the vodka bottle that he’s discarded in our scuffle, I smack him between his shoulders hard. His body jolts, and I run out of the cabin.

  My bare feet pound the wood terrain in the dusk light. The heavy rain pours down on me, but I don’t stop. My breathing is harsh and sharp from the pain in my ribs, my body on fire as I battle my way through the trees.

  I need to get to Adam; I have to find him before he finds Jamie.

  Stopping for a moment, I try to catch my breath while I figure out which way I’m heading. The lake is nowhere to be seen, so I’m positive I’m heading in the right direction, but my thoughts are filled with past and present nightmares and I fear my anxieties are sending me around in circles.

  I need Adam.

  As I head up the bank, my leg buckles and twists when my foot is misplaced on the uneven ground. Falling back down the bank hard, I cry out at the severity of pain that rips through my leg and torso. My lower body becomes numb, my stomach reels and I can’t catch my breath as I cry, covering my mouth to hide my whereabouts. The pain in my leg is unbearable. It's broken. I know it’s broken, which only fills me with dread because I’ve no way of getting out.

  I’m not going to win this war. I’m never going to escape him.

  “Everly!” I hear my name through my sob and my heart pounds with relief: it’s distant but I know it’s him.

  “Adam!” I shout back through my tears, hoping he’s close. “Adam!” I drag myself along the wet, dirty ground, forcing my body to move in the direction of his voice.

  He shouts again, closer this time.

  “Down here!”

  As he rushes down the bank, the tremor in me is now a mixture of adrenaline and hope the closer he gets. “Everly?”

  I cry when he reaches me, needing to hold him against me as I try and get out my words to warn him. “Adam. J-Jamie is here. He was at the—”

  “I know. I know. I’m so sorry.” He’s panting hard. Kissing me on the head, his hands are everywhere not knowing where and if he can touch me. “Sam was at Mum’s. He told me.”

  I wince when his thumb touches my lip.

  “He’s hurt you?”

  “My ribs. And my leg is broken. I can’t move.” My mind flashes to Bailey. Amongst all the chaos in the cabin, I can’t recall where he was when I ran. M
y chest hurts at the thought of him on his own. “Bailey’s hurt. I-I don’t know where he is.”

  “He’s fine. Don’t worry about him.”

  He’s been to the cabin.

  That means Jamie is out here, somewhere. We need to go.

  Even with Adam by my side, I still don’t feel safe, but there’s no way I can walk.

  “Adam, it’s not safe. You need to go get help.”

  “No. I’m not leaving you.” The tension that rises from his body is noticeable; he’s raging inside, and even though I need his strength and protection, I also need him to think for a moment.

  I grab his jaw, needing him to focus. “Adam, listen to me.”

  “Yes, Adam. Listen to her.”

  My stomach drops at the sound of his voice, and before I have a chance to stop it, everything happens so fast.

  “You son of a—”

  “Adam, no!”

  He hurtles towards Jamie in fury, throwing himself at him and shoving him to the ground. All I can hear through the rain is the brutality of the brawl taking place, all I can see is two strong men in a whirl of ferocity and not knowing what to do. I shout. I scream. I beg them to stop, but with Adam’s angry growl and the sick laughter from Jamie as he antagonises him, I know it’s no use. Jamie’s twisted rejoices that sing about how good I was and how I’d wanted every part of it sickens me. With each of his provocations aimed directly at Adam to get a rise out of him, the blood bath continues, playing out like a violent horror movie right before my eyes.

  Not wanting to witness anymore, I cover my face with my hands and cry.

  Then, like someone has called time, they stop.

  The silence is deafening. The uncertainty in the air is chilling. Adam is leant over, chest heaving, blood dripping from his nose and brow whilst Jamie tries to catch his breath, still smirking. His shirt is soaked crimson from where I stabbed him, blood trickling down his arm. His mouth is now swollen with a large cut down his lips as he spits out a tooth.

  For a second, I naively think this is over, until I see Jamie’s deep amusement rumble from his chest. “Nice right hook you have, little brother.”