Return

"Daddy?" Rachel said in a voice that did not belong to a woman close to her forties.

"Yes sweetie?" David said in a tone that a father would use with a child as young as Rachel sounded.

"Did Mommy leave because you love me now?" Rachel asked tears falling from her glassy eyes?

"Yes sweetie," David said advancing a step towards his oldest daughter, "and Devon is trying to steal me from you. Are you going to let that happen?"

"No Daddy, I won't let that happen."

"You sick fuck," Devon whispered and without flinching turn so rotated her hips shifting so her left hand was trained on her father and shot her brother at point blank range. She heard the fidgeting, saw him pulling a pistol up in her direction with her peripheral vision and also saw her father wink in his direction. Not even Dale was above David's sick mind game.

Rachel screamed and lunged at Devon who quickly swung the butt of her pistol at her sister's temple. The contact made a sicklier sound than that of Rachel's head hitting the corner of the counter before she crumbled to the ground.

David was leaning against the door jam with a smile on his face, "You get the killer part of you from your mother's side. Her father used to find lost children and kill them. Kind of like the opposite of what you do. Instead of finding people alive and bringing them home he just killed them, putting people out of their misery. A mother can rest at night at least knowing that her son is buried in a marked grave. I know that you think that you hate me but you know that you owe me. Without me you have never known what your potential. I made you. Now all I have to do is finish..."

Devon flashed back on a life she had spent seven years forgetting. Back to the night she and Kim, Alison's older sister, were high and drunk coming back from the Richer Barn Fire. They never cared about risking getting caught, Alison's dad was the Sheriff and uncle was the deputy. It was snowing, the roads were icy, and Devon took the turn at the church way too fast. She lost control and rolled the car slamming it into the old oak tree that sat on the corner. When she looked over Kim's face was covered in blood and her leg and arm were hanging at weird positions. The town had eight streets so by the time Devon had gotten herself down from her seat belt and started easing Kim out of hers she saw flashing lights in the ice's reflection. Devon magically made it out of the crash with just a fractured wrist. But Kim had a punctured lung, broken leg and arm and a serious concussion; she died on the way to the hospital.

When her father picked her up from the local doctor's office he seemed overwhelmed that his daughter was alive, but they both knew that everything would change the moment they got home. He knew that she had been drinking and when Sheriff Kane asked what else they had she came right out and told them they both had an 8-Ball of cocaine.

Fucked up wasn't the right phrase but all her happy feelings left when her father dead-bolted the door behind her. "Take off your clothes and kneel," He whispered, she never heard him take his belt off. Devon was too afraid to do anything but obey so she removed and folded, like she always did, her clothes piece by piece until she had nothing left to remove and then kneeled.

After the first lash, the rest don't hurt as much, the trick is not to think about how much it should hurt and never ever to watch or look back. Devon wondered if this was how Jesus felt when he was beaten, but quickly got the thought out of her mind because if there was a God then he would have helped her.

"WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING YOU STUPID BITCH?!"

"I'm sorry," Devon was proud in some sick way that she got it all out in one breath.

"I FUCKING TOLD YOU NOT THAT YOU WERE NOT ALLOWED TO HANG OUT WITH THAT WHORE!!"

Devon flinched at that, Kim was no whore. Kim was her best friend and the only person that she ever spoke to about the beatings that she endured. No one knew about the hell that the Perry Family House housed. And no one inside the house spoke of it to each other; ever.

"David, please, stop, stop or she'll need stitches. You'll have to take her to the hospital." Her mother's feet came into view and the calming scent of her washed over Devon, who now let her head rest on the soft carpet her world was spinning and she feared the she would throw up or worse past out.

"Elizabeth," David hissed, "Go back up to the bedroom before you join your whore of a daughter."

Devon's head rolled up in search of her mother's face and made brief eye contact, "Mommy?" But Elizabeth wasn't hearing her youngest daughter's plea when she turned around and left her with a monster as she ascended the stairs. The calming soothing sensations Devon felt from her mother's presence completely vanished when she heard her mother close her bedroom door. And all she felt was the pain that was about to come when her father's face filled her vision.

"Answer me this one question?" David grabbed a fist full of his youngest daughter's hair, bringing her up to his level.

"Do you fucking love her?"

Confused Devon whispered, "Mom?"

David suddenly dropped his daughter's head and punched her in the ribs. Patiently waiting for his daughter to finish dry heaving her clarified, "Are you in love with that fucking whore?"

She knew what to say to that but just couldn't bring herself to deny the one thing in her life that she was sure about, "Yes."

"You fucking dyke."

Whatever David did to his daughter that night Devon couldn't remember. And what was worse than that was she didn't know if she had actually lost consciousness or her brain just refused to let her remember. All she remembered was her mother urgently helping her into her clothes, and then stuffing money into her pockets, "You need to leave."

"Come with me..,"

"No, this is my home and I can't leave the rest of my children here." Elizabeth helped her youngest daughter into her winter coat.

"Mommy, please?" Devon whined

But Mommy was thrown away by her father who then grabbed Devon and bashed the back of her head into the wall. That's when Devon started begging. And when David pushed her down to the floor and started kicking her in the ribs' she started screaming. Finally Elizabeth got her husband to stop telling him that the blood would stain the carpet, "Leave you filthy bitch," David hissed between his teeth, "no dyke is a daughter of mine."

"Dad, please..," Devon started begging.

"Leave now before I kill you. And if I ever see you around here again I'll fucking kill you."

Devon ran.

"...fucking the dyke out of you."

Devon came back down to the real world and caught the last part of her father's sentence. And for once she let the whole thought process through her head as she shot her father at five times in the chest. Kneeling down on the floor she felt for a pulse in her sister's neck, it was weak. Resting a barrel against her sisters temple, Devon turned away as she pulled the trigger, blood and bone matter splattered on her face and in her hair. Lifelessly Devon searched through the pictures that weren't covered in blood until she found the one she was looking for picking it up she placed it in her pocket.

Devon didn't remember driving there but when she pulled up in the Church parking lot she knew why she was there. Searching through her glove box she found her flashlight and clicked it on. Not bothering to turn off her car she stepped into the snowy night. Creeping past the slight remains of an oak tree she searched the cemetery until she found what she needed.

"Hey baby," Devon said brushing snow off Kim's grave stone, "I know I missed you too." Devon's tears were falling freely down her face as she gripped the picture of her father raping her, that he had most likely made her brother take, in her gloved hand. And with the other hand she gripped the pistol that she brought to her temple, "I'll be seeing you real soon," and pulled the trigger.

Alison came across Devon's body the next day when she came to visit Kim's grave and wept. Grieving for the lost of an old friend and for all the pain that she had to endure alone. Yet she was relieved knowing Devon had finally been released from this life to join her sister in the next.