Another chapter from my book "Lost" which is still being written. The chapter is a random chapter selection from the book. Hope you enjoy reading it!
Maggie Malone was viewed as a socially inapt person in her community. She shied away from conversation with the neighbours; she was known for isolating herself behind drawn curtains and locked doors. The inhabitants of Exeter Road only knew of her existence because of her weekly excursions to the local shop. She was extremely quiet and kept herself to herself. The neighbours never knew her to have any visitors to her dilapidated dwelling.
Maggie was born to a fragile, beaten mother who loved her very dearly. Her mother would shield her from her father’s tyrannical outbursts of abuse. As she grew older, her mother became less able to protect her from his demolition ball hands.
Her father was a strong man who stood six feet tall. He had a controlling nature and forbid visitors to visit the house. Her mother worked her fingers down to the bone and would often come home to a thrashing from her father. Maggie escaped the majority of the assaults because her mother was the preferred target, she was weak and accepted her punishment. It was all about to change.
One afternoon, the young girl of ten skipped home from school forgetting the troubles that lurked inside her family home. Reaching the garden path, she heard her fathers thunderous voice and her mothers restrained screams. She tentatively tiptoed through the front door to find her mother pinned beneath her father, his voice was eerily calm. His broad hands were wrapped around her mother’s throat. The brute was strangling her. Her mothers tender lips were turning blue, the whites of her eyes showed as they rolled back into her head.
“Dad!“ Maggie shrieked, “What are you doing?“
Maggie pounced on her father with a burst of adrenaline and courage. Never before had she retaliated to her father, but she could see her mother’s desperate gasps for air. A giant fist swung towards her jaw and she fell down to the floor. Everything went black.
A few hours passed and Maggie felt a throbbing in her cheek, it felt hot with pain. She brought her hand up to her cheek and felt her pulse through her swollen face. The room was silent as she dared to open her beautiful blue eyes. The room was dark,
“It must be night time,” she thought.
She scanned the room for the presence of her possessed father. Cupboards and shelves had been torn from the walls and ornaments were smashed on the floor. Staggering, she reached for the light switch and tripped over an object on the littered floor. As she switched the light on, the hazy glare from the light bulb revealed her mother’s blood stained corpse. Maggie fell to her knees and draped herself over her mother’s cold body and sobbed erratically.
A dark, looming shadow suspended in the doorway. Her father was watching her, grunting like an enraged bull. His powerful frame lunged towards his daughters petite stature, his eyes were devilish. Maggie ran for her life towards the back door and into the garden. She fled from her violent, blood thirsty father in terror. Exhausted and traumatised, Maggie reached the road and collapsed. A pedestrian rushed to her rescue, her guardian angel. Her father watched her from the window red faced with rage, his fierce eyes cut through her like a knife.
That was the last time Maggie saw her adoring mother. Having no family apart from her mother and father, she was put into care immediately. Haunted by the reoccurring memory of her mothers stony corpse lying on the blood soaked carpet, Maggie became a recluse. She hid away, isolating herself huddled into a corner. Her knees tucked up to her chin, as she rocked back and fourth. Maggie never did see her father again, apart from in her nightmares.
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