Haven Hill: Chapter 8

WARNING: MATURE CONTENT

by the Author of The Widow in the Woods

Here’s where the story left off last time.

Nightmarish memories assailed Kate, making it hard for her to think clearly.

…

After Logan left, Kate rejoiced in the peaceful silence of her apartment. The atmosphere changed instantly, and she felt confident that she and Ariel would be able to mend their relationship quickly without Logan’s interference. He had subtly caused dissent between them, attempting to erode the foundations of their mother-daughter relationship, but Kate knew that they were too strong for that to last once the last whisp of his presence was gone from their apartment. 

She hadn’t been sleeping well, so she decided to take a nap, basking in the newfound peace in her home. She had not realized just how much stress she’d been under until she lay down, feeling light from the lifted burden.

She drifted off into the deepest sleep she’d experienced in ages…

…When she awakened, it was with a jolt of confusion. She was face down, and inhaling caused the bottom sheet of her bed to rise into her nostrils. She went to roll over but couldn’t. That’s when she realized that the sheet was only part of the cause of her shortness of breath. A heavy weight was on her back, pressing her down, suffocating her. Something additional was across the back of her neck, forcing her face into the mattress. She couldn’t draw a deep breath because of the weight, and her lungs were so depleted of air that she couldn’t have summoned a scream for help if she’d been offered a million dollars cash on the spot.

“Stop. Fighting.”

She froze at the familiar voice that came from behind her. Logan released his grasp on the back of her neck, but he didn’t move off of her. She turned her head to one side and gasped for air as her eyes watered from the strain.

“We were a family.”

Kate heard a broken sob but still hadn’t enough breath to reply. She wouldn’t have known what to say if she could, because she could feel his volatility in the air. Any reply she made would be the flip of a coin whether it would make her situation better or much, much worse.

“We were a family and you destroyed it. What happened when you went on that field trip with Ariel? Have you both been laughing at me all this time, thinking about that other man you want to be Ari’s stepfather? The one you want to replace me with? Was there even a field trip?” Logan continued a diatribe that became foul and insulting, and still, Kate was terrified to move or respond. Her tears began to soak the sheet below her right cheek, and they tickled and itched as they made their salty trek across her face. She couldn’t budge a muscle to wipe them away.

“Why did you do this? We were a family! If you don’t want to be part of it, why did you have to ruin it for Ari and me? She was like my daughter!”

Logan’s rage was audibly building, and now Kate prayed wordlessly, fervently, frantically, that she would survive this to see her beautiful child again.

When she felt Logan lift himself up off her back, at first, she thought that he was going to let her go, but then she felt his hands at the waistband of her sweatpants. She began to struggle in earnest as she felt the fabric slide down over her legs. Kate sucked in a breath to scream but it was quickly cut off as Logan painfully grabbed a handful of her hair and pushed her face back into the mattress. She flailed, she bucked wildly, she made as much noise as she could, but the shortage of air limited her fight. The sheets were in her nostrils again as she fought to get air into her lungs. Her inability to breathe made her feel panicked, and then that fear was quickly ramped up to the next level. Darkness and lightning danced behind her closed eyelids as she failed to inhale sufficient air to fuel her struggle. 

Then she felt nothing at all… 

…

Consciousness returned. At first slowly, and then in a rush as Kate remembered what had happened. Was he still there? She was afraid to move and lay there, frozen in silence, listening for movement.

She had no idea how long she remained paralyzed but finally began to wiggle her body parts to see if she was injured. Her toes, her fingers, her arms, and her legs. Everything worked but she felt deeply bruised and achy as she moved her limbs. As she rolled over to sit up, she felt a sharp, burning pain and realized her sweats were no longer on. She opened her eyes and saw them thrown into a wad in the corner of her bedroom. She took a deep, trembling breath, glad just to be alive to raise her child… 

Ariel! 

Panic almost overcame her as she remembered what Logan had said about him and Ariel becoming a family. She reached for the phone she’d left on her nightstand, frantically looking behind the small table to see if it had fallen off during the struggle. It was nowhere to be found. She leapt up, grabbing her pants off the floor, and rushed into the other room to find it.

Find it she did, crushed on the kitchen floor. She grabbed her keys and raced down the stairs to her Jeep, not bothering with shoes or stopping to glance in the mirror. She ran a stoplight and passed on a double yellow line, speeding to the school, the whole time chanting a prayer. “Let Ariel be okay. Let Ariel be okay. Let Ariel be okay…”

She swerved into the parking lot, leaving the front right tire of the Jeep up on the curb in front of the school’s door. It was locked, of course, and she leaned on the buzzer frantically to summon somebody in the office. 

The secretary’s voice came over the intercom., “This is Janice Jones. May I help you?”

“Ariel!” Kate sobbed. “Ariel!”

“Mrs. Lindsey?” the voice sounded alarmed.

“Where is my daughter?” she shrieked, sobbing so loudly she didn’t hear footsteps approaching the door. She hardly recognized the image of the wild woman on the camera as herself. Her curly hair was standing on end and mascara smeared across her face. The whites of her eyes had vanished behind broken blood vessels and her tee-shirt was ripped.

Janice peered warily through the glass at Kate’s wildly unkempt appearance and hysteria. “Mrs. Lindsey, what’s wrong?” she asked.

 “Did he take Ariel?”

“Are you talking about Logan? He just picked Ariel up…he said she had a dental appointment…”  Janice’s voice trailed off uncertainly. “He was on the approved list of people who could pick her up –“

Kate dropped to her knees, hit by a tsunami of fear and grief that made it impossible for her to keep her footing.

…

Never again, Kate said grimly to herself in the here and now.

About Daisy

She is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, and X.