GONE GIRL » Billy Hargrove

0.8 » one step closer

tw!violence

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The car ride home seemed to last hours, although I was very well aware of the fact that it was only a matter of twenty minutes to get back to the house.

I slid in a random tape, blasting the 'Kill Em All' album at the highest volume bearable. It didn't help my headache at all, but when everything was silent all I heard was white noise. Too much at once, without the possibility of hearing anything in particular, everything so far away. Impossible to decipher.

Even when I had arrived, I stayed inside of the car for the rest of the tape, singing along, drumming on the steering wheel. Afraid. Afraid that the moment I left the cosy seat of my Impala, everything would come crashing down around me. I wanted to stay in this illusion a little longer.

∞

After the tape had ended I took a few deep breaths, before getting out of the car and walking over to the house.

"Cam?" I asked quietly as soon as I stood in the hallway. Things seemed normal. But where would my cousin be around this time? Thinking about it, his bike hadn't been in the garage either. Maybe he was grocery shopping or something like that.
I got out of my shoes, threw my bag and jacket next to the coat-rack and headed towards the living room, to check for a note or anything he might have left. There was nothing on the coffee table, neither on top of the TV which was where he usually put them.

  Weird.

"Ah finally you're here. I've been waiting for quite a while now, you see," My father sneered from behind me, I spun around to look at him, reached for the knife but was then reminded of the fact that it was in my jacket.

  In the hallway. Great.

"Cute little note my nephew left for you. 'I'll be heading back to my parents today, and I'll get someone to accept the case. We'll go through with this and you'll never have to see that asshole again'. A bit harsh isn't it? Calling me an asshole although he barely knows me?" He said in a calm, overly friendly tone which made me even more uncomfortable. Crumbling the note and throwing it over his shoulder he looked at me, smiling. I felt dizzy again.

  "He even was gracious enough to inform me about the gun you hid underneath one of the pillows on the couch, really well behaved that boy. We don't want you to accidentally hurt me, do we?" His smile grew bigger.

  "Get out," I scoffed, desperately trying to remember any sort of self defence Hopper had taught me after I came here. Weapons mostly. Some basic moves to ward someone off. 'And if nothing helps just knee him in the balls. That usually works and at least gives you some time.' Nothing I hadn't known before if I was honest.

  "Yeah you know … I don't think I will. I really thought you were smarter than to run away from me, trying to hide. But I guess you take after your mother when it comes to intelligence." My father took a step towards me, I forced myself to stay where I was, to not show any sign of weakness.

  "At least she never sunk deep enough to abuse her own child," I hissed. He took another step, I stayed in place.

"What did you say?!" - "I said that at least she never sunk as deep as you. You're miserable."

  Another step.

"So are you! Look at you, trying to pretend you're not scared of me. You've always been. That's why you ran away in the first place. And now? I've caught up on you, and you will come back home with me."

  Another step.

"Never." Clenching my fists at my sides I looked him in the eyes. "I will not let you ruin the rest of my life. You are not my father."

  No further step.

For a moment he seemed frozen, staying right where he was, staring at me with wide eyes, only to suddenly plunge forward, slapping me across the face.

  "You will do as I say!"

I felt my eyes water as I aggressively shook my head, stretching out my leg before pushing him backwards, which made him fall over smashing right into the coffee table. The sound of shattering glass resonated through my head, followed by a muffled scream from my father. I was just about to run around to my jacket in the hallway, when he grabbed my ankle, stopping me.

  Instead of pulling me down to the floor however, He quickly got up, ignoring the bits and pieces of glass he had all over his torso, and I attempted pushing him back to the floor when his fist collided with my face two, then three, and then four times in a row, making me fall onto the couch behind me.

  I tasted blood in my mouth, I could feel the blood running out of my nose, I could feel the blood being pumped through my veins at an alarmingly high rate.

"Now I see how it is," He said quietly, reaching behind his back only to reveal a gun. I struggled to get back up, holding onto the couch for support, when he held up the gun into my direction. My breath hitched, everything was awfully blurry, and I barely heard anything due to my heart pounding in my head so loudly. "So I give you the choice. Either you come back home with me, or it all ends right here and now."

  Unable to say anything I just stared at the schemes of him that I could make out in front of me, seemingly all around me. It was almost completely silent when suddenly something caught his attention and he aimed somewhere else. Things went way too fast for my brain to process properly.

The whole room was spinning.

I heard gunshots and something that sounded an awful lot like a dog. My father stumbled backwards, trying to run. One of the bookshelves toppled over and knocked me back to the floor.

   Then, everything went black.