Wicked Game

Chapter Six: Nightmares

As night fell upon the sleepy streets of the upscale neighborhood of the landings, most of its residents rested soundly and dreamt of good things. Nicolette Thorne was different. She dreaded the night and the memories that haunted her. She usually wandered the house at night, and when she finally fell asleep, the nightmares would always follow.

"Nici bring your black ass out here!"

"Yes, daddy?" a twelve-year-old Nici stood still as possible in her mother's home in Decatur, Georgia, trying not to incur her father's wrath.

"Did you mess with my stuff?" Leroy Lebrun's eyes burned with hatred for the girl he'd been forced to raise as his own.

"No daddy. I didn't touch your stuff."

"Are you lying to me, little girl? I can tell when you're lying to me," he walked over to his dresser and pulled out the old black belt he used on occasions like this.

"I'm not lying daddy. I swear. I didn't... please daddy, don't'" Nici begged but it was too late, all she could do now was pray it would be over soon. With blunt force, Leroy brought the black belt down on Nici's back as her cries for help went unheard.

"No, NO!" Nici cried as she struggled to wake up.

"Nici, baby wake up." Jackson sat up in bed and turned the side lamp on.

"What? Where am I?" Nici sat up in bed, trembling and holding her legs tightly to her chest.

"You had another dream baby."

"God. What time is it?" she ran her hands through her silky hair.

Jackson rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock on his nightstand. "Five-thirty."

"I'm sorry baby. I didn't mean to wake you."

"Are you alright?" he smiled warmly.

"Yeah, just some silly nightmare. I'm fine." She forced a smile. "You go back to bed baby."

"I have to get to the office early," Jackson smiled and kissed her forehead before getting out of bed and heading to the bathroom.

Nici inhaled deeply, laid back down, and pulled the covers up to her chin. She hadn't dreamt about her father in weeks.

Leroy Lebrun was a hateful man who made the eighteen years she lived under his roof hell. He resented Nici because his wife, Shelia was raped by a white man and became pregnant. Being brought up Catholic, Shelia refused to get an abortion.

The moment Leroy laid eyes on the light-skinned baby girl with eyes like her white father, he made it his mission in life to make her pay for her father's sin.

What little kindness Leroy showed; Shelia made up for by showering her daughter with love. Nici was her heart and soul. Shelia made Leroy promise never to tell Nici, who her real father was or how she was conceived. She knew it would be too much weight for a child to carry.

The summer Nici turned twelve her mother was killed in a car accident. Leroy was forced to raise the child he hated. One drunken night, he broke his promise to Shelia and told Nici, the truth about her real father. That night, Nici's life took a turn for the worse. She went from being an honor roll student to a dropout.

Soon she found herself hanging out with the wrong kind of boys just for the attention, and when their empty promises of love failed her, she turned to drinking. It wasn't until she was nineteen that her life took a turn for the better. As she stood before a judge facing shoplifting charges, a young Jackson Thorne, court-appointed attorney, walked into her life, and the rest was history.