“Calix!” I screamed his name and my agony pierced the air. “Calix! Oh God, please don’t hurt him!” I begged the men as I watched a fist connect with the side of his face and then another. He did nothing. The strong, beautiful man I loved - the father of my child - did nothing to defend himself against my father’s men. My eyes found his crystal blues before I was forced from the room and I screamed. “I love you, Calix! I don’t want to live without you!” I sobbed another scream. “Please fight!”
I thrashed and cried in my father’s arms as he carried me through the halls of the place I had come to know as home. When he turned into the entrance and I saw a body of a man on the floor with blood staining the marble, I lost it. My fight turned frantic and my screams were a blended mix of agony and terror. I kicked my feet, bit down on my father’s arm, scratched and flailed, all the while screaming.
Nothing I did seemed to affect my father - and for the first time - I thought that maybe Calix was never the monster. The monster was my father. Calix was only a repercussion of his actions. I was a repercussion.
I saw a large black SUV in the drive and I knew it was my fathers. The panic flared anew and I sobbed my plea. “Please don’t kill him. Please don’t kill him. Please,” I whispered. “I’m pregnant.”
My father stilled and I knew, I’d said the one thing that could alter everything. Only, I didn’t know if my father would be so enraged by the news, he’d demand Calix’s life be ended now - or if he would allow him to live for the very reason that I would die without him.
So I spoke again, frantically - quickly. “I love him. We planned it, dad. We wanted this baby. I love him. I want a family with him. Don’t hurt him.”
“Enough, Nova.” He started walking again toward the daunting SUV.
I panicked all over again. “Let me go!” I’d never screamed words so loud in my life. They echoed through the mountains over the lake and I swear, they rattled the very moon. “I love him!”
Just then, the SUV door opened and a sharp looking woman stepped out. She held a syringe in one hand and my father tightened his hold on me as I began struggling harder, more viciously. And then the woman was there, the syringe pushed deep into my arm and I felt my body going slack as I begged through sobs.
“I love him. Calix, I love you. I love you.”
My world turned dark.