Hard as Stone(137)
“Best place to start is always the beginning, Sweet Pea,” Aunt Orla advised from her chair in the corner. “What’s the first memory you have of that night?”
“The street,” Harmony whispered shakily. “Seein’ Zeke on the street after the football game at school.”
Harmony took a deep breath. This part she already knew; Zeke remembered it. “He stopped to ask you if you needed him to take you home, didn’t he?” she asked, smoothing her hand through Honor’s hair just as she did when she comforted Heaven.
“Mmm Hmm.” Honor nodded against the pillow. “He was nice, but I could tell he was in a hurry. He had that woman with him. Sherri Lawson. She was all dressed up and glarin’ at me. He told me to get in the backseat and he’d take me home. I told him that I was waiting on a ride, but he said I didn’t need to be waiting alone at night. Sherri…I could tell that made her mad and that I was ruining their plans,” she continued, her voice cracking as a tear slid out of her eye. “I told them to go on; that I’d wait. I should have gotten into the car with them. Ezekiel would have kept me safe. If I’d gone with him, none of it would have ever happened. I was stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid.”
Honor whimpered as Harmony heard a moan emanate from the hallway, almost like a wounded animal caught in a trap. Thankfully, the sound didn’t even register to Honor. “You’re not stupid, Peanut. You could never know what would happen. No one could have known” she soothed softly, tightening her fingers around Honor’s hand. Darting a worried look at the door, she shifted her eyes to Aunt Orla and saw the woman shake her head sadly. Looking at Patience’s bent head behind her as she kept holding Honor’s hand, she whispered, “Should we…”
“It’s begun, Harm. Keep going,” Faith murmured, her eyes glued to Honor’s crumbled face.
“She’s right,” Patience agreed without looking up from where she stared sightlessly at her clenched face. “Honor,” she said, lifting her head as she scooted closer to her sister, “Keep going, baby. Get it out.”
She wiped her wet cheeks with a trembling hand. “I guess I stood there staring down the road for a few minutes when I heard a car coming up behind me. It was dark and the headlights blinded me when I turned around. It was cold and I was wearing my cheerleading outfit. The wind was blowing and I was concentrating on keeping my skirt down around my legs when I heard two car doors slam and then the laughing. Men were laughing, but I couldn’t see them for the bright lights on the car.”
Honor’s voice was growing more panicked by the second and Harmony moved closer. “Breathe, Peanut,” she urged, somehow keeping her own voice calm even though her mind screamed at her to stop this nightmare for her sister. Of course, she couldn’t. This nightmare had already played out, and these were just the memories. Memories that they all needed to hear. “Just take a couple of deep breaths.”
Honor’s breaths were choppy as she continued. “Something touched my neck. It hurt,” she noted distantly, one hand lifting to touch the area where Harmony and the others knew that the prongs of a stun gun had burned her flesh.
“That was a stun gun, Baby Girl,” Patience explained, filling in the blanks for Honor. “The police said that was how they immobilized you when you were taken.”
“Oh,” Honor murmured weakly, rubbing the spot where two faint scars remained. “I guess that makes a weird kind of sense. I was out of it, but I remember being lifted. They must have dumped me in the trunk. I remember the smell of gas and motor oil, but I kept my eyes shut. I should have looked for a way out, but I was so scared. I just closed my eyes and prayed that I’d wake up. I thought maybe I was dreaming, you know? When I opened my eyes, I thought I’d be home safe in my bed.”
Harmony felt tears strangling her, but managed to nod. “I think that’s probably a natural reaction. I used to do it when Tanner beat me. I’d close my eyes and wait to wake up back in my bed in Momma and Daddy’s house.”
“That’s what I did, too.” Honor’s wide eyes stared up at Harmony’s face. “It didn’t work,” she whispered. Sniffling, she continued, “It was a bumpy road, but I guess I must have passed out. When I opened my eyes…” She tensed in the bed and seemed to shrink into herself. “It was bad when I woke up. So bad.”
“I know it was awful, Honor, but you’ve got to remember that it’s over now,” Harmony stressed.
“There were more than the two men that Zeke and the police found,” Honor whispered. “I swear I didn’t remember it until today. I didn’t even really remember the two. I just remember hands and legs and hurting, but when….when this one guy grabbed me, it was like a curtain lifted and no matter how hard I tried not to look behind the curtain, I couldn’t avoid seeing.”