I should just go to Jennie’s house, she thought, thinking of her best friend. She lived two miles in the opposite direction, but at this point, Elise didn’t care. It would be worth the long walk not to be alone with Charles.
Many times she’d thought of telling Jennie or one of her other friends exactly what was going on, but somehow she just couldn’t. It seemed so awful, somehow—a dirty secret that would taint her with its filth if she let it out. Besides, Jennie was sweet, but her biggest worry was who was going to ask her to Prom. She had no idea what it was like to live under the constant threat of being molested as Elise did.
The same fear of being different, being thought unclean, kept her from trying to tell a teacher or her guidance counselor at school. And how did she know they would even believe her? After all, she’d tried to tell her mother what was going on, and her mom had told Elise she was imagining things. If her own mother wouldn’t believe her, why would another, unrelated adult sympathize?
No, better to keep it buried and just try to get through the last few months until graduation, Elise told herself. But in the mean time, she’d be damned if she put up with more of Charles’s crap than she had to. I’m going to Jennie’s, she decided, lifting her chin. And I’m not coming home until I have to. In fact, I might just spend the whole weekend. Jennie can loan me some clothes—she won’t mind. Buck has plenty of food and water in his bowl and I can call Mom later and have her check on him just in case.
She was just about to turn and head back the way she’d come when a familiar, joyous bark caught her ear.
“Buck?” She frowned, turning to see what was going on. How had her dog gotten out into the front yard? Normally he stayed in her room or used the doggie door to get into the fenced-in back yard. Elise was very careful to keep him out of the front yard and driveway to avoid accidents. Yet, here he was, running straight for her, his mismatched eyes shining with excitement as he bounded across the trim green lawn and made for the circular driveway.
The driveway—oh, no! Elise thought. Buck was heading straight for her, but in order to get there, he had to run directly in front of Charles’s idling SUV. “Charles,” she shouted, pointing at her dog. “Watch out for Buck!”
“Oh, I’m watching all right, princess.” With an evil grin, her stepfather gunned the SUV’s engine.
Elise saw what was about to happen a moment too late to do anything about it. “Buck,” she screamed. “Go back—stop! Stay!”
The big dog paused for a moment. His head cocked to one side, he stopped right in the path of the SUV. And then, as Elise watched in horror, her stepfather gunned the engine again and the four-wheeled behemoth lurched forward.
“Buck!” she shrieked and then the SUV’s massive front tires rolled over the big, furry body with a sickening crunch Elise could hear from where she was standing. “No!” she screamed. “Buck, no!”
She thought she heard a faint whining from under the car and then the SUV reversed and Charles backed over her dog again, as though making sure he had finished the job. When the SUV rolled backward, she saw a limp bundle of fur and a puddle of blood slowly soaking into the gravel.
The paralysis, which had frozen Elise in place, broke, and she ran forward, screaming her dog’s name. She fell to her knees and gathered him up, holding him close and sobbing. Buck felt boneless in her arms, his heavy head sagging over her forearm as she held him, heedless of the blood soaking into her clothes and the sharp gravel cutting her knees.
“No! No, no, no,” she cried over and over, burying her face in Buck’s shaggy ruff as she had so many times before. “No, please…please, Buck, don’t be dead. Don’t leave me all alone!”
To her disbelief, there was a soft whimper and when she looked up, she saw a spark of life in his mismatched eyes. Her heart leapt with hope. Was he going to be okay? Would he somehow survive this? Maybe if she could get him to the vet right away…
But even as she watched, the spark in his eyes died away. His long pink tongue lapped out to caress her cheek once more…and then he was gone.
“No! No!” Elise curled herself around the big shaggy body and sobbed. Buck was the last thing she had left of her father, the last bit of comfort, loyalty and love she had in her life. Grief gripped her in an iron fist, and so extreme was her anguish that she didn’t even notice her stepfather approaching until he was standing right in front of her.
“What a shame.” He shook his head and made a tsking sound. “But you saw how it was—he ran right in front of me. I couldn’t miss him.”