Cold

Therapist: "Tell me your story Chloe. I won't interrupt you, just tell me everything you can remember."

I have trouble sleeping at night knowing there is bad in the world.

It's been twenty years. Been to multiple psychiatrists and therapists, psychologists, help programs, yet it still haunts me.

When I close my eyes, I see it.

I remember it all.

Twenty years ago, I was six or seven years old at the time and I slept in a room all by myself as my mother would sleep in her room in a large two-story house out in the country side.

That was the family.

Just my mom and I in a big house.

I remember though one time waking up in the middle of the night. I'm used to the sound of the wind howling and maybe a coyote, but something was...different.

When I woke up, I heard voices. Not like imaginary ones in my head, these were inside the house and they were very quiet. Muffled to the lowest volume as many walls and rooms divided me and the voice.

So as a curious young one, I decided to get out of bed and find out who it was.

I thought maybe it was possibly grandma or an aunt, but as I opened the door and crept towards the steps, I find that it was a man's voice.

Just reaching the banister at the top of the steps, I saw a person walk by the bottom of the steps in the dark.

It wasn't my mom.

It was a strange man.

I heard his boots pace the floor quickly as he was wearing a trucker's hat.

His steps went further and further away, so I decided to go downstairs.

Reaching the bottom of the steps and spying down the hall to make sure the man wasn't coming back, I heard metal clanging in the garage along with yelling.

Once again, I check the hall to make sure he isn't coming back.

I then swiftly and lightly reach the door, open it and close it flicking the lights on turning around to see the chest freezer with chains wrapped around it with a lock holding the lid shut.

The lid pounding up and shaking the chains, I heard what sounded like screams inside, but no words, like a mouth was shut.

"Mommy? Is that you?"

As I was walking towards the freezer the chains were still clanging around as the lid was my feriously being bashed up.

Choked up, "Mommy?"

I say it a little louder nearing it.

"Mommy?"

The chains stopped ringing and the lid stayed shut.

I heard my mom's voice inside, but she gave no words.

Crying inside not understanding what was happening, tears of fear began to run.

Then I heard the door knob behind me being turned.

And so I turned.

The strange man came through and stared at me.

He gave a long scary smile.

"So you found out your mother was in here,"

The strange man began to come closer towards me.

"Could've possibly got away from me, but you slipped, you turned the light on."

I became silent and he wasn't too far away now taking one step at a time slowly as he began to separate his words.

"Now I just

got to

getch ya'!"

He lunged towards me, but I moved out of the way getting to the side of him and I kicked him in the knee cap using my heel.

The man fell to the ground with agony in his voice.

As he got up I rushed towards the shelves by the door and grabbed a pair a scissors and ran back into the house.

I heard him screaming.

Screaming things I don't want to repeat or think about.

Making my way towards the front door to get outside the man came barrelling into the house breaking the door and rushing towards me.

Through the halls we ran and I reached the front door,

but he got there also.

As I turned the knob, he pushed me into the door making me fall.

He then grabbed my legs and began to drag me back from where we came from.

I screamed in pain as my face spilled blood from the nose and mouth.

Reaching the garage again, he whipped me around on the concrete floor.

He was furious at me.

I just layed face down holding my hands near my chest holding the scissors not wanting to look at him as he towered above me screaming.

"You're a bitch you know that! If you just stayed up there and didn't come down to see your whore of a mother, you wouldn't be in this shit situation!"

I whipped around and stabbed through the man's calf with the scissors.

He fell immediately holding his leg as he huddled down facing away from me.

But I didn't stop when he was down.

Breathing heavily and with all my energy, I pulled it back out and struck him in the back.

Again.

I kept going until he stopped moving and when my tears blinded my vision.

The man layed there with eyes open,

but lifeless.

Blood was pooling out from him and it flowed towards me.

Warm to the touch, I dropped the blood-covered scissors and run towards my mother in the freezer.

I got the words out after trying so many times.

"...Mom?....Mom?"

She didn't respond.

"-Mom?..."

She didn't make a sound.

Chloe didn't look at the therapist after her last sentence as she began to tear up and sniffle.

The therapist then rubbed her chin realizing what Chloe's childhood life was like.

"So that's what caused you to have this lifestyle, isn't it Chloe? A traumatic experience and you know that was bad and wrong and you want to get rid of it all. Through your life then, kids would call you a 'murderer' and 'killer'...and that stuck around with you your whole life."

The therapist got up, looked at Chloe and said on the phone with sincere eyes through the plexi glass,

"Trust me Chloe,

I'll do whatever it takes to get you out that cell and jumpsuit."

She then hung up.

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