Sleep Tight, page 12
“Let’s hope it worked.” I mumbled.
Elijah looked down at me, but I avoided his gaze.
“Do you need help with anything else before I leave?” I asked Nora.
“Oh no honey. You go on home; you’ve dealt with enough for today.” Nora gave me a hug and whispered into my ear. “He’s a handsome one. If he’s not your boyfriend now you should really think about changing that.”
She let go of me and winked. I chuckled and rolled my eyes at her comment. I wanted to tell her we were just friends and that was as far as it was going to go for us. Instead, I just said my goodbyes.
I waved to them as we walked out of the store into the chill breeze of the night. I looked up at the dark clouds and a shiver went up my spine. I knew what was out there. The Kryps that crept through the night could be anywhere right now.
And even though I knew what was out there it couldn’t stop me from stepping out into the night.
The drive back to the house was mostly quiet. Elijah was the one to break the silence as we got closer to the house.
“So, who was that guy?”
I kept my eyes on my window, watching dark shadows fly by us. “His name is Balin Valerio.”
“Balin? That name sounds familiar.”
“He let Jesse have his birthday party at his house.”
“Oh yeah of course.” He was quiet for a while before he spoke again. “You know Priya warned us that he was a creep, but I just figured that he was creepy with her. I had no idea it was you.”
I turned to look at him. “It’s been like this for about a year. But don’t worry it’s my problem not yours. You shouldn’t have said you were my boyfriend.”
Elijah quickly glanced at me before turning his eyes back to the road. “Who cares if I said that? I just wanted to help you out.”
“Yeah, but now your involved in my mess.” I said turning back to the window.
Elijah just laughed deeply. “I thought I was already involved in all your messes. What’s one more?”
I glanced at him.
“Messy doesn’t easily scare me away.”
I quickly looked away back to the window. I didn’t want to think too much into what he meant by that. He had to be involved in my mess, it was his job.
We pulled into the long driveway and parked when I felt my phone vibrate in my jacket pocket. I took it out and checked the screen.
‘Tia Lusila Calling...’
Elijah looked at me with a question in his eyes. I stepped out of the car quickly.
“It’s my aunt. I have to answer, I’ll see you inside.”
Elijah nodded and walked inside the house giving me privacy.
I answered the phone. “Hi tia.”
“Where are you? Are you at home right now?” She sounded like she had been running.
“No tia. We uh…. moved out a couple of weeks ago.”
“What? Daniel and Jesse too? Why didn’t you guys tell me? What’s going on over there?”
I winced. I should have told her but with everything that was going on I didn’t even think to give her a call.
“Never mind we can talk about that later,” she quickly said. “You have to meet me at your house right now. There’s something wrong with your mom Ava, I think she’s hurt.”
“What?” My heart dropped. I should have never left her alone with Pax. “Have you talked to her?”
“She called me an hour ago crying, I couldn’t get anything out of her before I heard her scream and the call ended. I’ve been driving since then; I’ll be there soon. But you need to meet me, Ava. We have to get her away from Pax even if that means dragging her out of that house.”
She continued talking switching to Spanish and it was mostly cursing Pax.
“Okay, okay I’m leaving now.”
I hung up the phone and looked around. My car was parked next to Elijah’s car. And I had the key on my keychain. My hand was still in no shape to drive but I got in the car and drove out before anyone could stop me.
Elijah had said that none of us should go off alone without someone with us but I wouldn’t drag him into another mess of mine and it was best not to say anything about this to Jesse and Daniel, this could be dangerous and I wouldn’t have Pax hurting them.
As I pulled up behind tia Lusila’s car down the street from the house my phone rang again. I looked at the screen and saw Jesse’s name.
Sorry guys. I hit the ignore button. The second I’m out of the car tia comes running from the house to meet me. She was the only family I had on my mom’s side, and always treated us like her kids too. She was mom’s older sister and they had always been close, relying on each other through everything.
When Pax came into mom’s life, she started to talk to her sister less and less. Until one day she wouldn’t even answer her calls anymore. She was heartbroken that she was losing her sister and we made sure to keep her updated on how mom was doing.
“Ava! How are you, preciosa?” She gave me a tight hug. “It’s been too long since we’ve seen each other.”
“I know tia I’m sorry. Have you seen mom yet?” I asked pulling away from her.
“No. I went up to the house to make sure Pax was gone before we went in. I think he’s gone; I don’t see his car.”
We watched the house together. She was right I didn’t see Pax’s car, the coast should be clear, but we didn’t have a lot of time. He could be back at any moment, he never left her alone for too long.
I grabbed her hand. “Let’s go get her.”
We walked up to the house and I opened the front door with my key. Slowly we walked in, looking around. The house was a mess. Furniture was thrown across the living room and empty beer cans scattered on the floor.
As we reached the stairs, we heard soft sobbing coming from mom’s room. We looked at each other for a second then ran up the stairs. I threw open her bedroom door.
Tia gasped and ran towards mom; she was crouched in a ball in the corner of the room softly sobbing. She wrapped mom in a big hug and started crying with her. The sisters looked alike, both of them short like me, with curly brown hair and brown eyes, except tia kept her hair on the short side.
I looked around the room taking in the scene. The bed was messy and unmade. The dresser was on the floor, her mirror was broken into a million pieces. Tears started falling down my face. How could I have left her alone to deal with this. To be treated like this. I hated myself for it.
“Layla it’s me, Lusila, let me look at you please.”
Mom slowly looked up at her. She blinked and rubbed her eyes as if she didn’t believe we were there. I covered my mouth to hold in my gasp. Her cheeks were bruised, and I could see a large handprint on her neck. I bent down and reach for her hand.
“Mom did Pax choke you?” I gently moved her hair away from her neck. She winced and I could see that the skin on her neck was raw and red.
“Oh mom. I’m so sorry. We shouldn’t have left you.” I sobbed quietly as I held her hands in mine.
She gave a small smile and wiped my tears away. “Please don’t cry chiquitita.”
“Layla we’re going to take you away from this. Ava pack up as much of her clothes as you can, we leave in two minutes.”
“No, I can’t go. Pax will be mad if he comes home and I’m not here.”
I looked at mom in complete shock. She was so much worse now. She was now completely under his control in a way I had never seen before. We had to get her out of here even if it meant dragging her out of this house.
“Layla, look at me and listen. Ava and I are not leaving you here with him anymore. Don’t you understand that. We can help you and keep you safe, but you have to come with us. This is it. You can’t keep living like this Layla. Please. Remember how you used to be before Pax, the life you had with your kids. With Gabriel.” The mention of dad’s name seemed to snap her out of whatever spell she was under. Her head bolted up and she firmly nodded.
Tia Lusila looked at me and nodded. “Quickly Ava. We have to leave before Pax gets back.”
I got up and started to quickly grab clothes from the floor and closest while tia got my mom up on the bed. I shoved clothes into two bags in less than a minute. I didn’t know if I had packed enough but it didn’t matter, we could buy her new clothes later, we just needed to get her out of here and away from Pax.
We rushed down the stairs, as we neared the front door it opened and in walked Pax. He looked surprise to see us all there, then he looked down and saw the bags in my hands and a dark expression passed over his face.
“And what exactly is going on here?” he looked at mom. “Thinking of leaving me?”
“No, Pax please. This isn’t what you think.” Mom’s hands trembled in her sisters.
“I’m taking my sister with me. And I already called the police so let us pass.”
I knew that was a lie. She would have told me if she had called the police before we came in here.
Pax looked at her face closely, she stood with her back straight and never broke eye contact. He smirked, seeing right through her bluff.
“I don’t think you did sweet sister.”
Things were about to get ugly. I wouldn’t let Pax keep mom here for another second. I tightened my hold on the bags and with all the strength I could muster hurled them at his head.
“Run tia! Take mom and get out of here.”
She ran for the door, but Pax recovered quickly and reached for mom. I jumped onto his back and started punching him as hard as I could. He grabbed my arms and hurled me across the room, my back hitting the wall, knocking the breath out of me.
As I tried catching my breath, I saw tia Lusila racing towards Pax, she had nothing but her fists. She got in one good punch to his gut. He grunted but it didn’t do enough damage to stop him, he grabbed her by the hair throwing her across the room towards me. Her head hit the wall and she went unconscious.
I crawled to her, my fingers quickly feeling the back of her head. There was already a bump forming and when my hand came away there was blood on it. I tried shaking her awake.
“Wake up please.” No response. My heart sank. Please let her be okay. She had to be okay.
Mom’s scream had me turning back in their direction. Pax had her, his grip on her arms so tight I could see her skin already turning purple from the lack of circulation. He lifted his hand and slapped her across the face.
Pure hot anger rose inside me. I screamed and ran for him so fast that I knocked him over. I was now on top of him and punched him square in the nose. I felt the crack of it under my knuckles and a feeling of satisfaction grew inside of me. I went for another punch when his hand came up and caught my fist. His nose was bleeding profusely, and his eyes were pure black.
“That was a mistake.” He started to squeeze the hand he caught. I grunted as he squeezed tighter, a smug smile on his face.
With my other free hand, I punched him in the nose again and quickly rolled off him. He grunted with surprise and stood up holding his broken nose. Mom came out of nowhere, running towards him screaming.
“Leave my daughter alone!”
Pax grabbed her as she neared him and roughly shoved her away, she hit the wall next to tia Lusila and grunted softly, holding her head in her hands as she tried to get back up.
“Mom!” I tried rushing to her, but Pax grabbed my hair and pulled me back. I cried out in pain and struggled against him. Pax pulled me up close to his face and smiled, the blood from his nose sliding into his mouth and painting his teeth.
“Me and you are going upstairs so I can finally teach you a lesson.”
Pax turned and started up the steps, dragging me along with him. I struggled against him with all I could, but he was much stronger than me. I could hear mom struggling to get up.
“Pax! Leave her alone please! Take me instead!” She screamed at him. He only laughed and kept on walking up the stairs, dragging me with him.
He threw me on the bed in his room and locked the door behind him. I quickly got up from the bed and stood as far away as I could from him against the wall. My breathing was heavy, and my hands were shaking. I was alone with him; the door was locked and both mom and tia couldn’t help me right now. I was on my own.
Pax started taking off his belt. “You know I’ve wanted to do this for a while now.”
“Do what?” I already knew the answer, I was just trying to buy myself some time.
He chuckled as he unbuttoned his shirt. “I know you aren’t that naive Ava. I’m going to teach you how to respect me.”
“You can’t do this Pax. Please don’t.” My hands shook behind my back and my legs trembled. This couldn’t be happening. No way would I let him touch me.
Pax slowly walked towards me, his eyes dark and narrowed. That’s when I saw there was nothing in them.
No life.
Begging was no use, it didn’t matter. He was dead inside and he was going to do whatever he wanted with me.
Should I wait for her at the door?
No, maybe I shouldn’t. That might be weird. There was something about her that made me want to be around her more and more every day. But I couldn’t make that obvious to her, it might creep her out, especially since I was positive, she didn’t feel that way about me.
Deciding not to stand by the door anymore I headed for the main living room where I heard voices. Blake and Olivia, we’re sitting on the floor playing a card game with Jesse and Daniel.
“Where’s Ava?” Jesse looked up from the card game.
“She’s outside on the phone, she said it was your aunt.”
Now Daniel looked up. “Tia Lusila? I wonder why she’s calling. How long has she been out there?”
“I think it’s been about five minutes.”
Jesse and Daniel stood up and headed for the door. Olivia and Blake put their hands up in confusion, wondering where they were going.
“Hey we we’re winning! Where are you guys going?” Blake asked.
“Outside. We want to know what they are talking about.” Daniel said. “We’re chismosos.”
I wanted to know too but it wasn’t my place to intrude on her. Instead to distract myself I flopped down on the couch and flipped through the channels on the TV as they went outside to eavesdrop.
“Where’s Ethan?” I asked Blake.
“He claimed that he was tired and went to bed but I think he’s actually on the phone with Skylar.” Blake wiggled his brows.
I laughed and kept flipping through the channels when Jesse and Daniel ran back in.
“Ava is gone. She took the car.” Jesse ran his hands through his curls causing them to puff up. We all quickly stood up.
“Where did she go?” Olivia asked.
“We don’t know but if we had to guess she probably left to our mom’s house. If our tia is calling Ava, it had to be about our mom.” Jesse started pacing back and forth.
“We have to go to our mom’s house and check. With Pax there who knows what could happen. We can’t leave her alone.” Daniel said.
“You’re right.” Now I was pacing. “Let’s go. Olivia and Blake, stay here and let my parents know what’s happening and where we’re headed.”
“Call us if you need any help!” Blake yelled out as we headed outside.
I pulled out of the driveway and headed towards the road. Jesse huffed as he put his phone down and dialed Ava’s number again.
“Anything?” I asked, keeping my eyes on the road.
“No. She’s not answering.”
I stepped on the gas. I told her that they can’t be going off on their own. Why was she so stubborn about that? She should have told me. I would have gone with her.
“Damn it, Ava.” I mumbled to myself.
I drove as fast as I could until we finally reached the small street their house was on. As we got closer, I noticed Ava’s car behind another black sedan.
“That’s our aunts' car!” Daniel pointed. “They are here.”
“Pull up to the driveway. I see Pax’s car up there.” Jesse looked at Daniel in the back seat and then at me. The look in their eyes worried me.
They were scared, their eyes focusing on Pax’s car, and their hands curling up into fists, already preparing for a fight. I took a deep breath preparing myself too.
As we got down from the car a piercing scream came from inside causing us to freeze and look at each other. We all ran for the front door, I kicked it down with ease determined to get inside, my black boots leaving their mark on the splintered wood.
Jesse ran to his mom who was trying to climb the stairs, desperate and screaming. Daniel ran past me to a woman slumped on the floor. He tried lifting her up as she regained consciousness, mumbling things that didn’t make sense.
I ran to the stairs and grabbed Layla by the shoulders gently trying to calm her down. Jesse grabbed her face and turned her towards him. “Mom! Hey listen to me. Mom, where is Ava?”
She pointed upstairs and cried out. “Pax took her! She’s in my room, go get her!”
I rushed upstairs with Jesse right behind me, Jesse pushed past me and started banging on the door.
“Pax open this door now! Leave my sister alone!”
I moved Jesse aside and using my shoulder pushed against the door struggling to break it open. “Help me.” I grunted, hitting the door again.
Jesse moved next to me and together we busted open the door and flew into the room.
We saw Pax right away. His back was to us, he was holding Ava by the shoulders and trying to push her down on the bed as she tried fighting him off. His shirt and belt were off.
A small tingling started crawling up my body, angry heat flooded my stomach. I knew exactly what he was trying to do to her, but he would never get the chance, over my dead body.
I grabbed him by the hair, pulling him away from Ava and throwing him to the floor in a rage. His head smacked against the floor, and he grunted as he held his head.
Jesse ran to Ava.
“Get her out of here.” I could barely get the words out.
Jesse grabbed Ava and started pulling her towards the door, but she resisted.
“Wait. What are you going to do?” She asked.
