The Boogie Man: A Mafia tale

Lizzi

I walk past him as fast as I can past the nurse’s station towards the parking lot, too afraid to look behind me. I make it to the elevator step in and press the G for garage. When the doors close, I finally breathe my air of safety. I just want to get home and think to myself, figure things out. The elevator is climbing down at a snail’s pace, but when it dings my place of serenity is gone. The garage is dark, quiet, and lonely. I remove my keys from pocket and head towards my car. The drive home is quiet, my mind is everywhere, on my babies, who their father is, Kendrick trifling low down dirty ass. When I get home, I pace back and forth, I go through our pictures, I cry a little, get pissed a little, think a little. Then I come across our Will and our life Insurance. From my understanding we had not updated the paperwork since the twins were born, but these were drafted in the past six years. Says here that he increased the insurance on me to three f*****g million dollars!!!! Then in the will, I had to laugh at this part he left it not to his mother, not to my babies, but to that barbie b***h. That is what Daniel meant when he tried to warn.

I run downstairs preparing to storm out the door to go to his house, I hit he the last stair and I am hit in the side by someone. I go flying to the floor and gravity is not my friend, I hit my head on the way down. I am groaning in pain; blood is pouring from the left side of my head that is throbbing. I roll over to try to assess my surroundings. There are only the lights from the street coming in from the windows. I do not see anyone; I raise up off the ground preparing to bolt. Someone grabs me from behind and puts me in a chokehold, I claw at their arm, my fingers are getting numb, I cannot feel my tongue, and then my world slowly start to go black.

Elizabeth age 17

I hate Saturdays! You would think me being a normal teenager I would be out partying, and enjoying myself. Nope, every Saturday since the age of thirteen I have spent my Saturdays wearing a baby doll uniform working my father's bootlegger house. I have a boyfriend, we have been dating for about a year, but I honestly cannot physically or emotionally commit. I am so screwed up; I am surprised he even understands. He literally came out of nowhere one day, seriously he did. I was walking home from the store and he ran over me with his bike. He has been there for me ever since.

See, I have always been the apple of my father's eye, I was spoiled rotten. Our family is well off in the small town we live in, my uncle in law is the sheriff and always sits at table three when he comes in. He taps me on my ass and says, “I cannot wait until your daddee lets you on that stage suga.”

My skin crawls at the thought of that day.  When I turned thirteen, my “Dadde" came in my room in the middle of the night. He always had this square lighter that has been passed down and his family, that had an emblem of a sideways cross on it that read, “Bend to no one, Stand next to your own”. He had a bad tick with opening and closing this lucky lighter of his. The sound is how I always found him. He stood next my bed that night and told me it was time for me to “earn my place", I concentrated on that sound of metal to metal as he prepared to slide under my covers,

“You know daddy loves you right.” I nod my head, my nose burned from the alcohol smell.

“Well, daddy has to prepare you for what is to come.” His hands trailed between my legs. My eyes burned with tears, and I burned where he touched me.

He showed me mercy in the beginning only visiting once a month, but the older I got; the more frequent the visits. He did have the courtesy to not allow anyone else to touch me and he never tried to have s*x with me.  Bad part, he plans to sell my virginity on my eighteenth birthday.

Yes, sell. All the men here are part of a club. They come here to drink, gamble, and buy young girls. I cried a lot about their cries in the beginning, it haunted me. Now I am numb to it and everything.

If it was not for my little brother I would have ran away, because I know my weak mother will not protect him.  She gives me the sad eyes,  but does nothing. When I got older to try to resist, he would tie me to the chair in the basement for hours as punishment. A few times, he forgot I was down there, and my wrist were raw with having to wiggle out of the knots. After a while I became a pro with getting out of them, and he thought it was hilarious said that I could put it on my resume when I got older.

My birthday is in two days, I must do something.

Towards the end of the night my dad comes to me.

“Hey kiddo, your mom and I are going to the cabin for a night for a meeting.  So, you are going to have to watch your brother.”

He walks over, runs his hand up my thigh and grabs my s*x. My back goes rigid, no matter how many times he touches me, it always feels like the first.

“When we come back,  this will be up for grabs. I may even bid on it myself.”

“Peter!” My mom comes around the corner and is staring,.

“Peter let’s go honey. Elizabeth came on her bike.”

He is still staring into my eyes, I feel like I take a back seat at that very moment and something takes over me.

I sit down on his hand and say, “O you should daddy, you have been waiting so long.” I do not know what he sees, but he drops his hand as if it is on fire, he is looking like he has seen a ghost.

I let out a cackling laugh that does not seem to belong to me.

“Come on Carolyn let’s go.” He grabs my mother by the arm and ushers her out. She looks over her shoulder at me confused.

I hop on my motorbike that I spent all of my money on to get.  I love it because it is the only time I feel free. I still feel like I am not myself.

Stop second guessing yourself. This is who we are.  You always chicken out and let people run over you.  It is now or never.

Now I feel crazy,  but my inner voice is right.

Let go and let me in. Let Lizzi solve all your problems

I think about everything, then I think about my brother. He is too sweet; he laughs and plays basketball all day.  If I can free us, I can take care of us. I have money saved up. I take a deep breath and say f**k it. Instantly I hear a chuckle in my head.

Fun times

I wake up snuggled on the couch with little De', the sun is shining bright. Someone is banging on the door I slide from under him not to wake him. 

I do not remember coming home last night. I open the door and there are two police officers.

“Ma’am are you Elizabeth Williams?” I nod.

“I hate to inform you that there has been an accident.  Your parent unfortunately did not make it. We have a social worker en route, I understand today is your birthday so she will go over your legal options.” My head snaps up,

“Today is Wednesday?”

“Yes ma’am.  Are you okay? Do you need me to call the ambulance? “

“No! No, I am fine.  Can I go back in to my brother to wait?.”

“Yes ma'am, we will give you space and wait outside in our car.”

I close the door and drag through the house.  How did I lose an entire day?  Have I gone crazy?  

As I walk pass the kitchen counter I notice a cupcake with some of the icing licked off and a note.

Happy Birthday sissy. Thanks for the fun, until next time.  Call me more often.                                            

-Lizzi

+++Flashback Monday

Lizzi

Fun Times

I lick my lips. The scary hag finally let me out, so let me make this s**t quick. The road to the cabins are curvy so I need this flawless.

My Plan:

1.Puncture the brake line tonight- Check

2. Play nice with the devil all day.-Check (well kind of. I spooked him a few times. f*****g pervert.)

3. Put the little gremlin to sleep with Benadryl

By the time, her parents were ready to leave, I was set to go.

Before they left, her dad was pissed, “God damn it Carolyn, I cannot find my lighter. When I get back someone is going to pay for this.”

 I hopped on her raggedy bike; this piece of crap cannot be legally road safe. I calculated how far they would get before the brake fluid is empty. It is not a definite science, but I must start somewhere. And of course, my calculations are wrong, when I start to give up and think that I am going to have to devise another plan. The car starts to swerve, there is a deep curve coming up; if he does not slow down, they will go over the side. When they go careening over the side, a wave of satisfaction takes over.

I park my bike far down the road in the woods and start my walk to the crash site. There are pieces of metal everywhere, I can smell gasoline. The SUV is angled downwards in a ditch.

When I approach their vehicle from the passenger side I see her mother is unconscious in the passenger seat. I hear the Bastard rustling around on the driver's side; sounds like his seatbelt is stuck.

“Carolyn honey wake up.” Her mother wakes up and touches her bloody head.

“Can you get your door open honey? Can you get out? My belt is stuck.” Carolyn starts to panic and pushes on the door that will not budge because of the tree that is blocking her door. She starts crying and honestly I do not know what she is saying; she is a blubbering mess. I just shake my head.

I walk around to the front of the car so they can see me. They start to yell,

“Thank God! Honey call for help.”

I tilt my head to the side and smirk,

The Bastard yells, “God damn it Elizabeth this is not a game. “

“Sorry boss, Elizabeth is not here", I sing.

“Lizzi" Carolyn says under her breath, and I do a slow nod.

I take out his lighter and start to flip it open and close, they go completely silent.

“Carolyn what the hell are you talking about.”

Carolyn ignores him, and whispers to me, “Thank you for protecting her, will you tell her that I am so sorry.”

I chuckle, “Sorry is given to the hopeful, weak, blinded, and forgiving. We are neither.”

“I understand, will you just tell her that I know that I was always weak and that I love her; always have and always will.”

At that moment, the Bastard starts to pull more at his belt and is almost lose, I can feel Elizabeth weakening at her mother's words.

“Lizzi! Keep her in her happy place, and handle your business.”

This makes me storm to the back of the car and light the gasoline.  The blaze is instant, I can hear their screams, smell their flesh, I can feel the chains fall from my life. I stood there and watched her parents burn with a sense of relief and triumph. Now, do I let her know all the details, is she strong  enough or will she be haunted by this? I already know she is going to lock me up,  but I hope she knows to use me when needed. I love her and only want to protect her. Her mother pushed her to create me while she played in her happy place during the hard times. I usually just do not allow her to remember the bad stuff; her father raping her over and over again. I just have a feeling she will need to know this.

I hop on the bike, stop by a store without cameras to grab a cupcake. Before I walk in I inhale my last breath of freedom, I take a lick of her cupcake for shits and giggles.  And then I get ready for night night. 

++++Wednesday

I gasp, I come back to reality after seeing what Lizzi showed me. I think I should be sad; I think I should be afraid, but I am relieved. I cannot cry, I cannot feel anything; does this make me a monster. She does not allow me to remember the rape moments with my father. I just have this feeling she wants me to have that freedom, she says that I am still a virgin because he took her.

The years that followed were a blur, I was allowed custody of my brother. My Aunt did not fight me on it, my parents left everything to her and her sleeze ball of a husband. I think she felt bad for me, but I said if I ever got the chance to take them down in some way that I would. I continued to date Kendrick, and we moved in together. I became hushed mouth about everything in my life, afraid to let Lizzi out again. Every once and while when I sleep, when I sleep, I go to my happy place and we sit and talk. I always enjoy our Fun Times