Sinister

CHAPTER 5 As Saint walked through the private exit of his office, he thought about the first time he met Angel, and how that strange felling he felt, occupied his thoughts over the years. He tried letting their relationship evolve naturally, but the mixed thoughts running though her mind vacuumed him in. “Bill can you please stop, what’s the matter with you,” Susie cried watching her husband ransack the room in a selfish rant. “Shut up you sterile cow before I choke a son out of you!” he staggered toward Susie in rage with a fist raised in the air. “Please Bill I’m sorry it won’t happen again,” she sobbed watching his fist stop an inch from her nose. Bill saw his reflection in the mirror behind his shaken wife, how worn out he looked, his eyes sagged like wet fur, his forehead lined in a permanent brow, and his hair seemed to be as thin as scarecrow hands. He let the bottle of moonshine drop to the floor as he turned away walking out the room with his palms clenched to his temples. Angels parents thought they had only one simple problem, after three tries Bill still didn’t have a son. He figured it a lost cause, with the strain of taking care of three daughters and a wife he began drinking excessively, and marked his wife some sort of demon woman punishing him for trying to live a righteous life. After many arguments Susie convinced Bill to try again, everything seemed normal until the day she gave birth. “Nooo not again why can’t I have a son!” Bill screamed as he broke down outside of the operating room after seeing the doctor cut the umbilical cord of yet another daughter. “What did I do to deserve this?” he sobered before a touch on his shoulder broke him from his internal anguish. “Excuse me sir are you alright?” asked a nurse after seeing the man fall to his knees. “No, does it look like I’m alright, now just leave me alone!” he barked waving the nurse off. He looked at his wife once more, disgusted with what he saw he turned and walked off. “Congratulations Ms. Crown it’s a healthy newborn girl,” the doctor said wrapping the baby in a blanket then handing her to her mother. “Shall I go and get the father?” he asked wondering if her sobs were of joy. The doctor had seen many mothers give birth but none with such a look of sorrow as this one. “No,” she sobbed quietly as she rocked the baby in her arms not bothering to look through the glass, she already felt in her heart the pain of losing the man she loved again. Bill returned home in a fog, he thought about all he acquired as he walked toward the wine cellar. He grabbed a bottle of moonshine off the top shelf, twists the cap, and took a long hard swig until alcohol spilled down his beard. “Ma, Pa is home!” his daughters yelled running down the stairs after hearing the front door slam. Everyone stopped short but Angel who held her arms out for a hug, her sisters knew how their father behaved when he drank so they were more afraid than cautious. “Where’s ma?” Angel asked before her father put his hand out stopping her cold in her tracks. He looked at his three daughters in disgust, turned his back to them, and took another swig from the bottle. Angel looked back at her sisters who were headed back up the stairs. “Angel come on lets go back to our room,” they whispered waving for her to join them but Angel stood still in confusion. Suddenly without warrant her father turned viciously smacking Angel in the back of her head causing her to crash face first into the floor. “You demon child I’ll cleanse you of your mothers wicked roots,” he screamed. Angel sobbed in agony as she held the back of her head curled up on the cold wooden ground. Her sisters watched in horror as there father kicked his youngest daughter around like a rag doll. Angel’s cries were shallow and out of breath as she crawled toward her sisters reaching out for their help. “Where do you think your going you little bitch?” Bills voice was raspy from the warm moon shine. He grabbed his daughter’s ankles and began dragging her across the splintered floor. Angel kicked and screamed in anguish begging her sisters for help while they just watched as their father opened the door dragging Angel outside onto the muddy cornfield that lead to the shed. They walked to their room in self-pity both hoping neither of them would be next. A week later Susie arrived home with Sue-Ann to a quiet but messy home, she walked up the stairs to what should have been the baby’s nursery to find Bill in the rocking chair nursing a bottle. “It’s about time woman I thought this place would never get cleaned up,” he slurred nearly sliding out of his seat. Susie’s face cringed as her stomach turned from the smell of feet and vomit. As Susie held a part of the blanket over Sue-Ann face hoping the foul odor wouldn’t upset her, she looked up staring at her daughter’s room door. She walked away from the shouting demands of her husband, “were you going slut I’m hungry you evil bitch.” Susie opened the door to find them all sleeping wrapped in covers from head to toe like little mummies. I missed my girls she thought as she began peeling the covers back and kissing her daughters on the forehead one by one slightly relieved to see them looking well, but when she got to Angel the covers wouldn’t fold back so she tugged a little harder. “No please pa I’m not a demon child anymore,” Angel cried out holding the blanket as if it were the shield of God.