Page 21 of Escape
Oh, God, he was going to lose his mind.
“Kurt,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry. I forgot about the bills. Did you receive a call about one of them?”
There was one part of my brain that was still functioning and logical, even if the rest of my body felt like it had shut down and was trembling with fear. That part of my brain recognized that it had only been a couple of days since he’d handed me those bills. He didn’t typically wait until the very last minute. And even if something had been late, I didn’t think it was possible he would have been notified already.
“You forgot?” he shouted. “How could you forget? What could have been more important than doing what I told you to do?”
I shook my head and made the foolish decision to turn fully to face him. “Nothing. I’m sorry. I can go take care of them right now. Why don’t you sit down and enjoy your dinner, and I’ll get everything sorted with the bills now?”
His lip curled with disgust as he reached behind his back. My jaw clenched, waiting for the impact of his fist on my face. But I was surprised that never happened. Instead, Kurt pulled two separate pieces of paper out of his back pocket and shoved them in my face. “I owe hundreds of dollars more now, because your stupid ass didn’t renew the registration on the truck. I got pulled over on the way home for speeding, and the officer gave me a ticket for that as well as the expired registration.”
Oh, no.
All I could do was apologize and promise to fix the issue. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’ll take care of the registration right away.”
“Yeah? And what about the fines, Josie?” he pressed, stepping forward and bringing his face to within inches of mine.
If intimidation was his tactic, Kurt succeeded every time.
“I’ll pay the fine,” I whispered.
“The money you make is supposed to be covering other things,” he reminded me, anger dripping from every word.
I swallowed hard again, the pain in my throat unbearable. “I’ll pick up extra shifts.”
Kurt tossed the tickets aside, but my eyes didn’t follow where they landed. I was too afraid to tear my eyes away from his face.
Of course, my determined effort not to get distracted by anything but Kurt’s face was futile, because he brought both hands to my shoulders and shoved me backward.
I stumbled, the left side of my back colliding hard with the door frame on the opposite side of the kitchen from where Kurt had originally entered. I winced in pain, and Kurt didn’t miss the opportunity to throw it in my face.
“Did that hurt your back?”
My voice was small when I replied, “Yes.”
He shoved me again. “I don’t think it’s that bad yet. I think you need to feel a level of pain that matches the embarrassment I had to feel when I handed that expired registration over to the officer.”
“I’m sorry, Kurt. I promise I’ll fix it. Please, don’t do this,” I begged him.
“I guess I’m sorry, too,” he returned, the sarcasm evident in his tone. “I’m sorry, I can’t ignore this. You need to be taught a lesson.”
That was the last thing my mind managed to register before it happened. Kurt shoved me hard against the wall again, only this time, it wasn’t just my ribs that collided with the wall, but the back of my head as well.
In a move even more cruel than that, Kurt used his foot to sweep my legs out from under me. My body crashed to the ground, pain radiating into my shoulder and hip as my forearm was pinned between my body and the hard floor. I rolled slightly to my front to alleviate the strain on my injured side and arm, but it only gave Kurt the ability to do more damage.
His foot connected with my ribs on one side while the wall pressed into them on the other. He didn’t stop, his assault relentless.
If there was one thing I’d learned about Kurt in a situation like this, it was that he was lazy. He was very different from my father, who would put in extra work to injure multiple parts of my body.
Kurt wasn’t like that. He’d decide on his method of attack, and he’d repeat that move over and over until he felt like I’d received the punishment he believed I deserved. Today, it was my ribs that were going to take the brunt of the assault.
I wanted to fight back; I often did in situations like this. I wasn’t sure that even made the situation better for me, but right now, there was nothing I could do. The blows to my ribs were so brutal, I was fighting to catch my breath.
Regardless of how Kurt attacked me, one thing was always the same. Time became imperceptible. I had no concept of it. It could have lasted five minutes, but it would feel like five hours. Time always felt like it was dragging whenever Kurt was taking his fists to my face or his kicks to my body.
And all throughout, he shouted at me. I was never able to pay attention to what was coming out of his mouth, but I could always recall the volume of his voice later. Sometimes, if it wasn’t the recollection of the blows to my body that did it, it would be the memory of his yelling that would wake me from my sleep.
I didn’t know how long it lasted, but eventually, Kurt stopped. I had to believe he knew how much damage he’d done to me, and yet, it didn’t stop him from saying, “Get your ass up and fix my dinner.”