The rain sliding down the window looked exactly like the tears running down my cheeks. They both had a sort of grace as they ran down the surfaces. My scars looked like the lighting sparking from the sky every few minutes. The thunder was what hurt me the most. It sounded like his fist when he hit me late at night when he came home drunk. He threatens me. I started keeping a journal. He bought it for me when I asked. He doesn’t want me for pleasure , I guess better me than Lora she’s been through too much. We stay in the same room , he stays upstairs. His kids know us as their “cousins” who needed a place to stay after our parents passed away. Me and Lora grew up together in a small town in Ohio. We lost touch when I moved to New York. Somehow this must be the devils cruel way of reuniting us. I’m just glad it’s her and not a complete stranger.
I wonder how long we’ve been here the only time we can come out of the basement is when his kids are here. He doesn’t let them in the basement he doesn’t want them snooping around down there. He’s timid when it comes to people. I’ve been noticing what he’s scared or timid of so me and Lora can try and escape. I want out of here so bad. I want a shower. I want soap. I want deodorant. I want a pillow. I want my life back.
He leaves at around eight o’clock and comes home whenever. We know when he comes home though. The basement window is in front of the driveway. We sit in front of hit and when his headlights hit the window and shine through we get ready for whatever may be coming downstairs. I brace for abuse and Lora gets ready to go upstairs if he wants her to. I’ve never been upstairs except when the kids are here. He doesn’t want to do that to me to I guess. I wish he didn’t do it to Lora either.
I pray and pray that maybe one day someone will find us. Maybe his parole officer will come downstairs one day and find us. Maybe he’ll let us go. All we can hope for is maybes. All we can do is try to survive. Most of these stories never end well. Most girls are found to late. Remains are found. Some are never found. Maybe we’ll get lucky. His habits are changing a lot. He gets a little more frightened when he hears a car go down the road. He put a police radio in the living room. I guess whenever he hears a call he leaves. He leaves a lot more often now then he used to.
He came down and told us he got a job and works ten hours a day. He leaves at eight in the morning and gets back around eight. He must work an hour away. We got really excited when he told us. The next day he left right at eight. We watched him leave and then sat down on the cold basement floor. We looked at each other for about twenty minutes. “We have to get out of here.” Lora spoke up. “I know but how?” I questioned. “Let’s see what happens today and then tomorrow we’ll try.” She answered. “Okay , but we have ten hours to look around.” I replied. We had figured out how to pick the lock on the basement door last weekend while he was out drinking.
We walked up the stairs and into the living room. The living room was small and cramped but had enough space to move through. We went to the front door it was locked. We wanted to unlock it so bad , but her had jammed the locks. We sighed and went upstairs. We went in to his bedroom. “I know where he keeps the key.” Lora said. “Okay where?” I said. “Third drawer down in the bedside table.” She answered. I ran over to the bedside table and opened the third drawer down. The drawer had one key in it. It was in the back of drawer.
“We can leave right now if we wanted.” I said. “But what if he comes home early?” She questioned. “We’ll go right when he leaves in the morning.” I replied. “Okay it’s a deal.” She said. We went back downstairs and waited for him to come home. He had brought us some Chinese take-out. It was pretty good and it was amazing to know it was going to be our last meal in this place. He went straight to bed and left us alone. He didn’t go out tonight. We were relieved. We fell asleep and stayed asleep no worries, no wondering, and most of all no abuse.
His headlights in the morning woke us up. He pulled away and Lora looked at me. “It’s time.” She said with an edge in her voice. We walked up the stairs to the basement door, picked the lock, and entered the living room. We walked over to the front door. I took the key out of my back pocket and handed it to Lora. “Unlock the door and were free.” I said. She took the key and unlocked the door. The wind felt amazing. It was spring I could tell because the wild flowers around the house were staring to bloom. “Were free.” I pronounced. We started walking down the road. It was the last house on the road and there wasn’t much thinking to do.
We had walked maybe ten minutes before we saw the first house. “That’s the first sign of civilization.” I joked. “Yeah maybe we aren’t that far from the road.” She replied. We kept walking and more and more house showed up around us. The road was probably twenty minutes from the house. We walked across the road on to the concrete. We walked towards the stoplight and kept going. It was probably 15 minutes before we saw a police officer.
We flagged him down and he stopped. “Do you ladies need something?” He asked. “We just escaped from a house twenty minutes from here and we need to be taken back home.” I answered. He must have been shocked beyond belief because he stared at us for a few minutes. “It’s you girls! The girls from the news! The whole country has been looking for you two for almost six months!” He exclaimed.
We were in shock it had been six months and no one had stopped looking for us. No one. He put us in the back of the squad car and drove us to headquarters. We did police reports and our parents were contacted. We were in Kansas. That’s a long way from Ohio and New York. But , we were glad to be found. Our families arrived the next day. We were reunited and happy to see them. Six months had passed and no one had forgotten about us. No one could find us and they planned on finding our remains somewhere. But God had saved us. And that was all that mattered. We were given free therapy and took the sessions together. We had lived through it together and planned on telling our story together.
We were everywhere on TV , the radio , newspapers , magazines , and everything else physically possible. They asked us to describe him to a sketch artist. We cooperated with them and did. They knew him right off the bat. He was a known sex offender. They went to his house and arrested him. He was charged with sexual abuse , assault and battery , imprisonment , and enslavement. He got life sentences for all of the charges. We were used as evidence in the trial and didn’t appear at the sentencing. We lived what most people wouldn’t have. And thank God every day that we did. So that’s our story and there’s no more no less hoped you learned something from it.