Story Three

The house rattled with the slam of her parents’ bedroom door. It wasn’t like that was an unusual sound for Christina to wake up to in the middle of the night, but each time it made her heart start beating in her chest. Louder and faster with each thud she heard from the room right next to hers.

At the age of 7, she was far too young to remember or understand the words exchanged between them each night, but she could hear the tone of their voices. Her mother would always sound desperate and sad. She doesn’t remember the words she said as much as the piercing sound of her sobbing or begging for mercy. Her father always sounded as if was full of rage. Christina always wondered what could make a man so angry that he treats the people in his life like they don’t mean anything to him. She couldn’t imagine that man was the same one that would make her strawberry waffles and cuddle with her on the couch as they watched cartoons every Saturday morning. The man who made her joyously happy by taking her to Dairy Queen after every soccer game he made sure to never miss is the same one that made her mother cry every night before bed and cover black eyes with make up every morning. Christina decided that there must be a monster that emerges at night, something that changes the loving father she knows during the day into this creature at the midnight hour.

This night was different though. Before she went to sleep, her mother told her to pack a bag of her clothes and said it was “just in case”. In case of what, she wasn’t sure.

“Are we leaving daddy?” She asked, hopeful that her mother would take her away from her nightly terrors. Mother shook her head no slightly, “hopefully not”. How they were hopeful of two different things, Christina didn’t understand.

Christina felt like her heart was going to fully leap out of her mouth when her mother opened her door in a panic. She jumped out of bed and had her bag ready in her hand before her mother even instructed her to grab her things.

“WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING?” His voice boomed down the hallway and Christina began to cry as he started barreling down the hallway toward them. Christina’s mother grabbed her by the hand and pulled her along, her strides faster than Christina could possibly keep up with. She accidentally dropped her teddy bear at the top of the stairs. The teddy bear that her father gave to her when she was 4 years old and cuddled up with every night because it reminded her of a time when she believed he was the best man she had ever known.

Her mother swung the front door open and shouted, “we can’t take this from you anymore, James” before she turned around to see her husband at the top of the stairs with a pistol in his right hand.

“If you leave me, I’ll kill you.” He said it with a straight face. His voice wasn’t raised, he even seemed like he was calm somehow. Her mother pushed Christina behind her body, protecting her from being in her father’s eye-sight.

“Don’t do this to her.” Her mother spoke so softly, even Christina had a hard time hearing it.

“You’re the one to blame, not me” she heard him say clearly before two loud bangs. Her mother collapsed to her knees, looking behind her at her daughter one last time and whispering how sorry she is. Christina looked into her mother’s eyes and saw nothing behind them. She sat on the ground next to her mother’s body until a police officer arrived at their front door.

“Hey, sweetie, what’s your name?”

“Christina…” She didn’t weaver from where she was sitting, but she looked up at the officer in front of her to see her home swarmed with multiple other officers. She looked up at the top of the stairs and saw her father laying there as lifeless as her mother.

“Christina, everything is going to be okay. We are here to help.” The officer grabbed her hand, helped her up, and started walking her out the door. Christina couldn’t take her eyes off her teddy at the top of the stairs that she had dropped just moments earlier. It was stained red, smothered in her father’s blood.

“It's not okay but” she said, looking up at the officer with tears in her eyes, “I just hope the monster is gone”


“Are you sure it’s the best idea to move in with this guy? I mean, how much do you really know him, Lil?” Christina asked, concerned for her sister. After that disastrous night 15 years ago, Christina found her new home with her mother’s sister and from then on, her cousin Lily became her sister. Sometimes, they forget all together that they are cousins.

“I know you have never really liked Mark, but he’s the one for me, Chris. It’s just a normal progression in the relationship for us to be moving in together. If he asked me to marry him right now, I’d probably do it.” Lily huffed out a breath of air as she set down a box on the couch.

“Do you want me to stay and help you unpack your things?” She asked, ignoring Lily’s last remark and being willing to marry this guy. Christina had always been reluctant to share her true feelings about Mark, but Lily can tell how she feels without her even saying what the issue is.

“He’s a good guy. He doesn’t talk down to me, he doesn’t hurt me, and he would never lay a hand on me. I wouldn’t lie to you about that. I’m safe here. You don’t need to watch over me.” Lily grabbed Christina’s hand and squeezed it tight.

I bet my mother felt the same way about my dad. She thought to herself but wouldn’t dare say it out loud. After 15 years, she tried her best to figure out what the signs are. What are the signs that a man has a monster that will emerge at night? The scariest part is that even after all this time she can’t figure it out. There is no specific trait about a person that tells you what might live inside of them. She just has a feeling about Mark that she can’t shake.

She thought of how when she was a girl and how her parents always seemed so perfect and in love in person. They were the ones slow dancing at her uncle’s wedding to the slow songs. He’d buy her chocolates and flowers at every anniversary and birthday, and she made his favorite meal every Monday after work since she knew how much he hated Mondays. Every once in a while, when the monster didn’t come out at night, the house was filled with laughter instead. Christina still couldn’t understand how it is possible for their relationship to have had so much love when it was plagued with nightly abuse. She couldn’t help but see her sister in love with this man and wonder if there is something darker within him.

“If anything does ever happen, like even the smallest thing ever, I need you to tell me.” Lily nodded at her, even though she told herself she wouldn’t be telling Christina anything that could potentially creep her out more than necessary. Christina has always been overprotective and judged every boyfriend that Lily has had. It’s not like she doesn’t understand why though. Lily can stop herself from getting annoyed if she just remembers that things that Christina had to endure as a little girl.

“You know absolutely everything that happens in my life, trust me if something is wrong you will be the first to know.” Lily was right, she told Christina every single detail of her life. Christina knows about all her shitty ex boyfriends, her stalker from college, when she had her first kiss and lost her virginity; literally every romantic aspect of Lily’s life, Christina knew it all.

“I just love you and don’t know what I would do if anything happened to you.” Christina’s voice had a slight tone of desperation behind it. She winced at herself, embarrassed at how it sounded. Lily wrapped her arms tightly around Christina, hoping that it will comfort her.

“I love you.” Lily whispered in her ear. Christina hugged her back, realizing the only type of love she knows to be true and genuine is this.


Christina didn’t want to go home, Lily was her roommate before after all, and now she has to go to her apartment all alone. She’s never truly been alone, not like that. That night 15 years ago she spent at the police station, which was the most alone she had ever felt. The night right after that she was already staying with her aunt and was sharing a room with Lily. They’ve pretty much been roommates ever since then. The thought of going back to an empty apartment terrified her, so instead she went to the coffee shop across the street from Mark’s place.

Christina ordered her coffee and dug around in her purse for her card before she realized that she left it in her car.

“Shoot…can you wait here for me to go grab my money, I accidentally left it in my car.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll get it.” Christina turned around to look at the man behind her. He had soft brown eyes and a charming smile.

“Oh, you don’t have to do that!” Christina said as she blushed. She often kept her interactions with men to a minimum, but this one seemed different.

“I insist! Been meaning to pay it forward lately and you’ve pretty much laid out the opportunity right in front of me. It would make my day if you let me.” He thrusted his card forward to the barista as he mentioned what he would like too.

“I’m Peter” he said as he offered his hand for her to shake. She grabbed his hand and blushed as he gripped onto her hand, but gently. She said her name as she introduced herself.

She sat and had coffee with this man for what felt like minutes when it was actually hours. Christina never let herself entertain the idea of having a boyfriend. At 22, she had experienced everything she knew she didn’t want in a relationship when she had never even been in one herself. She was terrified of having the same fate as her mother; falling for someone who had too many demons for her to handle. It terrified her how when she thinks back on her parents, the fond memories of her father are still there. She could understand why her mother loved him and only felt the urge to leave him during the terrible times. She could separate the man and monster, but she knows that her mother did the same thing and that’s what led to her death.

“Would you want to grab coffee some other time, or maybe dinner?” Peter asked her, an eyebrow raised. Her head told her to say no, as it always did. It makes more sense to never get close enough to see the potential evil that lies within someone.

“Sure” she said as she gave him her number, against her inner thoughts that were screaming at her for letting her guard down. There was something about this guy that made her feel comfortable and maybe, just maybe, she could experience a love with the good and not the ugly that she had seen in the past.

When Christina got home, she did anything she could to make herself feel less alone. She put on Lily’s favorite show and made her favorite snack, thinking maybe it would help give her the illusion that Lily was still there with her. It was her first night living with Mark and she couldn’t help but worry. She laid up in bed, unable to sleep, her mind racing of all of the possible things that could go wrong. When her phone rang at 2am, she shot up quickly out of bed as if she was anticipating it.

“Christina…” Lily’s voice was shaky, “can you come pick me up…” Lily was basically whispering in the phone.

“I’m already on my way.”