Sadie's Mountain Read Online Free Page B

took everything in me that was strong not to scratch at his face with my nails. I closed my eyes and waited. I heard him pull the piece of wood from the door, it creaked open and all was silent.
    My legs were shaking. I wiped my bloody mouth on my daddy’s denim jacket and watched the door with my uncovered eye. My knees were touching and my ankles were pointed out.
    Go! I told myself, and darted out of that shed as fast as I could. What if he comes back for round two?
    I ran and ran for seconds, minutes, hours, I have no idea. I ran until my legs gave out and I fell into a moss patch under nothing but the starry sky. And then I started throwing up. I threw up until there was nothing left inside of me and I was heaving emptiness—kind of like my spirit.
    It was so dark and cold. I’d never felt so alone in all my life until then. What just happened to me? I touched my neck. It felt jagged and warm. I felt so odd, as if everything around me was in slow motion but it wasn’t. My heartbeat was fast but so weak that it hurt and suddenly I was so very tired, and for a brief moment I wondered where I was and why I was there.
    I started crying, deep, and guttural. My skin was damp and clammy; my limbs were tingling. I was breathing fast, but the breaths were shallow and I felt like I was suffocating. There was a strange sensation as if I had to go to the bathroom, something came out of me and I wiped my behind. It was slimy and smelled like cut grass and shards of metal. I wiped my hand on the spongy moss and decided I had to get up and make my way toward the sounds of Rich Creek.
    This is where my memory becomes unclear. I remember parts but not all: I followed the sound of the creek, falling at times when my legs and arms got too heavy. I’d reach up to branches and pull myself up as if the water would be a panacea—a cure all. I could think of nothing else as I stumbled into the freezing creek and stung my neck and between my legs with water. I couldn’t keep my eyes open—my eyelids felt like steel weights.

    I was spitting up water and I was so thirsty for air that I gasped.
    “Oh, God. Sadie,” Dillon said. I was on the shore with rocks poking into my back. I couldn’t see his face but he was breathing fast and he was shaking as he leaned over me. He picked me up in his arms and hugged me so tight he felt like a vice. “Sadie, Sadie,” he cried into my ear.
    “Dillon?” I rasped.
    “Hold on, Sadie. I’ve got you,” he whispered, through hitched breaths as he effortlessly stood up and started walking with me draped over his arms like a wet towel. He was so warm against my cold body. I’m safe. I put my arms around his neck and tried not to slip away again.
    “You won’t want me no more,” I said, tearfully.
    “Hush, baby. I’ve loved you all your life. That won’t stop for nothing.”
    “I died. He killed her,” I said, breathy. I was so exhausted.

    I was in my house in Dillon’s arms and Daddy was yelling and pounding his fist into the living room wall. “Look at the dress she’s a’ wearin’,” he yelled. “It’s no wonder she got tooken advantage of!”
    I fell or was pulled down and I was sitting on the floor. Momma was trying to pull me up but she was pushing Dillon away.
    “Go home, Dillon!” Momma yelled. When I looked down there was blood streaked down the inside of my legs and all down the front of my too-short dress. I tried to rub the blood away from my legs but more came to replace it.
    “Oh, God!” I screamed at my blood covered hands. Momma was trying to cover me with the blanket from the back of the couch.
    “Get out of here!” Momma was yelling at Dillon. “You’d better not be here when he comes down them stairs!”
    I was half covered by the blanket and screaming now in short, frantic squeals as I saw Daddy stomp down the stairs wielding his belt—the skinny one that hurt the worst. There was blood everywhere. It was my blood. “Am I dying?” I managed to say