THE DARKEST NIGHT

As the screaming fight continued upstairs, fear held her helpless in its grip. Karolyn sat quietly under the stairs in a corner of the basement out of sight. Her five year old brain couldn't identify all the words nor the meaning behind them, but she recognized the impending violence.

It had happened before. Unfortunately, this time she was afraid it would be worse than anything she had ever experienced previously in her short life. There were no lights on in the basement, only the glow of the wood stove burning gave a measure of light to see by. She was used to the dark; she had lived in it for so long.

Her brothers and sisters were beginning to stir in their makeshift rooms, though she didn’t understand just why it had taken them so long to wake up. The cruelty permeated the air with a black hatred. Who was he mad at tonight? She wondered. Did I forget to do something? Was it me? Am I going to get punished? Curled up in a ball, her small body shaking from fright, softly crying and praying that tonight it would pass and no one would be hurt.

Her long thin dark hair covered her face, small fingers covered her eyes, though she peered between them, focusing as hard as possible, trying with all her might to find a way to be safe.

“COME HERE, I’M GOING TO KILL YOU THIS TIME.” He shouted as the basement door slammed open. Her mother fleeing down the stairs with him following behind, butcher knife held high in those huge hands of his. The light from the fire glinting red on the silver blade, almost as if blood already covered it.

Karolyn shrunk closer into the dark corner and watched as her mother’s slim bare feet ran swiftly over the cement. The door to her brother David’s room opened, and she fled inside, the door slammed shut just as he got to it. The knife crashed into the wood, burying itself deeply into the oak door. He yelled again, an almost feral sound coming out of his mouth as the obscenities flew with the spittle.

Repeatedly slamming his body into the door finally knocking it off its hinges and all that stood between him and mom was David. The violence ripped through Karolyn, so dark and horrible the room felt, she could barely breathe. Yet David held his ground, mother behind him.
“Go sleep it off old man. David stated simply. You don’t want to hurt anyone do you Dad?”

As if from a trance the huge man slumped forward into David’s arms, nearly knocking him from his feet, so heavily did he fall. The room stunk with a sour smell that she had smelled sometimes when he had been drinking heavily. It was a horrid, nasty smell, and it always frightened her.

Still curled up on the cold cement floor, Karolyn peered through her hair and watched David help their father climb the stairs. Several times she was afraid they would fall as Dad staggered and fell into David, but David stayed strong, even though he was only twelve and much slighter than their father.

“PATRICIA, where are you, come to bed, I’m tired.” He yelled from the top of the stairs.

“I’ll be up in a few minutes after I get the children tucked in.”

Karolyn knew her father would be sleeping, passed out from the drink long before her mother went up those stairs. But Karolyn didn’t move, not yet, not until everything was quiet. She thought. Her small body still quaking from the night.