Born Beautiful, Rachel's Story #01

Normally her farm a cornucopia of sights, a cacophony of sounds, and possessing a myriad of mysterious movements that moved stealthily in the tall grass, everything was so unearthly and stilly quiet before and frighteningly loud now. With the rain pelting down with a loud hiss, as if the Devil's evil serpent commandeered her farm, the only sounds that could be heard over the rain were the screams of her mother that emanated from the barn. As if the cries were an eerie siren that warned her to stay away, the screams could be heard from the 300 meter distance between Rachel's bedroom window and the barn door.

"No! Let me go! Please, I beg you. Let me go! Please Let me go. I'm sorry. I won't do whatever it was I did again. I promise. Untie me. Please untie me."

The suspense, that fearful fright of standing idly by while the life of the one she loves so dearly trembles in the balance was debilitating. Yet there was nothing that she could do to change the fate of her mother. Unable to see but only to hear, the imagined thoughts of what was really happening in that damn barn took hold of her mind, labored her breathing, raced her pulse, and made her heart beat rapidly. With the violent images of her mother tied to the horse stall and stripped naked, Rachel was having a panic attack. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. Desperate for a breath of air she would have opened her bedroom window but she didn't want to hear her mother's screams any louder than what they already were.

Having happened so often before and with many of her emotions severed and detached from the abusive horror her father and brother exposed her to, Rachel listened to her mother's screams and pleas for mercy with sadness while hoping that she wasn't next. Other than to volunteer herself and take her mother's place, and other than to shoot her father and brother dead, there was nothing she could do to help her mother but to listen helplessly to her screams. Sparing her mother the pain, she wished the lantern would fall, the barn would catch fire, and they'd all perish in the flames.

Better off without them, she'd get a good price for the farmhouse and the land, enough to get her reestablished in America. Only, no one would buy from a woman. She'd have to find a man to help her sell her own farm and to take charge of the money for her. Yet, with no one in mind, she didn't trust any man to negotiate on her before and take control of her money.

If only she was free. Never looking back, she'd like to know what it would be like to be alone and on her own in a new country. After all the pain and suffering her father and brother have given her, she'd like to live her life without them. Certainly, her life couldn't be any worse without them than it was now with them touching her, feeling her, groping her, and forcing her hand to touch them.

"How dare they!"

To be continued...