Page 92 of The Sound Of Us

I’m self-preserving as much as I can, but Eli has given me small pieces of courage over the last few months.

“You didn’t make me, Frank. I was just fine before you came along. With or without the cancer.”

“You wanna turn around and say that to my face?” he says. The lightness in his tone is a decoy. I don’t buy it. I don’t turn around.

“You been gettin’ cocky these days, huh Axel? You been taking lessons from old Mrs. Dalton next door? That why you goin’ over there every other night? She teachin’ ye how to disobey your husband?”

The slight change in Frank’s dialect is my measuring stick for how far I can go. And as of now, not much further. So, I take my last shot before my time is up.

“Frank, our marriage isn’t working.” It’s my first step toward Eli and away from Frank.

He laughs. My heart hammers in my chest. My boldness is going to cost me.

The harsh handling of the nightstand drawer makes me whirl around so fast I trip on the bottom of the curtain and grab onto the edge of the bed to break my fall.

Frank is fast. Before I can straighten up, he’s behind me, pushing me back down onto my knees, his thick hand around the back of my neck.

His fingers curl painfully into the sides of my neck. He pushes down until my forehead is pressed into the bed. I can hardly breathe. Even if I could have taken air into my lungs, I wouldn’t have. Even the tiny movement caused by breathing might set Frank off further. Silent screams echo in my head as if on a mega speaker.

You provoked him.

You shouldn’t have provoked him.

Now, the cold, metal butt of his gun is pressed into my nape. I brace myself and when the first hit into my shoulder comes, my head sinks further into the bed and I howl silently into the bedding.

Pain explodes in my shoulder and immediately engulfs my entire body. I cry into the bedsheets like a baby because Eli would never do this to me.

I breathe deep and controlled to ease the pain, but Frank isn’t done. I’m so scared of that gun, I’d choose a beating with it any day as long as it doesn’t go off. I don’t have any confidence that he knows how to hit me without accidentally killing me, even though I’ve received plenty of hits from this gun.

“This marriage is not working?” he spits close to my ear.

“You see this gun over here, Axel? The next time you decide on the state of our marriage, will be the time you get a bullet right through here.” He licks inside my ear. “I’ll blow your brains out right through your ear. You fucking hear me, you sickly fuckin’ cunt?”

I’m shaking with fear and fury. Before, it was usually just the fear. Today, fury takes up residence, too. If only I could just turn around and tackle him to the ground and get that gun away from him. But he’s too strong. I’d never be able to.

Frank’s tongue curls into my ear again. “I’ll fuckin’ decide when and if this marriage isn't working.”

He pushes me upward, hauling me onto the bed by the back of my pants. Then, with the gun still in one hand, he yanks my pants down.

Pepper whines outside.

I’m slammed onto my stomach and then Frank’s cock is pushing into my ass.

“I’ll fuckin show you something, you dumb fuck.”

I lay on the bed with the gun clutched in Frank’s hand next to my head and his cock inside me, aided only by his pre-cum.

Tears fall silently.

Only thoughts of Eli take me through the eight seconds needed for Frank to come. My flaccid cock is squashed between my stomach and the bed. It’s only eight seconds, I repeat in my head over and over. It feels like eight seconds of eternity.

When it’s over, Frank brings me a warm cloth and cleans me. The cloth is white. Faint red marks stain the warm material. I inspect the red marks, and all I can think about is I wished Frank had used a condom so I wouldn’t have had to feel his raw flesh rubbing against mine. And how much I wished I could feel Eli inside me, flesh to flesh.

Chapter 50

Eli

My mother doesn’t look well on our video calls. She insists she’s fine, but I want her to see the doctor. She says she has a doctor's appointment set up.

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