Free Write Week 13

The revision of a piece I've been working on.

The one room shack stood abandoned in the West Texas heat. Dust covered the furniture like rose petals being scattered on a grave. No savory scent filled the air. Nothing but beans and burnt cornbread had touched the little stove in over a year. The quiet was almost deafening. It was the soundlessness that could drive a man to do crazy things. The wind howled outside the little house, echoing a woman's scream. Storms in Texas were like a man's temper-striking fast and when it's over leaving everything it touches broken. Thunder, reminiscent of the sound a man's fist makes when striking soft flesh, crashes across the angry sky.


The rain pounded from the sky, soaking through her thin, worn clothes. Her hair hung limp around her shoulders almost completely covering her pale face. Her brown irises consumed with fear, shoulders hunched, hands covering her barely showing belly-Ava wondered how she had gotten to such a low point in her life. Alone, scared, and pregnant she trudes through the rain on the side of a backwoods road in the middle of nowhere. With every headlight and sound of tires, Ava's heart stops. She wonders if he had noticed that she was gone, if he even bothered to look for her. Yes, she thought. In his mind she belongs to him and there was no escaping his desire for her. He had said many times how he owned her, and that no matter where she went he would find her. That cold, calculating voice was not the sound she fell in love with. The first time she heard his tangy Texas drawl, she was his. She was his possesion and would be until the day she died. She could handle the beatings, the humiliation, and the nights he forced her to perform her wifely duties; however, she could not, and would not, let him hurt her baby. So she trudges down this middle-of-nowhere town, tripping over roots, slipping on the wet leaves. Each time she trips or slips she imagines stabbing him one more time. While he was at a business dinner, she had walked right out the front door. And just kept walking.
Headlights illuminated the shadows. Ava, not breathing, struggles to lay down in the ditch without squishing her belly. First she tries to bend over, then then sitting down; however, the rain has filled the ditch and the mud is up to her knees. With a cry, she slips and falls onto her back in the mud-all the while praying whoever it was had not heard her. To her horror, the vehicle stopped. Backed up. She heard the engine stop and the door open. Blood filled her mouth as she bite down on her tongue to keep from screaming.
"Anyone there?" she heard a male voice, almost completely muffled by the pouring rain, call.
She didn't think it was him, but strangers were still dangerous. So she continued to lay in the mud, not breathing, not making a sound.
"I thought I saw someone out there. I guess not." the man mumbled to himself as he turned to walk back to his truck. As he turned, the light fell on Ava's pale blond, curly hair. Her breathe caught.
"Stupid woman, what the heck are you doing out here?" he asked.
"My, uh, car broke down. But I'm waiting on someone. He will be here any minute. I just lost my footing in the mud. Thanks for the offer though." She was able to squeak out at last. The shadows hid his face and she was not about to risk a ride with what appeared to be a stranger
"Come on lady, its freezing out here. You'll get sick. Let me give you a ride to town. You can wait for him there."
"No thanks."
"Look lady, I'm not gonna argue with you. Get in the truck. I swear, women can be so hard-headed."
"No!"
"Well, then I have no choice." he hollered as he strode toward her.
Male hands grasp her arms as Ava finally looks into her would-be-rescuer's face. Cruel, brown eyes stare back at her.
"No!" she cries, as she claws at his arms. "No, I killed you!"
"Better make sure next time you try to kill someone that they're really dead. However, you did give me one hell of a headache when you smashed that pot on my head."
Ava was speechless. She couldn't believe she'd screwed up her one chance at escape. Dead. When he took her back to that shack she would be dead. The Texas land was barren enough he could bury the body and no one would ever know. As the truck door slammed shut, trapping her inside, she knew her baby's chance at life had just been severed.