24. When Alexia was Thirteen
WHEN ALEXIA WAS THIRTEEN
ALEXIA
EIGHT YEARS AGO…
W e all knew my dad married the woman his brother was in love with, but to be fair, he was in love with her too. My parents were high school sweethearts. But Griffin envied my dad and always felt like he took something from him. Griffin was my mom’s first kiss. It was a simple boy-girl party, and they gave a peck kiss, but nonetheless a kiss and Griffin has always held that over my dad’s head. My dad never cared, though. It was before my mom and dad even grew feelings for each other, which didn’t happen until ninth grade, but she kissed Griffin in fifth grade.
I knew Griffin had issues, but I never thought he’d go so low to hurt my dad. I never thought he’d hurt me. At this time, I was in eighth grade. It was almost summer, and my parents had divorced, but they had a good relationship. They’d been best friends for a while, and they still were.
It was some of the best co-parenting ever.
It was a Thursday and me, Dexter, and Lia all had dentist appointments and after that I was supposed to go to Faith’s house for a sleepover. After school, we all waited outside for my mom, but she never came, so I called Griffin, and Faith's mom got Faith, and we agreed to see each other later. Dexter and Lia all got in the car.
It wasn’t until as we got farther, I realized we were headed out of town. “Uncle Griffin, you passed the town sign,” Dexter said to him.
“Don’t worry, we're just going on a trip,” he said before turning the air on. He put on a gas mask as the car filled with a smokeless scent and as we breathed in, we became unconscious.
When I woke up, I was tied to a chair inside of my dad's old childhood home. I knew his family no longer lived here. His parents got someplace smaller and closer to us, and his siblings had moved too, but Griffin brought us here. The house was still in the family, but it was more of a vacation place, considering it was three hours away from where we live.
The room was cold and dim, but I could see Aaliyah tied to one of the bedposts and Dexter tied to the other. They were both on the floor with their backs against the bedpost. I was the only one in a chair. That was the first thing that made me suspicious.
“Dex?” I called over to him, trying to wake up. “Dex,” I said louder. “Dex,” I said again, even louder. No response. “Lia,” I called, hoping she heard me. “Lia!” I shouted. I didn’t mean to, but I did, and I regretted it immediately. Stomping sounds filled the hallway, and the door flew open, revealing Griffin.
“Hello, Alexia,” he said, grinning while holding a cup of water and a gun strapped to his side.
“Why am I here?” I asked frantically while pulling on the ropes holding me to the chair.
“Simple. I want to get back at my brother,” Griffin stated.
He walked farther into the room and stood in front of me. “Your sibling should be up soon, but for now, drink,” he said and held the glass up to my lips. I know you shouldn’t take things from a kidnapper, but I’m not that dumb to reject water and food when it’s being offered, but I’m not going just to drink it either.
“You go first,” I said. Griffin didn’t fight; he sipped the water and was fine, so I deemed it good enough, and it was.
“I’ll be back with dinner,” he stated and left.
That was the first night. He only came back one more time and left bottles of water and chips, untied us while holding a gun to us, and then left, locking the door. You could tell from the click it was electronic.
The next day, I was woken up due to the feeling of being carried. When I opened my eyes, I could see we were walking down a hallway, and then he turned into a bedroom, which I recognized to be his childhood room.
I remembered one summer my parents brought me here and I slept in this room with Dex while Lia had the guest room. “I know you aren’t sleeping,” Griffin said as he sat me down on the bed.
“Why did you bring me in here?” I asked him.
“We’re gonna send a little message to your daddy,” Griffin said and pulled out his gun. Now I’m gonna tie you up, and if you struggle, that will be one more whip for after, and if it gets bad, I will shoot you,” Griffin threatened me. I was still; I let him tie me to the bedposts. Griffin pulled out a camera and began to set it up. “Now, to make this more fun,” Griffin said as he came over to the bed. Fear grew inside me, and he reached for my clothes and tore them. “Perfect,” he said. “You look just like your mother.”
Griffin went back to the camera and pressed a timer. Griffin came back over to me and duct-taped my mouth before the camera light turned red, meaning it was recording. “Hello brother, I have something here that you prize, and you have something I prize. It hurt knowing you would marry the woman I love and didn’t even think about my feelings, and so now I’m here you get back,” Griffin stated before grabbing a leather flogger, but this didn’t look like the sexually used kind. No, this one was meant to hurt.
Griffin walked over to me and began his strikes. Hit after hit, tears ran down my face as I cried, and marks formed on my body. The tears eventually soaked the tape, so it came off, and my screams could be heard. After thirty strikes, I was red, swelled, and had a few blood gashes. Griffin stopped the video and hooked his camera up to the computer to upload. “Now to clean you up.,” Griffin said.
“Don’t touch me,” I cried out.
“I won’t hurt you…anymore. For now. But I do need to clean you up,” Griffin said.
“No! Don’t touch me,” I yelled at him.
“Fine, then bleed,” Griffin started and jumped on top of me. “Don’t forget while you’re here, I can do anything to you.” He grinned as he gripped my breast hard.
“Please stop touching me,” I begged.
Griffin left me and went to his computer. Griffin worked on the video, but I could only be awake for a bit because I passed out. When I woke up, I was back in the bedroom where I first woke up, but this time tied to the bed, laying down, and Dexter was gone, but Lia was tied to the chair now. “Where’s Dex?” I groaned.
“Griffin took him,” Lia responded.
We didn’t see Dexter for an hour after that.
About two hours later, he brought us food and chained us with chains so we could walk around the room but not get away. Not that I did much walking; I was in severe pain.
“We need a plan,” I stated.
“No kidding but how do we get out?” Dexter asks.
“We know this place. All we need are the keys to these chains and to the door,” I said.
“Is the window unlocked?” Lia asked.
“Let’s check,” Dexter said and so they did. It was locked.
“Why haven't our parents found us?” Lia asked.
“Smartie pants took anything that could track us away,” Dexter said.
“He’s smart but we can be smarter,” I said.
“How?” Lia asked.
“We don’t need to get away tonight; what if we do it during the day? He wouldn’t think we’d do that,” I told them.
That night, we spent time coming up with a plan.
The next day, he took Lia first, and she came back with lashes as well, and Dexter fixed her up. The different thing about this is he didn’t bring food all day. But that wouldn’t matter because we were getting away today.
The plan starts off with me causing trouble while he shoots one of the videos and then Dex causing a scene in the room, giving Lia time to unlock a door, but we needed a good excuse, so we said Lia’s period started and needed products and a shower.
It was about four p.m. when we decided to move into action. Lia unlocked one of the doors earlier and Griffin hasn’t noticed since it’s the basement exit door. Griffin was away from the house, and we unlocked our chains and headed down, but we didn’t account for him forgetting his wallet and having to come back. When Griffin left, we waited thirty minutes and then made our way down to the basement. Dexter locked the door to get back in, but that’s when we heard the car pull up.
“We won’t make it,” Lia said.
“Yes, we will. Let’s just go and make a run,” Dexter said.
“We need a phone to call someone on,” I told them.
“It’s too late we need to just run and see what happens,” Dexter said. We carefully and quietly made our way to the door, creaked it open, and ran out. We thought we would make it until we saw Griffin going back to his car and he spotted us. So we ran faster.
We got so far until gunshots filled the air and then a thud came. I turned around to see he had tackled Dexter, and they were wrestling on the ground. Griffin got a hold of him enough to start punching. Griffin punched so hard I was sure Dexter’s nose was broken.
He beat Dexter unconscious and then grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder. He took them back to the room but chained me up in his room. After he left and came back an hour later with Lia, she was unconscious; he had said it was just something to knock her out she would be fine.
He left that day but came back late at night, and I was still chained to his bed in a white cheer-like dress. “Don’t you look beautiful chained up for me?” Griffin grinned. He sat some bags down before pulling out a gag. Oh no! He can’t be. “Don’t cry. You’ll love this,” he cooed and came over to me to place the gag in my mouth. I was defenseless against him.
Totally at his mercy as he climbed over me and began laying kisses on my neck. I hated the feeling. I hated everything about this. “You are just like your mother, but this time, you can’t run from me.” He laughed as he moved to the other side of my neck. I cried and cried as he touched my body until I passed out due to exhaustion.
The next two days carried on with beating and him starving us until finally they came.
Our parents had found us and brought an ass load of cops with them. It was quiet and just talking until gunshots went off. We all stayed huddled together in the corner of the room, and I prayed it was my parents who had been shot.
Many noises filled the air as Griffin came in and unlocked Dexter, dragging him into the hall. I quickly found the bobby pin we’d taken and unlocked myself and Lia before running after Griffin. He was now in the family living room. This room was filled with family portraits and trinkets. I could see the strawberry pink teddy bear my dad got me three years ago on the plush floral chair.
“No, stop, please!” I begged, sobbing as I slowly crouched closer and closer to the ground until I kneeled. I didn’t know what else to do. My dad was being held by a gun and my brother was watching.
“No! This is his fault!” Griffin shouted, his strong and loud voice boomed through the living room down to the halls. I was scared. I walked over to Dex. He was standing very still and had the most childlike fear on his face.
Dexter wrapped his arms around, trying to shield me.
“You will leave her alone. But take me,” Dad demanded.
“No!” I sobbed and placed my head in Dexter’s arms. He can’t leave. I need him; I don't want to be alone here. Everything was blurry and way too loud when a loud ringing burst through the air, someone had been shot.
The ringing was so loud and my adrenaline so high that I didn’t notice I was the one bleeding till Dexter screamed, and I looked down. I was shot in my thigh. I passed out due to the sight, and when I woke up, I was in the hospital.
Over time, these memories have become scrambled, and I can only remember so much. I don’t remember the two days much before we got rescued. I don’t remember much of the days after. I remember the trial and how my dad stood up for his brother, saying it was a mistake, he didn’t mean it, and we should all put this behind us. That’s when I started to hate him, but I could never hate him fully. He was still a good dad. He came to my competitions and all our birthdays, took us out, visited us, and all, but this one thing ruined it for me. I couldn’t believe he took his brother's side over his children.
I remember Dad, Mom, and Stephan fighting in the night, and sometimes, it got physical with the men, so Dexter had to break it up. I remember never talking to my dad for months after.
As time continued, I grew depressed and started overdosing until I was sent away to a mental institution and got therapy. I got better and got out. Cheer is one thing that saved me. I had somewhere to put all the anger into and do my best. Faith was another. She never left my side. For months, we spent every day and almost every night together; she even came to therapy with me. She needed some of her own too. She couldn’t get over the fact she couldn’t save me.
Dex got into football, and Lia became a new person; we all did, in a way.
This time in my life haunts me to this day.