Escaping the Darkness Read Online Free PDF Page A

kissed me when I got to the bottom of the stairs, saying, ‘How are you feeling?’
‘Better,’ I replied softly. ‘I’m glad. I missed you.’
He kissed me again. ‘I missed you, too.’
As we followed the boys into the lounge, they settled down with their cars and their road mat, happily making car sounds as they played. When I look back, my son Michael’s police cars were quite unique with their ‘ne-naw’ sounds that intensified as the car came closer to the scene of the accident. (Usually an overturned car or two – of the Matchbox model variety – would be blocking one of the roads.)
Sam went upstairs to run baths for them while I slipped into the kitchen to pour four cups of milk, ready for the boys once they had all had their baths. Once my sons had been bathed and were each in their beds, Sam read them a story while they drank their milk and I sorted out baby Timothy before settling him in his cot.
All our nights were just like this one. We followed a routine, which included the boys playing lots of cricket and football. They were always laughing; they all shared a special sibling relationship and very rarely fell out with each other. If the weather was horrid, we would play gamestogether indoors, reading stories or colouring in picture books. We had a full family life and each one of those contented days just added to the happiness I felt inside. I had been so blessed with this new life; a life I realised was quite extraordinary and unique. I had a wonderful husband who most people would say was ‘too good to be true’. He isn’t. He’s real and he’s my knight in shining armour. My only wish would be that every abused woman have a caring man like Sam in her life.

Chapter Five
AS THE WEEKS passed by, the dreams slowly began to enter my sleeping hours. At first it wasn’t every night or even every week, they just crept up on me gradually. Each dream invaded my sleep slowly at first. And then, as the months progressed, the dreams took over my slumber in a more savage way.
Each time I dreamed, Bill would always be there watching me; never saying anything, just watching. My dreams continued like this for a few months and then they began to intensify. Each time I experienced this intrusion to my sleep, the next dream would always be progressively more significant than each previous one.
Bill was becoming more powerful in my dreams, but now he wasn’t just a vision standing there before me. He appeared to be following me, too. Every time I walked, he walked. Every time I stopped, he stopped. I began to feelunsafe again. I even started looking round corners when I wasn’t dreaming. I began to imagine that my dreams were becoming reality, and that every hidden, darkened corner I couldn’t see around was concealing a new, more immediate danger, with Bill standing there silently, expectantly waiting, ready to move in. I remember feeling ill at ease, even in the daytime. This uneasiness ate into me, gnawing away at me, even when I had people I loved close by. I still felt I couldn’t tell Sam what I was feeling, even though I knew he loved me more than life itself. I knew he would always protect me, yet I felt so very vulnerable, trapped like a butterfly in a net.
I sensed Bill had found out where I was now living and was hiding somewhere, watching me whilst he was drinking in my life: a life that he desperately wanted to be a part of again. I knew he couldn’t have found me, I knew I was just over-reacting, but still the threat of him felt as real as it did all those years ago.
As the dreams became more frequent, I now could no longer keep all the bad memories in ‘the box’ in my mind. They had broken free and now filled each new dream I had, spoiling them, making them tainted and unfamiliar. It wasn’t just the watching and following now either. I felt as if Bill was physically touching me again. Touching me in every way possible. Even my compulsive repeated washing had begun again. When I was