SAMANTHA AND THE EMPATH: CHAPTER FOUR
Even when Samantha blocked her ears, she could still hear the screams. Like glue, the screeching had stuck themselves to the walls. Even when everything had gone quiet in the place where she lived, which she could never call home, the sound of shrieks and angry words still echoed in the stillness.
The first time she heard them was not long after her mum had met him and brought him home. He moved in straight away. Who moves into someone else’s house the first night they meet?
Her mum had taught her to speak her mind, so she had walked down the stairs when she could not ignore his loud voice for a second longer and asked him not to scream so loudly.
Her mum had looked up to where she was leaning over the bannister, and her mum shook her head. Samantha saw her mum's lips were pressed together so tightly they had turned white, and her mum quickly made her way to Samantha’s little frame.
As her mum walked with her back up the stairs to her room, Samantha felt a thrill of fear as an idea so horrible, so terrifying filled her entire body. She was young then and she could not understand why this man frightened her. It was as if she knew. Just knew he was bad news.
She had promised herself she would find out why he scared her so much because she used to be a brave little girl. Every night as she whispered her wishes to the ceiling of her quiet bedroom, she promised her mum she would protect her against this evil man.
She believed her mum must really love him to bring him home to live with them, and she wanted her mum to be happy. Samantha knew she would always hate him. He was the one who made her feel as if she was nothing. He was the cause of her suppressing all her feelings, hiding them away, boxing them up because she discovered quickly when a person had no feelings, they could not be hurt. Feelings made people weak, made them vulnerable.