The sound of Violet’s screams pierced right through me, rooting me to the spot. I gulped. My legs turned to jelly and I fell to the floor. Poppy dropped beside me and wrapped her arms around me. He was killing her. I wanted to help, but I couldn’t move, and Poppy’s arms held me tight.
Blood trickled from Violet’s nose down her chin. The blows to her body were harsh and brutal and every single one tore through me. I burst into tears at the sound her painful cries. Grabbing her hair, he pulled her up. She screamed in pain and gripped her chest. He sneered and punched her in the face. She stumbled back, slammed into the wall, and sunk to the floor.
She gagged and spat red-stained saliva on the floor. Clover jumped back and wiped his forehead, eyes wide and nose turned up in disgust. The blood on his hand turned his face a pale white and he turned and ran up the stairs. Poppy released me as soon as he closed the door. I ran to Violet. She was limp on the floor and covered in blood. Her matted hair was tainted red and clung to her face in clumps.
“Violet,” Rose whispered, gently placing her hand on her shoulder. “It’s going to be all right. We’ll get you cleaned up.” Would it matter? Surely he was going to come back for her soon enough. “Towels, Lily,” Rose ordered.
I jumped up and ran to the cupboard, eager to help in any way I could. I didn’t know a thing about first aid, but I knew we needed to stop Violet’s bleeding as soon as possible. Rose snatched one of the towels off me and pressed it against the cut on Violet’s head.
“Take the other side,” Rose ordered. Other side? I stepped over Violet and noticed what Rose was talking about. There was another deep cut on her head, almost exactly opposite to the other one. It was barely a centimeter long but blood flowed freely from it.
I sobbed, no longer being able to hold back my tears. “I’m sorry, Violet, I’m so sorry,” I whispered and pressed down hard on the towel. She whimpered and hissed in pain. As much as I wanted to pull away and stop hurting her, I knew I couldn’t. “Sorry.” We all knew doing this was pretty much a waste of time. When he came back down, he would kill her if she hadn’t already died, but we couldn’t leave her. We had to try.
***
Poppy knelt down beside me with a plastic bowl of water, cotton balls, and thick padded bandages. “We should get her to bed as soon as we’ve cleaned her up. Hang in there, Violet.” Poppy dipped a cotton ball into the water and very gently dabbed it around the cut Rose was tending.
“Ahh!” Violet cried out. “No, it stings,” she said, gasping to catch her breath.
“I know, and I’m sorry. We need to clean these, though. I promise it won’t take long, and I’ll be as gentle as I can.” Poppy brushed the cotton ball along the bottom of the cut. I grabbed Violet’s hand, and she squeezed it tight—it reminded me of a woman gripping hold of her birth partner’s hand. Blood seeped through the towel I had pressed on her cut with my other hand, staining my fingers red.
My chest felt like it was being squeezed. I was utterly terrified she would die. She was my only chance. Was this too bad? She could have internal injuries we couldn’t see and her head looked really bad. I could still hear the loud thud as her head smashed against the hard wall. What if something happened to her? If she died then I didn’t know what I would do. I should have tried to help her. Looking at her swollen and bloody face, I’d never felt so helpless before.
Poppy bandaged one cut and moved around to do the same with the one I was tending. I moved the towel and Poppy cleaned the cut. Rose stood awkwardly over Violet, holding the bandage up, ready to put it on as soon as Poppy was finished.
“Okay,” Rose said once we’d cleaned and bandaged Violet’s wounds. “Let’s get her in bed.” Rose and Poppy picked up either end of Violet’s body, and I supported her back.
Violet cried out in pain, and the sound echoing through the cellar made me flinch. She held her chest and breathed deeply. Broken ribs? “We’re nearly there,” I told her. We needed painkillers. If she had broken ribs as well as the cuts to her head, she was going to be in a lot of pain. He didn’t let us just have pain pills, though. That was controlled by him—he only allowed us two at a time.
I ran ahead and pulled the cover back on her bed, ready for her to get in. Rose and Poppy carefully laid her down. I covered her to her hips, not wanting to go higher and lay it on her ribs. “Am I going to die?” she whispered. Her breathing was labored, and it sounded like she was struggling to take every one.
Shaking my head, I perched on the side of her bed. “No, you’re not. You’re going to be fine. We’ll look after you.” That bastard wasn’t going to get his way. I would do everything I could to make sure she was okay. I wanted to make up for letting this happen. “Try and get some sleep.” If she were asleep, she wouldn’t feel pain.