“Kaly, you understand why we’re here today, right?”

Kaly quickly did a glance around the room, noticing the pasty blue walls, reliving the faint memory of sitting down in the waiting room and reading home decor magazines at the doctor’s office. One of their many claims was that blue was supposed to be a calming color, adding a more homely feel to your living room. Before Kaly was just about to wonder how a color could invoke such a powerful feeling, the thought was quickly interrupted by the voice of someone. "Excuse me," the receptionist called out from behind her desk, "Can you come up for a second? I need to verify some details, I'm so sorry." Kaly immediately dropped the magazine as her mom pulled her along by the arm to the front desk to where the receptionist sat behind a computer monitor. Her hair was a mess and her eye bags were even more prominent than the last time, but Kaly ignored all of that as she eyed a bowl of candy on her desk. "What brings you two to the doctor's office today?" the receptionist asked while she clicked on the keyboard. 

Kaly’s mom instantly jumped in and said they wanted a quick check-up on Kaly's arm.  "She took a mighty hard hit when she fell off her bike this afternoon," she whispered while leaning into the window, as if it was some hot gossip, "You know how clumsy kids these days."

Kaly couldn't tell if that was something she wasn't supposed to hear, nonetheless, she still heard it. Kaly turned towards her mother and tugged on her shirt, "Mom, that's not I told you," Kaly whined, "I said that Hoppy pushed me from the swings while playing." 

The clicks of the keyboard had a sudden halt as the receptionist looked up with a startled expression on her face. She swiveled her chair to meet the mother's face. "Is that true?"

 Kaly's mom squeaked out a nervous laugh and firmly nudged Kaly in the shoulder. "Don't listen to anything this girl says. Believe me when I say this is just another one of her long string of lies."

"Kaly?"

 Back to reality. Kaly thought about the question Ms. Ricker prompted her before. She almost wanted to say something that was complete baloney like, ‘I don’t know’ or maybe her badass reaction of ‘I don’t know, tell me.’ as she straightens up in the chair and crosses her legs. But she realized that wasn't going to get anywhere, so the best thing to do is be blunt and frank. 

“Because my brother tried to kill me,” Kaly hoarsely asserted as she pulled herself up into her chair. If this was any other time, Kaly would then quickly place her eyes back to her lap, but this time, Kaly made sure she kept her eyes on Ms. Ricker. It's a common tactic to assert domination, or so Kaly heard, to switch the tables, to make the other whimper and wither in fear. But when Ms. Ricker simply pulled up another piece of paper from her clipboard while a careful eye was kept on Kaly, the tables were quickly switched back and Kaly was left to slowly wither away in her chair again. 

“Your brother, Mathias,-”

“Hoppy,” Kaly abruptly corrected. Ms. Ricker raised an eyebrow. “We call him Hoppy since he has a limp and there’s always a hop in his step and…” Kaly didn’t even bother as she let her head droop onto her shoulder as another raging headache took hold of her. The subtle eye expressions. The way that Ms. Ricker always seemed to have an eye on her, even if she wasn’t even looking directly at Kaly. The way her legs were crossed or the way her glasses were perfectly positioned on the tip of her nose. Even the way that her hair was pulled back in the most uncomfortable and tightest bun ever. Ignore the blue walls because Ms. Ricker wasn’t playing;  she was truly forcing Kaly into submission.

“Hoppy,” she continued, bitterly, but carefully, enunciating the name, “had supposedly tried to kill you? Explain.”

“Last week. It was the middle of the night. He came into my room while I was sleeping and he…and he…” The words just couldn't come out because, in a spontaneous moment, she was back in bed that night. She could truly never forget the low light of the hallway creeping into the open slit of the bedroom door. The shadow that just stood right outside, as he lingered into the room. The chill that ran up her body as she instantly closed her eyes to go back to sleep. All the while, a rush of emotions and thoughts and fears jumped into her head as a gradually tightened fist held onto the bed sheets. Maybe, she thought, just maybe, she could swallow herself in her bed before it came. But as always, it was too late. 

She could still feel his hands. His deeply calloused hands that grazed up and down her body. The creak of the bed as he leaned in closer towards her. His sharp exhales that spewed hot air on her arm. Every little movement was intensified ten times more as Kaly knew what was eventually going to happen. As Kaly knew this was only the beginning before her entire soul was ripped out of her body. Before a single pin drop of silence is left to stand in the room before the bedroom door closes. Before the nightmare begins again. 

Kaly kept her eyes shut and her steady grip on the bed tight as she waited in a grimace of what was going to occur. But as his hand was removing the bed covers, Kaly could feel them slowly stop. Then, a few moments later, silence. Another creak and a slight rise of the bed. Careful steady steps that were absorbed by the soft carpet below. A slight grunt as something was being removed from a wooden shelf to reveal a steady red light that was hidden in the corner of the darkness. Watching. Knowing. Recording.

Kaly’s heart skipped a beat as she saw her only hope being held in Hoppy’s grubby hands. At that moment, nothing mattered more than that camera even if it meant standing up the beast before her. She took off her duvet and let her feet reach and touch the carpet below her of which she balanced herself up from the bed and curled her arms around her body. She could feel her steps grow heavier and more hesitant. She could feel her shaking arm as she pulled it out towards Hoppy. She could feel her voice ready to crack. "Give it to me,” she mumbled. But he didn't even flinch. His eyes were still fixated on the camera, looking directly at the lens with the steady red light that still glows. Even with the little light in the room, she could see the disbelief in his unwandering eyes. Kaly’s fear was still frantically knocking on the door. Telling her that it's ready to pull the trigger, to let it explode and take over her. Despite the consistent knocking as her heart rocked to the same rhythm, Kaly was determined to not answer her fear’s call. Now on the edge of screaming, Kaly exclaimed, "Give it!"

What happened next was a sudden swipe of motion. Before she could even blink, the camera had already clashed on the floor and she was pushed against the wall as two hands were tightly wrapped around her neck and her legs were left to dangle. The times she could somehow grasp a single breath, she found it to be quickly taken away. At an instinct, Kaly's hands immediately jumped on top of Hoppy's. Her nails dug into his skin, trying to pry them off as small trickles of Hoppy’s blood coated her fingers. Her legs, still floating in the air, furiously started to kick. There was no objective goal in mind; it was just continuous kicking. Like a baby trying to stay afloat in the darkened ocean waters as the currents rise and fall. Rise and fall as the drowning resumes. 

Then, the light started to dim and darkness tried to consume her as the final breaths were taken. Her kicking slowed down. Her hands started to loosen their grip. Her entire body was starting to sink towards the floor, but her eyes stayed open. Even with her vision starting to blur, she could see the blood-fused eyes of Hoppy staring back at her without fail of breaking eye contact. Then in his low gruff voice, he said something that would stick with her for the rest of her life as she felt her soul draining out of her. "I swear, if I could, I would f*cking kill you."

That moment, the moment when Kaly was just a minute away from death, was when Hoppy released his hands from her neck. She fell towards the ground as a coughing spasm took hold of her and tears spilled from her eyes. Then, the faint sound of the flicker of a light switch. Mom. Kaly didn’t even try to stop Hoppy as she was still coughing and blinking back into full consciousness, leaving him to swiftly take the camera from the floor. 

"What's all this ruckus?! It’s one in the morning!" Kaly heard her bark. 

Like always, Hoppy jumped in with a story perfectly orchestrated in his head. She could never understand how he did it, but he always did. He placed the camera on the bed, walked up to his mother, clasped her hands in his, and started to cry. “Mom, Kaly,” he whimpered before breaking out in a full sob, “I heard her talking to some boys tonight and they were exploiting her into sending inappropriate videos. I just couldn't wait. I was hoping to give her a one-to-one talk, but…” Hoppy bawled some more, burying himself into his mother’s chest as she stroked his hair in comfort. “But she just attacked me. Mom, Kaly’s in denial. She doesn’t realize she’s hurting herself.” 

Kaly saw her mother, believing his story, slowly shaking her head before crying herself. With his job done, Hoppy went to Kaly’s bed and held his head between his hands, and stared at the floor. Kaly began to croak as she pulled herself up to sit up straight on the floor. “Mom, he’s lying! I promise you, I’m telling the truth. I literally have everything on cam.” She cried as she reached for her camera, her last glistening hope. She took a deep breath and focused on her mother, the only person she hoped would finally believe her in all seven years of her life. Silently wishing and hoping that she would finally recognize that her words were actually worth something. That she wasn’t lying all this time. That she was the victim that her mother failed to see. Ever since she was that little nine-year old girl in the doctor’s office with a broken arm. “Hoppy was going to rape me.” A brief recollection before she could say those words. “He was going to kill me!”

There’s a moment when the world around you stays absolutely still. A stark silence remains in the air, and finally, when the words are uttered, you see the world crumble and fall apart. This was the moment for Kaly. When her mom, who was already in tears, looked at Kaly in the eye and wailed, “I don’t even know what to do with you anymore!” Then, overcome with grief, she left with Hoppy right behind her as she turned off the light and slammed the door without even a peek into the camera. Instead, Kaly was left gaping at the slammed door whilst on the floor, to be embraced by the cold darkness that accompanied her for so many years. And without a moment’s care, she took the camera that was in her hands and threw it against the wall, and collapsed into a pile of tears.

“Kaly? Kaly, listen to me.”

“Huh?”

“Just, let me get something for you.” Ms. Ricker grabbed her purse from the side of her chair while an eye was kept on Kaly. Except, it wasn't one meant to evoke fear, but rather, it seemed a bit worryful as she fished out a handkerchief to which she handed it to Kaly. 

Dabbing and wiping away the wet tears on her face, Kaly gestured towards her nose. “May I?” Ms. Ricker nodded and averted her eyes towards the door as Kaly, not so subtly, blew and ridded her nostrils of the mucus. “I’m sorry about the hanky.”

“It’s okay.” Ms. Ricker stayed silent for a moment, quickly taking a look at Kaly's eyes before bringing them back towards her lap. She then took a deep breath, straightened herself in the chair, and brought her eyes up to Kaly's again. “I'm going to assume that you are telling the truth, that your brother tried to kill you. Did Math-I mean Hoppy, threaten you with a gun?”

Kaly shook her head. "No."

"Did he try to drown you, by any chance?"

"No."

"Did he smother you, with a pillow or something?"

"No."

Ms. Ricker sighed as if she didn't want to come to this. She opened her mouth to say something, but as a sob was caught in her throat, she closed it and turned to look at the door again. In a moment's recollection, she sighed once more and turned to meet Kaly's face. "So would it be correct to say that Hoppy had strangled you that night?"

Kaly nodded her head just as she felt the tears trail down her face again and in a moment, she was on that bedroom floor once more. Except, instead of her mother immediately dismissing her, intentionally ignoring all the signs, she finally realized and listened to the cries Kaly cried for the last nine years. But when Kaly finally looked up and cleared her tears, it wasn't her mother. Rather someone she only knew for the past fifteen minutes. Someone who she once believed was the enemy. 

“Your eyes and the bruises on your neck gave it away,” Ms. Ricker said while pointing to Kaly’s eyes and neck with her pen, “I’m just…I’m so sorry.”

Kaly took the handkerchief and tried to wipe some of her tears away, but it still kept coming. “H-he’s going to k-kill me,” she stuttered before collapsing into her sobs. 

“I’m sorry.”

Kaly sniffled and glanced back at Ms. Ricker. “Can you be honest with me?”

“O-of course.”

“Will my mother actually believe you when you say that Hoppy did abuse me?”

Ms. Ricker thought about it for a moment and folded her hands together when she gave her answer. “Hopefully,” she said while forcing a polite smile. No words were exchanged afterwards. They both knew it was a damn lie. Nothing was going to change.