by Edeyn Hannah Blackeney
Seriously, folks. Pay fucking attention to the warning tags. This is not a happy shiny story. This is the shit that really happened that led to me having something bottled up inside that I had to write... the stuff that almost drove away Sk8r Grrls fans when I wrote something similar -- a bit of what happened to me -- for Annie in Episode 15. If you just clicked here thinking it couldn't possibly be that bad, here's some disappointing news. It fucking IS that bad. If you ignored the warnings because you didn't see them, this is your warning. If you want to read on, it's at your own damn risk. Complaints about how bad this is will result in my being very... not happy... with you. Last chance to go the fuck away and read something else.
-- a title that DOES have only one word, is safe for everyone to read.
I have always given the benefit of the doubt to my family, family friends, even neighbors and more recently, classmates, roommates, and folks I work with.
"Well," I says to myself, "they just don't know any better. They were raised that way, it's not their fault. They don't mean to be hurtful. It's not like they're trying to attack me or anything."
Bullshit. What the fuck have I been thinking?
My entire life has been a series of my putting up with them, making excuses as to why I 'deserve' to be reviled and hated by people I love. When I was 10 years old -- IN FOURTH GRADE! -- I was molested the first time by a cousin years older than me. That's right, a grown man came to me and told me to be still. I tried to tell him to stop, to make him go away. He told me that grandma told him that I needed to be punished and sissy boys were punished by showing them what it was like to be a girl.
That was believable. Yes, grandma was that evil. But... I found out years later that this was not so. Well, I figured it out before I found out for certain. Joseph did this, raising him to using grandma's evil by proxy. He was an evil unto himself.
For two years, a little less than monthly that worked. When I had a more important secret to keep, I finally realized that whether grandma told him to or not, it was wrong. I tried to put a stop to it. What secret? That's for me to know. I couldn't let him know. I couldn't let anyone know. Anyway. He came to me, again. Like he had so many times before. I told him that it was wrong, and I wasn't going to let him do it anymore.
"Oh, okay. No more visits like this. I promise."
"That's it? Really? All I had to do is tell you to stop?"
"Yes, really. No more. I'll go and have these visits with [sister's name] instead. You don't have to worry anymo --"
"No."
"Excuse me?"
"No, you will NOT touch my sister."
"How do you propose to stop me, girly boy?"
"I know what you're doing."
"Is it working?"
And it continued that way, with the threat of his changing targets to my little sister that kept me under his sway. Three more years. I was scared to DEATH of going away for the summer to a camp that I had worked hard and earned my way into. Only the top academic students in the state got to go. The top 330 kids currently between 10th and 11th grades in the whole state of Missouri. But how could I go and leave her to that monster?
I knew by then I was nothing more than his private whore. I have no illusions about what I was. I gave him sex, even if I didn't willingly participate, and even if I really just lie there and gave him a warm body to use in his way. I fulfilled his sexual appetite, and in return he paid me with leaving my sister alone. With peace of mind that she wouldn't be touched.
Then he went away, in March, two days before the deadline for accepting the camp invite. He wouldn't be back until late September. I accepted the camp invite and finally told my mother and stepfather about the opportunity and that I was going. I told my sister. I told my few friends. I told my teachers. They were all ecstatic, with the exception of my sister. She never really liked me.
The camp would have been wonderful and life-altering, even without the added benefit of avoiding Joseph.
Ah, but homecoming.
Someone I trusted had decided to tell "the family" about my "perverted proclivities" in my absence. While I had been at Missouri Scholars' Academy, she had informed my entire extended family that I was a filthy pervert, "... that likes to dress up in women's clothes." I had now been abandoned to the hell that was family life. I had protected my sister from Joseph, and put up with the abuses that she had visited on me for her entire life... and she had went one step further joining in with the berating and ... just... Mom was trying to pretend that it didn't exist. I think that's when I began to truly hate my sister. I avoided her until I was out of high school and out off to college. Didn't really speak to her again until I was nearly twenty-six, when I finally had to come home for my mother's sake. She came to retrieve me from another state, as I didn't drive at the time... all seemed well, and I had hoped that she had grown up. There's a lot more story there, but that's for another time.
Anyway, when I got home from MSA and was confronted with the fact that my entire extended family thought I was not only a pervert, but one that was going to HAY-ELL! -- I slipped into another depression, but almost no one noticed. I was always "moody" as far as anyone was concerned, and they wanted nothing to do with me. My few friends... I tried to commit suicide in earnest for the first time in late August that year, just before school started, and was 'rescued' by a girlfriend who knew about me and didn't care, and in fact considered me one of her best friends. She would cry about it when I asked about it. I don't remember it. I haven't heard from her in over a decade. Life went on, such as it was, for the Autumn and Winter.
In the Spring, Joseph came back. He came to me one night in early April.
"Go away."
"We've had this discussion."
"Beat it, bright boy."
"Ooh, such spirit."
"Just go away, asshole."
"Maybe I should visit your sister, little man."
"If you so much as looked cross-eyed at [little sister's name], Grandma would kill you where you stood, and we both know it. As much as she hates me, she loves that little brat."
"This changes nothing, and you need to understand that I'm still in charge."
Something in me changed. I snapped.
I spun around and saw him for the first time. He already had his pants off, fer crying out loud! It just made me angrier.
"You want me, Joe?"
"Sh. Not so loud, you'll wake someone."
"I thought they didn't care, big boy?"
I advanced on him, and he took a step back. I reached out and grabbed him by his testicles. I let all of my adrenaline-fueled strength go into the squeeze I began then. He whimpered, and bit his tongue.
"What's the matter, loverboy? Don't like it when the tables are turned?"
I twisted savagely. He bit back a yelp.
"Stop. Please stop, you're hurting me."
I laughed. I would swear it wasn't me. It was like I had become someone else, someone fueled by the need to hurt this sexual predator in the way that he had hurt me so many times before. This would be the fifty-second time.
"That sounds vaguely familiar to something I said to you a long time ago, doesn't it?"
"For God's sake, stop it!"
I cackled. He was actually trying to invoke his deity's name. What a sanctimonious...
He was trying to pry my fingers off of himself by now, and trickles of blood were squeezing through my clenched fingers.
"What's the matter, don't like it rough anymore?"
I pulled viciously and dug my fingernails (what little there was of them) into him. Then I pushed. I had him like puppet strings.
"I'll bet you didn't expect me to actually fight back, did you?"
*whimper*
"Did you?"
*whimper*
"Answer me, dammit!"
"No. No, I didn't. Let me go!"
I reached with my other hand and threw his pants out the window. And I released him. He turned to leave.
"Freeze, fuckhead."
He froze.
"Sit your ass on the bed. You came here for some relief and a show. You're going to get it. You so much as move an ass cheek, and I scream 'Rape!' as loud as I can and we see what [stepfather's name] does to you. Clear?"
*whimper*
"I said... CLEAR?"
He nodded.
"Answer me, you fucking rapist."
"Clear."
I still have no idea what was fueling me. Why I was doing this. I opened the closet, I pulled out a dress -- one of my secret dresses from the back of the closet that my few friends that knew about me had helped me get. It was my dress, but no one in the house had known that, thinking that one of my friends wanted it left there as an emergency change of clothes (what can I say, people will accept really lame excuses to avoid facing the truth, sometimes). I pulled on the clothes I never had the courage to wear except on Hallowe'en. Even if I'd been a 'normal' girl, I wouldn't have had the guts. Fishnet stockings, high-heeled boots. I even put on makeup while he sat there whimpering and whining about his crushed nutsac. I took my time. I was gonna show him the real me. The me that he had never touched, never had his way with. I did my hair, my nails... I even had on the 'corset' that my friends had bought me for my 14th birthday (it was a waist nipper that you could buy in Wal*Mart). I made sure that Hannah was there in the mirror, and you could see the hurt and anger in her eyes that had built up over years and over the past months since returning home from MSA especially. Then I turned back to him.
"This is what you wanted, right?"
"No..."
"Don't fucking LIE to me you --"
"Okay. Yes. You were always a gay little pansy! You were always so girly and you had a hot ass, and you begged to be fucked. I figured it wouldn't make me gay if I used you like you were a bitch."
He realized what he just said and I turned red. All over. Not from shame... the angriest I had ever been at that time. I stepped over to him again, and he turned white. Apparently, I was scary. I silently bemoaned the fact that I didn't have something truly nasty to forcefeed to him. I loomed over him. He forgot to protect his 'assets' though.
I grabbed him again, and a sharp cry escaped from him. I slapped him, hard, with my free hand. I squeezed and twisted until he was prying at my fingers and blubbering like a baby.
"Am I woman enough for you yet?"
"Uhh... it hurts..."
"I could give two shits. Answer the fucking question, cocksucker."
"You... you look good. Pretty. What the hell do you want me to say, you gay little homo?!"
I twisted as hard as I could and his eyes rolled up in his head. I would almost swear I heard a tearing sound. He squeaked.
"Tell me the goddamn truth."
"Okay!"
I eased up a bit.
"You look like a real girl, except the dick between your-- AUUUGHHHH! Sorry! Sorry! With a skirt on, no one would know. Do you really want to be a girl?"
"I am a girl you fuckwit."
"Okay. You're a girl. Like that tennis player. Whatever. I don't care. I'll leave you alone. Honest. Just... let... go!"
"Get out."
"What?"
"You. Out. Now. You're going to get the fuck out of this house. You're never coming back. You're walking out the damn door as soon as I let you go and you're walking away. And you're never touching anyone again. Girl, boy, woman... man. You're living as a celibate hermit or so help me, I'm coming after your sorry ass."
He stared at me.
"Got me?"
That startled him out of his stare. He nodded. I squeezed.
"Augh! Okay! Gotcha!"
I pulled, lifted him to his feet. Well, I wasn't actually lifting him, he stood to follow the part of himself I held. I backed him across the room, out the door, across the living room, and out the front door. I shut and locked it, then went back to the bedroom and reached out the window. I grabbed him by the hair of the head as he was squatting down to pick up his pants.
"I mean it, assmaster. You touch ANYONE... and I'll know."
"Got it."
"Now. GO THE FUCK AWAY!"
Yes, this is based in truth. As true as I remember it. Autobiographical means it was me. I'm sorry if it offends you, but I put warnings in the tags AND at the top with spoiler space, why the fuck did you read it if it offends you?
Comments
predator
Powerful. Why should the truth offend anyone?
Disturbed, sickened, enraged but I wasn't offended.
I'm just sorry that the story was there to write...
~~hugs, Laika
We now return to our regular programming:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTl00248Z48
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Powerful
Thank you very much for sharing such a painful memory. It's important for people to know that this kind of shit happens. Recognizing the problem is the only way to stop it.
I love the way you eventually dealt with the problem and I applaud your determination to keep the fucktard from continuing his wicked ways.
Hugs
- Terry
I'm glad you stood up
Who knows whether you'd even be here today, if you hadn't stood up and taken control?
Comment
You're a good person, Edeyn. You've always been a good person and you'll likely always be a good person. Your torment at the hands of fools and monsters is an affront to all humanity. Know that you have sympathy, support and empathy from every other good person you've touched on the planet.
That I wish you happiness, security and joy should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway. We're all rooting for you, kiddo.
I don't know what kind of sentence your troll cousin got, but it doesn't seem nearly long enough for child rape/pederasty. That he survived prison at all is yet another testament to his trollishness. Here's hoping for an early and violent death for him, preferably before he messes up anyone else's life.
And, here's hoping for enlightenment to somehow sprinkle itself over the members of your family who most need it. It doesn't sound like we should hold our breaths while we're waiting, but we can still hope.
Scumbag!
It was so brave of you to stand up to him and do what you did putting him away. I wondered why he isn't spending the rest of his life behind bars with as many victims as he violated? Maybe by telling your story , you might inspire others to come forward and deal with their own sexual abuse. I really think that Lorena Bobbitt had the right idea. I would love to do that to my best friend's father. He needs to be in prison for what he did to her, but he is walking free. He lives not more than a mile from here. He made her teens years an absolute Hell on Earth! Her mother knew what was going on the whole time and did nothing. She finally divorced him after my friend left home, but the psychological damage has been done. Her mother is so ashamed of herself that she won't even talk to my friend. Every time she shows up at a family function, her mother is reminded of the fact she did nothing and can't deal with her own guilt. I hope that someday, my friend can find peace and courage to face her demons head on. It terrifies me that my friend has fallen into making poor choices in her life. She believes that she cannot function without a man in her life. I understand that it is another consequence of the abuse she suffered. I told her that she needs to just cool it with the men and concentrate on addressing the issues in her life, but it seems to fall on deaf ears. It just saddens me to see such a beautiful caring person destroyed by this horrible pain she carries. Thank you for telling your story Edeyn. You may have inspired others to tell their own stories and begin healing.
Hugs,
Jenn
Nightmare Addendum
I don't know if I made it clear or not. It was all thanks to my sister. If she hadn't outed me, the betrayal and abandonment of my family... the suicide attempt... that is what allowed me to finally stand up a fight. The anger I felt against her fed into the anger against him. When I snapped, had he tried to do anything... ANYTHING... I'd have killed him. I would have went into a blind, screaming, berserker rage and just killed him. It wasn't courage. It was what little of me was left inside the empty shell lashing out before being snuffed like a candle. She didn't do it to help me, but after all was said and done, it gave me the strength to fight. She has never apologized. In fact, in 2006, she left me in a pool of my own vomit and blood to die.
Yes you did warn us
Thank you for that. I read it anyway.
And I thought that life for me was bad; at least I didn't have this to contend with. What I don't understand was how the truth about both you and him could have been ignored by so many people for so long.
Congratulations on having the courage to finally confront the demon and to deal with him. I hope that his time in jail was spent appropriately - i.e. as the bitch of someone in control of him.
My heart goes out to you. No one should have to put up with that shit.
Susie
Confused
I just don't know what to think about it. The style in its written is forced, but this is pretty terrible thing that happend to you. So it seems to fit the story. Although its something that I'm not and don't want to get used to. And I fear I wouldn't be so brave in your palce.
Hugs
Robin
The Strength to Fight, the Strength to Write
Edeyn, Thank you for helping us understand. You are about the bravest person I've ever known. It is not just the residents of BCTS who need to know about you, but the whole damn world -- in particular the people who don't believe things like what happened to you happen to 'decent' people. Have you thought of writing a real book, not vanity press but something that a serious publisher would back? You could do it; you have a story and a gift for telling it. Hugs, Daphne
Daphne
standing up
It is remarkable how freeing standing up can be. I hope you charged his ass though, he deserved it.
"Treat everyone you meet as though they had a sign on them that said "Fragile, under construction"
dorothycolleen
Ummm [he says as he covers his jewels]...
...I'm glad you know the meaning of autobiography. There's a lot of people on the board that don't. We really only have specific abuses of two of your family. You endict practically the whole unit. Is there any chance we get the story on the rest?
I thought it was pretty bad that my brother molested me twice (and it is). That twice was enough to stun me to silence and plummet me to self-hatred...my whole life. Maybe if he had continued with me I would have had the chance to stand up to him and regain my self-respect.
My thanks...
...I read this almost as one of the first entries here soon after arriving. My own memories had only just started, and I was completely paralyzed and could not comment. I have to say this is one of the most powerfully personal things that I have ever read, and I derived and continue to derive so much strength and encouragement from this and so much of your other writing; especially your poetry.
Without examples such as yours, I can say that at the least, I would not be as far along in my journey, and much more than that; you've been an integral part of my healing. I cannot begin to thank you enough for your example. You're a hero to me. Thank you.
Love, Andrea Lena