Tom thought: surprise, surprise. As much as he felt bad about Kyle’s violent demise, right now he was glad the son of a bitch was dead.
Erin went on. “Anyway, Kyle made me keep doing the porn shots and apparently made good money off of them on the websites. He was thrilled at how much money was rolling in ‘for such little work,’ as he put it. But it wasn’t enough-he always wanted more and to expand his horizons. So, he started shooting porn movies.”
“Don’t tell me-”
“Yes, I was the star of them, too. There were a few other guys he knew that joined in as time went by. Kyle would create these retarded ‘screenplays’ where I would like, come home from school, wearing my plaid skirt with my hair in pigtails, and start watching television in my bedroom. I’d hear a knock at my window and it would be some older guy staring in at me. I’d let him inside and start undressing while he played with himself. It was so stupid and disgusting!
“There were a couple of other girls he would occasionally use in the videos, too. One of them was only ten or eleven. That was when I finally drew the line. I told him flatly that I was not going to be a part of this sick shit anymore!”
“What did you do?”
“Well, he of course beat the shit out of me. He said that I would do what he wanted me to do or he would throw me out on the street. I told him that was fine, that I was going to leave him anyway. That made him even madder and he beat me some more. He beat me so bad that I was knocked unconscious for hours. When I came to, it was morning and Kyle wasn’t in the apartment. But he had tied me to the bed and locked me in the bedroom.”
“What happened when he returned?” Tom asked.
She smiled. “I don’t know-I wasn’t there when he got back!”
“You managed to escape?”
“Yeah! What Kyle didn’t know was that there was a pair of scissors in the nightstand. I managed to get close enough to work them out of the drawer and cut off the rope. Then, I figured a way out of the bedroom. There was a fire escape outside the window but Kyle either forgot about it or figured that even if I did manage to untie myself, I would never have the nerve to climb out onto the rickety thing. That’s where he misjudged me,” she added.
“So I packed up a few things, took some money I had stashed under the rug and left by way of the window. When I stepped out onto the fire escape, it shook and squeaked like it was going to collapse with me on it. But I was determined to get out of that place one way or another, so I walked over to the edge, tossed my bag onto the sidewalk and hang-dropped twelve feet onto the concrete. I sprained my ankle, but at least I made it!”
“Good for you. Where did you go?”
“I didn’t waste any time-I took the subway to the Greyhound station on Eighth Avenue and bought a one-way ticket to Cleveland. It took every cent I had.”
“So you went back to your parents?”
“No. I knew that Kyle would come looking for me so I stayed with my best friend, Courtney for awhile to figure out what I was going to do next.”
“But what about your foster parents? Why didn’t you simply go back to them and let them take care of Kyle in case he ever tried to track you down?”
“You know what he’s capable of! The man was a raging druggie by then and would have done anything to force me to go back to New York with him. The last thing I wanted to do was put my parents in the same dangerous position you had been in.”
Tom realized that she had indeed been very wise keeping her parents out of the picture. “So what did you do?”
“I needed money so I called my foster parents just to see if they would loan me some. That was the stupidest thing I could’ve done, obviously. They begged me to come home, but I told them I couldn’t, that I needed to live my own life. After I realized that they weren’t going to give me any money, I told mom goodbye and that I loved her. That’s when she broke down and cried, then told me that someone had been looking for me earlier that day.”
“Kyle,” Tom said.
“Yeah. He’d actually had the nerve to call the house and ask for me! I couldn’t believe it!”
“So what happened next?”
“Courtney had a friend she knew who offered to drive me to Columbus if I wanted to go. I didn’t have much choice since Kyle was in town and hot on my tracks so I said yes. Courtney gave me all the money she had-seventy-five dollars-and Matt picked me up later that afternoon. And that’s how I ended up in Columbus. I stayed with a friend of Matt’s who went to Ohio State until I could find a job and get on my feet. I eventually earned enough to get my own apartment in Worthington and the rest as they say is history.”
“So why did Kyle try to find you again after all of this time, you suppose?” Tom asked.
Erin shook her head. “The guy was sick, that’s all I can tell you. He got so strung out on drugs that he just suddenly lost it and decided that he had to get me back-apparently to start exploiting me again, judging by our conversation on the way to New York. All I know for sure is that there was no way he was ever going to let me leave him again. He would’ve definitely killed me first.”
Well, at least you don’t have to worry about that now, Tom thought with more than a little satisfaction.
They lapsed into silence. Tom thought about Erin and wondered how she had managed to remain so together after all of the baggage she had been carrying most of her young life. He thought back to the way Kyle had spoken to her-his condescending and demeaning attitude toward her and total lack of respect. How could someone put up with someone like him as long as she had? And how could someone have the gall to imply that she was a slut when in fact Erin had done nothing but what she been forced to do at his hand?
But perhaps the most troubling aspect about Erin Myers was that she literally had no family now, and never really had. Her foster families had been either unwilling to make any sacrifices to keep her or dysfunctional and abusive. What would it be like to never know who your biological parents were? Or if you had any siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents somewhere out there?
It all seemed inconceivable to Tom. He tried to imagine going through life being tossed into random homes with random people who were expected to pretend to love and care about you as if you were their own but in reality lacked the real, rock-solid commitment that true blood parents possessed. Granted, it was better than nothing he supposed, but there were no guarantees and plenty of risks, considering what Erin’s second adoptive “father” had done to her.
Tom’s thoughts shifted to his own family and he wondered where they were now. He stared out at the dark highway, void of any traffic just as it had been the entire return trip, and realized that most likely nothing had changed since leaving Columbus the day before. Peg and the kids would still be gone. The rest of the world would still be gone…
And all that would be left in the world would be he and Erin.
CHAPTER 14
It was 8:20 PM when Tom pulled off the I-71 exit at Morse Road. They hadn’t seen a single vehicle the entire trip and Columbus looked the same as the day before except for the snow that had begun melting away in the warmer temperature.
Tom was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep. He would of course gladly trade that in to see his family again. Erin had mentioned that she would like to go to her apartment to get some clothes, so Tom drove past Indianola toward High Street.
“It looks as dead as ever, Tom,” she said quietly.
“Yeah, I know. But I don’t think either of us is too surprised.”
“Nope, I’m not. After all, when you drive thirteen hours and don’t see a single car on the road, you don’t expect to arrive here and see all kinds of people milling around.”