And No One Stopped Them | Part 11

How To Damage A Child For Decades Without Being In The Room

Secret nighttime traumas I never revealed

Liberty Forrest
7 min readOct 15, 2021

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Frightened man’s eyes
(Photo courtesy of samer daboul from Pexels)

Once again, I was startled out of sleep by the terrifying sounds of my father violently retching and moaning over the toilet on the other side of the wall by my bed.

Shocked and frightened, I didn’t dare move. I hated those nights, hated them with such passion there are no words.

It was so horrible, I began to feel sick, too. It went on for what seemed like days. I lay there with my pillow over my head, my fingers in my ears, humming and biting my teeth together repeatedly, trying unsuccessfully to drown out the horrifying sounds. I was paralyzed with fear.

And then I was equally terrified when the sounds stopped and it was deathly silent on the other side of the wall. I was certain that he must be dead this time, having been so violently sick. I began to shiver and shake uncontrollably.

But as with so many other occasions upon which he’d had far too much to drink, he was not dead. And I knew it would probably just be a few days before I’d awaken to the same nightmare.

Or to the other one that was becoming all-too-frequent since he started these evening entertaining…

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Liberty Forrest
Liberty Forrest

Written by Liberty Forrest

Creator of “Witchy” cartoon. Award-Winning Author. Perennial Big Kid. Devoted Pizza Lover. Follow my novel-writing adventures on my pub, The Novelist's Journey

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