Ghosts and Monsters I met along the way (multi- book series)

As a child, I grew up in an abusive household. One night when I was lying in bed listening to my parents fight, I saw an arm reach out from under my bed and shut my door to dampen the noise coming from up the stairs. I quietly said, "Thank you."

As the fight became louder downstairs, the creature under my bed handed me my teddy bear. As I heard banging downstairs and glass breaking, I climbed out of my bed and lay on the floor. The monster under the bed took my hand and held it. I fell asleep, and when I woke up the following morning, I was back in my bed with the blanket over me. When I got up to use the bathroom, I found the door had been locked. 

Walking downstairs, I found my Mom sitting at the kitchen table. When I walked in, my Mother looked up and said, "When you get home today, please clean the dishes and try to stay out of your father's path."

I nodded and went to get cereal out of the pantry, but I did not find any. My Mom said, "Go ahead and get some things out of the fridge. You can eat it for breakfast. Take this money and get lunch. Hurry up and get ready to go to school."

Making a sandwich, I ate that and some chips for breakfast. Then I went back to my room and got ready for school. When I was dressed, I heard the front door slam open, and my Dad yelled at my Mom, "Why are you not at work?"

She was quiet, but said, "Abbie was here, we can't leave her alone. I called my boss and explained I was going to be late. They were alright with it."

"Where is she then?" He asked.

"She is almost ready, and I am going to drop her off at the school first, then head to work," Mom said. "Can you pick her up? I can stay late to make up the time if you can."

"No, I will not pick her up," He spat. "That is a woman's job. I only came back because I forgot my tool belt."

The door slammed again, and Mom knocked on my door. She came in and said, "Let's go, sweetie."

As we walked to the school, Mom asked, "Abbie, would you mind if we went to stay with your Grandparents?"

"We are leaving Dad?" I asked.

"Yes," She said. "We cannot keep going through this."

I nodded and said, "I don't like that he hits you."

"Neither do I," she said. "Things will get better."

"So what will happen then?" I asked.

"We are going to secretly pack the next few days," She said. "Then we will not come home one day."

"Did you talk to Grandma and Grandpa about us coming to live there?" I asked.

"Yes," Mom said. "It is taking everything for Grandpa not to come and beat him."

"Mom, the weekend is in three days," I said. "I have an idea."

"What is the idea?" She asked.

"When Dad gets home tonight," I said. "Tell Dad you know he has been working so hard and that you think he should spend some money and go camping all weekend at the fishing camp. You know he will jump for it, especially since we were supposed to be working on the house. Then we can move before Sunday when he is supposed to come home."

"Okay, that sounds like a good idea," She said. "I am not going to work today. Grandma is coming by and bringing me boxes. We are going to hide everything in the attic and the laundry room.  Grandpa has created an apartment for us in the basement. He is done, and it has a room for each of us, a living room, storage, and a bathroom. The living room will also have a mini fridge, a toaster oven, a microwave, a coffee pot, and a storage cabinet, so we have our own area. There is also a door from the outside so we can leave out the door."

"Will I have to switch schools?" I asked.

"Yes," She said. "My boss found out what your dad has been doing to me when she saw the bruises. She is fielding the calls for me for the next few days, so I can pack, telling everyone I am doing a project in my office and I cannot be interrupted. I am using vacation time until we are moved. The new office is two blocks from Grandma's house and across the street from your new school."

"So it is a secret," I said.

"Yes," She said. "You cannot tell anyone."

When we got to the school she dropped me off and I saw Grandma waiting around the corner. I went in and sat through school. When I got out of school, Mom was waiting outside with Grandma. Mom looked like she had been crying and Grandma said, "It will be alright. Packing up your life can be very stressful."

In the bed of Grandma's truck, I saw a bunch of boxes labeled for different rooms in the apartment. Grandma hugged us and said, "Abbie, if he starts to hit Mom again, use your phone and call us. I will call later tonight and see how things are."

We walked home, and when we got there, Dad was in the kitchen with his boss. Hos boss said, "Well Hello ladies, it has been a while."

Mom gave a smile and said, "Hello. If I knew you both would be here so early we would have hurried home faster."

Dad said, "It is alright. I came to pick up some of my clothes we have a work trip I have to leave for."

Mom said, "Oh how long will you be gone."

"Why," His boss said. "Are you trying to get rid of him?"

Laughing Mom replied, "Yes."

Dad's head snapped up as Mom touched his arm and said, "It is going to be a beautiful weekend, and I was going to surprise him by sending him to the fishcamp to stay there for the weekend to relax and decompress. He has been working so hard and we wanted to show him how much we appreciate him."

"Your a lucky man," Dads boss said to him. "We are going to be gone till Tuesday of next week. What are you ladies going to do?"

Mom said, "Well deep clean the house. With the spring weather soming in it is the perfect time."

Dad took out his wallet and handed Mom money, saying, "Well you said you wanted to get stuff done. This should help with cleaning supplies."

I excused myself and saw Dads phone on the counter of the bathroom, and added a tracking link through google. That way, we could track where he was with the laptop we have. When I came out I asked him, "Dad are you leaving the laptop here I have a project to do for school."

He nodded and said, "The password is kittykitty."

I hugged him and said, "Thank you and you left your phone in the bathroom."

He patted his pocket and went to het his phone from the bathroom. He came back out and said, "I will see you on Tuesday."

Mom and I waved as he left with his boss. When he was gone, we went in and I grabbed the laptop and pulled up the tracking for his phone."

Mom said, "You are tracking his phone?"

"Yes," I said. "I do not trust Dad."

She called Grandma and told her, "He is out of town working, and Abbie is tracking his location. When it shows he is far enough away you can come back, and we will pack more. He did not notice that some of the things were gone and he didn't see that a lot of Abbie's stuff was packed."

When she hung up she said, "Bring the laptop, we are going to pack the spare bedroom. It is mostly my things and I am bringing the furniture for my room.

Abbie- Main