The Cupboard

Tommy and his mother are trapped within a cycle of violence, terrorised by Tommy’s stepfather.

To cope, Tommy escapes into a fantasy-world in his mind, where he is a Hero and fights against the cruel Villain.

Until the day Tommy’s two worlds collide and Tommy makes a choice that will change his life forever…

Formats: ebook $0.99

Genre/s: contemporary

Audience: general

Length: short story

Available from your favourite retailer here.

Excerpt:

It wasn’t completely dark in the cupboard. Light seeped in through the slats on the close-louvred wooden door, not enough to see by but enough to form a pale haze and relieve the darkness a little.

For Tommy, that trickle of light was life.

He had spent untold hours barricaded inside the cupboard, curled on the floor with a shelf barely inches above his rounded shoulder, but he was still afraid of the dark. Things could happen in the dark, things that he couldn’t see to dodge or brace himself against. He’d stayed awake nearly all night, his body cramping, aching, then finally settling down to a persistent, throbbing numbness. The screaming had stopped hours ago but the sudden impact of fist or empty beer can against the walls, the thudding of heavy angry feet, kept him balanced on the edge between nervous terror and exhaustion.

He wondered where his mother was. Usually when the worst was over she would come and let him out, her face thin and drawn and freshly marked. She would say nothing, just rub at his bony limbs to get the blood circulating again. Tommy was only six, but he understood. She was as trapped as he was.