Best Friend’s Father’s Dark Lessons - Chapter 11: Chapter 11
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The nightmare came without warning.
There I was, pinned beneath Richard Lowell on our dining table while my parents sat oblivious in the next room, hypnotized by some stupid TV show. I screamed until my throat burned, but they might as well have been deaf for all the attention they paid.
The bastard's hot, rancid breath crawled across my neck as I stared helplessly at the ceiling. Then movement caught my eye - Sophia, my ex-best friend, looming over us with eyes full of venom.
"After everything I did for you," she spat, "you go after my father? Answer me, Emily!"
Tears blurred my vision. "I didn't! Please, Sophia—"
"Whore!" She pulled a knife from her coat. The blade flashed as she lunged—
I woke screaming, hospital sheets clinging to my sweat-drenched body.
"Thank God!" Mom crushed my hands in hers. Dad wept openly beside her.
The sterile white walls slowly oriented me. Wait... I should be dead. How—?
Then Sophia appeared in the doorway, her face a mask of shame. "Emily... I was wrong. So wrong."
My parents' expressions turned gut-wrenchingly guilty. "We failed you," Mom choked out. "Believing that monster over our own daughter... Can you ever—?"
Here's what really happened: Sophia had found Richard's secret stash before my parents confronted him - dozens of photos showing what he'd done to other girls. Some crawled naked on leashes. Others bore angry red welts. Several lay bound with crimson ropes.
That evidence broke her. Watching me jump nearly destroyed her. She'd hesitated turning in her own father - until realizing more girls would suffer. After the ambulance took me away, she marched straight to the police.
The rumors? Richard's handiwork - anonymous posts to isolate me, make me easier prey.
When the truth exploded online, the school had no choice. Gossips got warnings. The homeroom teacher and her creep nephew got fired. Richard got life.
After recovery, we moved. New city. Fresh start. Slowly, I became myself again.
Senior year blurred by in a haze of textbooks. Got into my dream college. Landed a sweet FAANG gig after graduation.
Three years later, I brought home my software engineer boyfriend - great job, kinder heart. Figured my parents would love him.
But dinner turned weird fast. They just pushed food around, silent as ghosts. Normally they'd fake politeness at least. What the hell?
"Okay, what's going on?" My fork clattered against my plate.
They looked up with identical expressions of disgust.
My pulse pounded. "Seriously, tell me!"
"We raised you better than this!" Dad hissed.
"Than what?"
"Sleeping with a man my age!"
"What? He's twenty—"
I turned to my boyfriend—except he wasn't young anymore. And that face...
Ice flooded my veins. Richard Lowell.
But he was in prison! How—?
I bolted up, chair crashing behind me. The front door had become solid drywall.
They advanced on me, arms outstretched like zombies.
Cornered, I thrashed wildly. "Get away!"
Fingers closed around my throat. Darkness won.
When consciousness returned, I floated weightless. Distant wails pulled me toward the school field below.
A crowd surrounded my broken body. Parents collapsed. Students turned away. My mom and dad cradled my corpse, howling. Sophia stood apart, crying too hard to look.
Then I understood. Everything since the fall had been my dying brain's farewell fantasy.
Because obviously—no one survives five stories.
I drifted to Sophia's house just as cops hauled Richard away. Some woman I didn't know guided her to a car, arm around her shaking shoulders.
The scene shifted: My parents before my memorial. Mom fainted mid-anguish. Dad just stood trembling, jaw clenched at my photo.
Another shift: Dad storming into school with newspaper-wrapped steel. Before I could react, he buried a switchblade in the homeroom teacher's gut. She collapsed, bubbling blood until stillness took her.
Dad didn't run. Just knelt whispering, "Forgive me..."
I reached for his tears—forgetting I had no hands.
As I stared at my ghostly fingers, a white-bearded man materialized. "Child," he murmured, "come."
We passed through shimmering gates to a glowing bridge. At its end swirled an azure vortex.
His hand at my back, I stepped into the light. Warmth swallowed me whole.
There I was, pinned beneath Richard Lowell on our dining table while my parents sat oblivious in the next room, hypnotized by some stupid TV show. I screamed until my throat burned, but they might as well have been deaf for all the attention they paid.
The bastard's hot, rancid breath crawled across my neck as I stared helplessly at the ceiling. Then movement caught my eye - Sophia, my ex-best friend, looming over us with eyes full of venom.
"After everything I did for you," she spat, "you go after my father? Answer me, Emily!"
Tears blurred my vision. "I didn't! Please, Sophia—"
"Whore!" She pulled a knife from her coat. The blade flashed as she lunged—
I woke screaming, hospital sheets clinging to my sweat-drenched body.
"Thank God!" Mom crushed my hands in hers. Dad wept openly beside her.
The sterile white walls slowly oriented me. Wait... I should be dead. How—?
Then Sophia appeared in the doorway, her face a mask of shame. "Emily... I was wrong. So wrong."
My parents' expressions turned gut-wrenchingly guilty. "We failed you," Mom choked out. "Believing that monster over our own daughter... Can you ever—?"
Here's what really happened: Sophia had found Richard's secret stash before my parents confronted him - dozens of photos showing what he'd done to other girls. Some crawled naked on leashes. Others bore angry red welts. Several lay bound with crimson ropes.
That evidence broke her. Watching me jump nearly destroyed her. She'd hesitated turning in her own father - until realizing more girls would suffer. After the ambulance took me away, she marched straight to the police.
The rumors? Richard's handiwork - anonymous posts to isolate me, make me easier prey.
When the truth exploded online, the school had no choice. Gossips got warnings. The homeroom teacher and her creep nephew got fired. Richard got life.
After recovery, we moved. New city. Fresh start. Slowly, I became myself again.
Senior year blurred by in a haze of textbooks. Got into my dream college. Landed a sweet FAANG gig after graduation.
Three years later, I brought home my software engineer boyfriend - great job, kinder heart. Figured my parents would love him.
But dinner turned weird fast. They just pushed food around, silent as ghosts. Normally they'd fake politeness at least. What the hell?
"Okay, what's going on?" My fork clattered against my plate.
They looked up with identical expressions of disgust.
My pulse pounded. "Seriously, tell me!"
"We raised you better than this!" Dad hissed.
"Than what?"
"Sleeping with a man my age!"
"What? He's twenty—"
I turned to my boyfriend—except he wasn't young anymore. And that face...
Ice flooded my veins. Richard Lowell.
But he was in prison! How—?
I bolted up, chair crashing behind me. The front door had become solid drywall.
They advanced on me, arms outstretched like zombies.
Cornered, I thrashed wildly. "Get away!"
Fingers closed around my throat. Darkness won.
When consciousness returned, I floated weightless. Distant wails pulled me toward the school field below.
A crowd surrounded my broken body. Parents collapsed. Students turned away. My mom and dad cradled my corpse, howling. Sophia stood apart, crying too hard to look.
Then I understood. Everything since the fall had been my dying brain's farewell fantasy.
Because obviously—no one survives five stories.
I drifted to Sophia's house just as cops hauled Richard away. Some woman I didn't know guided her to a car, arm around her shaking shoulders.
The scene shifted: My parents before my memorial. Mom fainted mid-anguish. Dad just stood trembling, jaw clenched at my photo.
Another shift: Dad storming into school with newspaper-wrapped steel. Before I could react, he buried a switchblade in the homeroom teacher's gut. She collapsed, bubbling blood until stillness took her.
Dad didn't run. Just knelt whispering, "Forgive me..."
I reached for his tears—forgetting I had no hands.
As I stared at my ghostly fingers, a white-bearded man materialized. "Child," he murmured, "come."
We passed through shimmering gates to a glowing bridge. At its end swirled an azure vortex.
His hand at my back, I stepped into the light. Warmth swallowed me whole.
End of Best Friend’s Father’s Dark Lessons Chapter 11. View all chapters or return to Best Friend’s Father’s Dark Lessons book page.