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PERVERSE PERIODS AND STOLEN INNOCENCE

Lizzie

APRIL 5, 2000

B ECAUSE WE WERE FLYING OUT TO MEET OUR PARENTS FIRST THING IN THE MORNING and Caoimhe had one final babysitting job tonight, she decided to give us both the day off school to finishing packing our suitcases and cleaning the house.

I was glad of the day off because when I woke up this morning, it was to horrendous stomach and back pain. When I told Caoimhe about it, she put it down to period cramps and asked me if I was due on.

When I told her I had no idea and didn’t keep track of those things, she gave me paracetamol for the pain and told me to “suck it up, buttercup.”

It didn’t help.

By the time three o’clock rolled around and Hugh was due to arrive to spend the evening with me, I was in agony and could hardly stand.

Of course, when I dragged myself to her room to tell my sister this, I found a note to say she’d gone to the shops and would be home for dinner.

Great .

“Holy fuck,” Hugh exclaimed when he walked into my room and took one look at my face. “Jesus, Liz.” Dropping his schoolbag at my bedroom door, he rushed to my side. “Are you okay?”

“Sorry,” I squeezed out, devastated that I was buckled over in pain on the last day I would see him for a whole month. “I’m just…” Hissing out a breath when a sharp pain ricocheted through my pelvis, I grabbed his arm and whimpered. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

“Here, just hold on to my arm, and I’ll take you.” Wrapping an arm around my waist, Hugh helped me into the bathroom before asking, “Should I call a doctor?” His voice was laced with concern. “Because you don’t look too good, Liz.”

“No, I’ll be grand,” I strangled out, pushing him out of the bathroom. “Just give me a sec, okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” he replied, looking panicked when I closed the door in his face.

“Liz? Are you okay in there? It’s been twenty minutes.”

Hugh continued to knock on the closed bathroom door, but I couldn’t answer him.

I was too scared of the blood running down my legs.

“Liz, if you don’t answer me, I’m coming in there.”

“No, no, don’t come in,” I called back, biting down on my fist when the pain threatened to overtake me. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

There was a pause and then his voice filled my ears. “Are you sure?”

“Yep,” I squeezed out, attention riveted to the plum-sized glob of blood that had fallen out of my body and onto my bathroom floor.

I wasn’t sure what it was, but it wasn’t my period.

It looked like a clump of veins.

It looked like a monster.

Terrified, I reached for another towel from the rack and shoved it between my legs.