Torn From the Inside Out (The Torn Trilogy)

Literary Narrative Memoir with a domestic violence theme.
In 1987, Sara Niles was forced to flee for her life with five small children, during a cold February thunderstorm.

Excerpt from 'The Beginning'

The room was small, and the courtroom-grey walls created a slight echo, or perhaps it was just my imagination. I had to go so far back into my mind that the present environment closed in on me. Of the five people in the room Kathryn Shipp was the most imposing: she was 6 feet tall, stood military straight with sharply cropped blue-black hair. and blue eyes that were intense. She needed everything from me, she had to have the ‘feel’ of the whole story, not just the facts, so she demanded more than just a story, and she wanted a recreation of my life. Kathy Shipp was one of the best attorneys in the state and her client was a domestic abuse victim who had snapped and killed her abuser, so Kathy Shipp needed me to show her why a good little girl could empty a gun on a man with his back turned. I knew why she did it, I knew what she felt, and if it took revealing my soul to help, I would. So I went back to the images of my beginnings and the people and events that shaped my life to make me who I am. There were many forces that forged me, some gentle and kind, and some harsh and violent; there were also many people who contributed to the final product that I call me.
In the process of my evolution, I became a victim of domestic war, an emotional casualty for a major portion of my life, entwined, entrapped and emotionally involved, until I learned how to become free. Freedom has never been easily gained and has often come at high cost throughout history, but one thing I will always know is freedom is worth every fight, and all pain.
In every life there is a timeless and unforgettable minute or day that will be forever etched into our mind’s memory. I have unforgettable memories that are so vivid that I see them in Technicolor, and I hear them with surround sound. Long after I am dead, I believe, I will remember. Two of those memories were the days of my escape to freedom…twice.
 

Excerpt from chapter one:


“Thunder rattled the window- panes two stories high, and lightning split the sky, it was as if the whole world was in turmoil that night. My nerves were keyed up as tight as piano strings, and in a sudden moment of stillness and silence, it felt as though my heartbeat was amplified ten times over. He was over a hundred pounds greater than I, and nearly a foot taller than I, and I knew he could move his muscled body into unbelievable sprints. Rain started falling in torrents as the storm raged outside. I was not afraid of the storms of nature; it was the storm inside this night that I knew I might not survive”

February 13th, 1987, the night of Sara Niles’ disappeared with her five small children.

Table of Contents
Contents
Part I Living on the 'Flower Bed of Eden'
Chapter 1 The Garden of Eden
Chapter 2 Golden Memories
Chapter 3 The Age of Innocence
Chapter 4 Upheaval
Chapter 5 The Suitor
Chapter 6 The Wedding
Part II Descent Into the Abyss of Hell
Chapter 7 Storm Brewing
Chapter 8 Foreboding
Chapter 9 Into the Lair
Chapter 10 Bonding
Chapter 11 Shattered Dreams
Chapter 12 Meanderings of a Lost Mind
Chapter 13 Into the Fire
Chapter 14 Gain and Loss
Chapter 15 Baby Thomas
Chapter 16 Evolution
Chapter 17 Touchstones
Chapter 18 Para Normal
Chapter 19 Paranoia
Chapter 20 Yellow Roses
Chapter 21 Enter Ariel
Part III The Butterfly Borrows Eagle Wings
Chapter 22 Building Resentment
Chapter 23 The Fight
Chapter 24 The Gambler
Chapter 25 Full Fledged Chaos
Chapter 26 Post Trauma Distress
Chapter 27 The Breaking Point
Chapter 28 The Milestone
Chapter 29 The Power Struggle
Chapter 30 The Awakening
Chapter 31 The Cold War
Chapter 32 Imminent Danger
Chapter 33 Retrospection
Chapter 34 The Crucible
Chapter 35 The Flight
Chapter 36 Reconnoiter