BOO!
I’ve never understood why some people think it’s funny to scare other people. I really can’t think of one thing that is funny about someone jumping out from behind a door and scaring me.
Bill was one of those people who got a real kick out of that. I would be walking through the house and he would be hiding around the corner or behind a door and jump out yelling “BOO”. It would scare me so bad and he would just laugh and laugh until he was almost crying. I remember that as I became older I had become almost paranoid about it. Whenever he was in the house and I had to go to the kitchen or bathroom, I would walk slowly and cautiously looking to see if he was hiding somewhere. I was hoping to see him before he saw me so I wouldn’t get scared.
Bill would also chase me through the house. Once he caught me he would tickle me until my stomach hurt so bad I would almost cry. I would beg him to stop but he would keep tickling me. I remember once when he was chasing me through the house that my fingers got slammed in a door. My middle finger got the worst of it and blood sprayed out from under my fingernail. I was rolling on the floor holding my hand and crying. I eventually lost two fingernails from that incident.
Bill also thought it was funny to lock me in closets and the trunk of the car. He would jump out of a closet to scare me and then push me in the closet and hold the door shut. I would try to open the door but he would hold it shut and laugh. It wasn’t until I either cried or just stopped trying that he would let me out. On at least a couple of occasions I remember him locking me in the trunk of the car. He wouldn’t drive anywhere with me in the trunk, just leave me there until he decided to let me out. I remember that the trunk was much more scary because I was actually “locked” in the trunk. It wasn’t like he was just holding a door shut.
I suspect that the purpose of all this was to make it perfectly clear that he was in control and to bring me to the point of always being submissive to him. What I learned from this as a child was to always be thinking ahead, always be out thinking the other. If I could predict the hiding place, stay away from the closets or just wait until Bill was not around, I could avoid the situations.
Darkness Finds This Child 
Your writing has flair (Y)
After these incidents, did you still feel you could trust him?
You know, it’s funny because as a child I was forced to overcome fears that I should never have had to face let alone have to face them in a very unnatural way that was not on my terms. I believe it was a mixed bag, I was subtly afraid of him yet he never allowed me to get hurt and always followed through on what he said so in a very sick way, yes I still trusted him.
First, let me say that I think you are so brave for doing this blog. I believe you will bring light and healing to those you touch, and I wish that for you. Second, I always hated the “Boo” thing, and also was tortured by tickling. I never considered myself an abuse victim, not experiencing the difficult things that you have experienced. But there is a whole element to the control thing, the submission thing, that I never considered before. Eye opening.
Thank you for your comment. It wasn’t until many years later that I saw it in that light. I remember reflecting on it one day and thinking how trapped I felt and that’s when it occurred to me that there was a more sinister purpose for it.