Dancing with the Devil
Amy Norman
Author Bio
Amy Norman lives with her son and daughter in Sydney, Australia. Apart from writing, she spends her days sharing her story in the hope of encouraging other women to break free from violent relationships.
Description
Amy Norman was an average middle-class Australian schoolgirl who dreamed of being a ballet dancer. But, at the age of sixteen, she fell in with the wrong crowd. She dropped out of school and left her loving family for Dean, a man whose life was dominated by drugs. Within only a few years she had had two children by him, had become hooked on drugs herself, and was being beaten up every single day.
Amy desperately tried to escape from Dean and return to her family. But each time she was forced back to him after he threatened to kill her, her children, and her parents. Finally, after years of living in fear, Amy took the children and spent a few years travelling around Australia, changing her identity frequently to avoid being tracked down.
In this searingly honest memoir, Amy provides a terrifying insight into why so may women find it hard to leave when they are trapped in a violence relationship. This book will leave you speechless at the depth of one woman’s courage and enthralled by the story of how she survives and eventually triumphs over her life with the devil Dancing with the Devil is a gruelling yet heartwarming story that will give hope to the many battered women out there who are still suffering.
Dancing with the Devil was first published in 2005 by Random House (Bantam) in Australia and New Zealand. In 2006, it was published by John Blake Publishing in the UK under the name Living with the Devil.
This extended version contains the original story, ready for a new generation of readers, as well as a continuation of the story for readers to find out what became of Amy and her children, Kate and Jack.
“Why did he hit me? What did I do? These questions raced continuously through my mind but always remained unanswered. I wasn’t sure whether it was because there wasn’t an answer or whether I was just too stupid to see it. I walked up the steps to our front door, hearing the racket of the unsavoury neighbourhood we called home.Children crying, sirens wailing, people yelling. This is the place where scum thrives and hope dies.”
“I am not sure how much exists of the person I once was, but in her place stands a powerful, resilient woman who is no longer scared of the shadows.”
Book excerpt
Prologue
In the devil’s world chaos rules, Satan is an inspiration and love knows no existence. Light is extinguished like a flickering candle on the back of a cool breeze, and the warmth of life disappears, to be replaced by cold terror and dark shadows hovering like vultures, silently waiting, invading your dreams, your thoughts, your soul. Destroying your very being, everything you are and everything you thought you could be.
My world changed forever the day the devil chose me. Embracing me tightly, seductively, sucking the life from me, making me his own. Ensnaring me in a world which was unfamiliar, a world where people got what they wanted, no matter the means or the consequence. This was his world.
A world where drugs, alcohol, violence and crime are normal pastimes and often lead to profitable and acceptable ways of living. If you can’t get it yourself, then just take it from someone else. It doesn’t matter who you step on, as long as nobody steps on you. Life is fast, cruel and dangerous.
The devil’s hold is hypnotic, mesmerising. Don’t be fooled, there is no escape, he will make you feel that you are the only one for him, the only one who can satisfy him. That he is the only one who can satisfy you.
The devil has many faces and you are going to meet them all. I have been up close and personal, I have looked into his eyes and I have seen my life explode in them like a shooting star in a black sky. I have seen his chaos and tasted his acid hatred. I have felt the tremendous force of his existence and power of his reign.
In order to survive, I needed to learn the rules of the game. And I did; I learnt to play his twisted games better than he did. I mastered his deceitful, cunning ways. I learnt to seek protection from the same people I feared and I learnt that things are not always as they seem.
I am not sure how much exists of the person I once was, but in her place stands a powerful, resilient woman who is no longer scared of the shadows.
Heaven, I have not yet seen. Hell, I have lived.
Chapter 1
I stopped to take in the view, my legs burning from the climb. It was beautiful up here, I remembered the sense of peace I used to feel and let its welcome relief was over me, flooding every tiny pore.
I sat at the edge of the cliff, my feet dangling towards the tree-filled valley below. The branches of the tallest eucalypts reached for me as if to shroud me in their embrace should I fall. This was my mountain; it knew my deepest secrets, my darkest thoughts. It knew my deepest secrets, my darkest thoughts. It knew my fears, my hopes and my dreams. It knew how to soothe me in times of despair, and I had been gone too long.
I feel its welcome in the faintest breath of a breeze gently caressing my cheeks, in the rays of light gleaming through the green canopy above. I closed my eyes and breathed as deeply as I could. Filling my lungs with its raw, fresh beauty.
Author Website
http://www.amycnorman.com
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