BIDDEFORD — “How did we get here?

“Actually, that is not what I was thinking as I was frozen in place, on my knees, eyes unblinking and staring wide-eyed up at my husband while he held his service weapon in my mouth. Time seemed to have stopped. I couldn’t breathe. ”¦

“In a calm, almost nonchalant voice, and a slight shrug of his shoulders, he said, ”˜Go ahead. Call. Before you finish dialing, I could pull this trigger and claim that it was self-defense. You just went loopy. They would believe it, too.’”

This is a passage written by Rachel, whose last name is withheld to protect her identity. It is one of several stories written by local survivors of domestic violence abuse, which will be performed in dramatic readings.

The Survivor Stories Project was created by Caring Unlimited, a Sanford-based nonprofit that helps victims of domestic violence, to raise awareness about the issue. The stories are being performed this month in Biddeford and Sanford because October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The first performance was held earlier this month in York.

Rachel’s husband, who abused her, was a police officer, she said.

The threat on her life that time occurred because she was preparing a favorite meal for her children. Her husband was supposed to be eating out, but when he came home unexpectedly to a meal he didn’t like, he became enraged. Before putting a gun to his wife’s mouth, he swept the counter with his arm, knocking everything off, overturned furniture in the living room and pulled out some of her hair in his fist.

Despite this violent outburst, it was two years before Rachel worked up the courage to leave the man who she said had changed dramatically from the boy she met in Sunday School when she was just 5.

Rachel said she and the children she shares with her former husband have rarely seen or heard from him in the past 16 years.

“It was rough” when she first left him, she said. For several months, the family was homeless and stayed at a shelter in York County.

Eventually, Rachel went back to school and got a job. After some years of hard work, the family was finally able to afford a home.

Today, she said, “my kids are doing great” and are “successful.”

She wrote and shared her story, said Rachel, because people need to know, “it’s not OK to be abusive” and that “it’s OK to get help.

“We’re all human. It’s not a weakness. I think your family will benefit in the long run,” said Rachel.

Although the stories performed in the Survival Stories Project are by anonymous authors, “These are actually stories of experiences of domestic violence in York County,” said Caring Unlimited spokeswoman Emily Gormley.

The purpose of the performances “is to help create awareness of what happens right here in York County,” she said, “and seeing that abuse does happen and can happen.”

Caring Unlimited helps approximately 3,000 people in York County each year, according to the organization’s website.

Some of the services it offers victims of domestic abuse include: a 24-hour hotline, emergency shelter, legal assistance, outreach services and transitional housing and services. The 24-hour hotline number is 800-239-7298. For more information, call 490-3227 or visit the website www.caring-unlimited.org.

The Survivor Stories Project will be performed on Thursday, Oct. 24, 6:30 p.m., at Biddeford High School, 20 Maplewood Ave., and on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 6:30 p.m., at the Sanford Unitarian Universalist Church at 5 Lebanon St.

Tickets are $5 in advance, $10 at the door. The price for students and seniors with valid identification is $5. Tickets can be purchased in advance online at http://dvamyorkcounty.eventbrite.com. To pay in advance in another way, call 490-3227, ext. 107.

— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.