*Hey all! This chapter may not have much to do with Lord of the Rings just
yet, but never fear, it's getting there, I promise! This first chapter is
a little more depressing and longer than I planned on it being, but don't
worry, it will get better! Please enjoy and review!*
My parents died two months ago. Exactly one month, three weeks and four days ago, me, my brother Chad, and my sister Adie (Adriana) come to live in this house from Hell. But please, let me start from the beginning.
My name is Rhia, and I'm a fifteen-year-old girl. I was born in New Jersey, moved to Pennsylvania, then to Kansas, then to Michigan, and now, finally, to West Virginia. I have eyes that are usually brown, but change colors upon my emotions and sometimes for no reason at all. I've scared some people with this trick before, it's great. The only family I have now are Adie, Chad, my aunt, my uncle, and my cousins Nick, Sara, Laura, Dan, and Suzanne. I live with all of them.
I call this place Hell because of my aunt, uncle, and numerous cousins. My aunt and Sara bring in the only money here. They are prostitutes, and apparently fairly good ones because they bring in a fair amount of money. My uncle, Nick, Laura, Sara, and Dan are all druggies and alcoholics and with the exception of Laura and Sara, womanizers; the two of them are into men.
Every morning, I walk Chad and Adie to their Jr. High School and then get to the High School about ten or fifteen minutes late. It's a long walk, but it's okay, because then is one of the only times the three of us have alone together. Adie and Chad get to school on time usually, but it's gotten to the point where the teachers don't even bother to give me detentions for being late anymore. In fact, I don't even know if they notice anymore. After school, I head back to the Jr. High and get Chad and Adie. Then, the three of us scurry over to the High School again and just wait around or talk to people.
Today is just one of those days. Adie, Chad, and I are sitting at one of those lunch tables that are left out in the middle of the MPR/lunch room chowing down on some good old animal crackers and Coke. This is the only thing we eat all day. The three of us combined all the money we had from Michigan, and split it into thirds. Then, each one of us took a third to hide in our lockers, so our new "family" couldn't steal it.
At around four thirty, we gather our stuff and head home. It takes us about an hour and a half to get back home, but when we finally do, we try to sneak down to the basement without anyone catching us. Unfortunately, today is an unlucky day because Nick catches us. After getting the ever- living shit beaten out of me, I make my way meekly to the basement. Chad and Adie are they're waiting for me unharmed, and that makes the bruises hurt a little less. I've taught them not to try to help me, I can take care of myself, I just want them to get down and out of harms way. I'll take on the cousins. The two of them have changed for bed, and are sitting in the corner of the basement that we've put out pillow in. The basement is unfinished, so this corner is the part that we make sure to keep clean. The corner is the only thing we can claim.
About five minutes later, after I've changed, Suzanne, my youngest cousin comes down. She, of all my cousins, is the only decent one. I guess it's because she is only seven years old and the rest of her family hasn't gotten to her yet. She always tries to come down to us. I tell stories to my brother and sister, and I'm more than happy to include her. I usually just tell stories I come up with, or little humorous one's from the past, but occasionally, I am able to sneak a book home. Today however, I am telling the story of how my dad thought he had died when he traveled to Italy, and woke up in the middle of the night forgetting about the time change. Yes, he believed he'd died, because it was very quiet, and pitch dark. Everyone enjoys this story, especially Chad, so I tell it quite often.
"Rhia? Why does your dad think he's dead?" Asks Suzanne. She really gets into the story, and always asks questions, even if she knows the answer.
"Because he can't see. It's dark out and he's not used to the time change." I say laughing. "Here, let me continue." She grins at me and nods, shifting a little to get comfortable.
"YOU BITCH!" screams my uncle, hurtling drunkenly down the basement stairs. "How dare you make Suzanne listen to your whore stories!"
"Daddy, they're not!" Shouts Suzanne in my defense, but it doesn't help; he charges right at me. Quickly, I motion for the three of them to get upstairs and away, and then set myself for the beating I'm going to endure.
"Dang." I think. "I already received my beating for today" recalling the bruises and the little bit of blood I'm still dealing with from fighting with Nick. I'll be lucky if that's all that I get in this fight though. My uncle is three times bigger than me, not to mention as drunk as anything I've ever seen, and I was backed into the corner. There is no way I'm going to be able to beat him; I'd discovered this in the past. Still, I got ready to try.
WHAP! And it started. I think I may have hit him once. He kept hitting me and hitting me; I couldn't help but cry. All of a sudden, he slammed me up against the wall, and all the air I had left, was gone. "You know what?" He asks as he begins to choke me. "I'm tired of dealing with your family." My eyes got wide, even as the world got dark. Chad and Adie were being led down the stairs by Nick and my aunt with the rest of their family following. Suzanne was last, and she was crying. Everyone else though, was grinning drunkenly.
SLAM! My aunt and Nick then started to beat up Chad and Adie, while the rest of the family standing behind and watching, silent. I kept trying to get loose from my uncle's grip. I had to get to my siblings! However, I was still pinned quite well against the wall, and the lack of air for so long was taking its toll. I couldn't think, couldn't see, couldn't hear, could barely move. The world was a mix of huge, gray forms, mumbles, and pain.
And then all of a sudden I could breath again. I was thrown onto the floor with Chad and Adie, but I was to weak to comfort them. Instead, I lay there, coughing, bleeding and bruised as my brother and sister clung to me, bleeding and bruised as well. My uncle was standing over us with a gun in his hand. He looked at me and grinned wickedly. "Saruman won't have to worry about you guys any more."
"What?" I managed to cough out. Saruman was from Lord of the Rings, so what the heck was he talking about? Was my uncle really that drunk? However, I did not have time to worry about it.
BANG! The gun went off and my brother convulsed suddenly. He didn't even have a chance to scream. Deaf with the shot, I could only stare at my dead brother in absolute horror, unable to move or make a sound. Chad had been shot through the head and his blood was all over me.
BANG! "NO!" I screamed and cried at the same time. Adie! I'd completely forgotten about my little sister in my shock. Now she too was dead and I clung to her. I wept, covered in my brothers, my sisters, and my blood. Energy I didn't know I still had tore through my body as I leapt like a bloody tiger upon my uncle, knocking him hard to the ground. He hit his head hard upon the cement floor of the basement and didn't move again. I kept hitting him over and over; it was all I could think to do.
Suddenly, I was flying through the air and then slammed into the wall. Looking up, I say Nick. "You killed my father!" He yelled in my face.
"You destroyed my life!" I shouted back at him.
BANG! All of a sudden, the world stopped. Laura had come up behind Nick and shot me in the stomach with her father's gun. The two of them backed off, and I lay against the wall, clutching my stomach. I wanted to kill them, to make them feel my pain. I'd lost everything, my family, my dreams, and now, I was about to lose my life. "Burn!" I shouted. "Feel my pain! Feel my heart breaking! Feel my loss!" Everyone in the room sagged a little, as if suddenly hit by a terrible burden, but I didn't notice. I just kept shouting.
"No! Stop her!" Shouted Sara. "Saruman said not to let her cast anything! Stop her!" She ran up to Laura and snatched the gun from her. BANG!
No pain this time. A purple shield suddenly enveloped me.a shield of my own power. "Burn." I whispered softly, glaring at Sara, full of rage and hate. Immediately, Laura was enveloped in flames.
"Ahhh!" screamed Nick. He brought out a dagger from somewhere and moved into stab me and I began to panic. I didn't think I could take another wound, the gunshot was just to much as it was.
How did I get that purple shield up?!? Nick's arm lifted. God no! How had I done it?!? His arm crashed down and I felt the mettle enter me. "Ahh!" I yelped. Nick backed off and I slid down the wall to the floor. Pain.red.hot.pain. Nick had done this to me and I would do the same to him.and Laura.and Dan.and my aunt. "Suzanne, get out of here." I said slowly, in extreme pain.
"You aren't dead yet!?!" said Laura in disbelief, taking her brother's knife and coming at me again. Suzanne did as I said and scurried up the stairs. "Die bitch!" screamed Sara as she hurtled towards me.
"No." I said calmly, staring at her. Sara stopped in her tracks.
"What?" Everyone asked in disbelief.
"No." I said again, with more force, but never taking my eyes off my cousin. "You die." I said slowly. Everyone's eyes opened wide and suddenly the room was in action, everyone racing towards me in an attempt to kill me before I burnt any more of them, as I had burnt Sara. "BURN!" I shouted, before anyone could reach me.
Everyone went up in flames, and I was blinded with my own fire. They screamed and then fell, everyone reduced to a few piles of ash. Silence surrounded me. I crawled over to Adie and Chad.
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry guys. I love you. I love you! I tried so hard to protect you.so why am I still alive! Why! Why!" The world was going dark again, but this time, I knew it was because I was bleeding so much. So much blood. I was covered in it. "No." I said out loud. "No, I will not give in. I will not let them beat me. I cannot!" I reached over to my Adie, took the rose ring that she always wore off her finger, and kissed her goodbye. Then I reached over to Chad. His head had been practically blown off, but I kissed what I could anyway and took off the silver cross necklace and placed it around my own neck. His blood dripped down off it onto me.
"Ughh." I moaned as I painfully climbed to my feet. Somehow, I made it to the stairs, where I practically hauled myself up them. When I finally got to the top, I collapsed to my knees, feeling like I had scaled Mount Everest in a minute. "Ughh." I moaned again, resting my head against the wall. "No!" I suddenly shouted. I couldn't fall asleep, that's how people died. They went to sleep and never woke up. No, I had to stay awake.
Yes, that's all this had become, a struggle for survival. Slowly and painfully, I started to stand, but collapsed again. "Ughh.ehhh." I moaned. I'd have to crawl, there was no way I could stand anymore. I got to my hands and knees and opened the basement door. There were feet there. Slowly, I looked up.
"Hello Rhia." Said an evil Suzanne. She looked possessed. Her normally green eyes were red and I could feel something radiating off of her. Something that wasn't from this world. "Do you know how many people die from falling down the stairs each year?" I shook my head, and started to back up. There was something about her. She was no longer my cousin. "Neither do I" she continued. "But I know that this year, there's gonna be at least one!
The last thing I remember is little Suzanne, the only cousin I trusted, standing at the top of the stairs, worshiping Saruman, and me, finally giving up and praying to God to forgive me as I closed my eyes and went to sleep.
My parents died two months ago. Exactly one month, three weeks and four days ago, me, my brother Chad, and my sister Adie (Adriana) come to live in this house from Hell. But please, let me start from the beginning.
My name is Rhia, and I'm a fifteen-year-old girl. I was born in New Jersey, moved to Pennsylvania, then to Kansas, then to Michigan, and now, finally, to West Virginia. I have eyes that are usually brown, but change colors upon my emotions and sometimes for no reason at all. I've scared some people with this trick before, it's great. The only family I have now are Adie, Chad, my aunt, my uncle, and my cousins Nick, Sara, Laura, Dan, and Suzanne. I live with all of them.
I call this place Hell because of my aunt, uncle, and numerous cousins. My aunt and Sara bring in the only money here. They are prostitutes, and apparently fairly good ones because they bring in a fair amount of money. My uncle, Nick, Laura, Sara, and Dan are all druggies and alcoholics and with the exception of Laura and Sara, womanizers; the two of them are into men.
Every morning, I walk Chad and Adie to their Jr. High School and then get to the High School about ten or fifteen minutes late. It's a long walk, but it's okay, because then is one of the only times the three of us have alone together. Adie and Chad get to school on time usually, but it's gotten to the point where the teachers don't even bother to give me detentions for being late anymore. In fact, I don't even know if they notice anymore. After school, I head back to the Jr. High and get Chad and Adie. Then, the three of us scurry over to the High School again and just wait around or talk to people.
Today is just one of those days. Adie, Chad, and I are sitting at one of those lunch tables that are left out in the middle of the MPR/lunch room chowing down on some good old animal crackers and Coke. This is the only thing we eat all day. The three of us combined all the money we had from Michigan, and split it into thirds. Then, each one of us took a third to hide in our lockers, so our new "family" couldn't steal it.
At around four thirty, we gather our stuff and head home. It takes us about an hour and a half to get back home, but when we finally do, we try to sneak down to the basement without anyone catching us. Unfortunately, today is an unlucky day because Nick catches us. After getting the ever- living shit beaten out of me, I make my way meekly to the basement. Chad and Adie are they're waiting for me unharmed, and that makes the bruises hurt a little less. I've taught them not to try to help me, I can take care of myself, I just want them to get down and out of harms way. I'll take on the cousins. The two of them have changed for bed, and are sitting in the corner of the basement that we've put out pillow in. The basement is unfinished, so this corner is the part that we make sure to keep clean. The corner is the only thing we can claim.
About five minutes later, after I've changed, Suzanne, my youngest cousin comes down. She, of all my cousins, is the only decent one. I guess it's because she is only seven years old and the rest of her family hasn't gotten to her yet. She always tries to come down to us. I tell stories to my brother and sister, and I'm more than happy to include her. I usually just tell stories I come up with, or little humorous one's from the past, but occasionally, I am able to sneak a book home. Today however, I am telling the story of how my dad thought he had died when he traveled to Italy, and woke up in the middle of the night forgetting about the time change. Yes, he believed he'd died, because it was very quiet, and pitch dark. Everyone enjoys this story, especially Chad, so I tell it quite often.
"Rhia? Why does your dad think he's dead?" Asks Suzanne. She really gets into the story, and always asks questions, even if she knows the answer.
"Because he can't see. It's dark out and he's not used to the time change." I say laughing. "Here, let me continue." She grins at me and nods, shifting a little to get comfortable.
"YOU BITCH!" screams my uncle, hurtling drunkenly down the basement stairs. "How dare you make Suzanne listen to your whore stories!"
"Daddy, they're not!" Shouts Suzanne in my defense, but it doesn't help; he charges right at me. Quickly, I motion for the three of them to get upstairs and away, and then set myself for the beating I'm going to endure.
"Dang." I think. "I already received my beating for today" recalling the bruises and the little bit of blood I'm still dealing with from fighting with Nick. I'll be lucky if that's all that I get in this fight though. My uncle is three times bigger than me, not to mention as drunk as anything I've ever seen, and I was backed into the corner. There is no way I'm going to be able to beat him; I'd discovered this in the past. Still, I got ready to try.
WHAP! And it started. I think I may have hit him once. He kept hitting me and hitting me; I couldn't help but cry. All of a sudden, he slammed me up against the wall, and all the air I had left, was gone. "You know what?" He asks as he begins to choke me. "I'm tired of dealing with your family." My eyes got wide, even as the world got dark. Chad and Adie were being led down the stairs by Nick and my aunt with the rest of their family following. Suzanne was last, and she was crying. Everyone else though, was grinning drunkenly.
SLAM! My aunt and Nick then started to beat up Chad and Adie, while the rest of the family standing behind and watching, silent. I kept trying to get loose from my uncle's grip. I had to get to my siblings! However, I was still pinned quite well against the wall, and the lack of air for so long was taking its toll. I couldn't think, couldn't see, couldn't hear, could barely move. The world was a mix of huge, gray forms, mumbles, and pain.
And then all of a sudden I could breath again. I was thrown onto the floor with Chad and Adie, but I was to weak to comfort them. Instead, I lay there, coughing, bleeding and bruised as my brother and sister clung to me, bleeding and bruised as well. My uncle was standing over us with a gun in his hand. He looked at me and grinned wickedly. "Saruman won't have to worry about you guys any more."
"What?" I managed to cough out. Saruman was from Lord of the Rings, so what the heck was he talking about? Was my uncle really that drunk? However, I did not have time to worry about it.
BANG! The gun went off and my brother convulsed suddenly. He didn't even have a chance to scream. Deaf with the shot, I could only stare at my dead brother in absolute horror, unable to move or make a sound. Chad had been shot through the head and his blood was all over me.
BANG! "NO!" I screamed and cried at the same time. Adie! I'd completely forgotten about my little sister in my shock. Now she too was dead and I clung to her. I wept, covered in my brothers, my sisters, and my blood. Energy I didn't know I still had tore through my body as I leapt like a bloody tiger upon my uncle, knocking him hard to the ground. He hit his head hard upon the cement floor of the basement and didn't move again. I kept hitting him over and over; it was all I could think to do.
Suddenly, I was flying through the air and then slammed into the wall. Looking up, I say Nick. "You killed my father!" He yelled in my face.
"You destroyed my life!" I shouted back at him.
BANG! All of a sudden, the world stopped. Laura had come up behind Nick and shot me in the stomach with her father's gun. The two of them backed off, and I lay against the wall, clutching my stomach. I wanted to kill them, to make them feel my pain. I'd lost everything, my family, my dreams, and now, I was about to lose my life. "Burn!" I shouted. "Feel my pain! Feel my heart breaking! Feel my loss!" Everyone in the room sagged a little, as if suddenly hit by a terrible burden, but I didn't notice. I just kept shouting.
"No! Stop her!" Shouted Sara. "Saruman said not to let her cast anything! Stop her!" She ran up to Laura and snatched the gun from her. BANG!
No pain this time. A purple shield suddenly enveloped me.a shield of my own power. "Burn." I whispered softly, glaring at Sara, full of rage and hate. Immediately, Laura was enveloped in flames.
"Ahhh!" screamed Nick. He brought out a dagger from somewhere and moved into stab me and I began to panic. I didn't think I could take another wound, the gunshot was just to much as it was.
How did I get that purple shield up?!? Nick's arm lifted. God no! How had I done it?!? His arm crashed down and I felt the mettle enter me. "Ahh!" I yelped. Nick backed off and I slid down the wall to the floor. Pain.red.hot.pain. Nick had done this to me and I would do the same to him.and Laura.and Dan.and my aunt. "Suzanne, get out of here." I said slowly, in extreme pain.
"You aren't dead yet!?!" said Laura in disbelief, taking her brother's knife and coming at me again. Suzanne did as I said and scurried up the stairs. "Die bitch!" screamed Sara as she hurtled towards me.
"No." I said calmly, staring at her. Sara stopped in her tracks.
"What?" Everyone asked in disbelief.
"No." I said again, with more force, but never taking my eyes off my cousin. "You die." I said slowly. Everyone's eyes opened wide and suddenly the room was in action, everyone racing towards me in an attempt to kill me before I burnt any more of them, as I had burnt Sara. "BURN!" I shouted, before anyone could reach me.
Everyone went up in flames, and I was blinded with my own fire. They screamed and then fell, everyone reduced to a few piles of ash. Silence surrounded me. I crawled over to Adie and Chad.
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry guys. I love you. I love you! I tried so hard to protect you.so why am I still alive! Why! Why!" The world was going dark again, but this time, I knew it was because I was bleeding so much. So much blood. I was covered in it. "No." I said out loud. "No, I will not give in. I will not let them beat me. I cannot!" I reached over to my Adie, took the rose ring that she always wore off her finger, and kissed her goodbye. Then I reached over to Chad. His head had been practically blown off, but I kissed what I could anyway and took off the silver cross necklace and placed it around my own neck. His blood dripped down off it onto me.
"Ughh." I moaned as I painfully climbed to my feet. Somehow, I made it to the stairs, where I practically hauled myself up them. When I finally got to the top, I collapsed to my knees, feeling like I had scaled Mount Everest in a minute. "Ughh." I moaned again, resting my head against the wall. "No!" I suddenly shouted. I couldn't fall asleep, that's how people died. They went to sleep and never woke up. No, I had to stay awake.
Yes, that's all this had become, a struggle for survival. Slowly and painfully, I started to stand, but collapsed again. "Ughh.ehhh." I moaned. I'd have to crawl, there was no way I could stand anymore. I got to my hands and knees and opened the basement door. There were feet there. Slowly, I looked up.
"Hello Rhia." Said an evil Suzanne. She looked possessed. Her normally green eyes were red and I could feel something radiating off of her. Something that wasn't from this world. "Do you know how many people die from falling down the stairs each year?" I shook my head, and started to back up. There was something about her. She was no longer my cousin. "Neither do I" she continued. "But I know that this year, there's gonna be at least one!
The last thing I remember is little Suzanne, the only cousin I trusted, standing at the top of the stairs, worshiping Saruman, and me, finally giving up and praying to God to forgive me as I closed my eyes and went to sleep.
