All of my stories that I'm going to post are all within the same timeline unless noted otherwise with ((independent)).
This is story number six.
"No one lays a hand on Karen McCormick," the memory itself brought a smile to her lips. Even if it was one of the earliest memories Karen has, it was one to hold onto. The smile was soon decimated and replaced with a look of pain. Someone had kicked her side again, forcibly. She curled up tighter in the ball she was in while getting kicked and punched on the ground. Over and over, though she couldn't see who the attacker was or if there were many; she had her eyes squeezed shut.
"What are you smiling at, you trash?" and there came another kick right to her spine. Karen knew that she had done no wrong, but she also knew there was no escaping the storm once the lightning had already struck. This time, Karen had stood in someone else's spot at the bus stop. First came the yelling, then the hair pulling, then the punches. Karen had learned that people show no mercy. It didn't matter if she had upset just a single person in a group, no matter what, it always became a fight between 1 against 10. She knew she couldn't win these fights.
As Karen laid helplessly on the cold ground and as she took each punch, kick, or pinch, she remembered the swoop of a purple cape and the tone of his deep monotonous voice, "no one lays a hand… on Karen McCormick!" and the next thing Karen knew she was being carried away to safety. She remembers her guardian angel.
She must've cracked a smile once more because she quickly received multiple kicks at once, accompanied by the shouts of profanities. The next blow went straight to the back of her head.
It is times like these that Karen often wonders if the memories she has of her guardian angel are just childhood fantasies. She would like to hope that they're real, so that she knew there was someone out there who had cared at one point. Another profanity was shouted and Karen was kicked, hard, in the stomach.
The torturing had stopped as the sound of rusty brakes screeched to a halt by the bus sign. Karen coughed and up came some blood, which splattered on the white snow beneath her. As the kids filed onto the bus, Karen staggeredly pushed herself up. A last kick went to her back and she ploughed face first into the reddened snow, a girl's voice snarled, "no one cares about you, Karen McCormick."
And just like that the girl ran onto the bus, and the bus left. Karen felt her limbs go weak and shaky. She couldn't do this anymore. After all the years of this happening only to her and waiting and hoping for her guardian angel to return, Karen McCormick couldn't handle it anymore. Not even attempting to get up, and without trying to swallow the knot in her throat, Karen started to cry.
It's been 7 years since she's last seen her guardian angel, and now, she's sure he will never return.
After all, no one cares about Karen McCormick.