In Need of an Angel

By: Piper Chris Melinda Halliwell

Chapter 1: Save Me from My Existence

She ran upstairs to her room, locking her door behind her. Crying, she fell onto her bed. Her parents had been dead for a week and she absolutely despised her new foster father.

She could see the truck coming toward them every time she closed her eyes. And every time she saw it, the harder her body shook with sobs. She could remember the looks on their faces. Their last words were for her to be safe. She could remember floating and suddenly she was on the side of the road with absolutely no idea how she got there.

And, as her parents had no close relatives, (other than her mother's sister in Texas), she was put into foster care, which she thought of course, was the stupidest idea. 'I'm 16. I don't need this, especially this guy. Why couldn't they warn me before I came here?' She thought, although only being 16, she still needed a roof over her head, clothes on her back and food in her stomach, but that was all she needed.

Wiping the streams from her eyes on her sleeve, she took off her green jacket. Paige walked over to her mirror to look at the damage he caused her. Oh yeah, he was perfect for her all right, perfect for her nightmares.

The first day was okay…until he got home. Why hadn't anyone reported this guy yet? He worked in construction, her social worker told her. Paige thought it was horribly ironic that they were adding on to the elementary school.

'This guy shouldn't be anywhere near kids.' She thought. 'Yeah construction, bet he just sits around on a beam and drinks all day.' At least that was what she could smell on his breath when he got home that first night. She saw tears fall more rapidly as she dropped to the floor remembering the first night she spent here. A night she'd rather forget.

She heard the door slam, shaking her from her thoughts.

"P—Paige, get down here!" He had yelled. Standing from her bed, she recognized the slurring of her name as a sign of intoxication, thanks to a few friends that usually showed up for class either drunk or with hangovers.

Although, maybe no one knew what happened…no, they didn't know. If they did, why would she be there?

Maybe there was no one else she could go to. She sighed looking at her clock. He would be home in two hours and expected food on the table when he arrived, that much she knew already.

She walked downstairs to the kitchen, opening the cupboards.

Paige wasn't the best cook. Managing even to ruin making ice cubes, but as she learned from only a couple of nights here, she had to learn how to cook or suffer the consequences.

So on her third day, after school she stopped by the library and stocked up on cook books. They've helped make her punishments a little less brutal.

On her foster dad's salary, they didn't have a lot of food, especially since he'd rather spend it all on alcohol.

Paige made it by on going to the Food Pantry.

So she dug around in the cupboard looking for something suitable to make him. She would have to go to the Food Pantry again soon as they were getting low.

She sighed. It seemed spaghetti was what was for dinner tonight.

Paige went to one of the drawers and pulled out a cookbook. It might seem outrageous but she wanted to make sure she didn't screw it up.

She poured the sauce out of the jar and into the pot. She then got another pan out and set the water to boil.

It was going to take a while to boil the water and cook the sauce so she decided to do her homework while waiting.

School was hard for Paige. It hurt to walk and she was socially awkward. Nobody wanted to talk to her, afraid of offending her seeing as her parents died.

There was this one girl though that always seemed concerned. Prue Halliwell. She never came up at talked to her, but looked at her from afar. Always analyzing Paige.

She finished her homework, her scrawl was unusually messy. He did something to her wrist a couple days ago. She was too afraid to go to the doctors though. If they found out she was being abused, He would kill her.

She dumped the spaghetti in and continued to stir it. She didn't dare stop. If she forgot about it and the pasta clumped together she would be in big trouble.

She turned off the burner for the sauce and tested the spaghetti. It was done.

Paige hurriedly got the food together. He was going to be home in 5 minutes.

He stomped through the room, his sentences barely slurring. He glared at her and sat down.

She set down his dinner and waited for him to taste it. The rule was that she made dinner, didn't get to eat any of it, but had to make sure that he liked the food.

He swirled to pasta on the fork and shoved it in his mouth. He swallowed it with disgust and his glare turned hotter.

She tasted it before though. It was fine! How could he not like it?

"I come home from a long day at work and all I want is a nice dinner and you feed me this shit?" He yelled while slamming his fist on the table. His plate of food bounced off the table. "What the hell is this crap?"

"I-it's spaghetti," She stuttered nervously.

He slapped her, leaving a red welt and she fell to the floor. "You are going to pay. I can't believe I have to keep teaching you this every single night! All I ask for is dinner. I let you stay here after your worthless parents die and you can't do one simple thing for me?"

He kicked her in the stomach his steel toe boots causing a big bruise. She winced but wouldn't let him have the satisfaction of hearing her cry out in pain.

"If you had just cooked the damn food right you wouldn't have to go through this." He unhooked his belt and she gasped. She prayed that he wasn't going to do what she thought he was going to do.

He ripped her shirt off and brought the belt against her back. She screeched in pain as the belt opened her skin. He slapped the belt down again happy to hear her yell.

Her screeches turned to one of a banshee's and he backhanded her. "You don't want anyone to hear us, do you?"

She covered her mouth and sobbed. "N-no."

He smirked. "Good." He punched her in the gut. "Now go! And this better not happen again."

She ran off, not forgetting to get her homework from the living room. She closed her door and locked it. She grabbed her chair and put it underneath the knob, just in case. In the back of her mind though she knew that wouldn't keep him out.

She walked towards her dresser and picked up the picture of her parents. Why couldn't they still be alive?

She fell against the bed crying both from grief and the pain of her beating. "I miss you. Why did you have to leave me alone?"

Nothing could save her. No one wanted her. Maybe she deserved the bruises after all . . .

Author's Note: So what do you think? This was one of my plot bunnies. That70sShowLova co-wrote it with me, so she deserves a lot of credit too.

I'm having a severe case of writer's block, so hopefully this opens that up [Though I think the only thing that'll open it is an M/F M-rated fic, but hey, I'm tring this, so hope for me.]

Please read and review!

Piper Chris Melinda Halliwell