SUMMARY: Kagome is an abused child. She fights to survive. She prays to God that she will survive. /Child Abuse Tribtue/
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything.
WARNING: Character death!
A/N: This is a reminder to everyone that child abuse is wrong. No one deserves to be treated that way. There is no excuse. About a year ago, a boy named Ethan Stacy died of child abuse. He was only four years old. I dedicate this story to him and to everyone else that has been through that sort of pain.
Report child abuse when you see it, you'll save a life.
Concrete Angel
She walks to school with the lunch she packed,
Nobody knows what she's holding' back,
Wearing' the same dress she wore yesterday,
She hides the bruises with linen and lace,
A little girl slowly walks on the dirt path. Her delicate face is covered with brutal bruises from her father's fists that had attacked her the previous night. She clutches her stomach, pleading that it doesn't start bleeding through her dirty old dress, the same dress that she had worn the previous days, weeks, and months.
A few kids pass her by, giving her looks. Some are sympathetic, some are curious, and some do not seem to care. Each and every one of them sees the bruises that she tries to hide with her dress. The dark hues of blue and purple show clearly on her sickly pale skin. The widened eyes embarrass five year old Kagome.
It doesn't show, though. She doesn't blush. None of her emotions are showing, nor have they ever for the past year and a half. She has learned not to, for it only brings her more pain and regret.
The teacher wonders but she doesn't ask,
It's hard to see the pain behind the mask,
Bearing the burden of a secret storm,
Sometimes she wishes she was never born,
The teacher watches Kagome with interest. She notices the bruises, just as all of the other students do. She notices the slight limp in her small steps.
She doesn't do anything about it. She wants to. She wants to rid this girl from her pain. She's too delicate to be hurting like this, the young kindergarten teacher thinks.
The teacher wonders. The students wonder. The principle wonders. The neighbors wonder.
Kagome wonders too, just not about the same thing as the others do. She wonders why she was ever born. She wonders why she was receiving severe beatings. She wonders why she even bothers to live…
Somebody cries in the middle of the night,
The neighbors hear, but they turn out the lights,
A fragile soul caught in the hands of fate,
When morning comes it'll be too late,
She walks home from school, following the same dirt path. She fears her father. She doesn't want to face him again. She knows in her mind what he plans to do. She knows in her mind that she doesn't have long. She knows in her mind… but she doesn't speak it.
She reaches home and opens the front door. More fear engulfs her as she hears footsteps. The footsteps are heavy, and she knows that they're her father's. She knows what is going to happen next.
And she's right.
A scream erupts from her mouth, but no one comes to her rescue. She is certain that the neighbors hear. She sees them through the window. She sees her neighbors and their worried eyes. The eyes belong to the other children in her class, the ones that always look sympathetic. She pleads to them with her teary brown eyes.
Her father follows Kagome's gaze. He sees the other children. His face takes on a menacing look. His dark brown, almost onyx, eyes glare at the bystanders. He frightens them greatly. For proof, the children scurry away from their windows, fear evident on their faces.
But the fear that those children held isn't as great as the fear that Kagome holds right now. It is not even close.
Through the wind and the rain she stands hard as a stone,
In a world that she can't rise above,
But her dreams give her wings and she flies to a place,
Where she's loved concrete angel,
She widens her eyes as her father's fist slams into her abdomen. She feels the impact. She wails in pain while tears stream freely from her eyes. He strikes again, this time in her jaw. It bleeds. He jabs and punches repeatedly, as if it were a boxing match. Kagome screams each and every time…
She wishes she could die right there and then. She wishes she could stop continuing life. She wishes she could be safe in her mother's arms…
Then her body goes limp. Her eyes close. Her wailing screams stop.
And so does her heat beat.