Chapter 1
Lucy groaned at the sound of her alarm clock going off. Not only did she want to sleep in more, but her ribs hurt from the stretch her body made to turn off the loud noise. She kept her eyes closed as she wrapped her blankets closer to her body. The feeling of a cold wet nose pressing against her cheek made her jump.
"Oh Plue, why couldn't you just let me sleep a little more," Lucy yawned as she got out of bed.
Her yellow lab barked as he ran around her feet. She laughed at him until she saw her reflection in the mirror. Lightly she brought her hand to her eye and touched the skin. A hiss escaped her lips as pain radiated from the light pressure on the black and blue flesh. Lucy's mind was brought back to the present when Plue started to growl at her door.
"Plue, no. Go in the bathroom now," she hissed afraid that her dog would anger the person on the other side of the door.
Plue looked at her before he scampered to the bathroom with his tail in between his legs.
"Morning dad," Lucy said with fake smile. "I hope you slept well last night."
"I was until you're blasted alarm woke me up," Jude replied, "Where's your brother?"
Lucy quickly said, "He had to leave early for a school project."
"When you see him at school, make sure you tell him that he needs to see me when he gets home," he said it seemed like he was about to leave when he suddenly stopped. "I thought I told you that your stupid dog is supposed to stay outside!"
"He does during the day, and mom used to let me have him in my room at night," Lucy snapped back.
Her eyes went wide when she saw his face turn red. Lucy backed up and put her hands in front of her face as she said over and over again, "I'm sorry, please forgive me."
She winced in pain as she felt him grab her hair. Lucy heard Plue bark and growl as her father tugged her into the hallway and slam her door shut.
"Your mother might have let you do whatever the hell you wanted, but she is dead now. She left me with two ungrateful brats to take care of and one of them has a disgusting mutt that I have to feed as well!" Jude yelled while he twisted her arm and pinned her to the ground. "And these ungrateful brats couldn't even keep the house clean or have dinner ready for when I returned from my business trip. That bastard son of mine didn't even have the courtesy to be here to welcome me home either. All I had was my bad mouthed daughter."
Lucy didn't dare make a sound while her father unleashed another round of anger on her. She bit her lip to keep quiet when she felt something in her arm snap. When he released her arm she cradled it to her chest before she curled up into a ball so that she could protect her arm and bruised ribs from his kicks. When he was finished Lucy waited to hear his door open and close before she even dared to get up.
She thought that the pain she felt on her ribs was bad, but the pain in her arm hurt a hundred times more. When she got back to her room Lucy hurried into her bathroom. With a deep breath she took her tank top off and put on a sports bra on. Tears were streaming down her face from pain as she once again had to move her arm through her white tank top. Quickly Lucy put on her makeup to cover up the black eye her father had given her the night before. It was hard with one hand, but she unfortunately had lots of practice. Plue whined when he came up to the counter and nudged her leg.
"I'm okay Plue," Lucy whispered as she finished her makeup.
She then shimmied off her pajama shorts and went to her dresser to put on a clean pair of underwear and pajama pants. Lucy was grateful that her school dress code was so lax that she could wear pajama pants to school. It wasn't too often that her father beat her so bad that she couldn't use one of her arms, but when he did she usually had to wear pajamas until she could get her arm looked at. Carefully she put a jacket on and zipped it up. She put her right hand in the pocket to try and keep her most likely broken arm in place.
Quietly Lucy grabbed her stuff for school and Plue's leash.
"We need to be quiet now Plue, we don't want dad to hear us right?" Lucy said as she clipped his leash to his collar.
Plue licked her hand to let her know that he understood. Lucy poked her head out her door to make sure that her father wasn't in sight before they left her room. When she was close to the front door she pulled her cell phone out. She went into her contacts and dialed her brother's number.
The phone rang twice before they answered, "Lucy, why are you calling me? You know I'm on a class trip."
"I know, but dad came back earlier than we thought and he's pissed."
"Shit, does he know that I'm not even in town?"
"No, I covered for you," Lucy took a deep breath as she opened her car door. Plue hopped in and went to go sit in the passenger seat as Lucy tossed her stuff down on the floor in front of him. "I think he broke my arm though Sting."
"Fuck, I'll try to find out if I can get home tonight instead of tomorrow," Sting said.
"Are you sure? I know that this trip is part of your grade."
"I can't let my little sister take everything he has to dish out on her own," he replied.
"You're only older than me by three minutes," Lucy whined before she took a sharp breath.
"I'm definitely coming home," Sting said his voice serious.
"See you tonight," Lucy said about to hang up while she started the car.
"Wait, how bad are you?"
"I don't want to talk about it," Lucy said.
"You do know that it's going to be harder to hide it from Natsu right? I can't tell you how many times I've had him corner me at school trying to find out how you got a bruise you forgot to cover up."
"I know, I'll just say that I tripped over Plue and fell down the stairs. Do you know which emergency room we haven't been to in a while?" Lucy asked.
"The one downtown," Sting sighed. "Try to make sure our friends stay in the dark. Remember what happened last time when we tried to get help."
Lucy shuddered at the memory as she pulled out of the driveway. Their dad was so furious that he starved them for week with harsh beatings.
"Just two more years and we can be free from him," Lucy sighed. "I miss you."
"I'll see you tonight. This time I'll take the hits."
