~Laddie Flashback #4~
The words clean, safe, love, healthy, new; they never applied to anything in Laddie's life. No food she ate or drugs she did were healthy, she never received love of any kind, none of her clothes or anywhere she stayed was clean, nowhere she went was safe, nothing she ever got was new. She didn't complain it could be worse, she could be dead and she wasn't so she was grateful for that. Laddie ran her fingers over the moldy cracks in the tiled floor of the dingy bathroom she was currently in. She had her back to the chipped and broken porcelain tub and her knees were pressed against her chest. She didn't want to be here, she didn't want to be scared to come out, but she knew he was waiting. Just outside the door he was sitting there, smoking a cigarette, the smell of the nicotine drifting under the door along with the throaty humming of Ain't No Mountain High Enough, her favorite song.
Her breathing was shaky as she tried to calm herself down, it was useless though because the second she so much as turned that lock and opened that door he'd be on her, inside of her, breaking her even more. Laddie was only fifteen but she's seen enough of the world to know what goes on when nobody is looking, when nobody can hear it or see it. Staring down at the floor, she listened as she heard his foot tapping against the floor, his deep, gravelly voice was soft as he spoke to her.
"Got to come out of there sometime, baby girl. You can't hide yourself away forever." She could hear the smirk in his voice, hear the tone of superiority and she wanted to cry, she wanted to throw something, she wanted to run, anything to get him away from her. Remaining silent, Laddie kept her eyes trained on the door, expecting him at any moment to knock it down.
That's when she saw it, the glint of silver from behind the yellowing toilet bowl. Laddie crawled over towards the toilet, still continuing to keep one eye on the door. Reaching for the silver that had called her over, she felt her hand wrap around a gun. The shape was familiar and when she pulled it out she couldn't help but smile. Turning it around in her hand she noticed it was loaded, Laddie turned off the safety and stood up, her barefeet padding over quietly to the door. Laddie unlocked and opened the door, being greeted with a handsome smile for what he supposed were submission. As the man stood up, Laddie pulled the trigger.