Brittany Pierce didn't believe that she was beautiful. It wasn't that she was a pessimistic person; she actually believed that she was realistic. Why get your hopes up for them to be completely broken? She found it to be a waste of time. Yet though she was realistic, Brittany had dreams. She loved to use her imagination and escape from reality as often as she could, because in her opinion, reality was the worst place she could possibly be.

There she was, sat on the new bed of her new bedroom in her new house in a new town. Her mother had recently just been into the room and told her goodnight and good luck for her first day of school tomorrow as she had to leave early for work.

'Night Brittany, honey' she whispered as she softly pecked Brittany's forehead.

'Night, mom' Brittany replied softly.

Brittany did love her mom. After all, her mom had been the one to raise her and her younger brother Caleb whilst their dad had walked out on them and moved on to have a new family. She liked to think that her family had done well enough without him and that they didn't need him and although to some extent that may be true, for her it wasn't. She needed him. She needed somebody. Brittany got up and walked towards her window and roamed the streets with her eyes. The streets were quite dark, only being lit by the lights of the street lamps and since it was autumn, red leaves littered the pathways.

'Please don't let this school be like the last' she sighed sadly.

She decided it was getting late and that she should get ready for bed. She changed into her pyjamas and climbed into her double bed and slowly let herself fall into a deep slumber.

'You know that you deserve this, don't you?!' Reece spat at her angrily, tightening his grip around her neck.

'Please don't hurt me, I didn't tell anyone, just sto-' But Brittany was cut off by a sharp pain across her right cheek. Tears began to spill from her eyes and she closed them. She didn't want to look at him. She knew what was coming.

'Get down on your knees and I won't hurt you' he spat, pulling Brittany to the floor by her hair. She nodded slowly and followed his orders.

'And stop crying. You're pathetic.' He said, giving her another slap across the face.

Brittany woke up with a start, sweat dripping down her forehead. 'Oh my god' she cried as she burst into tears, pulling her knees to her chest. She began to rock herself back and forwards.

'Mom, I need you, please, Mom!' she began to cry loudly.

She was praying that somebody would come, somebody would tell her that it was okay and that he can't hurt her anymore. She waited for what felt like hours, rocking herself back and forth, tears continuing to fall.

'Nobody is coming, Brittany. You're alone.' She whispered to herself.

She looked at her alarm clock, '6:47am' it read. Her mum was already gone and she'd have to deal with this alone. She got up and walked to her bathroom and her eyes searched for what she needed. She found it, in her cabinet, her razor blades. This wasn't new to her. Through the day she'd think about this, slowly dragging this blade across wrist and arms, watching the blood pour out of her, a mental reminder that she was alive. Numb, but still breathing. She was beaten, but still fighting on. Not okay, but she'd continue to pretend that she was. But she didn't know how much longer she could pretend, she felt that she'd never be okay. As she dragged the blade across her arm, she didn't flinch or grimace, she just closed her eyes as she pressed deeper. She didn't care that she was adding more scars to the ones that already existed on her body; she was too far gone for that now. She grabbed two bandages from the cabinet and some antiseptic wipes; she cleaned herself up and turned to the mirror.

Looking back at her was a girl she knew all too well. A girl with swollen, tired eyes that looked tired of life. Her hair was a mess and her face held a blank expression.

'Ugly, worthless, waste of space and time. I'm disgusting' she said to herself as she grimaced at her reflection.

Now Brittany had to handle school as well as trying to keep herself alive. There was only so much she could do.