It was pitch black, scary black but I was running, running away from everything that was real or, thought was real. My parents pretended they didn't have child, pretended they didn't have me. Child abuse, always fighting and hitting me. I lifted my hand to were my face hurt and where they last beat me. When I brought my hand down it was covered in blood. I puked a little in my mouth scared that I would pass out before I made it to where I was going. It was the beginning of December so my hands where very numb and I was shivering like crazy so if I did pass out I would probably freeze to death before anyone found me even if it doesn't get that cold here in Oklahoma. You're probably wondering where I'm running to right? Well, I only know two families, mine and my cousins the Curtis's. The Curtis's include Darrel, the oldest, Sodapop, the middle child, and Ponyboy, the youngest. There parents died about two years ago so Darrel takes care of himself and his two kid brothers. Distracted thinking about the Curtis's, I trip over a rock and fall face first on the cement. My face started hurting even worse now. I get myself up and start running out of breath right away. My bag kept hitting against my leg that I quickly packed before I left including things I needed to stay at the Curtis's. Clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste and more but it also included a letter I wrote acting like I was one of parents saying they needed to take care of me and not saying in the letter that I was the one really writing the letter, not my parents. The word parents made shivers crawl down my back. My parents got shot before I left. Now I don't know if they where aiming at me and missed and accidentally hit both of my parents or if they where trying to aim for them, I don't even know if it was a boy or a girl! My bag also contained a locket that was empty. I'll never fill it with anything because there's nothing important to me in the world I thought to myself and my eyes started to blur but I quickly wiped the tears away. Last time I went to the Curtis's I don't remember it being this long to get there but I guess that was a while ago because their parents where still alive then. I suddenly saw there house, an old ruined brown one and gave a little grin as I stepped onto the front porch. I stood there wondering if I should ring the doorbell or not because I had no idea what time it was so I was scared I would wake them up but a light turned on in there living room and I quickly ran the doorbell. "I'm coming I'm coming" said a familiar voice and guessing it was Sodapop's. The door swung open and by the way Sodapop looked at me I thought he didn't regonize me at first. Did I really look that beat up? My thoughts where wrong because Sodapop clutched my arm and pulled me in. It took me a minute to heal from that because feeling the way I felt if someone jerked me that hard one more time I probably wasn't going to hold up good. "My gosh Susie what happened! Are you O.K?" Sodapop yelled staring at me real worried. Without giving me time to answer back he turned his back from me and screamed down the hall for Darrel and Ponyboy. I didn't realize my head was hanging staring at the ground so I pulled it up and straight ahead was a mirror and some sort of monster in it! I looked at it doing exactly what I did and figured out it was me. I was pretty terrible looking, my face was purple and black and everywhere there was blood. Also my nice brown, almost blond hair wasn't looking to good either. Now I'm not one of those girls that freak out if one strand of hair is out of place but I just don't like having it that messy because I hate brushing it. I stepped a little bit closer to the mirror to examine my new zombie look as Ponyboy and Darrel came rushing from the hall asking what all the screaming was about until they saw me. Darrel stepped into action as Ponyboy just took a step back staring at me with his mouth wide open looking a little pale like he was going to throw up or something. Ponyboy was always the one to just let Darrel do all the work when something shocking came to him and Soda was the type to want to help but never exactly knew how. Darrel pushed me on the couch so I could lay down and told Ponyboy to go get the first aid kit in the bathroom and Sodapop too make something hot but the way he pushed me I think I blacked out for a minute or two. When Sodapop and Ponyboy came back from making something hot and getting the first aid kit Darrel put a bunch of ointments or something on my face and put so many bandages on me making me feel like some sort of a mummy. Darrel then lifted my head so I could drink from the cup and discovering the hot drink was hot chocolate, my favorite. "O.K." Darrel said patting my head and slowly getting up, "You look real tired so you can rest here tonight then in the morning we can figure all this out." The three boys began walking towards the hall to their bedrooms but stopped and turned around when I said, "WAIT! I'm scared can someone please stay out here with me?" To be honest I wasn't scared at all but I was scared all my life until today and I needed someone to comfort me. All three exchanged glances at each other until Ponyboy finally said he would stay. Darrel and Sodapop both shrugged and headed off to bed. When Ponyboy was all comfy on the ground I asked, "Hey isn't it hard down there, on the ground I mean. You can just-" Ponyboy broke in and replied, "I'm O.K down here, you just get some sleep." I stared up at there ceiling for about ten minutes doing nothing and I heard Pony's breath get a little louder. "Ponyboy?" I called but he didn't answer back, he was asleep. I turned around a bit trying to find a comfy position because honestly the couch is not the comfiest couch to sleep on but after five minutes I slowly drifted off to sleep.
