He ran through the muddy property, his small heart pounding in his chest, the wind stinging his face and dirt speckling into the lacerations on his back.
He clenched his teeth together, ignoring the pain as he ran and ran. His legs pumped continuously, and before he knew, he was at the door of his father's barn.

Once inside and hidden, the sound of his father's lumbering footsteps made the floor tremble more then the terrified child's body.
"Connor Teegs! You git back 'ere!"

The small blonde boy had hidden in their barn, away from his drunkard of a father. He'd crammed his small, badly bruised and burned body into a crevice between the panels up in the hangar of the hay storage. He shuffled his legs closer to his chest, making himself even smaller and felt something slither on his foot.
A snake ran over his toes, and Connor just watched as it disappeared.

From his hiding spot, Connor saw his drunken father pacing not but 4 feet away.

"Come out, boy!" He hollered.
Connor sat still as he could, his legs quivering from being coiled so long. A few tears spilled down his cheeks as he prayed to a God that never answered his prayers.
"Kill. Him." He prayed. "Make him die, painfully."

"Boy! I'm waiting, boy!" Hal Teegs swigged from his whiskey bottle, that was only a quarter full now. It had been full that morning when he's bought it.

Connor held his breath as Hal spun around, pacing inches from his traumatized son's hiding spot. By some slip of chance, Hal's glazed eyes fell on Connor's ice blue ones and he smiled. It looked more like a snarl, and it reeked of alcohol, but it was the smile of a cruel drunk.

He reached down and tore the wooden paneling from the wall of the barn, grabbing Connor by the throat and throwing him to the floor.
"No! Dad! NO!" Connor pleaded for his life, but his father heard nothing.
The sound of violence drowned out the terror of Connor's heartbreaking screams. He screamed until his throat was shot. He cried relentlessly for hours after Hal has retired to the house.
Hal had strapped him until he fell limp to the ground. This left Connor laying in a small puddle of his own blood that had seeped from the open wounds on his back and thighs.
Hal kicked him in the ribs and crushed his hand beneath his boot before leaving his son in a near unconscious state.

The thing about when Hal Teegs got this drunk, was that he didn't remember a thing. At least he said he didn't when he woke up nearly 36 hours later.

Lying there in such unfathomably pain, the only thing keeping 12 year old Connor Teegs alive was the face of his bestfriend : Chase Mylin.
He'd met Chase on a night like this 2 years ago.
Connors mother had been dead for a year, and Hal had been drunk almost constantly since then. One night, Hal got so drunk that he couldn't speak coherently. Everything came out in slurs and he stumbled around, as if lead was tied to his feet. He was too incompetent to walk straight or pour his booze into a glass, but somehow, he was functional enough to beat the living hell out of his young son. Connor took as much as he could, until he couldn't take anymore.
Hal shoved the small boy toward the fire, smacking his wrist with an iron poker, shattering the bones, and it caused him to hobble himself off balance. Connor took this moment of instability to take his leave.
The boy, scrawny for a his age, leapt to his feet and took off running without looking back.

He ran several miles holding his broken and burnt wrist to his body, to the graveyard where his mother had been buried the summer before. He draped himself silently over the tombstone with the name 'Joannah Teegs' engraved on it.
"Momma! Why'd you leave with him like this? Why?" His sobs made his body heave, and he cried until his throat was raw. His fragile body shook with silent tearless sobs after 2 hours of the uncontrollable crying, but he continued stillm until he could taste blood from his own throat.
Connor didn't want to move. His wrist was broken and this was the closest he'd felt to her in years, but her warmth still evaded him. He had the ghost memory of her scent in his mind, and of her warm hugs surrounding him. "I miss you, Momma." he whispered.

"What are you doing?" A small voice said suddenly from a few gravestones over.
"Hidin'." Connor's voice was hoarse. He didn't look up.
"Looks like you're lying on a grave..." The boy stated.
"I am. I'm hidin' from my Pa. " Connor sniffled and turned his head to the direction of the voice. There was a tall blonde haired boy there, a few graves away with a blue jacket on.
"D'he do this to you?" The other little body walked to where Connor was laying, after kissing the small flower he was carrying an dropping it on the tomb he was standing at.
"Yah." Connor squeaked.
"I'm Chase. " The boy said coming to sit cross legged beside Connor.
"Connor. " Teegs slid off the tomb and plopped gently beside Chase. "... He broke my wrist..." Connor's face contorted as if was going to cry again, but he took a deep breath in calming himself.
"I can help." Chase offered Connor a hand to help him from the mossy ground. "My dad is a doctor. He'll fix you up, free of charge. "
"You sure?"
"Yah." Chase smiled and Connor knew at that moment that this boy would be his best friend. Forever.