A/N: Ok so sorry for the format on the first Chapter. I wrote it and posted it at 2 o'clock this morning and was a little too eager to have it up so I didn't read pay too much attention. Thankfully I had a snowday today so I was able to write some more with all my extra time. Thanks for the reviews.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Sitting upon the squashy material coating the airplane seat I felt a sense of achievement course though my veins. I was finally on my way to freedom. It had been two weeks since I had first made my decision to get away from Phil and it still shocked me that I had actually gone through with it. With the several hours before me to sit and wait until my plane finally touched down upon the wet Washington ground, I started to reflect on all that I had just achieved in such a short amount of time.
After I had my snap decision, my brain had started to work on over time. What I needed was a time when Phil would be out of the way. I knew that he had an away game coming up soon, and that seemed like a perfect time for me to make my escape.
I needed to empty my bank account, call the Realtors and some how convince them to let an eighteen year old take her fathers old house off the market, and I needed to pack up my things without alerting Phil of my plans. I had my work cut out for me.
The first thing I needed to settle was the house problem. If I couldn't be sure I could stay in Forks, then there was no point in me even leaving when I would have no where to go. I had decided it would be best for me to call about the house when Phil wasn't around. If he over heard me I would be as good as dead.
The next day, I began to set my plans in motion. I walked to the kitchen in the morning and found Phil sitting at the table with a cup of coffee and a Sports Illustrated
"What are you looking at you little bitch?" He asked while glaring over his magazine as I grabbed a bowl and a box of cereal. I hadn't realized I had been watching him enough for him to notice. Tightening my grip on the bowl as it began to shake in my hand I averted my eyes from him to the counter top.
"Nothing Phil," I stammered, hoping that he would go back to ignoring me as per usual. Filling my bowl with my Frosted Shredded Wheats I sloshed some milk on top and grabbed a spoon. I then turned to quickly retreat from the kitchen back to my room to stay out of his way.
"Hey kid," he called to me, "I'm going out for the day so don't fuck up the house."
"Yes Phil," I quietly murmured. It seemed I would get him out of the house faster then I had anticipated. It was lucky that I already knew where all of the paperwork for the house in Forks was, since I had been the one to organized it a few years back for my mother. I then left the room not really paying attention to my feet as I thought of how I was going to work out the phone call.
It was then that I felt my foot hit the break on the floor where it changed from wood to carpet, and it sent me sprawling to the floor. The bowl of cereal shot from my hand and became strewed across the carpet. The sound of my body hitting the floor gave a loud crash.
THANK YOU CLUMSINESS, I thought as I picked myself up. I felt my muscles tense as I heard Phil's boots stomping toward me.
"I'm sorry Phil, I'm so sorry. I'll clean it up I swear." I began to plead hopelessly even before he was in the room to see what I had down now. "It's not a problem Phil, it is all my fault. You don't need to worry about it, I can clean it up," I began to quickly vomit my apologies before he became too angry.
He had finally made it into the room and stood in the doorway taking in the sodden carpet and the bowl still spinning on the floor where it had landed seconds ago.
" I can clean it up," I added again as I waited for his next move. I kept my eyes on the floor. To my immense surprise, the only thing I heard was the sound of him leaving the room going back into the kitchen. Had I really gotten off with no punishment?
But of course that was all thought too soon. He reentered the room and threw a rag onto the ground in front of me. I looked up and saw him shooting daggers through me with his eyes.
"Clean it up," he commanded. I dropped to my knees and grabbed the rag. I blotted and rubbed the ground with as much force as I could while trying to soak up the milk. I could feel the knees of my pants being coated with the milk beneath me. It was then that I felt a sudden pressure around my throat.
I had thought that Phil would of left the room to go back to his coffee, but instead he decided to watch me clean. He had seized my throat and lifted me almost off my feet pulling my face to his.
"Faster." he only uttered one word as I gasped for breath and felt my head pounding as he tightened his grip around my windpipe. I was gonna be strangled even before I had a chance to try and escape. Just as I thought I was about to lose consciousness from the lack of air, he finally dropped me back onto the floor. I landed in the puddle of milk that was slowly seeping into the carpet.
Heaving and trying to regain my breath I looked up at him from the ground. I could see the hate hardening his eyes while his lips pressed into a thin, angry line.
My clothes soiled and my body sticky from the milk began to shake. I scrambled across the floor for the rag still heavily breathing as I attacked the carpet. Why wouldn't that stinking milk just soak up, most of it is all over me anyway. It was then that I felt something hard hit my hunched over back knocking me back onto the milk puddle.
I hadn't seen the large plastic milk jug in his hand when he had entered before. He must of put it down so he could choke me. The jug was securely closed, but mostly full making it fairly heavy. He then began to hit me over and over again in the back and the head.
As I thought about it now, the idea of someone being hit with a milk jug could be pretty funny. Who uses milk as a weapon? But when you can feel weight of it hitting you, it really isn't all that funny.
I assume he would of hit me for hours, but finally he stopped and hissed at me calling me a bitch. His favorite and always present curse was the end to this mornings pummeling. I heard him throw something, probably the milk jug, and then leave the room. Then there was the ringing of the front door slamming announcing his exit from the house.
Feeling the ache across my entire backside I slowly crawled to the wall using it to support me as I struggled to my feet. If I just focus on the task at hand then I can ignore the pain. Staggering towards the kitchen while using the wall to guide me I grabbed some carpet cleaner from under the sink. As I bent over I felt a ripple of pain shoot down my back. I bit down on my lip to keep from whimpering. If I can remain silent through the beatings then I can stay silent now.
"Just clean the floor, just clean to floor. Ignore the pain, just clean the floor," I told myself over and over. It had been years since I had cried and I wasn't gonna start back up now. I didn't even cry when my mother died. If I thought about the pain too much I was scared that it might make me cry, and I needed to be stronger then that. Sometime after or during a beating I would feel like I was gonna cry from the pain, but I never once cried about my situation.
I grabbed a new rag and made my way back to the milk saturated carpet. I lowered myself back to the floor and blotted up the rest of the milk and then sprayed the cleaner onto the carpet. Picking up the dropped bowl and spoon, I then raised myself back up and the deposited them in the kitchen.
While the carpet was being treated I pulled myself into the bathroom. I could feel my sticky clothes plastered to my body, so I had to pealed them off. I could feel the raised scars from past beatings and the new swollen places on my back from just the few moments before. I looked down at my now naked body and saw the mayhem that had been created upon if from the past year with Phil. It didn't even look like the body I used to have, just a pale blob coated with black and blue blotches.
Climbing into the shower I washed away this mornings tense from my muscles and softly rubbed my strawberry shampoo into my hair and scalp. After I was clean and as relaxed as I could be, I dried off and went back to my room and changed.
I took out the housing information and quickly looked over it. Finding the number I needed I felt more tenseness enter my body and proceeded to punch in the number into the phone.
"Hello this is Jessica with Comfort Realtors how may I help you?" a bored voice buzzed in my ear after the fourth ring. I hadn't realized I had been holding my breath waiting for the other end to pick up, so I let out my breath out quietly. I recognized the voice from when my mother had me make called to check up on the information on the Forks house and the Florida house a few years ago. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad if she recognized me as well.
"Yes Hi, this is Isabella Swan, the daughter of Renee Swan who was a customer of yours." I was surprised at how calm my voice sounded, when this one phone call could ruin all my plans. "I was calling to see whether I could make some arrangements on the house that is in Forks, Washington.
"My mother had made plans for the house to be kept up for sale and I was wondering if it would be possible for me the take it off of sale so that me and my stepfather could move in." I hoped that she did not ask to talk to Phil. I knew that I would make no progress with my plan if I told them that I was going to move in myself so I needed to fabricate a good enough lie.
"Nice to hear from you again, and sorry to hear about your Mother," she said to me in a monotone, "Hmm..well I don't see any problem with any of this. Would you like us to take the current house you are in and put that up for sale as well?" She asked me. I could not believe she had just bought that. It wasn't that much of a farfetched lie, but I didn't think it would work because it we me making the lie. I was terrible at lying, but I guess the determination I now had was enough to make me believable.
"Oh no, we will be keeping both houses. We just wanted to take the other one off the market so that we can stay in both for when we get sick of the Florida humidity. Actually we will be moving into the Forks house in a few weeks for a scene change so if you need to contact us please call us there." It would be very bad if she called here and talked to Phil while I was in Forks. Not only would it give away my position, but I'm sure it would get me into a mountain sized heap of trouble.
"Ok that all seems fine, just give us a call if you would like to make any more adjustments with either house and I will be happy to help you," she apathetically stated. She clearly didn't enjoy her job, but right now I could care less about that.
"Thank you very much for your time, and I will call you if I need anything," I breathed to her and quickly hung up the phone before something could go wrong and mess up what had just happened. I could not believe that it had worked. It almost seemed too easy. The hardest part was now behind me.
The days then passed by after the morning cereal incident. After that there had been no real terrible events after that. Phil was mostly never home since he was training with his team and going out, so I was free to go through the house packing up the things I needed.
I didn't really have much to pack. I knew that my mother had left all the old furniture at the house in Forks, because she didn't want to lug it across the country. Also some of our stuff was still packed away at that house. My mother had planned on taking it out of there is someone ever ended up buying it. All the old scrapbooks and kitchen appliances were still there. All I really needed was my clothing and a few knickknacks from the house.
It was lucky that the only things I really wanted were things he would never notice gone. As the days went by I would slowly take the things from around the house so as not to do it all at once and catch his attention.
I had two bags hidden in my closet. One with most of my clothing and the other with a few pictures of me and Renee, toiletries, a few gifts from my mother, and all my books.
The day of my escape was drawing near. Phil had an away game on the Friday coming up and would leave early for it and be gone overnight. I had a few days but I would be cautious and would wait till then. I had called the airline to find what times they had for flights to Washington. It seemed luck was with me when they told me there was a flight at 10 am that Friday.
On the day before my plan was to finally come to its climax, I went to the bank while Phil was out, and I emptied my account of its contents and closed the account. I had my bags packed and now all I had to do was wait and pray.
If ever I had been more antsy and on edge before this, I did not remember it. I was jumpy and felt like my body would explode with the fear and anticipation that seeped from ever pore of my body. It was late on Thursday night around 11pm and I could not sleep, so I decided to get some water just for something to do. I was far too keyed up to just lay in bed, so maybe some water would fill my stomach and calm me.
I was surprised when I made it into the kitchen without a sound or a trip in the dark. As I rounded the corner I saw Phil eating some left overs at the table. I guess I wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep. Dread dropped into my stomach like a stone.
"What are you skulking around in the kitchen for?" he sneered at me. "Gonna stuff your face you little fatty."He then brought his attention back to the food in front of him and swallowed it greedily.
"No Phil, I was just getting some water," I innocently replied. I didn't know what he was talking about. He was the one stuffing his face. He was always eating, and I barely ever did. I weighed normal for my height. Actually it was probably less then normal since he was always eating all the food.
I walked and over to the cabinet and filled a glass in the sink. I chugged it down as fast as I could and tried to get out of there before I could fine a way to upset him. When I turned to leave he decided he had a few more words of "love" for me.
"You're lucky I keep you in my house. You are ungrateful and a waste of space, but out of the kindness of my heart, I let you live with me."
Was he joking? Out of the kindness of his heart? I wasn't aware he even had a heart, and if it was kindness he had shown me then I wonder how I would be treated if he thought he was being loving.
"Yes Phil, I am very thankful you allow me to stay with you." Not for much longer though. Little did he know I would be gone soon enough.
Phil then got up from the table and pushed me out of his way as he threw his dish in the sink and left for his room. I hit the counter with my elbow and felt it begin to throb. I guess that was him letting me know the conversation was over.
I looked down at my arm and saw that the edge of the counter and broken the skin. I held my breath and grab and towel to cover it. I was lucky that most of the injuries from Phil never caused me to bleed too much. Mostly if they broke skin they would be a slice or a small hole, but usually never deep enough for blood.
The smell of blood was my biggest weakness. It often made me sick or pass out, and I could not afford that on the eve of my escape.
Holding my breath I checked down at my arm again and saw it was just a little blood and that I would just need to keep it covered. I replaced the towel and went up to my room. After taking care of it, I lay back in my bed and sat to wait out the night.
The next morning went fairly smooth. Phil was gone by 6 am and I was able to get out of the house by 8 am just so I could have some extra time at the airport. As I left my house with my two bags, I turned and looked at the house one last time.
I used to have a few good memories of it from when Renee was alive, but now all I had from it was pain. I heard the beep of the taxi waiting for me and knew that I would not waste one more moment at that hell hole.
So, now here I was, sitting on a plane and headed to my new life. It was at that moment I felt the plane moving downwards. I had spent the entire time just reflecting on my escape, and now I was finally going to finish it. As the air pressure changed in the cabin and we descended towards the ground, I felt a tiny glimmer of happiness. The wheels finally touched down and the plane came to a halt.
I vaguely remembered the airport from a time long ago as I left the plane. I made my way out of the building with my bags and blinked through the rain that fell around me, I was free.