Chapter 9!!!! Yay!!!!!

Mel

Light hits my eyelids, awakening me. I stare up at the cloudy sky for a moment, feeling as light as a feather. I feel cleansed. Telling Eric my secret has made me feel, better. Like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. But I know what must be done today. The annoying thought disbands the happiness from my mind. I sigh.

"Eric," I say, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

"Mel," he says. I turn and see him wandering form the forest with a couple bananas and a coconut. I smile lightly to myself. He's really grown up since we got stuck here. I msile wider as he hands me a banana and sits down. For several minutes, we eat in silence, drinking from the stream.

"Eric?"

"Yeah?"

"We need to move today. Sitting in the middle of the forest isn't helping us at all. Abbey and Jackson should be somewhere inland, and Nathan and the others are too far away to be any help. We're doing nothing here to help us get rescued, or found by the others. If we go upstream, we might catch them or find a trail or something. The beach isn't gonna help us, and. . .I'm not psyched about going back to the shore after the storm." He nods.

"When should we start?" He drops the last of the food away as I finish as well.

"Now." For several seconds, he seems reluctant to do this, but slowly he stands and helps me to my feet. I wince as I try to put weight on my ankle lightly. "I don't think I can walk."

He looks at me. "Ok Mel. I'm not gonna make you." He places an arm around my waist and helps me slowly limp uphill. It's a slow process, but I feel slightly better about at least standing.


Eric might blow me up. We've walked for almost three hours and have hardly gotten anywhere. I can't walk well with only one foot. I know he's getting annoyed, cause he tried just carrying me an hour ago to make things go faster, but I refused. I'd be such a damsel-in-distress if that happened!

"Mel-"

"No Eric." He sighs beside me.

"Fine Mel, but we're stopping for a while1" We pause and he pulls his arm away, and I loose my balance and almost fall. He grabs my arm and helps me sit down. I am gonna die. Eric is turning into Romeo or something! He sits beside me, looking away. My mind drifts, away form the island, away form all this. A horrid, nightmare-like memory flashes into my mind.

Flashback-

December 12, 2004

I shuffle into the house, quietly making my way up the stairs to my dusty attic room up top in the house-without windows and a single light bulb tied to a wire in the middle of my room. I turn in on, drop my bag on the creaking, breaking floor and fall down on the bed-springs overused and broken, sheets moth-eaten and a deflated pillow. The only other thing in the room is a box where I shove my limited clothing supply. I sigh. I was eleven years old.

I take out my homework and my one pencil, doing my homework as quickly as possible. I want to be done by the time he gets home, done with all of this. Maybe he'll be gentler tonight with the beatings. My heart pounds near out of my chest at the thought of what is to come.

My stomach growls and I place a hand on it, trying to silence it. I wont eat his food. I know better than that. I wish I'd eaten more at lunch. I can't eat here. I guess it'll be another restless sleep.

My mind wanders a bit. I could run, run out right now. I could run out of L.A and never turn back. I could leave while he's gone and bolt, stow away to Alaska or something, anything to get away.

But he'd find me. Yes, he always finds me. I've run away twice, and he always finds me and beats me harder. Id he found me if I ran away again he'd kill me.

I could tell Nathan. It would be simple. He's always worrying about why I'm so frail. I could tell them, and they could make all the pain go away. He wouldn't hurt them.

Yes he would, a voice in my mind says. He'll hurt anyone who stands in his way. That's why no one knows what happens to you when you come home.

It's sad. I've lived here all my life since my parents abandoned me, and yet I've never told Nathan. I've never invited him in, I've never been to his house. It's just not aloud.

I think of all the consequences if I try to leave, the people that could be hurt besides me. I come to one conclusion to keep pain away from others. I'll stay.

I sit in my room, as minutes turn into hours upon hours. It must be one in the morning. My heart beats faster and I fight back tears. He's going to come home drunk and high. The beatings are always harsher when he's drunk and high. I nerve to stay falters.

Another hour. I take a chance and sneak out of my room, down the stairs and to the richly decorated living room. The house itself is massive and gorgeous, just like all the other houses on the block. But none of the other houses hide a beaten girl and an abusing uncle. The other houses hold no secrets like this one.

If he catches me down here outside my room I'm dead, I think silently. I gaze at a clock. 3 in the morning. He'll be home soon. My heart quickens. I have to get back upstairs.

Blinding light floods the windows momentarily. Headlights! He's home! I make a mad dash for my room, but my heart tells me to bolt form the house entirely. As my mind and heart argue, I take a too-quick turn and crash into a table, knocking the expensive glass vase to the floor. I gasp.

The door opens.

"What are you doing!" His words slur, and his eyes are hazed, but within them is a fire I haven't seen in several months. "I'm gonna kill you!" I shriek as he grabs for my arm. Instinct kicks in and I rush away, for the back door.

"NO!" Something hits me harshly in the back, right between my shoulders and breaks. I gasp and scream as I fall to the floor. I hear his footsteps coming, and I want to run but I can't make myself.

He kicks me in the stomach, once, twice, a third time. I scream louder, surely, hopefully waking the neighbors. Please, please wake the neighbors! He picks me up and slams me into the wall, slapping me again and again with his fist. I scream louder, unwanted tears sliding down my cheeks. Why am I so unlucky?

He drops me, and I fall to my knees, sobbing and gasping. He kicks my right knee and laughs. "Don't ever, ever try to run and hide again kid. I'll always find you." His drunken voice fades, and I hear him staggering up the stairs.

I cry, holding my broken body, my vision fading in and out. Slowly everything goes black.


I awoke the next morning being thrown into my back bedroom wall. It was late morning or early afternoon. My whole body felt afire. It was a terrifying feeling. My bedroom door slams shut and I'm left alone. I hear the bolt lock outside. I lay there crying my heart out, every part of my soul burning.

End of Flashback-

It was one of the worst beatings I ever received. I still have scars from it. I never tried exiting my room or running away again, to afraid of the affects. I'd never been so afraid and hurt in all my life. He'd never been that harsh before.

Eric's still looking away, lost in his own ideas, thank goodness. I can feel the tears sliding down my cheeks. I've been trying to forget that memory since the day it happened, but I'll always have the scars to remind me. I shudder, and try to brush away any sign of tears before Eric turns to me. I can't talk to him about this. I think I'll fall to pieces.

A minute passes and I try to rub away the blotchiness on my face. He turns to me and my heart almost stops.

Wonderful. This will go so well.

"Mel?" His eyes are full of concern. Apparently trying to hide my tears didn't work very well. He laid a hand on my arm. "Mel. . ."

I began sobbing, large, chest-wrenching sobs that convulsed my body. I couldn't stop the tears. Why on earth is this happening to me? I spend my whole life hiding this terrible secret form everyone, and I tell one boy, one boy, and suddenly everything terrible that's happened to me floods back into me, and out, causing tears in this guys presence. It's bizarre.

I feel him wrap his arms around me, like a circle of protection, something that can keep everything bad away. I wish it were true. I sob harder at this thought. He just strokes my hair and lets me sob into his shoulder. It doesn't make me feel any better though.

I can't keep track of how long I sit there, having him hold me while I sob, but eventually I loose the will to even cry. It's like the memory and the tears drained everything out of me. I let Eric continue to hold me, and I turn my head so I can watch the water gently flowing. It's calming, but it doesn't help me.

"Mel," Eric says after a long pause. I'm not crying anymore, but I can't make words come from my mouth. I open it, trying to say something, but nothing comes. I don't know what to say, or how. I'm at a loss.

"Mel," he says again, pulling away form me-which just makes me feel alone-and tilts my chin up with his forefinger so I have to look at him. His eyes are terrified. "Mel, what's wrong?"

I feel newfound tears coming. Why did he have to ask that? I begin to sob, using whatever water is left within me.

"Oh no Mel," he says, pulling me close again. "Mel don't cry. It's okay. You don't have to tell me. Shh." He rubs my back trying to soothe me. I sob harder. He's being so nice.

He continues to calm me for several minutes, always whispering "It'll be alright" and "It's okay Mel". And, for the first time ever, I actually believe it might just be all right. I have friends, and I'll hopefully fight my uncle when we get home. In trial.

If we get home.

Yes Eric is so OOC but I like him like this. Please R&R.