See I told you I would post soon lol. Still any new mistakes are mine. Oh and Trigger Warning.
She couldn't take it anymore. She looked into the mirror and saw disappointment. Her boyfriend's voice echoed in her head, "You will amount to nothing, your worthless. A piece of trash. You're lucky that I have you. You're nothing without me. I own you, you little bitch and don't ever forget it." She inspected her recently swollen eye. It wasn't too bad but it was getting worse. She knew soon that she wouldn't be able to open it. Her split lip might need stitches but there was no way she was going to the hospital. She's not a minor at 24 years old, but the last thing she needed was for her fiancé to be called. She would get a beating worse than this when they got home.
She heard the door slam down stairs and knew it was time to make her move. She grabbed her book bag and filled it with some money she saved up, a pair of jeans and a purple long sleeve shirt, and her razor. She closed her eyes and tried to take a deep breath but was ineffective as a violent and painful memory rattled through her.
Maura came home from school and ran upstairs. Hoping against all odds that her father wasn't home and that she could grab things from her room and turn and leave the house. She was just about to open her bedroom door when she was pushed against it. A scream ripped through her but it was quickly silenced by a large hand covering her mouth. Kisses were placed over her neck as another hand came around and cupped one of her breasts. She tried to escape his grasp but every time she moved, he would push her harder against the door. "You tried to run from me darling. You know I like to see you when you get home." he murmured into her neck. He removed the hand from her mouth and pushed her door open. "I'm sorry" she whispered with her eyes down as she was pushed into the room. She could feel his erection on her back though his pants and it made her want to vomit. She knew what was going to come next. She wished the tears away, knowing that if he saw them, she would get punched and the abuse would last longer than it was supposed to. He threw her down on the bed and removed her pants and held her hands above her head with his one hand. Freeing himself from his pants with his other hand, he didn't even bother to make her wet and he shoved himself into her. He looked at her with pride, he loved seeing her helpless and scared, he fed off of this. For Maura, the pain was unbearable and she tried to screamed, just wanting his away from her. She prayed that her mother would come home. Her father wouldn't touch her if Constance was there. Once he heard the scream, he slapped her across the face. Tears were streaming down her face and he just laughed as he slapped her again. The pain was intense. What felt like hours only lasted for a few minutes. Once he was satisfied, he pulled out of her. Looking down he saw the little amount of blood starting to soak the sheets. He laughed at her. "Get cleaned up you whore. You disgust me." he said as he left. Maura felt paralyzed, it hurt to move but she had to do something. She got up slowly and make her way to her bathroom. She looked on the counter and grabbed her razor blade and sat down on the cold tile floor. Staring at her wrist she ran the blade across it over and over again, watching the blood drip down her arm to her elbow and dripping slowly to the floor. She never sliced deep enough to pass out. She just needed to feel something again. Maybe tomorrow she would finally go buy something to make it all go away. Permanently.
She shook herself, that happened 12 years ago and it still felt as if it had happened yesterday. Silent tears accumulating in her eyes and burned going down her face. She wiped them away carefully, she could do it. She had escaped her father's abuse when he was killed when she was 16. She could escape his abusive clutches and live her own life. She could run. She could get into her crappy little car and drive, drive all night until she was either exhausted or needed sleep or until she thought she was finally safe. She needed to try. She was able to run from her father. But once she thought she was away from the abuse she ran right into Bryce and has been in hell ever since.
She was finally done. Done with the neglect and the abuse from her nonexistent parents, done with the fiancé who beat on her whenever something didn't go his way, and done with lying to the girl staring back at her through the mirror. Right now, this girl was fashioning a very swollen, black and blue, and painful eye. She wasn't the person she used to be. This person she saw was frightened. She was skittish, taught to only speak when spoken too. To cover her "battle wounds" and put on a pretty smile for him and his boys. Him. He was the entire problem. At the age of 15, she was pushed and pushed, by her mother, into dating him. Bryce Tillman, a rather handsome 20-year-old at the time. The man her parents met at a foundation fundraiser and was immediately taken with him. The man that they hoped would get their daughter's nose out of those useless science books and make an honest woman out of her. And at the age of 18, him 23 years old, Bryce had proposed. Her parents answered for her, never letting her give her own answer or voice her own thoughts. So here she was now, 24, in an abusive relationship, and alone. No friends, no job (Bryce swore up and down that his wife would never work) and no life.
Staring at her eye, which didn't hurt as bad as her ribs when he kicked them or the back of her head when he pushed her against the wall, she realized that she needed to leave. She couldn't stay here in this house full of painful memories anymore. She walked down the hall to the kitchen hoping Bryce wasn't home yet. Memories of what happened the last time she tried to leave him took over when she reached the front door. She was 19 at the time...
It was mid-July, her favorite month. Her bag was packed and in her car, ready to go. Bryce was off doing god knows what and she finally gained the courage to leave him. She took off the engagement ring that he had forced on her hand and walked to the door. She was just about to turn the knob and walk out into freedom, when a hand shot out gripping her hair and yanking her back. "Where do you think you're going?!" Bryce snarled as he was dragging her back into the kitchen, he was pissed. "J-Just to the st-store darling. W-We are in n-need of some milk." She cried, trying to remain calm and failing at it. The grip on her hair tightened and pulled her harder back. Losing her composure, she screamed out louder, "Bryce, please you're hurting me! Please stop!" But it didn't stop him. He shoved her against the counter hard, stepping in front of her so she couldn't get away. "We don't need milk. The fridge is fully stocked. Your stuff is gone from OUR room and your ENGAGEMENT RING is sitting right in front of you! So, where the HELL DO YOU THINK YOU WERE GOING?!" He screamed in her face, grabbing her arm, turning her around so her front was against the counter and her left arm was trapped behind her back. "Nowhere, Bryce. I swear!" she whimpered, but he didn't believe her. He threw her to the floor and kicked her repeatedly. Maura put her right arm out to break her fall and heard a crunching noise instead. She screamed out and tried to turn her injured arm out of Bryce's reach. His kicks came harder to her ribs and abdomen. She was fading in and out of consciousness. Bryce straddled her waist, grabbing both of her wrists, and raising them about her head, she gasped and whimpered from the pain and all he could do was grin. "Are you afraid of me yet, Maura?" he asked, smiling at her. Maura gasped, "No", she said weakly. He laughed, "You should be." His fist connected with her jaw and everything went black. When she woke up, she was in their bed, cast on her right arm and her engagement ring sat on her left hand, forever mocking her.
She shivered at the memory and threw her ring down on the counter and all but sprinted out of the house. She got into her beat-up blue pick-up truck and left. Left Chicago, left Bryce, and left the old, scared of her own shadow version of who she became. She drove and drove until she reached the east coast. She didn't stop until she reached Boston. But she didn't want to stop. She only stopped because her truck finally ran out of gas. She walked down the corner and stopped right in front of a pub called The Dirty Robber. She was starving, she needed food and sleep, and in that order. She thanked God that the Pub wasn't as crowded as the ones in Chicago were. She walked in and scanned the place. No one she recognized. The only available spot was next to a woman with long black curly hair pulled into a ponytail. With confidence she didn't know she had, she walked right up to the bar and sat down.
Resting her elbows on the bar, her head fell to her hands and the tears that she was fighting all day finally came crashing down her face silently, stinging her swollen eye. Tears of relief and hopefulness mixed with fear. She reached for the pocket of her sweatshirt and nearly screamed when she came up empty "What can I get you love?" The voice startled her. Her eyes went wide then fell to the ground and she went into her submissive act. "I uh don't have any money..."
Maura didn't know how long the man was just standing there. "Andy, can I get a jack and coke? And whatever she wants... what do you want to drink? How bout a water to start?" the stranger asked. Maura nodded and kept her head down.
Andy, whoever that was, came back with the drinks and Jane gave him cash. She passed the water glass to the girl. "Bottoms up" she joked and took a sip of her drink. The girl grabbed her glass. Hands shaking as she brought it to her lips.
"I'm Jane by the way. What's your..." Jane started but cut herself off when she caught of the girls swollen eye and gasped. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm uh... I'm fin-" The Maura didn't realize she was crying again.
"Shhh… It's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you. I just want to make sure you're alright", the person said.
Maura just cried harder. She had forgotten how friendly and caring some people were. The person moved to sit next to her to try to see her and make sure she was actually okay, never stopping their hand from rubbing up and down Maura's back or whispering kind, soothing words to her.
"Hey Bryce, get back here and bus these tables," Andy yelled. Maura's head snapped to the side. 'Was he here?' she thought, panicked. "No..." she breathed out.
She knocked the glass on the off the bar and jumped out of her seat when it shattered on the floor. Her eyes looked wild as she watched the bar for a second like she was a caged animal. A split-second later Maura saw the woman's hand coming up and she shot out of her seat, scooting back to be out of the "line of fire". When the woman stood up and stepped towards her, Maura bolted out of the pub. Barely hearing the woman yell to here. Pushing past people trying to block her way and took off down the street with that woman right behind her. Maura ran straight for 3 blocks and finally turned right.
"Shit!" Maura murmured, she turned right into an alleyway with no way out and a crazy woman was chasing her.
"Bryce is here. He came to get me and I'll never be free." She said as she jerked her head back and forth and up and down trying to plan and escape route.
"Hey, stop" Maura heard the woman yell behind her and turned and backed slowly further into the alley. As woman kept walking towards her, Maura took step after step in the opposite direction until her back hit the wall and she panicked. She couldn't breathe, her head kept jerking from side to side, silently praying to a god that she didn't believe in to take her away from here. Black dots started to cloud her vision and she finally collapsed.