Alright, as promised I've decided to try and carry this story on, on my own. I don't know if I'm going to be able to reach the high standards set by my co-writer, but I will endeavor to do my best. I don't know when she's going to post again or even if she's going to post again. Thanks to those that have thus far reviewed the story. I hope that after such a long time with no writing being done on this story that it will still have a following. Right, herald the return of the story and the writings from Shattered Souls!
Harry closed his eyes waiting for the inevitable to happen. He waited and waited yet the blow never came. Finally he dared to open his eyes wondering what had happened. This proved to be a big mistake because just as he opened his eyes an evil grin covered the face of Vernon Dursley and he swung the lead pipe. He had been waiting all along for Harry to open his eyes so that he (Harry) could see the blow hit him. The effects were as one would expect it to be with such a blow. Harry's face exploded open and blood flew everywhere.
Vernon Dursley had hit Harry square between the eyes and a huge gash exploded where the blow had landed. Harry's glasses where shattered and had actually been impounded into his flesh from the force of the blow. It was a truly sickening sight to see, one that Harry's evil uncle reveled in. It was however not the end, but only the beginning.
From Harry's perspective all he saw was the descending lead pipe and suddenly it felt as if the ground he stood on was rumbling and spinning. His head had exploded in pain and his vision was blurred. All he could see were red movements due to all of the blood and his now shattered glasses that had been hammered into his face. His eyes stung from the blood that was freely pouring from his open wound.
"Oh my, look what you've done boy! You've messed my dear wife's floor up! Look, blood all over!" Vernon roared at Harry in a maniacal way.
Harry's head was spinning and his legs felt like jelly. Battling to stay conscious was an all out effort for him right now. It would probably have been easier for him of he had just passed out, but to Harry, even in this weakened state, giving up was not something he would readily do. As he heard his wicked uncle's voice speaking to him he looked up. The words were muffled as his ears wrung out as an aftershock from the blow.
"Get down and clean it!" Vernon yelled and clubbed down on Harry again, hitting him just above where he had hit him earlier.
Once more Harry's world was rocked and this time he fell falling hard to the ground. His head hit the floor with a sickening thud and mat a kind of a splatting sound as he fell into his own, newly formed, puddle of blood. Nothing was in focus for Harry anymore and all he could hear was the rasping of himself trying to breathe as he lay in his ever increasing puddle of blood.
"Blast it boy! Look at this! An even bigger mess! Right, that's it! Up to your room!" Vernon roared his voice taking on a crazed tone.
Harry was now not entirely aware of what was going on around him after the second blow. His limbs felt numb and he even the earlier blurs that he saw were hazy. One thing that he knew he did see was that everything was a crimson red. He lay face down and found that at the present his greatest challenge was to keep breathing because each breath he took ached and burned. There was the iron taste of blood in his mouth and a wave of nausea swept over him.
"Not going up eh? Think you're above listening to me do you? Well, I guess you're going to have to be punished. Up to your room boy, now." Vernon said in a now calm but cool and deadly voice.
The ringing in Harry's ears had subsided slightly by now and he could make out the words punish and room. A soft moan escaped his lips as many horrendous thoughts flooded Harry's mind. He had not heard all that Vernon Dursley had said, but from experience he had heard enough to know that he this was just the beginning. The sadistic man that was his uncle only by marriage was going to beat the living hell out of him.
"GET UP!" Vernon yelled kicked Harry hard in the ribs.
The pain from the kick brought Harry mostly back to his senses. He became aware of just how much pain he was in and that breathing was now more difficult than ever after the kick. What Harry did know was that he'd better get up, or at least try, before more abuse comes immediately his way and Vernon finds more 'reason' to give Harry what Vernon termed punishment. Another wave of nausea swept over him and Harry kept on thinking that he shouldn't throw up, not now, it would serve as more ammunition for the beast torturing him.
How he did it Harry didn't know but he was standing up. He'd used all of the little amount of strength that he had to stand up. Though he was swaying a lot and looked as if he would collapse at a moments notice. Harry staggered onwards, his ultimate destination his room. The momentum from his staggering caused him to stumble and fall at the foot of the stairs. Harry couldn't clearly see where he was at the moment, but he knew the layout of the house well enough to know that he was in the vicinity of the stairs.
'How am I going to get up the stairs?' Harry thought to himself trying his best to stand again.
The fall proved disastrous for Harry because Vernon, along with his weapon, was just behind Harry. Nothing was going Harry's way because this provided yet another opportunity for Vernon to inflict yet more pain onto Harry.
"Messing up this area as well? The kitchen's not good enough for you?" Vernon spat in a menacing voice looking like a lion closing in for the kill.
As Harry somehow managed to get to his feet another huge blow exploded to the back of his head. His head exploded in yet more pain and his eyes lolled back facing upwards as he collapsed. Harry's body twitched a little as he hit the edge of the first step of the staircase leading to the upper rooms of the Dursley house. Any strength he had managed to muster up was now totally gone. Blood poured from a new gash just above Harry's fringe line while yet more spilled from the blow he'd received to the back of his skull.
The fall was just what Vernon must have wanted because as he surveyed Harry's twitching body an evil, deranged smile spread over his fat and now purple face. He dropped his tool of punishment and grabbed Harry by his ankles and looked up the stairs nodding.
"Right, lets get you to your room, then the punishment can begin." Vernon said laughing as he started turning Harry's body.
Facing the stairs with Harry's ankles clasped in his fat hands, Vernon began to walk up the stairs dragging Harry's limp body behind him. As he walked up each and every step on the staircase there was a sickening thud as Harry's face bounced off the stairs. A trail of blood was left in their wake as Harry continued to lose still more blood from his numerous head wounds.
Finally, after the horrendous trip up the stairs, they had reached the top of the stairs. Vernon was out of breath huffing and puffing away from the exertion of dragging Harry's dead weight behind him. His now near purple face was glistening with sweat droplets.
"Oh, puff you'll pay for this as well huff boy." Vernon muttered as he struggled to regain his breath.
Still holding onto Harry's ankles he dragged Harry to his (Harry's) room and opened the door with one hand. Harry's released leg fell to the ground with a loud thud. Now, holding onto only one ankle, Vernon dragged Harry into his room. He looked around and after a few moments of looking he spotted what he had been looking for. He dropped Harry's other ankle and took a few moments to regain his breath.
While he was regaining his breath he looked at Harry's motionless form and saw that it was moving ever so slightly. The movement was the rasping breaths that Harry was taking. He pulled a handkerchief from one of his pockets and mopped his sweat-laden brow. After a few minutes Vernon had regained his breath and started to get Harry up to his feet. Vernon had to entirely support Harry (he held him by his neck) because there was no strength left in Harry to open his eyes, let alone to stand.
Vernon took his handkerchief and cleared the blood out of Harry's eyes, which remained closed. Then with a podgy hand he ripped Harry's glasses out where they were embedded. This effect caused Harry's eyes to shoot open and a shrill cry escaped from his mouth.
"Ah, so glad to see you're awake. I wanted you to see what I'm going to do to you boy." Vernon said and chuckled to himself in eager anticipation of his next act.
'What now? Haven't I suffered enough?' Harry wondered to himself wishing he could just die so that the pain would end.
"No more blood in your eyes? You should be able to see what's in front of you. What is it? WHAT IS IT?" Vernon said and then yelled the last question over when Harry didn't respond.
"My.....window....." Harry rasped as he squinted and vaguely made out the window in his room.
"Very good." Vernon said cackling in delight.
Harry wondered just what Vernon could mean by this comment and what he was getting at.
"Have a nice trip boy, hope you enjoy it." Vernon said and went into motion.
Vernon, still holding Harry by the neck, rushed forward propelling Harry forward with him. He stopped just short of the window, but he launched Harry through the window (it was closed). Harry was shocked at what happening to him, this was something he had not thought could happen to him. There was an explosion of glass as Harry soared through his window into the air and plummeted to the ground, falling in the rose bushes the Dursley's had made him take care of so much.
He landed awkwardly, left arm first. The result was not unexpected as it snapped after the impact. Harry couldn't move, he didn't want to. He had just been thrown out of the window of the second floor of a house. To add insult to injury Vernon leaned out of the window and was roaring with laughter at the sight of Harry's broken body below. Vernon stopped laughing and then spat a huge gob of spit that then landed on Harry's chest before going back inside.
Harry now found himself caught in two frames of mind. One part of him just wanted to die and let all of this suffering end. His will to live had been extinguished, he couldn't see any light at the end of this tunnel. Only torture and abuse without end seemed to loom in his immediate future. However the other part of him refused to just give up so easily. After all he had already gone through, was he really going to give up? After all that Sirius had done for him was he going to just die?
'Sirius died for you.' A small voice in his head echoed.
That one thought was the clincher, no matter how bad his condition was, no matter how much he had endured or will endure, he just couldn't give up. Sirius's sacrifice was not going to be in vein. His basic instincts began to take over. The primary instincts that are found in all humans now ruled his thoughts. One word, one thought stood out in his mind, and that was survival. Harry had to get out of this place if he wanted to survive.
But he couldn't do anything now. He was in a bad way, his arm was broken and his entire body ached from the fall. Not to mention his numerous cuts, gashes, lacerations as well as the incredible amount of blood he had lost. He needed to regain enough strength to get himself mobile and then he would find a way to get out of the Dursley home. Harry lay in still, many thorns from the rose bushes embedded in his flesh.
After two hours, Harry had his eyes open, Vernon stuck his head out of the window and called down to him.
"I see you're still awake. That's good, because tomorrow you can then clean up the mess you made earlier. Sleep well." Vernon said sarcastically and then his fat head disappeared.
Harry didn't react, he just lay motionless trying not to pass out from the pain that wracked his body. Soon the lights of the Dursley house went off and all was quiet. From where he lay Harry could make out the loud snores of his fat cousin Dudley. Harry somehow managed to stand up, with much difficulty and staggered to the front door of the house. It silently swung open as he approached and Harry staggered inside. How he managed it, although he didn't care, he saw that his trunk and his other essentials floated towards him.
Harry turned and walked back out of the house, the door magically closed silently behind him. Harry just walked, actually staggered, until he was well away from the Dursley household. He made his way to a dead end alleyway and then collapsed at the end his trunk falling next to him. A sudden burning of his scar and stabbing pain in his chest was what caused him to fall at last. Harry was exhausted and he just couldn't move anymore, the pain was worse than what even the evil Vernon caused him.
'Is this how it's going to end? After finally escaping I'm going to die in an alleyway?' Harry wondered to himself as he lost consciousness.
A/N Alright people, that's all for this chapter. I really don't know what to say about this chapter. I've kind of lost the storyline I think or the rhythm. I'm not entirely happy, but then again I never am. I hope it holds true to what was written thus far and that none were to disappointed. It's going to be difficult trying to write without Twisted Silver Dagger for the time being. I hope those of you that do actually read this will bear with me. Thanks if you did read it.
Cheers
Lost in A World of Pain