I'm sure you've got the gist of these authors notes by now, so I guess we'll go straight into the chapter on this one...
I wanna run away, never say goodbye
I wanna know the truth instead of wondering why
I wanna know the answers, no more lies
I wanna shut the door, and open up my mind
Runaway – Linkin Park
CHAPTER TWO.
BPOV.
Time passed, I'm not sure just how much, but it did... and in silence. There were no more knocks on my door or abuse thrown at me. I was thankful for that, at least.
I'd spent this time fixing up whatever injuries I found on myself as much as I could, a gash here, a graze there, a burn here, a fractured bone there... Some of them I could only hope would fix themselves. Without someone who can actually fix them up there's nothing I could do for the broken bones but hope to use them as little as possible and look past the pain.
Luckily, it seemed only a finger was the new addition to my list of broken bones. I was sure I could live past that. I bandaged it up with a scrap from the bottom of an old shirt and hope that maybe it would set right.
Of course, hope was the only think I could really do in this case.
There was only one thing about the silence that unnerved me, if I wasn't to be beaten now, it was inevitable that I was going to be beaten beyond recognition later or tomorrow, whenever the time was right for them. It had happened before, they used their mind tricks to tease my brain into believing that maybe, just maybe, I would be let off the hook for a while.
1 year and 2 months ago
The silence in the small box room that Bella had been kept in was beyond the normal silence that filled it. It was almost comforting, it'd been two days since any of the men had come to beat or rape Bella. The only time they'd even approached her 'box' was to pass a bowl of rotten dog food under the door for her to eat.
It was nice to have two days off- perhaps they'd got in trouble for doing what they do. At least, that's what Bella hoped. Maybe the beatings would be less frequent and maybe in time she'd get more food than the measly bowl a day she received.
Sometimes she didn't even get that.
She'd noticed how her injuries were visibly getting better when they weren't being torn apart viciously when they were re-inflicted daily or treated with so much brutal force that they had no choice other than to break apart and bleed their selves.
The pink lines that formed where the gashes had previously been were things that she hadn't seen since her days with Heidi- so Bella was sure now that they were healing for the better- That they were supposed to do that.
She'd even learnt how to smile in this time and appreciate the fact that she was still alive. She might now have been able to leave the room or eat anything decent like the delicacies that Heidi had told her about, or roam the free lands but she was alive. She had air to breathe and scraps to eat and she was finally healing from the wounds that had constantly been inflicted on her small, frail body.
A small smile began to form on the little brunette's mouth, a sign of vague happiness. She was sure she'd never find herself happier than this for the rest of her existence, but she didn't mind, this was enough for her.
She was content... until the banging started again. Screams erupted from outside the door of her little room and she found herself pulling her usual routine- crawling back into the corner of the room in hopes that maybe she'd blend in with the black walls and they'd leave her alone. It always failed, but every shot was worth its try. She had nothing to lose.
"Oh,, Isabellllllaaaaa." She sickly voice of Marcus cooed through the room as the large door on the wall swung open with a loud bang against the wall. It was obvious he had been drinking, the smell reached Bella's small shaking form in a second. The beatings were always at their worst after Marcus had been drinking, the alcohol didn't only lace his breath, but laced his anger in making it more visible.
"P-Please don't hurt me." Bella stuttered quietly, "I'll do anything, I swear." She choked.
"Anything?" He laughed and chucked his head back, "SHUT UP YOU DIRTY SLUT." His laugher echoed throughout the room and Bella didn't think twice about obeying. "That's better, isn't it?" He smiled sadistically as he slammed the door behind him and approached her. He bent down to her height and looked her in the eyes.
"You thought we weren't going to come back and hurt you again didn't you? You silly girl." He chucked under his breath making Bella choke with the smells that rolled off his breath and onto her face.
"I SAID, SHUT THE HELL UP." he wacked Bella's face with all the strength he could master and picked her up by the collar of her top and threw her against the wall with a sickening 'crunch' and a wail of pain that unconsciously erupted from her mouth. The tall, dark haired man approached the little girl as he pulled something out of his pocket- a small knife.
He grabbed her and pushed her onto her front as he rolled up her top, his breath hitting her back and sending violent, unpleasant shivers of fear up her spine.
He cut into Bella's back deep as Bella's screams pierced through his ears. He could only laugh at them, "You weak little girl. If you EVER say this to me again, the cut will get deeper, and deeper, and deeper..." He drifted off and he cut through her ivory skin one more time and left her to bleed out of the cuts that were left on her back in the shape of the word 'NO.'
x x x x
My fingers unconsciously felt over my back at the scars of the word that'd been cut into my back. It had been cut open almost every week by Marcus for almost half a year after Marcus first cut it into me. The pain was always unbearable but after weeks of the same treatment it became something of a second nature to just shut my mouth, never say no and never let on about the amount of pain that streamed through my body every time he decided to cut it open.
He hadn't cut it in a while but I doubted it would be that was for too long, if they were approaching the same tactics as that time over a year ago, then I was in for a lot of pain when they finally bring their selves to their senses to beat me again.
They were probably drunk out of their minds, so much they'd even forgotten about their 'pet' locked away upstairs. I wasn't even sure if I should be expecting any form of food in the next couple of days. I knew I needed some food, I felt weaker than usual after some of the recent treatment that I'd been receiving, but I'd been through worse. I could survive without food for a little bit.
It wouldn't be pleasant at all though. Just another thing to get used to.
Hours began to pass, and turned into night which with only a blink of an eye turned into day again. I'd still not received any food and the house was full of deadly silence. Not a footstep or a breath coming from anyone but myself.
Escape whilst you can! A little voice in my head told me, and I had to laugh out loud. Not a happy laugh, of a humour laugh, but an empty laugh showing just how mad being locked in this place had made me. Escape? How was I going to do that?
Something deep inside me told me it was possible, my heart told me I could do it, but my mind was the rational one. Escaping is a stupid idea. It'd never work. You don't even know what's actually out there!
It was the absolute truth, what would I do in the real world? What if there was nowhere to go out of here? What if there was some kind of security to stop me from escaping? What if the whole world wasn't as big as Heidi said and I found myself having nowhere to hide? The beating would be the end of me for sure. There was obviously a reason why I'd never been allowed to see any place beyond these four walls.
Yeah, but maybe it is big out there and you could start fresh!
It's a point, but how would I even get out there?
Anyway of course! Bang down the door, cause some kind of trouble to get them to come up and open the door for you! Wait for them to come up and break out before they have a chance to pull any kind of stunt with you...
They all seemed like plans that sounded too easy to think about, but pulling them off would surely be harder than the words.
As if the thought of my escape echoed around the house, my door suddenly opened with force and hit the black wall behind it. I didn't even move back to get away from a beating I might possibly get- it would be inevitable either way.
The beating never came when Aro stepped inside my room looking drunker than ever before. He laughed at me before throwing me some kind of twig.
"Go fetch!" He laughed sadistically before tripping over his own feet and onto the ground. My eyes widened at the sight before me. Almost as if someone wanted to help me on my plans to escape.
The door was wide open before me. I tapped Aro cautiously on the shoulder but I got no response- he was out cold. I laughed- I actually laughed as I brought myself slowly to my feet and looked out of the door into a long red, carpeted corridor. I was momentarily stunned; it looked so strange, so bright. My eyes were stinging at how bright it was, but I couldn't bring myself to look away.
It was enchanting.
I saw no signs of the other two men so, without a second thought I walked out of the room and smelt the air around me. It was horrible and tinted with alcohol, but fresher than I had ever breathed before.
My feet moved as silently as they possibly could along the corridor until I reached stairs leading down to a lower floor. I followed them down, a step at a time, hoping to never alert anyone in the house to my escape from my room. I was tempted to stand and stare at the various artworks that hung on the walls but I knew, if my heart were right in that I could escape, my mind shouldn't over rule it by interesting me in the works all around the house.
It suddenly came to me with a gasp; every shot was worth its try... All my time thinking the same motto, yet I couldn't apply it to simply running out of the door and leaving every bad memory behind me.
I found myself at the bottom of the stairs and at another large corridor. I had no idea what way I was supposed to be running so I ran into the first room that I saw. It seemed to be the main room of the house. I froze in my tracks when I saw the familiar figure before me, Caius.
My breath hitched as I expected to be killed on the spot but I didn't notice until then that he was unconscious on the chair, not awake and angry. Marcus seemed to be almost mirroring his posture in the chair opposite, both holding a bottle of beer in their hands.
The drink had really got to them.
I backed silently out of the room and towards the big doors that were at the bottom of the corridor. Could be these be the doors? The doors that could grant my escape from the house that had forever been my jail?
I didn't waste a second thought as I head for them and hit them open.
I burst out of the large, wooden doors that separated me from the strange old room and the unfamiliar strange place- the outside.
The doors slammed behind me as I stood, staring in awe. Above me was the almighty sky, an impossible endless horizon of blue with patches of white reminding me of the fluffy sheep Heidi had told me about, at least, what I thought the sheep would look like anyway.
I took a deep breath of the new air around me, it was clean and for the first time in seventeen years I truly believed I knew what 'alive' meant.
I wanted to stop and admire every little blade of grass and every little flower that coated the ground around me- they were all so beautiful and perfect, new and delicate- but I had to run away from the hell I'd been trapped in for my entire life and the three men that made it unbearable on a daily basis.
I'd never felt such relief in the world before as I had as I was running thought the green grass and the colourful varieties of flowers and a mass of unfamiliar wild things. Plants? Foods? Who knew?
So what if I had no shoes to run with?
So what if I had nowhere to go?
I was outside! For the first time ever, I wasn't in the small room that now seemed like nothing compared to the endless world that stretched before me.
I found myself encountering things up to five times my height- a brown body with an array of green perched above it that hung down like hair. They had to be trees hadn't they? I sighed and marvelled the beauty momentarily before I began to run again.
All traces of pain had disappeared as all new things in this world appeared and filled it's place but I never stopped running for more than a couple of seconds, there was so much to see. Was there even an end to the world?
I had no idea how long I'd been running and marvelling at the beauty and new horizons before me but the bright blue sky had began to darken around me and unfamiliar sparkles began to appear above me.
Stars!
And then there was the large dish floating in the sky peacefully.
The moon.
I sighed with content at the sight I'd always wanted to see- I'd finally seen a real night time. I wanted to stay and watch it forever, the way the stars sparkle and the moon shines and casts shadows on the land but I knew that I should stop and rest; I didn't know how many days I would spend like this. Running and stopping, but if I were to get anywhere I knew I'd have to take plenty of rest.
I knew I'd also need food and drink to stay alive, but I'd lived long enough without them before. It should be easy for a few days, at least.
The dark surroundings and trees were strangely comforting as I pulled myself into a ball against the nearest tree. As much as I wished for slumber and rest my mind wouldn't stop whizzing and thinking about the wonders that I'd discovered in a matter of what could have only been hours.
There was a whole world to discover out there! Placers I'd never have even dreamt about seeing with my own eyes. I could build myself a life how Heidi had taught me. I could be a whole new person!
Maybe I'd be able to see the stars up close... maybe even the moon! Was there a job like that? I would be able to meet real people... maybe nice people who'd look after me. I could start school, the place Heidi had told me about. I could be educated and earn some money. There were so many possibilities; the outcomes of my life could be infinite.
It was somewhere between the constant flowing ideas that my mind had created from the simple ideas of a life and my eyes taking in the beauty of the real world around me and above me that I found myself falling into the most peaceful and relaxed sleep I'd ever encountered.
x x x x
Chirp, chirp, chirp...
Unfamiliar noises hit my ears and cause my eyes to suddenly open. I'd expected to awaken to one of my masters leaning over my shoulder ready for a day of abuse and pain in the dark room that I'd still been confined in only yesterday. It was, after all, a common alarm clock for me. The noises and the beatings that is...
2 weeks ago
"Woof! Woof!" Laughing erupted around the small black room. Three men's laughed, deep and joyful. Full of mock, hatred and impending, inevitable pain.
"Bella..." The deep voice of Marcus boomed in my ear followed by more ravenous laugher. His leg reached out and kicked the small package that lay sprawled on the floor in front of him- the delicate package of Isabella.
The thud and crack of the brittle, weak bones caused the girl to jerk back into consciousness with a wail of pain on her behalf only to amuse the three men that stood around her violently.
Their heads flung back with laughter as they roared at the pain the small girl couldn't handle to the point that the tears she had to desperately tried to keep back fell freely down her porcelain cheeks without a break in the sobs that accompanied them.
"Oh Bella, Bella." Marcus cooed, "I'm sorry. You'll live!" He smirked and boomed and roared with more laughter in the delicate girls face causing her hair to move slightly back with the force and her nose to pick out the now, all too familiar, strong stench of alcohol- likely beer.
All three of the tall, intimidating long haired men's breaths were laced with the various alcoholic beverages making them more rowdy than usual.
Their laughter and body movement fell into slow motion as Marcus picked the girl up from her ear. He gripped he t-shirt and hit her violently around the face whilst creating a long gash down her face with the ring on his finger. Blood began to roll down her face and began to mingle with the already fallen tears.
"Stop crying you pathetic excuse for a fucking dog, YOU MESS!" Aro shouted at the small girl as her frame was thrown into the wall behind her and with a loud thud, she hit the floor below her. This time without the tears and wails as she was knocked clean out by the force of the throw.
The taunting began again- to wake her from the forced slumber for what could have easily been the tenth or eleventh time that day.
x x x x
The rude awakenings never did get any better- they were the worse things you could get but just like everything in my old damaged life, you had to get used to it or nothing would ever get any better.
I took the deepest sigh I could master and brought myself to my feet. I'd never felt so awake. The new world around me was so vast, so new! So dangerous. A small part of me couldn't help by think
Does Aro know that I've gone yet?
Are they looking for me?
I decided not to dwell on what they might be doing and set off with hopes to never have to return to any type of life like the one I'd so narrowly escaped.
Any type of life had to be better than that, hadn't it?
One of the first things I remember learning in middle school was similes and metaphors and the example we always used was 'the moon was a dish in the sky.' What do you remember learning?
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