Disclaimer: I don't own one life to live or anyone of the characters but I do own my story line. Well here's the next chapter, let me know what you think.

James

"God I hate Monday mornings" James said as he slowly made his way to the bathroom.

What he thought of as a fractured rib last night, he realized now was probably just badly bruised. Once he finished up in the bathroom he checked his eye. Well, the good thing was that he could see through it, the bad thing was it hurt like hell.

He quickly took the bruise cream that he purchased in bulk long ago and passed it over his eye. When he left the bathroom he took extra care in putting his clothes on. "God, if I didn't know how it felt to have broken ribs I would swear this is what it felt like".

He carefully made his way down the stairs. Yea, he wasn't afraid to admit it, his dad scared the hell out of him. Why wouldn't he? He was controlling, and demanding, and James was basically half his dad's weight. Not to mention the fact that his dad proved this on more than one occasion. He didn't exactly have anyone in his life to turn to. No family or friends or really anyone.

It was kind of depressing in a way, he literally had no one he could count on. It had been only him for his entire life and he longer to have brothers or sisters and a mom. But when he thought of what having brothers or sisters living with him in this house with his father could mean for them, he felt guilty for ever wishing it. He wouldn't want anyone going through what he was.

When he made it down the last step his dad was right there.

"Hey kiddo" he said like nothing even happened yesterday. James just stared at him though, not really sure what to say. Anything could set him off and he really couldn't take anymore pain right now.

His dad got up off the couch and walked towards him and James back immediately stiffened. His dad smiled like he could tell that he scared him shitless. He saw James eye and reached up to touch it causing James to automatically jerk back as he continued to reach forward to touch the area around his eye. James did his best to fight his instinct to flee and held very still. He didn't want to do anything that would upset him.

"You shouldn't have disrespected me. You need to learn how to follow directions." James stays quiet too afraid to say anything.

"What you a mute now?" Eddie says to him wondering why he hadn't heard a word from his son.

For some stupid reason James still stayed silent and obviously that was the wrong thing to do.

Eddie walked up to James and snaked his hands around his neck. James instinctively put his hands over his dad's to try and pull it off, but Eddie only increased the pressure. It felt as if his brain was about to burst out of his head, and his eyes out of his sockets.

"Answer me" he said in a tight voice. He didn't know if his dad thought he was some sort of a ventriloquist or something, but he couldn't get any words out through the pressure around his throat.

Eddie seemed to realize this, or maybe it was the fact that James face was the color of a tomato now, but he loosened his grip enough for James to take in a couple gulps of air and choke out a few I'm sorry's. But before James could get anymore breath in Eddie applied full pressure once again. He could see it in his eyes that his dad was enjoying it. He could now feel his body losing feeling as he slowly made his way to the floor. His eyes were already starting to glaze over, and at this point he was pretty sure Eddie was going to kill him. But just as James vision started to blur and black spots started to appear he felt the hands around his neck loosen.

He never felt so grateful for air in his life, sucking it up so fast that he nearly choked. As he coughed he slowly started to make his way up. Eddie looked at James "next time make sure you answer me when I'm talking to you."

"Yes sir" he gasped out and stumbled over to the couch.
God he didn't think today would start off like this. He really needed to get out of this house, because he wasn't sure how much more he could take, both physically and mentally. He didn't know what would be left of him if he didn't find a way out. His body literally couldn't take it anymore. He was so lost in thought that he didn't even sense his dad behind him until he was slapped in the back of his head.

"What the hell are you doing? Daydreaming? I got a business to run here. Get moving. Now!"

James got up as quickly as he could; he hadn't realized what time it was, and headed out the front door. Not wanting to give him any reason to cause him more pain. He hopped on his bike and peddled as quick as he could. He had to make it to the chop shop in 40 min. Being that it was 10 miles away from his house he figured he could make good time as long as he didn't focus too much on his ribs.

His ass of a father liked to time him. He had some kind of device attached to his bike that let him see how long it took him to ride to and from work. Hopefully he was happy with the time he got, though he doubted it.

When he reached the shop all the usual people were there. No one really talked to him here. They knew that he was the bosses kid and they didn't want any trouble. James didn't blame them, but it sure would have been nice having someone other than his dad to talk to.

It'd been like that for a few years now, ever since they moved to Ohio. At least back in Charleston he had friends. He still got his ass kicked but he was in school and on the swim team. So his dad never touched his face and had to let up during the swim seasonings. His dad couldn't have people asking about all the bruises on his body especially with his popularity.

Now when he said let up, he meant that in the loosest term possible. His dad really enjoyed hurting him. So when he couldn't hurt him and leave visible signs he found other ways to do it. He even found a way to make him hate swimming. James wasn't sure if it was intentional or not, but he never did get back on any swim team after that.

So on a reason day after the swim season was done, for no reason whatsoever his dad dragged him out of his room, tied his hands and feet and gave him a shot of some drug that basically stopped your body from moving (courtesy of the "good doctor"). He then laid him in the tub with the water on a slow drip. It took two whole days for the water to fill the tub. He thought he was gonna go crazy, he couldn't move, speak, sleep. He was starving and the damn dripping on his head was driving him crazy. Then the tub started filling and his dad actually sat there and watched as the water filled up the tub past his head. Eddie turned the water off and just waited until he couldn't last any longer and pulled him up. He did that over and over, letting him almost drown and then pulling him out. This went on and on for the rest of the day until he actually drowned a few times. But all Eddie did was give his back a couple hard thumps and kept on going. He didn't stop until James literally could no longer stay awake.

James was scared shitless, in his head he was begging his dad to either stop or just let him drown already. He never felt so much pain and terror in his entire life. After that he swore he'd never join a swim team again. It was hard enough taking showers, and baths were definitely out of the question. He was maybe 14 when that happened. They moved later that month and he never attended a school again.

His dad was an evil son of a bitch. So he understood why the guys at the shop would want to keep to themselves. Eddie didn't really visit the shop much. He had his hound dog "bull" keeping watch of everything. Whatever bull saw or heard so did his dad.

When they were done for the day he peddled home and went straight for the showers. His dad made sure that he didn't get any free time. He worked everyday from 12pm-8pm, and his tutor came Mon-Fri 9pm-10pm. When he was home he usually had school work to do, or he had to cook, or clean. He was always exhausted and he knew that's exactly what his dad wanted. He thought that it gave James no time to sneak behind his back and do anything else.

Well Eddie didn't know how wrong he was. Little did he know James was getting out of there way before even he had originally planned. He just couldn't take anymore abuse. It was messing him up mentally as well as physically. He knew it would be hard, but he knew it was worth the risk.

~A/N Hey, let me know if I should continue this story or not anyone.