Once
he turned off the car he turned to me and said, "Did you tell? You
little bitch?"
I franticly shook my head. "No! Charlie I
didn't tell! I swear!" I told him, knowing he'd never believe
me.
"You're a liar. I want you to get in that house, put the
crutches, sling, and pain medications in the living room. And I want
you to make dinner. I want it cooked perfectly, if I don't like it
at all you'll be punished even worse. Do you understand me?" he
bossed. I hurriedly got everything out and put it in the living room,
then went straight into the kitchen. I had no idea when this meal had
to be done. What if he only gave me five minutes? I needed to start
working.
About half an hour, Charlie screamed, "Where the hell
is my dinner!" I had just finished, luckily. I went to dish him up,
my hands shaking. I was so scared. It seemed my entire body was
shaking. I seemed to be taking too long for him and he just growled
out, "Now! You little bitch!" I dished his portion up and walked
unsteadily over to him. And at the last step the unthinkable
happened.
I tripped over my cast, and my good ankle just rolled.
There was a huge, pop! The 'p' popped. Then I felt it, the
searing pain in my ankle. Worse than ever, worse than anything
Charlie had done. The pain was excruciating. I screamed even though I
knew better.
Charlie, not that I had noticed, was wearing his
dinner thanks to me. His face was purple. He got up from his chair at
the table and squatted down next to me, and whispered darkly, "you
think that hurts wait 'till I'm done with you tonight! You'll
feet real pain. What do you think?" I couldn't speak, nod or do
anything but hold the ankle not held in a cast. After a minute of me
not talking, he reached over and smacked the ankle I had been
holding. I howled in pain, he then grabbed my chin with his thumb,
index finger, and middle finger, and held on tight forcing me to look
at him. "You will answer me! You will also look at me when I am
talking to you! Do you understand, Isabella?!" he sneered as he
said 'Isabella'.
He the proceeded to pick me up, and then
make me walk over to the living room, where started my beating. He
began by throwing a folding chair at me, then some of our good china.
The chair, hit me in the head, causing me to fall over, then finished
by landing on my now bad ankle, that was already worse enough. I
screamed out in utter pain. I had never felt anything this bad. The
Good China would hit my body, brake or shatter either on me, on the
wall, or in the air because pieces collided with another one, then
the shards would proceed to cut me all over, never missing. He even
threw some straight at my ankle, when those hit I would scream. And I
wondered how in all of these years, our neighbors had never heard me
screaming bloody murder. Or had they, they were probably paid off by
Charlie.
Suddenly I had a thought about my mother. I wondered if
she had ever been treated like this by Charlie? If she had known this
would happen, why would she have left me here? Why would Charlie lie
about it? What really happened?
I continued to think of all of
this as the beating I was receiving got worse and worse. Soon all I
could think was. No screaming, he wants you to scream. No crying, he
wants to see you cry. I thought those over and over again.
Finally
he left to go finish his dinner. I knew I shouldn't get up until he
went upstairs to sleep. So I just sat there, doing nothing, thinking
nothing, feeling nothing. I knew it was very dangerous for me to be
in this state of mind, feeling, and body, but I was like this every
night what was one more?
About two hours, I would guess, later I
was stuck trying to figure out how to move to my room. If I moved or
tried to move either leg, pain would shoot up my legs. If I tried to
move my arms, the pain was less than in my legs, but it was only by a
little. I could hardly move, and I had to clean this mess up.
I
then came up with the most wonderful idea. If I move and clean
everything I would be up to late in the morning to get to school and
I could skip, easily. So I got up, stood against the pain, lived
against the pain, worked against the pain.
As I cleaned the mess
up I started crying, It hurt so much. I wanted to scream but couldn't
because it would wake Charlie up. Suddenly another song popped into
my head. I already knew the music. The lyrics just fell straight into
place. The song was about what would have happened if mom had taken
me, or they could be about me living with Charlie, having kids, and
still getting abused. Also the songs talks about what I'd be able
to do if I ran away. The song just said, 'leave, and keep going'.
I knew I would love
it.
I started singing softly, then, so soft I could hardly hear.
"And she takes another step
Slowly she opens the door
Check
that he is sleeping
Pick up all the broken glass
And furniture
on the floor
Been up half the night screaming
Now it's time to
get away
Pack up the kids in the car
Another bruise to try and
hide
Another alibi to write
Another ditch in the road
You
keep moving
Another stop sign
You keep moving on
And the
years go by so fast
Wonder how I ever made it through
And
there are children to think of
Baby's asleep in the back seat
I
wonder how they'll ever make it
Through this living nightmare
But
the mind is an amazing thing
Full of candy dreams and new toys
And
another cheap hotel
Two beds and a coffee machine
But there are
groceries to buy
And she knows she'll have to go home
Another
ditch in the road
You keep moving
Another stop sign
You keep
moving on
And the years go by so fast
Wonder how I ever made it
through
Another bruise to try and hide
Another alibi to
write
Another lonely highway in the black of night
But there is
hope in the darkness
You know you're going to make it
Another
ditch in the road
Keep moving
Another stop sign
You keep
moving on
And the years go by so fast
Silent
fortress built to last
Wonder how I ever made it"
I
worked on it more as I cried from the pain. I know most of you would
say that you can't walk on a broken ankle let alone when the other
one is injured. Well fuck off! I do all of the time. I knew from the
size of the swelling in my other ankle I wouldn't be in school for
a while, a long while.
I now started to splint my foot. It wasn't
feeling as bad anymore so I started to think it wasn't broken,
probably just sprained it. I thought to myself, as I rapped my foot.
Finally after cleaning everything, I was able to drag myself up
the steps and into my room, where I fell into a sleep, after silently
crying all of my tears away, with the most wonderful dream ever. But
soon it turned to a horrible nightmare. My dream was about Edward
Cullen, and his family, Charlie went up against them alone, hoping to
win the game for he wanted the prize, the prize was me.
