Run

I felt the wind against my flesh as I ran as fast as I could away from him. Heart pounding and my mind in jumbles, I slip and land in a snow bank behind the ice arena. I’m too cold to get up and I just lie there shivering in the cold. I hear a car slowly coming to a stop and my heart stops in panic. He gets out of the car and instantly sees me and walks over mumbling something unintelligible. He grabs a fistful of my hair and yanks me up and pulls me towards the car. I yelp in pain as I claw at his arm. He throws me into the car and gets in and speeds away. 

My name is Whitney Descouedres and my father is an abusive drunk, and he's been this way ever since his brother killed himself. You see, he and his brother were like best friends, and now he's taking it out on me for only god knows what reason. My mother is a drug addict and she would do anything to get her hands on more drugs. I'm 16 years old and have been either abused or neglected for 3 years.

As I sit in the car, blanking out as he yells at me for being stupid enough to think he wouldn't ever find me. It's usually always the same thing, me being stupid, me being too  smart or too dumb. It always has something to do with me and if there is nothng, he will find something. 

"What in the hell were you thinking Whitney? Did you think I was too stupid to ever find you again?" He screamed.

"Yeah, I actually did." I mumbled.

He slapped me in the face so hard my ears were ringing. I can feel ears stinging the back of my eyes as my bottom lip trembles and I raise a hand to my cheek.

"You will never speak that way to me again, you here?" He said in a harsh tone.

"Yes sir."

"Good." He said sternly as he turned back to the wheel. 

*               *               *

I sit in the middle of my bed in the darkness as I sob quietly. I don't know why I hope for anything anymore. I try not to think of anything as I cry but I can't help but wish uncle Jerry were still alive. I stand up and walk over to my door to go to my older brother door only to find him standing there about to knock. He looks at me and says he loves me and hugs me as I cry into his shoulder. We sit there like that for a few hours even after we stop crying. We don't talk because there is nothing to say, so we just sit there waiting for sleep to come. This happens a lot, sometimes he has his good days and nothing happens.  Those are the days that he's passed out drunk on the old ratty chair in front of the TV. and we know he'll be like that the whole night. But then, there are the days that he isn't and those are the days we are so wary we tip toe in our rooms so he can't hear us.

The next day I go to school with bruises on my arms and a mark on my cheek from the night before. Nobody asks why usually because it happens so much it isn't noticeable, but today was different. There are three new kids, a girl and two boys. The girl looks like she's a model. She's tall, really thin but not sick looking like some girls but pretty. She had long strawberry blonde curls, and soft chocolate brown eyes. She looked at me and something in her eyes changed, I couldn't register what it was, but she turned to one of the guys and whispered something. He looked over at me and the same kind of look crept into his eyes. 

I quickly look down as that girl tries to get her other friends’ attention. Seriously? They are already talking about me?! They're the new kids for god sakes! Mixed emotions of hurt, anger and sadness are creeping around in me. I jump and yelp as I feel a touch on my shoulder. My heart accelerates as I look around with frightened eyes to see that the three new kids are all standing behind me with sympathetic expressions. 

"Hey, I'm Dawn." The girl says with a smile and points to the tall boy with auburn hair, "This is Blake, and this is Keith." She says as she points to another boy with chestnut brown hair. 

"I-I'm Whitney."I said quietly.

"How are you?" Blake asked. 

"I'm fine. How about you?" I say, starting to put up walls around my emotions.

"We're all good."Answered Keith with a smile that was so infectious I had to grin in spite of myself. I then realized the mistake in my actions, my recently healed split lip had split open again with a sharp pain and started to bleed.

"Oh crap." I say and cover my mouth with my hand as I taste blood.

"Here." Dawn says with a sympathetic look as she hands me a tissue.

"Thanks." I mumble as I put the tissue up to my mouth. "Sorry but, I have something I have to do." I add as I get up trying to hide the tears spilling down my face.

"Hey wait." Dawn says. "We may have just met, but just to let you know, we're here for you." She continued with a small smile.

"Th-thanks." I stutter then stumble away.

*               *               *

I was slightly disorientated the rest of the day because of Dawn, Blake and Keith. They were the nicest people to me other than my brother. Everybody else just passes me by, never giving me a second look. I was actually kind of happy as I walked into the house until I heard him. He was yelling and throwing stuff around. I could see my mother cowering in a corner, and my father above her with a raised hand. I braced myself for what would happen next but he surprised me by sighing and reaching his hand down to help her up. I stood there looking at him with wide eyes as did my mother not knowing what to do. A few moments later, she hesitantly took his hand and he pulled her up into his arms as they both cried. 

I crept past them, hoping to be not heard or seen. I finally got to my room and saw my brother sitting on my bed.

“Did you see that?” He asked in a hushed tone. “Or was my mind playing tricks on me?” 

“I saw it, this could mean something. Oh my, gosh, what if he stops?” I asked excitedly, but as I said that, I heard a horrible noise. They were screams coming from my mother. Not like the usual screams, these were worse. I walked out of my room to see my mother all bloody. Her eyes wide with fear as he walked towards her and slit her throat.

I screamed bloody murder and ran outside as fast as I could, but not fast enough. I was still running as I heard a grunt and then he was on top of me and I hit the ground, his weight crushing me. I could feel the knife cut into my cheek and my arms and other places as well, as I fought back. He was standing above me, about to stab me I’m guessing, as I reared my leg and kicked him in the shin as hard as I could. He went down with a grunt and I got up and ran as fast as I could until I was the first house. I was pounding on the door with both fists as I looked behind me to see that he wasn’t anywhere close. 

A tall girl with strawberry blonde curls, and soft chocolate brown eyes answered the door. As I stare in shock, I realize it’s that new girl Dawn from earlier. Of all the houses I go to hers! 

“Oh my, goodness! Get in here! What in the world happened to you?” She demanded as she took my hand and gently pulled me in as she yelled to somebody. “Blake, can you come here?” 

“Ouch.” I say as Dawn inspects my cuts.

“What do you-” Blake says as he rounds the corner and stops in his tracks as he sees me in the door with a shocked look on his face. “What in the world happened?” He asks me.

“That’s what I said. Somebody, pounding away at the door and I open it to see the girl we just met, all bloody and no shoes.” She looks at me. “You’re going to have to tell us something now darlin’.”

So I told them. Everything from my uncle killing himself, up until today. I ended up crying and they both pulled me into their arms. They treated my cuts and put bandages on me. Afterwards, I went to the bathroom and looked at everything. I looked like hell. With the bruises, and the split lip. I had a ring around one of my eyes and bandages everywhere. I ended up calling Jason and he came here too with both our clothes at around midnight. 

Who would’ve thought that total strangers would’ve accepted us into their home with open arms. Jason and I have been here for about 3 weeks now, and it’s been heaven. Dawn and I have become really good friends, and I think I’m starting to like Blake a little. I love them all, and we all love each other. No matter how little time we’ve known each other, it’s like it’s been years. Of course, my father was caught for killing my mother. My brother and I turned him in and he plead guilty.

I think I’m actually kind of happy, that I have something to live for, and everything. I have hope again.

Author's Note

I am very new at this, but I love writing. I do well with constructive criticism, I actually would encourage it. I'd like to know what I could work on to make my writing better. So please rate and write a review so I can work on it. Thank you and I hope you enjoy it. :)

Reviews

[Destructive Impulse]

Ok imma be honest cause I don't believe in that feel good crap. You could do so much more with this story. It started off so strong but it just got weak. I would redo this if I were you. An alcoholic abusive father and a defenseless mother is too cliche. If I were you I would have the mother actually be the primary abuser and constantly fight with the father. Have the main character just caught In he middle o it instead of being the target. You never explained the three new kids and you introduced that rather quickly. It would be interesting if the three of them were foster kids and knew what the main character was going through. And for f***s sake don't bring murder into this. No one needs to die and it completely ruined the story. Develop the characters alittle more and dont jump straight into the plot. Develop the characters past a little and the hallucinations of the brother was random and weird. I would like to read more than this so develop some more chapters and all that.

[ShyGazer143]

Thank you, I'll take that into consideration haha.
I actually wrote this a few years ago and found it on my computer and decided to post it, to see if any body liked it. So thank you, I'll fix it up a bit. (:

[Destructive Impulse]

Ya no problem. One more thing. Every story I've read about abuse is about a girl. Change the main character to a guy. Just a suggestion.