Journey to Love

Chapter 14

Layla sat on her mattress holding her bruised arms towards her chest as she stared up at the night sky. 

It was currently Christmas eve, and Layla was locked away in her room. She had nothing but the clouds in the sky to stare at. Even they seemed sad, as if they wanted to cry as well. 

Layla could here her foster parents laughing downstairs with their friends they had invited over. Though Layla had never met them, and a small part of her was glad for that. She didn't want to find out if they were similar to her foster parents. Curling up closer with her knees, she tried to generate some warmth into her as the blanket around her shoulders wasn't doing much. 

She was left alone with her hopeful thoughts as she continued to star up into the dark sky, hoping to see Santa on his sleigh, on his way to deliver some presents. Or even Rudolph with their bright red nose, leading the way. 

The last week had been absolute hell for Layla. Her entire body seemed to radiate a dull ache from the multiple beatings she's had. Especially the one from earlier today. Layla had no idea what her foster father was going on about, but he was angry. Very angry and Layla was the closest thing he could punch, causing him to pummel her a hairsbreadth from passing out. Though after he had beat her, he had dragged her up to her room and told her she'd be staying here till she learnt her lesson. What lesson it was, she had no idea. 

She was happy that she didn't have to cook dinner tonight, but maybe she'd get punished for that too. 

The only thing that kept her going this week was tonight. Christmas. 

So now Layla was currently sitting on the corner of her mattress, huddled up in her small blanket with her jumper, pants and socks on, staring into the starless sky, hoping that Santa might drop by later tonight and give her a present. Even if it was his dinner scraps, Layla would thank him over and over again, glad to have been given anything. 

"Please come Santa. I don't have any milk out and I don't have carrots to feed your reindeers but I swear I've been really good this year. I promise" She whispered out, "please come" 

Tears brimmed the little girls eyes as she continued to stare out of her fogged window, "I promise I'll do better" 

And so Layla continued to stare out the window until eventually her eyes started to close and she fell asleep in her upright position. 

...................

Morning came when the door to Layla's room was slammed open. Layla jumped awake, slightly disorientated as she looked to who entered her room. 

Her foster mother was standing at the door, a smile framing her face. Layla didn't have a second to recover before her foster mother stormed into the room, grabbed the cowering girls' upper arm and hauled her out of her bed. She dragged Layla out of her room, down the hall and into the bathroom, where she threw her onto the tiled flooring.

"Pee now" was all she said.

Layla scrambled to the toilet and released her bowels. As soon as she was done, her foster mother grabbed her by the same arm, hard enough to leave bruises and dragged her back to her bedroom. 

As soon as they entered, her foster mother threw her onto the ground, not even giving her a second before she grabbed the belt at her waist. Unclasping it, folded it in two, pulled back and swung it at Layla who held her arms up to defend herself, as she curled into a ball. 

"Ungrateful little bitch" Her foster mother screamed. "Ruining everyday of my life" 

Layla felt the sharp stinging pain of the belt hit her skin, causing fire to race at the area hit. She whimpered as she felt the pain again in her leg. 

Her foster mother swung again, causing Layla to yelp at the pain as she hit the same spot twice. "always wanting more. I give you everything." 

She swung again and again and again. Layla was full on sobbing as the belt came crashing down numerous times. Her body shaking from the pain. She barely noticed the blood that started to trail down from some of the belt wounds.  

Everywhere. Everywhere was on fire as she begged her foster mother to stop. She kept apologising, promising to be better, to do better. To no use. 

When Layla stopped feeling the belt hitting her marred flesh, she peered up at the guardian who was supposed to care for her and love her. She watched behind her trembling arms as her foster mother peered at her with nothing but disgust and hatred. Layla felt something wet hit her prone form as Danielle spat on her, muttering, "Merry Christmas brat" before walking out of the room, locking it behind her. 

It hurt Layla's every nerve to move from her position, but she slowly made her way over towards the only other thing in her room, the cardboard box. Tears still silently leaking from her eyes. She had to keep sniffling the snot that tried to fall out of her nose, but she made it to the box, albeit painfully slow. She leant into the box and pulled out a roll of toilet paper. She tore off a piece and placed it onto her arm that had some blood leaking from a cut on her forearm. As soon as the paper touched her arm, she broke into tears, whimpering from the pain. 

"It's okay, it's okay" she whispered to herself as she tried to clean up some of her blood that was decorating her skin. 

It was a painful process, but Layla was able to wipe away the leaking blood. She stared at the welts lining her skin, the bruised areas now red and raw, before looking up out at her window, at the clouds that lay beyond her reach. 

"Merry Christmas Santa. I'm sorry I wasn't good enough. I'll be better next year I promise". 

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Thanks for reading! 

Words: 1033

Published: 1/6/2022