Yours, now and forever.

Chapter 11

TW: abuse and violence

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Bella, happy birthday to you." I giggled at my mum's singing and blew out 8 candles on a cake. "Happy birthday my beautiful girl." My mum said, stroking my hair softly, and smiling as I looked in awe at my cake. THUD THUD. We heard the sound of stumbling and crashing from outside the door, I looked up at my mum in slight confusion, although I knew exactly what this was. "You stay here darling, why don't you name all of the colours on the cake?" I nodded and began to name them in my head.

My mother walked up to the front door of our apartment, unlocking it, and then closing it behind her. Immediately my Dad's voice began to boom drunkenly through the door, muffled by the wood between us. I tiptoed over to the door to get a closer listen. "It's her birthday?" I heard my mum sigh deeply.

"Yes Steve, it's her birthday. She turned 8 today, and she really wanted you here to sing."

"Well, she outlasted her older brother didn't she." He hiccuped, I felt my stomach twist. That had been my thought this morning, but I thought he'd forget.

"Steve!" My mum said in shock. "Why can't you leave her alone about that! She already feels bad!"

"She should!" I heard a crack from the other side of the door. He hit her. "She's the reason my only son ran away, she deserves to feel terrible!" Another crack sounded. I backed away from the door, returning to my seat, I didn't want to listen anymore. CRASH. The door slammed open. I looked over with the corner of my eye, my mum was on the floor, a beer bottle smashed over her head. My dad was standing in the doorway, with the remains of the bottle in his hands.

"Dad?" I said quietly, trying to see if my voice would calm him.

"You..." he pointed the jagged edge of the bottle at me, stumbling towards the chair. "You couldn't just die at the same age he did could you?" I felt tears well up in my eyes. "You little brat! You had to live longer didn't you!" He grabbed my shoulder and looked at the bottle. The glass shining in his eyes. Without a second thought he drove the bottle into my stomach, piercing under my ribs and creating a long, deep, jagged cut. I screamed out in pain, crying and pleading him to stop.

He kept to bottle in, moving it to the sides over and over. I screamed so loud I couldn't even hear my mothers screams. "Please! Please it hurts!" He finally removed the bottle from my stomach, walking away and throwing it on the floor. My mother ran up to me and knelt in front of me as my consciousness faded.

"Bella? Bella stay with me! Bella! Bella!"

"Bella! Bella wake up!" I gasped for air, sitting up in my bed and curling into a ball for my own protection. "Bella?" Oh shit, why did I let myself fall asleep. Pan's voice was surprisingly soft and kind. I raised my head from my knees to look at him, he was kneeling beside my bed, a worried look in his eye. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm fine." I said, attempting to brush off the fact that I had just been screaming in my sleep next to him. "Why are you here?"

"I heard you screaming again, so I came to wake you up." I looked outside, it was still the dead of night.

"Oh..." I felt slight guilt weigh down my stomach. "Did I wake the boys?" He shook his head at me slowly.

"Silencing spell. Comes in handy sometimes." He chuckled a little, making me smile too. His laugh was so cute. Nope shut up, not right now. "You wanna talk about it?" I shook my head, and buried it back into my knees holding back the slowly growing tears in my eyes. I felt his hand gently rest on my back. Sending shivers up and down my spine. "Come with me, I wanna show you something." He held out his hand, I took it slowly, and felt him transport us out of my tent.