Dolonia

Daniella Benton 11: Pain

I cry loudly, not caring how pathetic I appear anymore. It's all too painful to hold it in. I sob loudly from the sharp pain at my temple, but it only makes the aching worse. I feel the warm liquid trickling down my face, as my father's dead eyes lock with mine.

I don't try to talk. I watch as he looks at me with pure rage. He's angry, and I can't think of the faintest reason why.

"What did you tell them!?" He yells at me.

I try to stop the bleeding with my hand, and I shake my head as the tears continue to stream down my face. I don't know what he means. I didn't tell those men anything.

I watch in horror as he pulls his arm back, preparing to hit me. I brace for the impact, but it's no use. The blow hits me hard no matter how well I try to block it.

His fist hits my cheek, and my head hits the hard floor a few inches below me. My world becomes hazy, my ears ringing, and I can't make out what he's yelling. I'm sure it's the same thing he's been asking me, though.

I start to pass out, but I try not to. I don't want to wake up in the hospital, or not at all for that matter. It doesn't matter what I want, though. Another heavy hit, and pain is all I can feel, but it's not long before I can't see anything, and I slip into unconsciousness.

When I come to, my dad is standing over me, watching me carefully. My breathing picks up. I couldn't have been out for long. "Please, I didn't say anything to them. I don't know what you're talking about." I try to plead with him, and make him see some sense.

His lips curl up into a sadistic smile. "That's always the problem here between us," he says in a calm and steady growl. He grips my shirt collar and pulls me to where I'm inches from his face. "I ask you questions that I know you have to answer to. And yet you repeatedly lie to me!" He shouts, and a little spittle lands on my forehead.

More tears stream down my face effortlessly at his terrifying words. I don't try to say anything. He shoves me back down, hard. My head hits the floor below me again and I groan in pain.

He shouts at me, again and again, asking me the same thing. "What did you tell them!?"

I shake my head. "I swear I didn't-"

I scream loudly in pain as something hard and solid hits my lower abdomen. My screams don't sound like my own. It's like I'm being stripped from my body almost, and the painful cries are coming from someone else.

I open my eyes to see a blurry view of my dad holding a baseball bat. I must not have seen him grab it. My head is spinning, but I don't have time to think or blink before he starts ramming the bat into my body as hard and as fast as he can, again and again.

Pain runs through my whole body, and tears keep streaming. I'm sobbing and screaming in pain as he keeps going. There's nothing I can do, but take it.

The pain is too much. I can't take it, though, and my world goes black again.

I blink open my eyes slightly, and I feel calm. I don't feel any pain, strangely. He's left me here in a pool of my blood. He's left me alone to die. He got all of his anger out now.

I don't know how long I've been out, but the small pool of blood under my head is still warm, so it couldn't have been too long; it might have been a half of an hour I estimate.

I see my dad, however, and he's still here. He's watching me cautiously, his eyes are still holding immeasurable rage, but he's watching me. He's calm. He's like a cat, watching his wounded prey, the small mouse, to see if it will play dead or try to run.